aravisGigE EPICS Support Module

Introduction

This module is a thin wrapper to the aravis library for industrial gigabit ethernet cameras which provide a Genicam interface, and an epics driver is provided for any parameter exposed in a category of its genicam XML file. A python script is included for creating databases and edm screens from the XML file too.

Tested working cameras:

AVT Manta series
Prosilica GC series
Baumer TXG series
JAI Pulnix 6740 series

Tested mostly working cameras:

Sony CVC EH6300
- 1080p/25 mode works best, still get occasional dropped frame
- Using Zoom target seems to pause camera while zooming which then makes Aravis think the camera is disconnected. A reconnect fixes this
Point Grey Research Flea3 and Blackfly
- Needs increased mem buffers as detailed under "Known Bugs"
- Still get a number of dropped frames

The documentation here is top level documentation on creating an IOC with an aravisCamera areaDetector driver:

aravisCamera: areaDetector driver class
aravisCamera.template: Basic template that should be instantiated for any camera
Add-on templates with extra records for each camera type:
- AVT_Manta.template
- Prosilica_GC.template
- Baumer_TXG.template
- JAI_6740.template
- PGR_Flea3.template
- Sony_CVC_EH6300.template

If you need to add another type of similar camera, read the "Adding a new camera" section

Installation

As this module is just a wrapper to aravis, it is not distributed with aravis, so you need to download and compile aravis in order to use the module. After downloading and untarring aravisGigE, either:

Run the bash script install.sh in the root of the module, or
Download and unzip the aravis source in the vendor directory of the module, renaming it to aravis

You are now ready to build the module.

Modify configure/RELEASE.local
- If you have glib >= 2.26 then comment out GLIBPREFIX, otherwise download and install glib and set the GLIBPREFIX macro to the install prefix you used. If you are installing 64-bit then please make sure you configure and install glib with the option --libdir=$GLIBPREFIX/lib64
- Set AREADETECTOR to the path of areaDetector 1-6 or 1-7beta
Type make
Run bin/linux-x86/arv-tool-0.2 to see GigE visible devices
If your camera is not visible, check that it has an IP address on the same subnet
If your camera is of a supported type, modify the example to use the correct database and screen, otherwise read the next section

Adding a new camera

Run bin/linux-x86/arv-tool-0.2 -n "<device_name>" genicam > "<camera_model>.xml" to download the genicam xml data from the selected device cameras
- E.g. bin/linux-x86/arv-tool-0.2 -n "Allied Vision Technologies-50-0503318719" genicam > AVT_Manta_G125B.xml
Make sure the generated file doesn't have a space at the start of it
Run aravisGigEApp/src/makeDbAndEdl.py <genicam_xml> <camera_name>
- E.g. aravisGigEApp/src/makeDbAndEdl.py AVT_Manta_G125B.xml AVT_Manta
This should then create:
- aravisGigEApp/Db/<camera_name>.template
- aravisGigEApp/opi/edl/<camera_name>.edl
- aravisGigEApp/opi/edl/<camera_name>-features.edl
Once you have decided on the most useful features, copy them from <camera_name>-features.edl and paste them into <camera_name>.edl in order to create a useful summary screen

Known Bugs

Changing resolution or colour mode while acquiring may produce dropped frames, aravisGigE will allow it and inserts a 1 second sleep to try and make this operation robust, but it is better to stop the camera before changing resolution or colour mode
pthread_attr_setstacksize error Invalid argument error messages are caused by glib and can be ignored
Please follow the section on sysctl in this article if you are getting large numbers of dropped frames
If you start the IOC without a camera connected, you will not be able to get all its features if you reconnect to it later. This may be fixed in a later release

Build Instructions for example

IOCs built using these build instructions are available in iocs/

Build Instructions for example

Add the dependencies to configure/RELEASE.

    ASYN=/dls_sw/prod/R3.14.12.3/support/asyn/4-21
    BUSY=/dls_sw/prod/R3.14.12.3/support/busy/1-4dls1
    AREADETECTOR=/dls_sw/prod/R3.14.12.3/support/areaDetector/1-9dls4
    ARAVISGIGE=/scratch/ad/aravisGigE

Add the DBD dependencies to src/Makefile

    example_DBD += base.dbd
    example_DBD += asyn.dbd
    example_DBD += busySupport.dbd
    example_DBD += ADSupport.dbd
    example_DBD += NDPluginSupport.dbd
    example_DBD += aravisCameraSupport.dbd

Add the LIBS dependencies to src/Makefile

    example_LIBS += aravisCamera
    example_LIBS += NDPlugin
    example_LIBS += ADBase
    example_LIBS += netCDF
    example_LIBS += cbfad
    example_LIBS += NeXus
    example_LIBS += hdf5
    example_LIBS += sz
    example_LIBS += PvAPI
    example_LIBS += GraphicsMagick++
    example_LIBS += GraphicsMagickWand
    example_LIBS += GraphicsMagick
    example_LIBS += busy
    example_LIBS += asyn
    example_SYS_LIBS += tiff
    example_SYS_LIBS += jpeg
    example_SYS_LIBS += z
    example_SYS_LIBS += gomp
    example_SYS_LIBS += X11
    example_SYS_LIBS += xml2
    example_SYS_LIBS += png12
    example_SYS_LIBS += bz2
    example_SYS_LIBS += Xext
    example_SYS_LIBS += freetype

Use the template files to add records to the database.

    # Macros:
    #  P        Device Prefix
    #  R        Device Suffix
    #  PORT     Asyn Port name
    #  TIMEOUT  Timeout
    #  ADDR     Asyn Port address
    file $(AREADETECTOR)/db/ADBase.template
    {
    pattern { P, R, PORT, TIMEOUT, ADDR }
        { "ARAVISCAM1", ":CAM:", "CAM1", "1", "0" }
    }
    
    # Macros:
    #  P        Device Prefix
    #  R        Device Suffix
    #  PORT     Asyn Port name
    #  TIMEOUT  Timeout
    #  ADDR     Asyn Port address
    file $(ARAVISGIGE)/db/aravisCamera.template
    {
    pattern { P, R, PORT, TIMEOUT, ADDR }
        { "ARAVISCAM1", ":CAM:", "CAM1", "1", "0" }
    }
    
    # Macros:
    #  P        Device Prefix
    #  R        Device Suffix
    #  PORT     Asyn Port name
    #  TIMEOUT  Timeout
    #  ADDR     Asyn Port address
    file $(ARAVISGIGE)/db/AVT_Manta_1_44_4.template
    {
    pattern { P, R, PORT, TIMEOUT, ADDR }
        { "ARAVISCAM1", ":CAM:", "CAM1", "1", "0" }
    }
    
    # Macros:
    #  P             Device Prefix
    #  R             Device Suffix
    #  PORT          Asyn Port name
    #  TIMEOUT       Timeout
    #  ADDR          Asyn Port address
    #  NDARRAY_PORT  Input Array Port
    #  NDARRAY_ADDR  Input Array Address
    #  Enabled       Plugin Enabled at startup?
    file $(AREADETECTOR)/db/NDPluginBase.template
    {
    pattern { P, R, PORT, TIMEOUT, ADDR, NDARRAY_PORT, NDARRAY_ADDR, Enabled }
        { "ARAVISCAM1", ":ARR:", "ARR1", "1", "0", "CAM1", "0", "1" }
    }
    
    # Macros:
    #  P          Device Prefix
    #  R          Device Suffix
    #  PORT       Asyn Port name
    #  TIMEOUT    Timeout
    #  ADDR       Asyn Port address
    #  TYPE       Asyn Type e.g. Int32
    #  FTVL       Format, e.g. Int
    #  NELEMENTS  Number of elements
    file $(AREADETECTOR)/db/NDStdArrays.template
    {
    pattern { P, R, PORT, TIMEOUT, ADDR, TYPE, FTVL, NELEMENTS }
        { "ARAVISCAM1", ":ARR:", "ARR1", "1", "0", "Int8", "UCHAR", "1442820" }
    }

Add the startup commands to st.cmd

    # Loading libraries
    # -----------------
    
    # Device initialisation
    # ---------------------
    
    cd "$(TOP)"
    
    dbLoadDatabase "dbd/example.dbd"
    example_registerRecordDeviceDriver(pdbbase)
    
    # aravisCameraConfig(portName, cameraName, maxBuffers, maxMemory)
    aravisCameraConfig("CAM1", "Allied Vision Technologies-50-0503332222", 50, -1)
    
    # NDStdArraysConfigure(portName, queueSize, blockingCallbacks, NDArrayPort, NDArrayAddr, maxMemory)
    NDStdArraysConfigure("ARR1", 2, 0, "CAM1", 0, 0)

Example RELEASE.local

Used at Diamond:

SUPPORT=/dls_sw/prod/R3.14.12.3/support
WORK=/dls_sw/work/R3.14.12.3/support
EPICS_BASE=/dls_sw/epics/R3.14.12.3/base

GLIBPREFIX=/dls_sw/prod/tools/RHEL6-x86_64/glib/2-26-1/prefix

# ASYN is needed for base classes 
ASYN=$(SUPPORT)/asyn/4-22

# ADCORE is areaDetector
ADCORE=$(WORK)/ADCore

greyltc / aravisGigE

aravisGigE EPICS Support Module

Introduction

Installation

Adding a new camera

Known Bugs

Build Instructions for example

Example RELEASE.local

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