iXon 888 fails to capture image on repeated shots

[Aaron Holman]

Hi All,

Still having some trouble with the camera interfacing with labscript. My experiment uses both single-image and multi-image sequences, and while both work as expected in small iterations, when repeated can fail at seemingly random times. In particular, it fails at even taking the image(s) to begin with. The error is a normal acquisition error:

Exception in worker - Mon Oct 09, 11:54:39 :
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\TweeSr\anaconda3\envs\labscript\lib\site-packages\labscript_devices\IMAQdxCamera\blacs_workers.py", line 420, in transition_to_manual
    raise RuntimeError(dedent(msg))
RuntimeError: Acquisition thread did not finish. Likely did not acquire expected number of images. Check triggering is connected/configured correctly

Fatal exception in main process - Mon Oct 09, 11:54:39 :
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\TweeSr\anaconda3\envs\labscript\lib\site-packages\blacs\tab_base_classes.py", line 837, in mainloop
    next_yield = inmain(generator.send,results)
  File "C:\Users\TweeSr\anaconda3\envs\labscript\lib\site-packages\qtutils\invoke_in_main.py", line 88, in inmain
    return get_inmain_result(_in_main_later(fn, False, *args, **kwargs))
  File "C:\Users\TweeSr\anaconda3\envs\labscript\lib\site-packages\qtutils\invoke_in_main.py", line 150, in get_inmain_result
    raise value.with_traceback(traceback)
  File "C:\Users\TweeSr\anaconda3\envs\labscript\lib\site-packages\qtutils\invoke_in_main.py", line 46, in event
    result = event.fn(*event.args, **event.kwargs)
  File "C:\Users\TweeSr\anaconda3\envs\labscript\lib\site-packages\blacs\device_base_class.py", line 677, in transition_to_manual
    raise Exception('Could not transition to manual. You must restart this device to continue')
Exception: Could not transition to manual. You must restart this device to continue

However, the strange part in particular is after this error, if I restart the camera, it continues to fail with the same error. It seems once it gets stuck, it remains stuck. Only when I run a new sequence with different parameters can it revive. When looking at oscope signal from the camera, the trigger is sent but the camera never arms itself. This may be a camera problem rather than a labscript problem, however thought I'd ask if anyone ran into similar issues.

Cheers,

Aaron

[Wenjun Zhang]

Hi Aaron,

It seems several months have passed. Hope that you already fixed the issue. But I'll share my experience anyway. I previously ran into similar issues. Later I found that it was the camera that needed time to transfer image data via USB to the computer. So if your sequence begins with an image and runs repeatedly, it is possible that when a sequence starts the image of the last sequence is still being transfered. If the timeout is not set, it remains in a state of waiting for a trigger. I'm not sure why a set of different parameters can make it revive. I would suggest you explore the 'kinetic' mode, if you are using the 'single' mode now, which can significantly shorten the time needed between two images.

Hope this still helps.

Best,

Wenjun