Spinnaker camera MultiFrame triggering

[Roger]

Hi,

I seem to be having an issue getting a Spinnaker camera (a Blackfly S BFS-U3-31S4M) to take images when externally triggered (e.g., using the opto-isolated Line 0 input). I suspect I may not be configuring the camera in the connection table correctly but a previous camera (a Grasshopper3 GS3-U3-41C6M) worked as expected using a similar configuration. 

My application is absorption imaging with the usual set of three (3) images:

1. Atom image
2. Bright/background image
3. Dark image

Ideally, I would like to trigger when these images are acquired but I'm currently only able to trigger when the first image is taken with the next two images captured at the camera frame rate. A workaround is to configure the camera frame rate to be the inverse of the time between the images (note that changing the time between the images does require recompiling the connection table). The attached spinnaker_camera.txt has the part of the connection table configuring the camera (without the frame rate workaround).

Looking at BLACS console for the camera and labscript-devices/labscript_devices/SpinnakerCamera/blacs_workers.py, 'AcquisitionMode', is set to 'MultiFrame' when capturing the images in buffered mode but it seems like 'TriggerMode' is not getting set to 'On' (even though BLACS says it's getting set 'On').

I'm still troubleshooting but adding some additional lines to configure_acquisition in blacs_workers.py seems to get the MultiFrame triggering to work:

def configure_acquisition(self, continuous=True, bufferCount=10):

        self.pix_fmt = self.get_attribute('PixelFormat')

        self.height = self.get_attribute('Height')

        self.width = self.get_attribute('Width')

 

        # Unless the camera settings are set properly, in cntinuous mode

        # the camera will generally move faster than BLACS, and so the buffer

        # will fill up.  With a Flea3, I was unable to solve the prolem

        # easily.  It really is quite annoying.

        if continuous:

            self.set_stream_attribute('StreamBufferCountMode', 'Manual')

            self.set_stream_attribute('StreamBufferCountManual', bufferCount)

            self.set_stream_attribute('StreamBufferHandlingMode', 'NewestFirst')

            self.set_attribute('AcquisitionMode', 'Continuous')

        elif bufferCount == 1:

            # The StreamBufferCountMode originally was set to 'Auto', but this feature was depreciated by Spinnaker version 3.0.0.118

            self.set_stream_attribute('StreamBufferCountMode', 'Manual')

            self.set_stream_attribute('StreamBufferCountManual', 1)

            self.set_stream_attribute('StreamBufferHandlingMode', 'OldestFirst')

            self.set_attribute('AcquisitionMode', 'SingleFrame')

        else:

            self.set_stream_attribute('StreamBufferCountMode', 'Manual')

            self.set_stream_attribute('StreamBufferCountManual', bufferCount)

            self.set_stream_attribute('StreamBufferHandlingMode', 'OldestFirst')

            self.set_attribute('AcquisitionMode', 'MultiFrame')

            self.set_attribute('AcquisitionFrameCount', bufferCount)

           

            nodemap = self.camera.GetNodeMap()

            node_trigger_mode = PySpin.CEnumerationPtr(nodemap.GetNode('TriggerMode'))

            node_trigger_mode_off = node_trigger_mode.GetEntryByName('Off')

            node_trigger_mode.SetIntValue(node_trigger_mode_off.GetValue())

            print('Trigger mode disabled...')

           

            node_trigger_selector= PySpin.CEnumerationPtr(nodemap.GetNode('TriggerSelector'))

            node_trigger_selector_framestart = node_trigger_selector.GetEntryByName('FrameStart')

            node_trigger_selector.SetIntValue(node_trigger_selector_framestart.GetValue())

            print('Trigger selector set to frame start...')

           

            node_trigger_mode_on = node_trigger_mode.GetEntryByName('On')

            node_trigger_mode.SetIntValue(node_trigger_mode_on.GetValue())

            print('Trigger mode turned back on...')

           

 

        self.camera.BeginAcquisition()

Roger Ding

[Roger]

I should have noted that the extra lines added were taken from the Spinnaker 4.2.0.88 Python example Trigger.py.

[dihm....@gmail.com]

Roger,

I don't have much to add now since I haven't used a FLIR in quite some time. But my quick thought at the moment is to be mindful of changing definitions in the camera SDK. For whatever reason, camera manufacturers sometimes will alter the meaning of a setting between camera generations. It's infuriating. On a related note, sometimes camera generations change required order of operations, which is also infuriating. Looking at the code you posted, it appears 'FrameStart' may not set correctly unless TriggerMode is in the Off state. Last time I worked on FLIR cameras (many years ago), I do recall they suffered from a lot of incompatible settings combined with camera state being set instantly with every change. The result is that certain configurations would have very precise orders things had to be set in in order to prevent errors/invalid states during intermediate points.

Sorry I don't have more to add. Best of luck working out whatever is going on.

-David

[Roger]

Hi David,

Thanks for the advice regarding changing the order of which parameters are set in the connection table, doing so got the camera to trigger properly (without needing to use my hastily modified labscript-devices/labscript_devices/SpinnakerCamera/blacs_workers.py):

SpinnakerCamera('Camera_1',
    parent_device=PulseBlaster_0.direct_outputs,
    connection='flag 1',
    serial_number = 12345678,
    orientation = 'MOT',
    pixel_size = [3.45, 3.45],
    trigger_edge_type = 'rising',
    camera_attributes = {
        'AnalogControl::Gain':                      0.0,
        'AnalogControl::GainAuto':                  'Off',
        'AnalogControl::BlackLevel':                0.0,
        'AnalogControl::BlackLevelClampingEnable':  True,
        'AnalogControl::Gamma':                     1.0,
        'AnalogControl::GammaEnable':               False,
        'AnalogControl::SharpeningEnable':          False,
        'AnalogControl::SharpeningAuto':            False,
        'ImageFormatControl::Width':                Camera_1_ROI_Width_X,
        'ImageFormatControl::Height':               Camera_1_ROI_Width_Y,
        'ImageFormatControl::OffsetX':              Camera_1_ROI_Offset_X,
        'ImageFormatControl::OffsetY':              Camera_1_ROI_Offset_Y,
        'ImageFormatControl::PixelFormat':          'Mono16',
        'ImageFormatControl::AdcBitDepth':          'Bit12',
        'AcquisitionControl::AcquisitionMode':      'SingleFrame',
        'AcquisitionControl::ExposureMode':         'Timed',
        'AcquisitionControl::ExposureTime':         Camera_1_Exposure_Time_Buffered,
        'AcquisitionControl::ExposureAuto':         'Off',
        'AcquisitionControl::TriggerSource':        'Line0',
        'AcquisitionControl::TriggerActivation':    'RisingEdge',
        'AcquisitionControl::SensorShutterMode':    'Global',
        'AcquisitionControl::TriggerMode':          'Off',
        'AcquisitionControl::TriggerSelector':      'FrameStart',
        'AcquisitionControl::TriggerOverlap':       'ReadOut',
        'AcquisitionControl::TriggerMode':          'On'
        },
    manual_mode_camera_attributes = {
        'AcquisitionControl::ExposureMode':         'Timed',
        'AcquisitionControl::ExposureTime':         Camera_1_Exposure_Time_Manual,
        'AcquisitionControl::TriggerMode':          'Off'
        },
    saved_attribute_visibility_level='advanced',
    stop_acquisition_timeout=5)

I had also noticed that some parameters in the older GS3-U3-41C6M were either renamed or no longer present in the newer BFS-U3-31S4M, which was annoying. (FLIR also changed the gender of the Hirose connectors between the cameras...).

Roger Ding