Communication with Thorlabs uc480 camera

[dilrukshi924]

I was able to get the current image from a Thorlabs uc480 camera using instrumental. My issue is when I try to adjust the parameters for grab_image. I can change cx and left to any value and get an image. But cy and top only works if cy=600 and top=300. The purpose is to create a GUI so that the user can select values for these parameters to zoom in/out an image.

Here is my code

import instrumental
from instrumental.drivers.cameras import uc480
from matplotlib.figure import Figure
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

paramsets = instrumental.list_instruments()
cammer = instrumental.instrument(paramsets[0])

plt.figure()
framer= cammer.grab_image(timeout='1s',copy=True,n_frames=1,exposure_time='5ms',cx=640,
                                      left=10,cy=600,top=300)
plt.pcolormesh(framer)

The above code does not give an image if I choose cy=600 and top=10. Are there any particular value set to be used for these parameters? How can I get an image of the full sensor size?

[natezb]

Hi, thanks for the report. What model of camera are you using? Sometimes cameras don't have support for hardware AOI, although if I remember correctly we should have support for software AOI.

Also, some cameras only support some AOI values, e.g. the edges must be powers of 2. It seems a bit strange that x works while y doesn't, but it could be the hardware.

[dilrukshi924]

Hello, this is the camera I'm using https://www.thorlabs.com/thorProduct.cfm?partNumber=DCC1545M

[natezb]

You might play around with trying different values of cy and top to see if anything else works, as well as using top and bot instead.

Also try using _set_AOI() and _get_AOI() directly to see when and if the AOI can be changed.

[natezb]

Oh, I just noticed: the camera you're using is only 1024 pixels tall, so it's not big enough to have a rectangle with a center at 600 and top at 10 (the bottom would have to be at 1190). So the _set_AOI() silently fails for the y axis.

If this is the issue, we should probably add a warning if the specified AOI is too big.

[dilrukshi924]

hello, sorry for the delay. I tried different values for the y axis (even cy=500 and top=100 doesn't work. but cy=700 and 400 works.) How can I find which values to put as cy and top?