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67 

 Chapter 

7 

Troubleshooting 

Do not attach or remove any cables while the camera system is powered on. 

Introduction 

The following issues have corresponding troubleshooting sections in this chapter. 

Baseline Signal Suddenly Changes 

Page 68 

Camera Stops Working 

Page 68 

Camera1 (or similar name) in Camera Name field 

Page 68 

Controller Is Not Responding 

Page 69 

Cooling Troubleshooting 

Page 70 

Data Overrun Due to Hardware Conflict message 

Page 71 

Demo is only Choice on Hardware Wizard:Interface dialog 
(Versions 2.5.19.0 and earlier) 

Page 71 

Demo, High Speed PCI, and PCI(Timer) are Choices on Hardware 
Wizard:Interface dialog (Versions 2.5.19.0 and earlier) 

Page 73 

Detector Temperature, Acquire, and Focus are Grayed Out 
(Versions 2.5.19.0 and earlier) 

Page 74 

Editing the PVCAM.INI File 

Page 75 

Error Creating Controller message 

Page 76 

Program Error message 

Page 76 

Serial violations have occurred. Check interface cable. 

Page 77 

Smeared Images 

Page 77 

WARNING!

 

Summary of Contents for PhotonMAX System

Page 1: ...4411 0107 Version 1 B January 26 2006 4411 0107...

Page 2: ...a trademark of Roper Scientific Inc PVCAM is a registered trademark of Photometrics Ltd Scientific Imaging ToolKit and SITK are trademarks of R Cubed Software Consultants LLC SpectraPro is a trademark...

Page 3: ...17 Chapter 4 System Setup 21 Introduction 21 Unpacking the System 21 Checking the Equipment and Parts Inventory 22 System Requirements 22 Attaching a Lens to a C Mount Adapter 23 Adjusting the C Mount...

Page 4: ...cable 77 Smeared Images 77 Declaration of Conformity 79 Appendix A Basic Specifications 83 Window 83 CCD Arrays 83 Mounts 83 Focal Distance Optical 83 Camera 83 CoolCUBE Circulator 86 Options 86 Appe...

Page 5: ...erlap Mode Operation 49 Figure 34 Timing Diagram for Overlap Mode when Exposure Time Readout Time 49 Figure 35 Timing Diagram for Overlap Mode when Exposure Time Readout Time 50 Figure 36 Required Sel...

Page 6: ...gure 62 RSConfig dialog box Two Camera Styles 74 Figure 63 RSConfig dialog box Two Camera Styles 75 Figure 64 Hardware Wizard PVCAM dialog box 75 Figure 65 Error Creating Controller dialog box 76 Figu...

Page 7: ...ise The camera can be operated at 10 MHz for high speed image visualization or more slowly for high precision photometry Supravideo frame rates are achievable via subregion readout EMCCD Technology an...

Page 8: ...o specify read rate binning parameters and regions of interest all under software control For instance if your experiment requires rapid image acquisition then the CCD s on chip binning can be set to...

Page 9: ...wer to the equipment and secure all covers before cleaning the units Otherwise damage to the equipment or injury to you could occur Camera Although there is no periodic maintenance that needs to be pe...

Page 10: ...rovides information about the camera interface card cables and application software Chapter 3 Installation Overview cross references system setup actions with the relevant manuals and or manual pages...

Page 11: ...manual The same symbol appears in the manual adjacent to the text that discusses the hardware item s in question Warning Risk of electric shock The use of this symbol on equipment indicates that one o...

Page 12: ...12 PhotonMAX System Manual Version 1 B This page intentionally left blank...

Page 13: ...pplication software and manual Scientific Imaging ToolKit SITK for LabVIEW fiber optic interface fiber optic cables and C mount adapters PhotonMAX Camera CCD Array The PhotonMAX camera system offers C...

Page 14: ...h the back slots on the side panels removes the heat produced by the Peltier device and then vents out through the front slots on the side panels The fan is always in operation and air cooling of both...

Page 15: ...power cable 6050 0564 has a Lemo connector on each end and connects between the circulator to the camera to provide the camera power Certificate of Performance Each PhotonMAX camera has a Certificate...

Page 16: ...example in the case of Windows PVCAM is a dynamic link library DLL Also it should be understood that PVCAM is solely for camera control and image acquisition not for image processing PVCAM places acqu...

Page 17: ...ost computer install it Refer to computer manufacturer s instructions 6 Depending on application attach lens to the camera or mount the camera to a spectrometer Chapter 4 System Setup page 23 7 With t...

Page 18: ...r spectral lines If you are using WinSpec 32 you may want to use the Focus Helper function for spectroscopy applications Chapter 5 Operation page 30 or page 35 Figure 3 Typical Imaging Experiment Layo...

Page 19: ...Chapter 4 System Component Descriptions 19 Figure 5 Typical Imaging Experiment Layout with Liquid cooled Camera Figure 6 Typical Spectroscopy Experiment Layout with Liquid cooled Camera...

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Page 21: ...the instructions call Princeton Instruments Customer Support For contact information refer to page 94 Hardware installation consists of Installing an interface card Attaching a lens to a C mount on t...

Page 22: ...ng performance may degrade if the room temperature is above 23 C Ventilation Camera Allow at least two 2 inches 50 mm clearance around the vented covers The air needs to be less than 25 C above this t...

Page 23: ...Overexposure protection Cameras that are exposed to room light or other continuous light sources will quickly become saturated Set the lens to the smallest aperture highest f number and cover the len...

Page 24: ...ove the adapter from the camera nose thread the lens into the adapter until the lens threads are flush with the back surface of the adapter Note the depth at the front surface remove the lens and then...

Page 25: ...Custom button if you would like to choose among the available program files or do not want to install the drivers 2 Make sure the camera is connected to the host computer and that the camera power su...

Page 26: ...2 or WinXTest 32 and a supported camera Otherwise if you installing a new camera type click on the Launch Camera Detection Wizard button on the Controller CCD tab page to start the wizard 3 On the Wel...

Page 27: ...camera name to one that is more specific or you can keep the default name Camera1 When you have finished click on the Done button Note If the first camera in the list is not the PM Style PCI PhotonMAX...

Page 28: ...amera tab page you should now be able to control the camera and acquire data at the default Detector Temperature setting On the Controller Camera tab page Select Frame Transfer as the Readout Mode On...

Page 29: ...n selected in the application software In WinView and WinSpec these operations use the Experiment Setup parameters to establish the exposure time the period when signal of interest is allowed to accum...

Page 30: ...h the operation of your system and to show that it is functioning properly Once basic familiarity has been established then operation with other operating configurations ones with more complex timing...

Page 31: ...a tab page Setup Hardware These parameters should be set automatically to the proper values for your system Use PVCAM Verify that this box is checked Note This check box is not present on software ver...

Page 32: ...ware there may be a small difference between the set and reported temperature when lock is established This is normal and does not indicate a system malfunction Once lock is established the temperatur...

Page 33: ...perture intensity scaling and focus for the best image as viewed on the computer monitor Some imaging tips follow Begin with the lens blocked off and then set the lens at the smallest possible apertur...

Page 34: ...st slightly smaller higher f stop than the setting where maximum brightness on any part of the image occurs Set the focus adjustment of the lens for maximum sharpness in the viewed image 3 After you h...

Page 35: ...ces will quickly become saturated This most often occurs when operating without a shutter If the camera is mounted to a spectrograph close the entrance slit of the spectrograph to reduce the incident...

Page 36: ...ture dialog box will report that the temperature is LOCKED Note that some overshoot may occur This could cause temperature lock to be briefly lost and then quickly re established If you are reading th...

Page 37: ...ccumulations Number of Images 1 Experiment Setup ROI tab page Acquisition Experiment Setup Use this function to define the region of interest ROI Spectroscopy Mode Selected Clicking on Full loads the...

Page 38: ...entrance slit of the spectrograph Any light source with line output can be used Standard fluorescent overhead lamps have good calibration lines as well If there are no line sources available it is po...

Page 39: ...o achieve optimum focus Short focal length spectrographs There is generally a focusing mechanism on the spectrograph itself which when adjusted will move the optics as required to achieve proper focus...

Page 40: ...rom the I O cable can be used to control a customer supplied external shutter The effective exposure time of the array depends on the active Exposure Readout mode Overlapped or Non Overlapped Overlapp...

Page 41: ...on the Experiment Setup Main tab page A Gain setting of zero 0 refers to a no gain state where the camera behaves like a standard high speed CCD with rather high read noise Values 1 to 4095 are mappe...

Page 42: ...ature etc Once lock occurs it is okay to begin focusing However you should wait an additional twenty minutes before taking quantitative data so that the system has time to achieve optimum thermal stab...

Page 43: ...et bias is subtracted from the sample image for quantitative measurement Since the offset can change based on several factors such as multiplication gain speed etc it is recommended that a fresh offse...

Page 44: ...ame transfer or masked pixels shown in Figure 28 Note typically there are additional rows and columns for internal reference In standard frame transfer mode the active area is exposed for certain time...

Page 45: ...ro results in unity gain and the subsequent DAC settings are exponentially related to the multiplication gain Since the multiplication gain can be used to overcome the read noise of the fast amplifier...

Page 46: ...the Analog to Digital Units ADUs or counts generated In WinView and WinSpec gain selection is made on the Acquisition Experiment Setup ADC tab page Figure 30 The choices are 1 Low 2 Medium and 3 High...

Page 47: ...b page Binning Binning combining pixels into one super pixel allows you to increase the sensitivity and frame rate On the other hand binning reduces spatial resolution The PhotonMAX allows binning of...

Page 48: ...Overlap mode is extremely useful in applications requiring continuous imaging 100 duty cycle Once a frame is exposed and transferred into the frame transfer area the next exposure immediately starts...

Page 49: ...to a frame rate of 26 2 fps 3 frames 0 114 seconds Note Because the first frame is exposed for 10 ms and the others for 34 8 ms the first frame may look less bright compared to all other frames In Ov...

Page 50: ...tR Where TN Total time taken to capture a sequence of N frames texp exposure time N total number of frames in a sequence tR readout time for one frame From the timing diagram you can see that because...

Page 51: ...not impact the frame rate In WinView and WinSpec this sequence is programmed by simply setting the Slow Mode vs Fast Mode to Fast Mode selectable on the Experiment Setup Timing tab page the Readout m...

Page 52: ...adout times listed are for illustration purpose only Actual values may vary Refer to the product data sheet for the actual readout times Readout Effective Exposure Time Exp 2 10 ms Exp 3 10 ms Readout...

Page 53: ...l of the PhotonMAX Fast and Safe Modes the third topic discusses the Fast and the Safe modes Fast is used for real time data acquisition and Safe is used when coordinating acquisition with Figure 38 T...

Page 54: ...ll not operate during the experiment Disable closed is useful for making dark charge measurements or when no shutter is present in the camera Electromechanical shutters typically have a lifetime of ab...

Page 55: ...exposure time will be the frame readout time unless the set exposure time is greater than the frame readout time as in Figure 41 External Sync External Sync mode only operates in Non Overlap mode In E...

Page 56: ...3 Ignored Figure 43 Bulb Mode Timing Diagram Non Overlap Mode Single Trigger In this mode the camera requires only one trigger to acquire a sequence of frames Once the initial trigger is received the...

Page 57: ...drawback to this mode is that the computer will only display frames when it is not performing other tasks Image display has a lower priority so the image on the screen may lag several images behind A...

Page 58: ...sure and binning parameters Sequence start command issued by computer to camera Clears performed 1 frame collected as per timing mode Stop Sequence stop issued by computer to camera Background or flat...

Page 59: ...TL output for timing of external shutter driver Signal is high during Shutter Open Compensation Time and exposure time The pin does not provide power to drive the shutter directly so an external shutt...

Page 60: ...bframe exposure under the mask before reading it out Since there is no overhead of readout time between each exposure faster time resolution is achieved At the end of a series exposure shift cycles th...

Page 61: ...illuminated area of 60 rows Window Size is 60 rows high The right image shows an illuminated area of 12 rows Window Size is 12 rows high texp 1 ts 1 texp 2 texp n ts 2 ts n Exposure Subframe Vertical...

Page 62: ...ed either on ve or ve edge of the incoming TTL pulse Note The I O cable supplied with the PhotonMAX provides access to primary signals such as Trigger In Trigger Invert Expose Out Frame Readout and Sh...

Page 63: ...not occur and at the end of a cycle ambient light will be collected through the window until the next trigger arrives Depending on the time between triggers and the amount of ambient light some subfra...

Page 64: ...The following procedure is based on WinView 32 you will need to modify it if you are using a different application Basic familiarity with the WinView 32 software is assumed If this is not the case yo...

Page 65: ...etup Timing Mode Free Run Single Trigger or Multiple Trigger Shutter Control Normal Safe Mode vs Fast Mode Safe Mode must be selected for Kinetics mode operation Summary The kinetics is a powerful fea...

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Page 67: ...oting Page 70 Data Overrun Due to Hardware Conflict message Page 71 Demo is only Choice on Hardware Wizard Interface dialog Versions 2 5 19 0 and earlier Page 71 Demo High Speed PCI and PCI Timer are...

Page 68: ...ts Customer Support for further instructions If the system still does not respond contact Princeton Instruments Customer Support Camera1 or similar name in Camera Name field Figure 56 Camera1 in Camer...

Page 69: ...m the Setup menu Data transfer is disabled when this box is left unchecked If the camera is ON the problem may be with the PCI card its driver or the cable connections If the interface card is not ins...

Page 70: ...fill port DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN There may be air in the hoses Add coolant If more than two 2 inches of the coolant line is filled with air the pump will stop working and may be damaged If the flow stops...

Page 71: ...ssage Figure 57 Data Overrun Due to Hardware Conflict dialog box If this dialog box appears when you try to acquire a test image acquire data or run in focus mode check the CCD array size and then che...

Page 72: ...3 Run RSConfig from the Windows Start Programs Roper Scientific menu or from the directory where you installed WinView 4 When the RSConfig dialog box Figure 59 appears you can change the camera name t...

Page 73: ...time If the Wizard did not find a PVCAM INI file or if RSConfig exe was run but the PhotonMAX PM Style is Camera_2 in the PVCAM INI file Demo High Speed PCI and PCI Timer will be selectable from the...

Page 74: ...a Princeton Instruments RSPI high speed PCI card was also detected when RSConfig exe was run 1 Check to see if the PhotonMAX is connected to the host computer and is powered on If it is not connected...

Page 75: ...iver rspipci sys Port 0 Camera_1 Type 0 Name Camera2 Driver pmwdm2k sys Port 0 Note The Camera_ must be changed so the PhotonMAX will be recognized its driver is pmwdm2k sys For consistency you may al...

Page 76: ...the PVCAM dialog box make sure Yes is selected and then click on Next The Hardware Wizard should continue to the Controller Type dialog box Program Error message Figure 66 Program Error dialog box Thi...

Page 77: ...cable is secured at both ends 3 After making sure that the cable is connected turn the camera system power ON 4 Click OK on the error message dialog and retry acquiring an image or running in focus m...

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Page 79: ...79 Declaration of Conformity This section of the PhotonMAX system manual contains the declaration s of conformity for PhotonMAX systems...

Page 80: ...electrical equipment standards IEC 1010 1 1990 EN 61010 1 1993 A2 1995 EN 61326 for Class A 1997 A1 1998 A2 2001 EN 61000 4 2 EN 61000 4 3 EN 61000 4 4 EN 61000 4 5 EN 61000 4 6 EN 61000 4 11 EN 61000...

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Page 83: ...ize 16 m x 16 m Readout Amplifiers Ports 2 Digitization Readout Rate 10 MHz 5 MHz 1 MHz Note The arrays listed are those that were available at the time that the manual was written Contact Princeton I...

Page 84: ...3 22 21 20 19 8 9 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 17 18 16 15 14 13 12 11 The I O Input Output Status connector provides information about trigger function DAC and TTL signals Inputs must be at least 3 15 V for a high...

Page 85: ...interface with the trigger control signals must reference this ground connection 7 Frame Readout Active high A high level on this output indicates that data is being transferred 8 Camera Exposing Out...

Page 86: ...ignals must reference this ground connection Power Input 100 240 VAC 47 to 63 Hz 3 A DC power to camera is provided by the self switching power supply Fan 24 CFM fan capacity at full power CoolCUBE Ci...

Page 87: ...87 Appendix B Outline Drawings Note Dimensions are in inches mm PhotonMAX Camera C mount Air Cooled...

Page 88: ...88 PhotonMAX System Manual Version 1 B PhotonMAX Camera C mount Liquid Cooled...

Page 89: ...Appendix B Outline Drawings 89 CoolCUBE Circulator...

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Page 91: ...o one 1 year after shipment During this period Princeton Instruments will repair or replace at its sole option any defective parts without charge to you You must deliver the entire product to the Prin...

Page 92: ...amage which carry NO WARRANTIES EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED all image intensifier products for a period of one 1 year after shipment See additional Limited One 1 year Warranty terms and conditions above whic...

Page 93: ...plied 3 All warranty service must be made by the Princeton Instruments factory or at our option an authorized service center 4 Before products or parts can be returned for service you must contact the...

Page 94: ...e exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages so the above provisions may not apply to you 12 When contacting us for technical support or service assistance please refer to the Prin...

Page 95: ...and post sequence 44 clear pre sequence 43 Cleaning detector 9 optical surfaces 9 Clear never 43 Clear post sequence 44 Clear pre and post sequence 44 Clear pre exposure 43 Clear pre exposure and post...

Page 96: ...era C mount liquid cooled 88 Camera C mount air cooled 87 CoolCUBE circulator 89 Overexposure protection 23 35 Overlap readout mode 48 Performance certificate 15 Port 2 description 45 POWER connector...

Page 97: ...rror Creating Controller message 76 Hardware Wizard 71 73 program error 76 Serial Violations message 77 temperature lock 71 vacuum deterioration 71 V Z Vacuum deterioration 71 Ventilation requirements...

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