15
7.7.3 Thermoelectric Cooler (TEC)
The “TEC” tab in the GUI gives the user control over the TEC and fan. The minimum and optimum
cooling temperature is -15
̊
C. This is what the TEC set point will be by default, as highlighted in Figure
8. The fan will also be enabled by default, as the fan is required for the TEC to be able to hit -15
̊
C.
The sensor can also be read from this tab.
There is roughly a 35
̊
C delta between the sensor and PCB temperature. Therefore, to be able to
maintain the -15
̊
C set point, the PCB temperature will have to remain around room temperature.
The PCB temperature can be read in the “Misc” tab which is discussed in section 7.7.6.
7.7.4 Non-Uniformity Correction (NUC)
The “NUC” tab gives t
he user control over the NUC that is performed live on-board the FPGA chip in
the camera. The Ninox 1280 offers a 3-point NUC (offset, gain & dark current) and a bad pixel
correction. XCAP gives the option to apply each state of the NUC. In practice, the user will want to
have either the NUC completely disabled (Normal) to receive the raw data from the sensor, or the 3-
point NUC enabled (Gain+Dark) & bad pixel corrections.
The ramp test pattern image can also be enabled from this tab, which will consist of a fixed ramp
pattern that will start with a value of 0 on the first pixel read from the camera and increment by one
for each subsequent pixel read from the camera.
These controls can be seen from Figure 9.
Figure 8: TEC Tab.
Controls to turn the TEC
and fan ON/OFF. The
desired TEC set point can
also be set if the TEC is
enabled.
The sensor temperature
can be read using the
“Update Temp.” button.
