C: cd video opic
When the OPIC program starts, the user has a choice of six menus: File, Show, Select, Image, Calibrate, Camera. These menus can be navigated with the mouse or the arrow keys in combination with the return and escape keys (left mouse button is the same as return, right is the same as escape).
Save Dis N
This item will save the acquired image in display N to a FITS format
file on disk.
Retrieve Dis N
This item will retrieve a FITS file which you select from a menu and show it
on display N.
Shell
This item temporarily suspends OPIC to give you a DOS Shell. Typing "exit"
at the DOS prompt will return you to OPIC.
Quit
This item stops the OPIC program.
Live
This item shows the live video signal from the selected camera on Display 1.
This is only useful for testing or looking at the infrared only view.
Acquired
This item shows the recently acquired images in the frame buffer on all three
displays.
Retrieved
This item shows the images in the frame buffer which have been retrieved
from disk on all three displays.
Camera/Strobes
Local Disk
Acquire Disp N
Auto
Set Delay
Flash N
Reinitialize
Gain
Offset
Shutter Speed
Here is the revised version of the auto script. It takes about 5 minutes
to run, so the plan is to execute it with a 7 minute delay.
I think we should plan to run this in a serious fashion from ~6AM on April 2
until ~6AM on April 3. With selected before and after data, ie every 90 min.
Gain and offset for each camera must be set manually. They are
not controlled by the script.
In the C:VIDEO directory, GETAUTO.BAT will copy the file named
"auto.prm" from the remote disk E:. This is useful for installing
a new script sequence on the fly.
The remote disk on the Sun is mounted under PC-NFS.
The path for this disk is set by C:NFSNFSCONF to something like
"E: crater /d1/pilot/video". This directory must also be "export"ed
from SunOS before PC-NFS can mount it.
The places where OPIC stores images on the local and remote disks
are controlled by the DOS variables OPIC_NET and OPIC_LOCAL.
Paths are set in AUTOEXEC.BAT, so the user should not have to mess with them.
The FITS image file names are something like H1618403.FTS This means this
frame was taken on August (H=8) 16th at 18:40 between 30 and 39 seconds
after the minute of the PC clock.
The video PC will ask for the pilot password when it boots and loads
the NFS software. This is to accomodate the transfer of images to
pilot's disk space on the Sun.
If you are turning off the video PC for an extended period, be sure
to turn off the flash power supplies. This avoids leaving the
flash capacitors in a charged state.
This starts an interactive window which allows the user to select the
cameras and strobes which will be used for the next picture. The
camera are the circles and the strobes are the squares. Select each
one by clicking with the mouse. Only one camera can be selected, but
anywhere from zero to four strobes can be selected. Hit the
This item toggles whether archived or retrieved images are put on the local
PC disk (drive D:) or on the remote PC-NFS disk (drive E:). When the little
carat is present, that means the local disk is selected. (See below for
information on how to change the disk paths.)
IMAGE --- Image Management
The item starts the acquisition of an image with the currently selected cameras
and flashes. The image is stored (temporarily) in display N.
The item executes the automatic script to acquire images at predetermined
intervals. See below for the format of the auto script. Manual images are
still possible if the auto script allows suffcient deadtime.
CALIBRATE --- Strobe Testing and Calibration
Don't fool with this parameter. It is used to synchronize the strobe with
the frame grabber.
Discharge Flash N (as soon as it charges up). Typical charging time is
about 15 seconds.
The item does a software initialization of the 3 frame grabbers.
CAMERA --- Set Camera Parameters
Select gain for current camera with mouse. (0-3) Gain of 0 makes the image
brighter and gain of 3 makes the image fainter. The scaling is non-linear.
Select offset for current camera with mouse. (0-255) A smaller offset
raises the level of the image toward white.
Select shutter speed for current camera from menu. Normal speed for
flashing is 1/4000 sec.
AUTOMATIC SCRIPT
Camera Display Flash Shutter Gain Offset Disk
D 2 - 60 1 255 Remote
D 2 - 4000 1 255 Remote
D 2 BC 4000 1 255 Remote
C 3 AC 4000 1 255 Local
A 1 CD 4000 1 255 Local
D 2 - 4000 1 255 Remote
D 2 BC 4000 1 255 Remote
B 1 - 4000 1 255 Local
B 1 AC 4000 1 255 Local
The actual script "auto.prm"
4 0 2 2 0
4 0 2 2 6
4 6 2 2 6
3 5 3 1 6
1 12 1 1 6
4 0 2 2 6
4 6 2 2 6
2 0 1 1 6
2 5 1 1 6
The first column is the camera number: A=1 B=2 C=3 D=4
The second column is the flash number: A=1 B=2 C=4 D=8 (summable)
The third column is the display (framegrabber) number: 1,2,3
The fourth column is the destination: 0=no save 1=local disk 2=remote disk
The fifth column is the shutter: 0=1/60 ........6=1/4000, 7=1/10000
DISK SPACE
In terms of disk storage, I currently think we can use the following
for immediate storage of incoming images.
crater!/d0/pilot/video (shared with oven data)
crater!/d1/pilot/video ~800 MB
PC Drive D: 80 MB
BUGS
Sometimes the frame grabbers get "grainy" looking. The usual cure for this
is to reboot the PC by cycling the power. The power down apparently
fixes things that a soft reboot or reinitialization doesn't.
This needs to be done about once a day.