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DBSP Main GUI
Main Graphic Interface window
The main window allows to have general control of the camera, It has a status area on the top part, and a control area on the bottom part (the background color is slightly diferent for the status and control area). The description below applies for both sides, except for the SYNC button, which is BLUE side only.
Status
The upper (light blue) area
1.- detstatus LEDs:
There is one LED per detector status: IDLE, PAUSED, EXPOSING and READING. This indicates what is the current status of the detector
2.- Links and Error LEDs:
command, async: These 2 green LEDs indicates if the client is fully connected to the Server. Both LEDs should be green for having full-connection and functionality
error: this red LED will turn on when there is any status condition (like a command that was not received, or an erroneous response, etc)
3.- String status controls and progress bars
immediate resp: this status shows the reponse from the server to ANY requested action (EXPOSE, changing image parameter, etc). It will normally be a DONE or ERROR <message>. If it there was an error, the red error LED (2) will turn on, and the color of the error message will also turn red on the control itself
async: this will show any message that gets to the GUI asynchronously (not necesarily related to a previously sent command). This messages can be just an info (like "filter changed", or "image expose is done"), or reportig a problem (like "TCS conection lost", or "CCD temperature too high", etc)
aperture: shows the current aperture (in arcsecs), read asynchronously from the instrument when it changes
filter: shows the current filter position (filter name), read asynchronously from the instrument when it changes
image name: shows the name of the image that will be (if exposing) , its being (if writting) or was (if idle) written to disk.
Progress bars:
read: this green bar shows the read progress of the current image (in percentage)
write: this green bar shows the write progress of the current image (it is normally written to disk as the image gets read). This will not move if the image will not be written
sequence: this orange bar shows the progress of the overall sequence. It will get to 100% only when all the images of the sequence are done (which means that the system is idle again)
4.- Exposure
this yellow, thick bar shows the exposure progress. It can be seen (considering the system is linear) as a "counts" progress. This shows the progress in seconds rather than percentage (elapsed time). The upper limit will expand to reflect the requested exposre time, so it will get full when the requested exposure time is done, whatever that requested time was.
Control
The bottom (dark blue) are.
All the controls can be changed while exposing. Right after the exposure is done, and the readout begins, the current control values are grabed, so the final image will get those fields (like basename, directory, type, etc).
5.- Image settings
Image path: this is the directory where the images will be written.
object: this is the object name. This will appear on the OBJECT field of the fits headers.
observer : name of the observer (it will appear on the OBSERVER field of the fits headers)
exposure time : the requested exposre time, in seconds (OEXPTIME of the image headers: Original Exposure time)
number of images : how many images to take (sequence)
write to disk: if cheked, it will write the images to disk. If unchecked, it will just read and display, but not save to disk.
obstype: observation type. This will appear on the IMGTYPE field of the image headers. If "dark" is selected, it will NOT open the shutter when the exposure starts
basename: basename for the image. The image name is composed by the basename and the image number as basename<number> (see image number control)
image number : it will create, toguether with the basename, the final name of the image, using this rule: basename%4d /*the numeric field will always have 4 places, so it will fill with zeros to the left. For example, if the basename is "bias" and the image number is 4, the final image written will be called "bias0004"
use type as basename: if checked, it will change the basename to match the image type. For example, if "object" is selected as image type, it will automatically change the to "object" also
6.- Exposure commands/actions
GO: it will initiate the exposure. The "exposure" implies opening the shutter, exposing by the seconds stated on the exposure time control, close the shutter, and read/write the image with the specified name (basename, image number) at the specified directory (image path); all this as many times as the number of images control states
Pause: This control has meaning only when exposing. If pulsed, it will close the shutter and wait doing nothing. When the button is pulsed again (resume) it will open the shutter and continue the exposure at the stoped count.
STOP after current image: This has meaning only if there is a sequence (more than 1 image) in progress. In that case, it will finish the current image (finish the requested exposure and read/write) and then it will come back to idle (stoping the sequence)
STOP NOW : This has meaning only while exposing. It will stop exposing inmediatelly (closing the shutter) and read/write right now. Then it will go back to idle (so it will stop any ongoing sequence also). If this is done, the image headers will report the actual exposure time done on the EXPTIME keyword (so OEXPTIME has the originally requested value, and EXPTIME has the real one. If not stoped, those two values will be coincident)
7.- Auxiliar GUIs buttons and quit/abort
abort: this very small, square button is located almost on the bottom-righ side of the image (above STOP NOW) is really hiding two "dangerous" buttons. When pressed, two new buttons will appear: ABORT and QUIT
ABORT: this will cause to abort any ongoing activity and will NOT SAVE ANY DATA. It will just stop. The RED side can be aborted does not matter what is going on (exposing or reading), but the BLUE side can only be aborted while exposing - so in the BLUE side the button will be disabled while reading (no aborts are accepted)-.
QUIT: this will cause to quit the GUI and shutdown the correspondent server. This should not be done unless really necessary.
The rest of the buttons will open auxiliary windows for diferent settings:
Binning & ROI
Headers
Display
Temp
Lamps
SYNC (BLUE side only)
The main window allows to have general control of the camera, It has a status area on the top part, and a control area on the bottom part (the background color is slightly diferent for the status and control area). The description below applies for both sides, except for the SYNC button, which is BLUE side only.
StatusThe upper (light blue) area
1.- detstatus LEDs:
There is one LED per detector status: IDLE, PAUSED, EXPOSING and READING. This indicates what is the current status of the detector
2.- Links and Error LEDs:
command, async: These 2 green LEDs indicates if the client is fully connected to the Server. Both LEDs should be green for having full-connection and functionality
error: this red LED will turn on when there is any status condition (like a command that was not received, or an erroneous response, etc)
3.- String status controls and progress bars
immediate resp: this status shows the reponse from the server to ANY requested action (EXPOSE, changing image parameter, etc). It will normally be a DONE or ERROR <message>. If it there was an error, the red error LED (2) will turn on, and the color of the error message will also turn red on the control itself
async: this will show any message that gets to the GUI asynchronously (not necesarily related to a previously sent command). This messages can be just an info (like "filter changed", or "image expose is done"), or reportig a problem (like "TCS conection lost", or "CCD temperature too high", etc)
aperture: shows the current aperture (in arcsecs), read asynchronously from the instrument when it changes
filter: shows the current filter position (filter name), read asynchronously from the instrument when it changes
image name: shows the name of the image that will be (if exposing) , its being (if writting) or was (if idle) written to disk.
Progress bars:
read: this green bar shows the read progress of the current image (in percentage)
write: this green bar shows the write progress of the current image (it is normally written to disk as the image gets read). This will not move if the image will not be written
sequence: this orange bar shows the progress of the overall sequence. It will get to 100% only when all the images of the sequence are done (which means that the system is idle again)
4.- Exposure
this yellow, thick bar shows the exposure progress. It can be seen (considering the system is linear) as a "counts" progress. This shows the progress in seconds rather than percentage (elapsed time). The upper limit will expand to reflect the requested exposre time, so it will get full when the requested exposure time is done, whatever that requested time was.
Control
The bottom (dark blue) are.
All the controls can be changed while exposing. Right after the exposure is done, and the readout begins, the current control values are grabed, so the final image will get those fields (like basename, directory, type, etc).
5.- Image settings
Image path: this is the directory where the images will be written.
object: this is the object name. This will appear on the OBJECT field of the fits headers.
observer : name of the observer (it will appear on the OBSERVER field of the fits headers)
exposure time : the requested exposre time, in seconds (OEXPTIME of the image headers: Original Exposure time)
number of images : how many images to take (sequence)
write to disk: if cheked, it will write the images to disk. If unchecked, it will just read and display, but not save to disk.
obstype: observation type. This will appear on the IMGTYPE field of the image headers. If "dark" is selected, it will NOT open the shutter when the exposure starts
basename: basename for the image. The image name is composed by the basename and the image number as basename<number> (see image number control)
image number : it will create, toguether with the basename, the final name of the image, using this rule: basename%4d /*the numeric field will always have 4 places, so it will fill with zeros to the left. For example, if the basename is "bias" and the image number is 4, the final image written will be called "bias0004"
use type as basename: if checked, it will change the basename to match the image type. For example, if "object" is selected as image type, it will automatically change the to "object" also
6.- Exposure commands/actions
GO: it will initiate the exposure. The "exposure" implies opening the shutter, exposing by the seconds stated on the exposure time control, close the shutter, and read/write the image with the specified name (basename, image number) at the specified directory (image path); all this as many times as the number of images control states
Pause: This control has meaning only when exposing. If pulsed, it will close the shutter and wait doing nothing. When the button is pulsed again (resume) it will open the shutter and continue the exposure at the stoped count.
STOP after current image: This has meaning only if there is a sequence (more than 1 image) in progress. In that case, it will finish the current image (finish the requested exposure and read/write) and then it will come back to idle (stoping the sequence)
STOP NOW : This has meaning only while exposing. It will stop exposing inmediatelly (closing the shutter) and read/write right now. Then it will go back to idle (so it will stop any ongoing sequence also). If this is done, the image headers will report the actual exposure time done on the EXPTIME keyword (so OEXPTIME has the originally requested value, and EXPTIME has the real one. If not stoped, those two values will be coincident)
7.- Auxiliar GUIs buttons and quit/abort
abort: this very small, square button is located almost on the bottom-righ side of the image (above STOP NOW) is really hiding two "dangerous" buttons. When pressed, two new buttons will appear: ABORT and QUIT
ABORT: this will cause to abort any ongoing activity and will NOT SAVE ANY DATA. It will just stop. The RED side can be aborted does not matter what is going on (exposing or reading), but the BLUE side can only be aborted while exposing - so in the BLUE side the button will be disabled while reading (no aborts are accepted)-.
QUIT: this will cause to quit the GUI and shutdown the correspondent server. This should not be done unless really necessary.
The rest of the buttons will open auxiliary windows for diferent settings:
Binning & ROI
Headers
Display
Temp
Lamps
SYNC (BLUE side only)