sls detector

The sls detector python library. It is being used at ALBA - BL04 MSPD beamline to control a SLS Mythen II detector.

It is built as a successor of the long lived C++ slsDetectorLibrary.

It should be fairly easy to support other detectors of the SLS family.

The library provides complete remote control of a Mythen II detector, a fairly complete simulator and a Lima camera plugin with a tango device class. There is also an experimental Sardana 1D controller which is not currently being used (the Sardana Lima 2D controller is being used instead).

A simple GUI based on PyQt5 and pyqtgraph is also provided. It is intented for test purposes only.

Installation

From within your favorite python environment type on the command line:

$ pip install sls-detector

Library

The library can be used with:

from sls.client import Detector
from sls.protocol import RunStatus


mythen = Detector('bl04mythen')

print(mythen.energy_threshold)

assert mythen.run_status == RunStatus.IDLE

mythen.dynamic_range = 32

with mythen.acquisition(exposure_time=0.1, nb_frames=10) as acq:
    for event_type, data in mythen.acquisition():
        if event_type == 'frame':
            print(data)

(more examples in the examples/ directory)

Simulator

Before using the simulator make sure all dependencies are installed with:

$ pip install sls-detector[simulator]

Write a simple TOML configuration file describing the detector(s) you want to expose. Example:

# mythen.toml

[bl04mythen1]
ctrl_port = 1952
stop_port = 1953

Run the simulator with:

$ sls-simulator --log-level=DEBUG -c mythen.toml
INFO 2020-05-15 08:46:02,531 root: preparing to run...
INFO 2020-05-15 08:46:02,533 SLSServer.Detector(bl04mythen1): Ready to accept requests

You will now be able to access the simulator in exactly the same way as a real detector:

from sls.client import Detector


mythen = Detector('localhost')

print(mythen.energy_threshold)

Lima

Before using lima make sure lima is properly installed.

From the command line

$ sls-lima --host=bl04mythen -n 10 -e 0.25 -d /tmp/mythen --saving-format=EDF --saving-prefix=myth_
Last image Ready = 10/10
Took 2.5158393383026123s

As a library

from sls.client import Detector
from sls.lima.camera import get_ctrl
from Lima.Core import AcqRunning

ctrl = get_ctrl('bl04mythen')  # a Lima.Core.CtControl
acq = ctrl.acquisition()
acq.setAcqExpoTime(0.1)
acq.setAcqNbFrames(10)
ctrl.prepareAcq()
ctrl.startAcq()
while ctrl.getStatus().AcquisitionStatus == AcqRunning:
    print('Running... Waiting to finish!')
    time.sleep(0.1)
print('Finished!')

As a lima tango server

First, register a lima mythen tango server.

The LimaCCDs device should have the LimaCameraType property set to MythenSLS

You can start the Lima tango device server with the LimaCCDs script or with:

$ sls-lima-tango-server <lima tango instance name>

GUI

A simple Qt GUI is provided. So far, it is intended for test purposes only.

Before launching, make sure it is properly installed with:

$ pip install sls-detector[gui]

Launch it with:

$ sls-gui --host=bl04mythen

That's all folks!