Difference between revisions of "Andor"

Revision as of 03:42, 29 June 2014

Installation

Andor Driver Pack

To recognize the camera in the Windows Device Manager, install the Andor Driver Pack.

Disable computer power savings

Disable power saving in the BIOS. For Windows Vista and later, also disable in PCI/e power management and USB suspend saving in Power Options.

(USB only) Finding a dedicated USB 2.0 bus

High-bandwidth USB cameras like the Clara and iXon may lose communication during imaging if they share a USB bus with another high bandwidth USB device (like the Nikon Ti-E, some USB memory keys, etc). Plug the camera into it's own USB bus on the computer.

Device Configuration

1. Open Micromanager.
2. You will be prompted to load a configuration file. To create a new configuration file use "Tools" > "Hardware Configuration Wizard..." to manually add the device.

Suggested Presets

iXon camera:

Troubleshooting (known issues and fixes)

DeviceCreate function failed

This error appears in the hardware wizard in Windows if the Andor Device Driver has just been installed, but the computer has not been restarted. Restart the computer to fix.

iXon Error 20010 DRV_ERROR_PAGELOCK

iXon Pre-Amp-Gain Error Code 3

Clara Error 20066 PreAmp selection

Luca Error 20991

Fixing computer bus speed bottlenecks

PCIe

iXon PCIe cameras can have their live stream stops after 2 or 3 images or not start at all. The reason for this is PC motherboards throttle the PCIe speed depending on the daughter boards populated. Make sure you plug the PCIe card into a fast enough bus.

For example the Dell XPS desktop 1x PCIe bus will not run at the rated speed when the PCIe 16x graphics card is populated, so you have to instead connect the Andor PCIe card to 8x PCIe slot

PCI

iXon 885 PCI cameras can have their live stream not start at all, but will work if you bin the image 2x2 or slow the horizontal clock speed from 35MHz to 13MHz. The reason for this is a small set of PC motherboards may not fully comply with the PCI standard bandwidth, so try another motherboard (or more conveniently another computer)

USB

USB cameras using high bandwidth such as the Clara must be plugged into the computer to be its own USB bus:

Windows USB Bus

You need to use a utility like UVCview to inspect the USB bus. Try different USB slot positions on the computer until the camera is on its own USB bus.

Screenshot below of UVCview on Windows showing the Clara by itself on the USB bus, i.e. with no other devices sharing it:

Linux USB Bus

You can easily check USB bus position with lsusb -t. The shell output below shows that the Clara (Vendor 0x136e Product 0x000e) has been correctly plugged into its own USB bus (Bus# 1):

     $ lsusb -t
     Bus#  5
     `-Dev#   1 Vendor 0x1d6b Product 0x0001
     Bus#  4
     `-Dev#   1 Vendor 0x1d6b Product 0x0001
       |-Dev#   2 Vendor 0x046d Product 0xc045
       `-Dev#   3 Vendor 0x2341 Product 0x0001
     Bus#  3
     `-Dev#   1 Vendor 0x1d6b Product 0x0001
       `-Dev#   2 Vendor 0x03f9 Product 0x0100
     Bus#  2
     `-Dev#   1 Vendor 0x1d6b Product 0x0001
     Bus#  1
     `-Dev#   1 Vendor 0x1d6b Product 0x0002
       `-Dev#   6 Vendor 0x136e Product 0x000e

     $ lsusb
     Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
     Bus 004 Device 002: ID 046d:c045 Logitech, Inc. Optical Mouse
     Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
     Bus 003 Device 002: ID 03f9:0100 KeyTronic Corp. Keyboard
     Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
     Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
     Bus 001 Device 006: ID 136e:000e  
     Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Resources

Development support

Please liaison with Micro-Manager developers to contact the Andor software team

Click here to search for Andor on the Micro-Manager mailing list archive.

Andor support

For contacting Andor product support regarding any questions, see under "Support" for your location - http://www.andor.com/contact_us/default.aspx

Appendix

Update Andor library (DLL)

If Micro-Manager's Andor library is too old, adding (i.e. initializing) your Andor camera in the Hardware configuration wizard can result in:

• Error code 22
• Micro-Manager crash (with no error in the CoreLog)

To fix this, update the Andor library used by Micromanager by copying the library file from the Andor Driver Pack to your Micro-Manager installation directory:

   C:\Program Files\Andor Driver Pack 2\atmcd32d.dll
   C:\Program Files\Andor Driver Pack 2\atmcd64d.dll

Windows drivers

Install PCI/e driver

Make sure there is no yellow question mark next to the device, and that it is present in the Device Manager.

Andor
 \- Andor Technology PCI{e} driver

LibUSB-Win32 Devices
 \- Andor {Clara, Luca, iXon Ultra}

If there is a yellow question mark, right-click on the device, update the driver and choose:

Browse my Computer for driver software >

Install from a list or specific location (Advanced) >
Search for the best driver in these locations >
Include this location in the search >

...and use the path:

   C:\Program Files\Andor Driver Pack 2\Device Drivers\

Uninstall PCI/e card to update

1. Uninstall the existing device driver for the Andor PCI/e framegrabber card:
   • The following Microsoft guide explains who to do this, but there is no need to physically remove the card as described in step 6 of the Uninstall section:

     http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc725782.aspx#bkmk_2

   • When uninstalling, make sure to select Delete the driver software for this device.
   • Use Scan for Hardware Changes Action in the Device Manager as described in the guide. If it finds the driver, repeat this uninstall process until all copies of the driver are deleted.
2. Upgrade to Andor camera Driver.
3. Windows now uses the new sys file.
4. Restart Windows twice. After the first restart you see a yellow question mark next to the driver in the Device Manager saying the driver failing to load (Code 31). Restarting Windows the second time clears this error.

Description of Device Settings

Pre-Amplifier Gain (PAG)

• It's best to think of Pre-Amplifier Gain as follows:

  4x = High sensitivity mode (use for EM gain)

  2x = Intermediate sensitivity / capacity mode

  1x = High capacity mode

• PAG multipliers like 1x, 2x, 4x can vary between cameras since they are tuned for each sensor, e.g. for a particular camera the values could be 1x, 2.4x, 4.9x
• PAG can affect the saturation limit of your image. To determine the expected digital saturation limit, consult your camera performance sheet of your camera. Divide the "Saturation Signal per Pixel (Electrons/pixel)" by the "CCD Sensitivity (Electrons/A2D count)" to get saturation signal in digital counts.

Electron Multiplying Gain (EM Gain)

EMgain range

• EMgain does not start at 1 for all cameras. The start level is tuned for each EMCCD chip.
• The actual EM gain range depends on the model of your camera: it can be from 0 to 255 (non-linear), 4096 (non-linear), or RealGain 1000 (linear)

EMgain slew rate

e.g. if you are imaging confocal fluorescence data and DIC, and you need lower or no EM gain for DIC, one would need a 3 second delay before and after the DIC image to allow for EM gain to slew. |}

• iXon, iXon+, Luca-R and Luca-S
• EM gain circuitry is powered by a high +53V voltage rail and the gain applied to the EM readout register is proportional to this voltage.
• Thus when you increase or decrease the EM gain on the camera, you have to wait for the voltage slew to stabilize at the new set value.
• This is typically about 1-2 seconds, the maximum time being from setting EM gain from 0 to the maximum value of 1000.
• Thus it is much better to vary exposure times or excitation signal intensity rather than switching EM gain levels in a multi-channel acquisition (unless you know what you are doing)

iXon Conventional CCD or EM-CCD mode

• With the exception of the 885, you can switch between CCD and EMCCD modes via the Output_Amplifier setting
• EMCCD readout without EM gain is more noisy (~40e read noise) so Conventional readout (~6e read noise) is beneficial if light levels do not require EM gain.
• Benefits of EM gain combating the EMCCD readout register noise of ~40e can be seen from 45x onward, i.e it is better to use 45x EM gain and upward.

iCam

• Allows for rapid switching of exposure times in multi-channel acquisitions.
• µManager needs to implement SequenceExposure functions to use this feature. No camera DeviceAdapter implements this yet.

Cooling

• iXon cameras MUST be cooled to the specified temperature: at least -60 C for DV models and -70 C for DU models.
• Offset ("Baseline") is optimal at this setting. If the camera is not cooled, the offset can be display as 0 data counts.
• Some blemishes are compensated at the specified temperature setting and will be more visible at warmer temperatures.
• No need to warm up cameras before shutdown of software and computer (since condensation does not occur).
• Full gain will not be achievable without cooling.
• EMgain is temperature compensated for RealGain cameras.
• Clara must be cooled to the specified temperature: -45 C with fan, -15 C without. The Clara-E is fixed at cooling to -20 C, so no action is needed to set its temperature