Dectris EIGER 2 - Control of the Detector from a Specific Environment; Main Configuration Parameters

7.3. Control of the Detector from a Specic Environment
Integrating the detector into a specic environment requires understanding of the necessary detector func-
tions. The API reference will list all possible commands and features, but it does not give an explanation of
the required functionality. Sections 7.3.1 and 7.3.2 cover a selection of essential and situational parameters
respectively.
7.3.1. Main Conguration Parameters
The parameters described in this section allow control of the detector and data acquisition. Data will be ac-
quired, however further conguration of the interface for data retrieval might be necessary depending on your
set up. For starting a data acquisition, only the following parameters need to be adjusted:
• detector | cong | count_time
• detector | cong | frame_time
• detector | cong | photon_energy
The parameter count_time refers to the actual time the detector counts photons, while frame_time is the interval
between acquisitions of subsequent frames (i.e. period).
The detector conguration parameter photon_energy has to be set to the X-ray energy used for the experi-
ment.
There is a convenience function for setting the photon_energy, called element.
• detector | cong | element
The parameter element accepts the chemical symbols for elements, e.g., ”Cu”, ”Mo”, as argument and sets
photon_energy to the K
α
1
emission line for that element.
• detector | cong | ntrigger
• detector | cong | nimages
The ntrigger parameter congures the number of expected triggers for one acquisition series. Setting values
greater than 1 for ntrigger allows several trigger commands or external trigger pulses per arm/disarm sequence.
This mode allows recording several series of nimages with the same parameters.
The parameter nimages congures the number of images that will be acquired for one trigger. In internally
and externally triggered series (”ints” and ”exts”, respectively), the detector considers a trigger as the start of a
series of n images. For example a single image is considered as a series of images containing 1 image. Once the
detector has been armed a series can be started by issuing a trigger command or triggering the detector using
an electronic pulse on the external trigger input. In ”inte” and ”exte” trigger modes the parameter nimages
should be set to one, as every trigger will always trigger a single image. To switch between the trigger modes
(see chapter 9) one can use the conguration parameter trigger_mode.
• detector | cong | trigger_mode
Information #3
Please note that the acquired data can be retrieved via dierent interfaces. For details, please
see the API Reference.
With the lewriter mode set to ”enabled”, the acquired data is written to HDF5 les. The lewriter has the
following important conguration parameters:
• lewriter | cong | mode
• lewriter | cong | name_pattern
• lewriter | cong | nimages_per_le
• lewriter | cong | compression_enabled
DECTRIS EIGER
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