# areaDetector: EPICS software for area detectors

Module Owner: Mark Rivers: University of Chicago

This page is the home of areaDetector, an application for controlling area (2-D) detectors, including CCDs, pixel array detectors, and online imaging plates.

NOTE: This module replaces the ccd and pilatusROI modules. These older modules will no longer be supported, and users are encouraged to convert to this new areaDetector software.

Devices supported in areaDetector include:

From Dectris

- The Pilatus pixel-array detector.

From Prosilica

- High-speed, high-resolution CCD and CMOS cameras. These use GigE and Firewire interfaces.

From ADSC

- Large CCD detectors for x-ray diffraction. This support is from Lewis Muir of IMCA-CAT at the APS.

From Rayonix/Mar-USA

- MarCCD detectors

From Marresearch GmbH

- mar345 online image plate reader

From Roper

- All CCD detectors supported by the WinView and WinSpec programs. This includes all Princeton Instruments detectors, as well as most Photometrics detectors.
- All CCD detectors supported by the PVCam library. This includes all Photometrics detectors, as well as many Princeton Instruments detectors.

From Bruker

- The SMART CCD camera line with Photometrics cameras. This requires the PCI interface card, replacing the old ISA bus card, and requires controlling the detector with WinView, not the SMART software.

From Point Grey Research and many other manufacturers

- All Firewire (IEEE 1394) cameras that follow the IIDC/DCAM specification. There is support for Firewire cameras under Windows in the areaDetector module itself. There is also support for Firewire cameras under Linux written by Ulrik Pedersen from Diamond Light Source, and distributed separately from the areaDetector module.

From Perkin Elmer

- Amorphous silicon flat panel detectors. This support was written by Brian Tieman and John Hammonds from the APS.

Please email any comments and bug reports to Mark Rivers who is responsible for coordinating development and releases.

## Where to find it

The areaDetector module is in the EPICS Applications SVN repository on SourceForge. Persons wishing to collaborate on this project can contact Mark Rivers to get write access to this application there.

You can download the software from the links in the table below. The software is available both in source code form, and in pre-built form so that it can be used without an EPICS build system. The pre-built form includes binaries for linux-x86, win32-x86, cygwin-x86, and some vxWorks architectures.

Module Version | Release Date | Source Code Filename | Pre-built Filename | Documentation | Release Notes | Known Problems
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
1-5 | 23-August-2009 | areaDetectorR1-5.tgz | areaDetectorPrebuilt_R1-5.tgz | areaDetectorDoc | Release notes | See release notes
1-4 | 30-Jan-2009 | areaDetectorR1-4.tgz | areaDetectorPrebuilt_R1-4.tgz | areaDetectorDoc | Release notes | See release notes
1-3 | 24-Nov-2008 | areaDetectorR1-3.tgz | areaDetectorPrebuilt_R1-3.tgz | areaDetectorDoc | Release notes | See release notes
1-2 | 24-Oct-2008 | areaDetectorR1-2.tgz | N.A. | areaDetectorDoc | Release notes | See release notes
1-1 | 10-May-2008 | areaDetectorR1-1.tgz | N.A. | areaDetectorDoc | Release notes | See release notes
1-0 | 11-Apr-2008 | areaDetectorR1-0.tgz | N.A. | areaDetectorDoc | Release notes | See release notes

## Required Modules

Module Version | Requires module | Release needed | Required for
--- | --- | --- | ---
1-5 | EPICS base | 3.14.10 | Base support
asyn | 4-12 | Socket and interface support
busy | 1-2 | busy record. This was formerly included in sscan, but now has its own support module.
calc | 2-7 | scalcout record, needed by sscan database and useful for other databases
sscan | 2-6-3 | sscan record
mca | 6-11 | mca record for getting time sequence of ROI counts
autosave | 4-5 | Save/restore
1-4 | EPICS base | 3.14.10 | Base support
asyn | 4-10 | Socket and interface support
busy | 1-1 | busy record. This was formerly included in sscan, but now has its own support module.
calc | 2-7 | scalcout record, needed by sscan database and useful for other databases
sscan | 2-6-3 | sscan record
mca | 6-10 | mca record for getting time sequence of ROI counts
autosave | 4-5 | Save/restore
1-3 | EPICS base | 3.14.10 | Base support. 3.14.8.2 also works, but the bug in epicsRingPointer can be a problem on multi-processor Linux systems.
asyn | 4-10 | Socket and interface support
calc | 2-6-7 | scalcout record, needed by sscan database and useful for other databases
sscan | 2-6-2 | sscan and busy records
mca | 6-10 | mca record for getting time sequence of ROI counts
autosave | 4-4 | Save/restore
1-2 | EPICS base | 3.14.10 | Base support. 3.14.8.2 also works, but the bug in epicsRingPointer can be a problem on multi-processor Linux systems.
asyn | 4-10 | Socket and interface support
calc | 2-6-5 | scalcout record, needed by sscan database and useful for other databases
sscan | 2-5-6 | Busy record
mca | 6-10 | mca record for getting time sequence of ROI counts
autosave | 4-3 | Save/restore
1-1 | EPICS base | 3.14.8.2 | Base support
asyn | 4-10 | Socket and interface support
sscan | 2-5-6 | Busy record
autosave | 4-3 | Save/restore
1-0 | EPICS base | 3.14.8.2 | Base support
asyn | 4-10 | Socket and interface support
sscan | 2-5-6 | Busy record
autosave | 4-3 | Save/restore

## Installation and Building

This is described in detail in the installation section of the areaDetector documentation.

Please email Mark Rivers so that a record can be kept of which sites are using this software.

## In Use

This software was originally developed by Mark Rivers.

- In use at APS, NSLS, DLS, SLS, BESSY, NSRRC and others.