Linux Apogee Instruments camera drivers (V1.8)

The Random Factory is pleased to announce the latest release of our Linux drivers for the Apogee Instruments series of CCD cameras.

Three versions of the package are avilable

The runtime distribution contains the drivers and GUI, plus libraries required to run them. (~32Mb)
The source distribution contains the runtime plus all the sources and tools used to build the drivers. (~100Mb)
The full developers kit on cdrom contains the runtime and source distributions plus a set of astronomical ,graphics, image processing and other tools, intended to make it easy to extend the driver and GUI with capabilities for your specific applications.

These downloads are available from the "Open Source Astronomy" server

Installation

The .tgz runtime should be installed using the following commands

	cd /
	tar -xvzPf /path-to-archive/apogee-driver-1.8.tgz
	/opt/apogee/apogee-post
	/opt/apogee/modinstall

Whichever distribution is installed, the camera driver needs to be prepared (per-user) before use. Log in with the username you will be using to operate the camera, the open an xterm and type

	/opt/apogee/install

Prompts for the type of camera, and I/O port will appear. In the event that the .ini file for your camera is not listed, you may need to obtain the latest version from Apogee. (alternatively, examine the new .ini file format, and edit your current .ini file to conform to the same parameter names). Once the driver is setup, the GUI interface can be started using the command

	~/startapogee

Capabilities

This release of the drivers has the following capabilities

Support for all ALTA-E and ALTA-U models
Support for parallel port and PCI, and ISA interface models
Full-frame, binned, and sub-region readout
Image read/write to FITS format disk files
In memory buffering of an arbitrary number of images
Automatic image display using DS9 image viewer
Calibration image library construction
On-the-fly calibration
Drift-scan mode
Focus frame readout
Graphical User Interface to major functions
Tcl level scripting interface to all aspects of driver
Tcl level scripting interface to image buffer management
Tcl level scripting interface to manage FITS images, tables, headers

History

V1.8 Released October 2006

New Features

Fixed bug for newer firmware versions

V1.7 Released September 2006

New Features

Add support for ApnCamData_CCD models
Update codebase for 3.1.1 changes

V1.6 Released June 2006

New Features

Add support for ApnCamData_CCD models
Update codebase for 2.0.72 changes

History

V1.5 Released July 2005

New Features

Add support for ApnCamData_CCD models
Update codebase for 2.0.43_57 changes

V1.4 Released May 2005

New Features

Add support for more KAI variants.
Update codebase to match 2.0.43
Add support for serial port comms

V1.3 Released Dec 2004

New Features

Added support for KAI series ccd cameras
Added multi ALTA-U camera on one PC support
Improved accuracy of header timestamping

V1.2 Released Aug 2004

New Features

Comprehensive client/server support
Test script for client/server verification
Kernel modules for Fedora Core 2
Kernel modules for SuSE 9.1
Added libusb based library for ALTA-U models
Added C++ test programs for all models test_apogeeisa, test_apogeepci, test_apogeeppi, alta_teste, alta_testu

V1.1 Released May 2004

New Features

ALTA NET support
Added Mandrake 10 kernel modules (kernel 2.6.x)
Added Sun Java Desktop Linux support
Added support for EEV chips
Made IRAF imaging parts of libccd a compile-time option
Updated documentation for ALTA

V1.0 Released February 2004

New features

ALTA USB support.

V0.9 Released July 2003

New features

Added kernel modules for Mandrake 9.0 and Mandrake 9.1
Added new versions of DS9 and XPA packages.
Added option to view raw temperature plots.

Bug Fixes

Altered temperature initialization strategy to avoid long ramp up at start of a run.
Added xtcs package source code to development tree.
Added default header item definitions to camera_init.tcl
Added shared library load commands to camera_init.tcl

V0.8 Released May 2003

New features -

Added kernel modules for RedHat 9.0 and SuSE 8.2

V0.7 Released November 2002

New features -

Added subregion extraction to ccd library
Added optional FIFO pipeline to BufferDriftScan command
Updated external packages to latest versions on SDK

Bug Fixes -

Upgraded max column and row counts to 16383 (Ap16 needed > 4096)

V0.6 Released July 2002

New features -

Added prebuilt kernel moules for
- RedHat 7.3
- SuSE 8.0
- Mandrake 8.2
Added option for computer control of timer (makes very long exposures possible)
Support for multiple camera "instances"
Added support for systems using the "devfs" filesystem

V0.5 Released January 2002

New features -

Added PCI interface driver
Converted all drivers into kernel modules

Bug Fixes -

Fixed problem with exposures longer than 655 seconds

V0.4 Released July 2001

New features -

Updated GIMP version to latest
Updated VNC versions to latest
Changed to tar only archives to avoid RPM 3/4 problems

Bug Fixes -

Install no longer replaces tcl/tk shared libraries, uses private copies
Missing symlink to libccd.so repaired

V0.3-2 Released January 2001

New features -

Pause/Resume exposures
New Temperature control menu
Added Restore full-frame to Observe menu
Added IRQ masking options and GUI window (Alt-i to popup)
Added auto-incrementing sequence counter
Changed defaults for OBSTYPES to be single frame for every type
Added telescope/instrument/equinox to GUI
Added confirmation prompt to Exit option

Bug fixes -

Close out DS9 on program exit
Added prompt for filename when user chooses "do not overwrite"
Fix default setpoint on graphic
Fixed shared memory image transfer to DS9 (was broken for non-root users)
Fixed abort to handle single exposures
Fixed time/date in FITS headers
Fixed incorrect image type in FITS headers
Fixed buildso script to use /opt/apogee as location for swig files

V0.3-1 Released January 2001

New features -

First version written to new API
C++/tcl wrappers for all functions
Preliminary LX200 library
GUI for easy camera control
First user/programmers manuals

V0.2 - Not released

Early working version based on the now obsolete old Apogee API

V0.1 - Not released

This version was written prior to access to hardware, and was based on the now obsolete old Apogee API.