PyVCAM Wrapper

PyVCAM Wrapper is a Python3.X wrapper for the PVCAM SDK.

Getting Started

Follow the instructions below to get PyVCAM up and running on your machine for development and testing.

Prerequisites

• An understanding of PVCAM is very helpful for understanding PyVCAM.
• A C/C++ compiler is needed to build native source code. For Windows, MSVC 1928 was used for testing.
• The newest version of Python 3 which can be downloaded here.
• The latest PVCAM and PVCAM SDK which can be downloaded here.
• PyVCAM was developed and tested using Microsoft Windows 10/64-bit. The build package also supports Linux, but testing has been minimal.

Installing

When you are ready to install the wrapper use your command prompt to navigate into the directory that contains setup.py and run python setup.py install

How to use the wrapper

Create Camera Example

This will create a camera object using the first camera that is found that can then be used to interact with the camera.

from pyvcam import pvc 
from pyvcam.camera import Camera   

pvc.init_pvcam()                   # Initialize PVCAM 
cam = next(Camera.detect_camera()) # Use generator to find first camera. 
cam.open()                         # Open the camera.

Single Image Example

This captures a single image with a 20 ms exposure time and prints the values of the first 5 pixels.

# A camera object named cam has already been created
frame = cam.get_frame(exp_time=20)
print("First five pixels of frame: {}, {}, {}, {}, {}".format(*frame[:5]))

Changing Settings Example

This is an example of how to change some of the settings on the cameras.

# A camera object named cam has already been created
cam.clear_mode = "Never"
cam.exp_mode = "Ext Trig Trig First"
cam.readout_port = 0
cam.speed_table_index = 0
cam.gain = 1

More information on how to use this wrapper and how it works can be found here.