PyHSCam

A C-based python interface for interacting with Photron high-speed cameras from a Windows host.

Usage

See example.py for sample usage. Python must have an exception in Windows Firewall to detect devices.

Runtime

The module requires the following files in the project directory to import and use this module. If an essential sdk dll is missing (other than PDCLIB.dll), the module will throw a PyHSCam.CamRuntimeError with error code 100.

./MyProject.py
./PyHSCam.pyd
./PDCLIB.dll
./dll/D512PCI.dll
./dll/D1024PCI.dll
./dll/DAPX.dll
./dll/...

Building the Project

Dependencies

• Visual C++ Build Tools 2015
• Boost 1.61
• Python 3.5
• Photron SDK

The rest of this readme will assume that you extracted boost to C:\boost\boost_1_61_0 and installed python to C:\Program Files (x86)\Python35-32\.

Preparation

1. Set environment variables:

   1. BOOST_ROOT = C:\boost\boost_1_61_0\
   2. Path += C:\boost\boost_1_61_0\;

2. Create new file C:\Users\myUserName\user-config.jam with the following contents. Note: msvc : 14.0 = Visual C++ 2015 compiler. Older compilers may work but haven't been tested.

    using msvc : 14.0 ;
    import toolset : using ;
    using python
        : 3.5
        : "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Python35-32\\python.exe"
        : "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Python35-32\\include"
        : "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Python35-32\\libs"
        ;
   

3. Extract Photron SDK binaries to appropriate locations to create the following structure:

    ./
    ./PyHSCam.cpp
    ./PDCLIB.dll       # (32 bit only - runtime dependency)
    ./dll/*.dll        # (32 bit only - runtime dependency)
    ./inc/*.h          # (              buildtime dependency)
    ./lib/PDCLIB.lib   # (32 bit only - buildtime dependency)
   

Compiling

1. Compile boost for python. In the option -jX, replace X with a thread count appropriate for your cpu:

    cd C:\boost\boost_1_61_0
    bootstrap
    b2 -jX link=static,shared threading=single,multi toolset=msvc-14.0 --libdir=C:\Boost\lib\i386 install
   

2. Compile the project. In the project's root directory, run bjam to compile:

    bjam variant=release link=static
   

"LINK : fatal error LNK1207: incompatible PDB format"

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/29053172/boost-python-quickstart-linker-errors

Edit the file:

C:\boost\boost_1_61_0\tools\build\src\tools\msvc.jam

Change this (lines 1351-1355):

generators.register [ new msvc-linking-generator msvc.link.dll :
    OBJ SEARCHED_LIB STATIC_LIB IMPORT_LIB : SHARED_LIB IMPORT_LIB :
    <toolset>msvc <suppress-import-lib>false ] ;
generators.register [ new msvc-linking-generator msvc.link.dll :
    OBJ SEARCHED_LIB STATIC_LIB IMPORT_LIB : SHARED_LIB :
    <toolset>msvc <suppress-import-lib>true ] ;

to:

generators.register [ new msvc-linking-generator msvc.link.dll :
    OBJ SEARCHED_LIB STATIC_LIB IMPORT_LIB : SHARED_LIB IMPORT_LIB :
    <toolset>msvc ] ;

Remove this line (1472):

toolset.flags msvc.link.dll LINKFLAGS <suppress-import-lib>true : /NOENTRY ;