firebird-sc
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image pro express - can't acquire longer than 10min exposure
I have a dual x-ray camera system connected via firewire to a 2 GHz Dell Dimension 2400, winxp pro, 2GB RAM. The camera is operated through Image Pro Express. Image Pro Express' specification for the system was for a minimum 1GHz system with 256MB RAM running xp pro, so we should be okay as far as computer hardware. I need to be able to acquire exposures of about 15 minutes, however, any time I set the exposure beyond 10 minutes, image pro express crashes at the end of the exposure. I suspect a memory issue.
I do get an image after a 10min exposure, so I know the firewire and serial trigger are working. I just need a longer exposre to get a brighter image.
There doesn't appear to be any settings in image pro express for memory settings. I'm at a bit of a loss to troubleshoot the problem. Any advice? Meaningful answers please - I'm under the gun to get this working, so I don't have time to stab around in the dark. Sorry...
I do get an image after a 10min exposure, so I know the firewire and serial trigger are working. I just need a longer exposre to get a brighter image.
There doesn't appear to be any settings in image pro express for memory settings. I'm at a bit of a loss to troubleshoot the problem. Any advice? Meaningful answers please - I'm under the gun to get this working, so I don't have time to stab around in the dark. Sorry...
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We're trying to increase x-ray output. We can't alter the density of the material; we use the system for the orientation of our crystals using the Laue back-reflection diffraction method. Our x-ray generator is running at max; however the camera manufacturer has designed and is testing a sort of light pipe/optic device which will focus all of the x-ray beam into the collimator. Right now only the part of the beam incident on the collimator pinhole passes through to the sample.
The camera manufacturer doesn't recomment 64-bit OS - I don't think the drivers are compatible.
I've played with the binning settings in Image Pro. The camera manufacturer recommends 4x4 binning. I tried 2x2 (much darker image), and 8x8 causes Image Pro to crash.
Image Pro generates a .tif output, each typically 221KB, and given the stated memory requirements - minimum 128MB, 256MB recommended - I am a little surprised that there are memory issues. But that seems to be the way it's acting. Then again, though the output file is only 221KB, I don't know how much memory is required to generate the file. I suppose I could monitor the performance through windows' task manager.
I have two more options that I can think of yet to try: Image Pro allows for integration of images. I should be able to take two 10 minute exposures and add them together. In theory this should produce the same effect as a 20 minute exposure. The other thing would be to try a newer computer (this Dell is about 5 or 6 years old).