FOPS Alignment

This program lets you define the screen positions for the FOPS. The program runs in the same vme pizza box where the hydra guider does.

First edit the boot parameters by booting the computer and stopping the countdown sequence (to reboot type reboot at the prompt or Ctrl+X). To edit the boot parameters type c and then press enter, as follows:

[VxWorks Boot]: c

In response, the boot program prompts you for each parameter. Change the startup script field to "/tftpboot/align.cmd":

startup script (s) : /tftpboot/align.cmd

That will download the right binary and will setup things to run the alignment program.

To run the FOPS alignment program call the function AlignFops from the vxWorks shell. When the program starts you will have the X,Y,Z and Mode information at the top of the screen and a box in the center of the screen. To move the box use the arrow keys on the numeric keypad. Make sure that
NUMLOCK is on.

The <tab> key will increment the step size that the box moves with each key stroke. The range is from 1 pixel per key to 20 in steps of 5. It will be clear how it works once you test it out.

Make sure you are in Mode 0. This is done with the ] key. Move the box so that the first fop you want to align is centered in it. Once you have the FOP centered in the box record the X, and Y values. These are the ROI starting coordinates for this FOP.

Now switch to mode 1, (the [ key). Again, using the arrow keys on the numeric keypad move the aligment dot to the center of each FOP fiber and record the X,Y coordinates. The Z value is displayed to aid in choosing the center of the fiber.

Now switch back to mode 0 (the ] key). Do this for each FOP.

Once you collect all of the data you need to put it into the hydra.ini file in the proper format.

It is important to collect fiber information from each FOP in the same order. I usually start with the top most fiber and proceed clockwise ending with the center fiber.

Once you have a good INI file you can check the alignment by loading the guider code and calling the function regFiber(0). This will display the alignment boxes around each fiber of
each FOP. To turn these off call regFiber(3).

Some debug information that you can display is very helpful. Once the guider code is running, in the vxWorks shell you can set nDebugLevel1, to the value '1'. This will start the debugging output. Setting it equal to 0 will turn it off.

nDebugLevel1 will give the (for each FOP)

FopID
Fiber #
Fiber Mean Intensity
Fiber Mean Intensity - Background,
Sky level,
Frame bias value,
Number of pixels in fiber ROI
Sum of the pixels in the fiber ROI