ThorLabs compact spectrometer

Supported hardware devices

ThorLabs compact CCD Spectrometers.

Manufacturer's website: http://www.thorlabs.com/newgrouppage9.cfm?objectgroup_id=3482

Supported platforms

• Windows 32 bits
• Windows 64 bits

Installation

Thorlabs "full installer for our GUI control software for our OSA and CCD spectrometers" has to be installed.

Output

The device provides its output as an image. The pixels of the image are double-precision floating point numbers. The first row of the image contains wavelength values in nm. The second row of the image contains intensity values.

Device configuration settings

• 
  Type = "ThorLabsVideo"
  
• 
  AcquisitionRate
  

  Default = "30"
• 
  LocalTimeOffsetSec
  

  Default = "0"
• 
  IntegrationTimeSec Sensor integration time. Longer time makes the sensor more sensitive and reduces the measurement noise, at the cost of increased acquisition time and higher chance of saturation at higher intensities.
  

  Default = "0.05"
• 
  DataSources Exactly one DataSource child element is required
  
  • 
    DataSource
    
    • 
      BufferSize
      

      Default = "150"
    • 
      AveragedItemsForFiltering
      

      Default = "20"
    • 
      ClipRectangleOrigin Three integer values. Specify if only a part of the spectrum should be acquired. First parameter specifies the starting point of the spectrum, in sensor index value (between 0 and the number of sensor pixel elements). Second parameter is 0 if wavelength values will be included, 1 if wavelength values will be excluded. Third parameter must be 0.
      

      Default = "0 0 0"
    • 
      ClipRectangleSize Three integer values. Specify if only a part of the spectrum should be acquired. First parameter specifies the size of the acquired spectrum, in sensor index value (between 1 and the number of sensor pixel elements). Second parameter is 1 if only wavelength or intensity values will be included, 2 if both wavelength and intensity values will be included. Third parameter must be 1. If all parameters are zero (default) then no clipping is performed.
      

      Default = "0 0 0"

Example for clipping the acquired spectrum

Example configuration file PlusDeviceSet_Server_ThorLabsVideoCapture.xml

<PlusConfiguration version="2.0">

  <DataCollection StartupDelaySec="2.0" >
    <DeviceSet 
      Name="PlusServer: ThorLabs spectrometer"
      Description="Broadcasting acquired spectrum through OpenIGTLink. First image row contains wavelength value, second image row contains intensities." />
    <Device
      Id="VideoDevice" 
      Type="ThorLabsVideo" >
      <DataSources>
        <DataSource Type="Video" Id="Video" />
      </DataSources>      
      <OutputChannels>
        <OutputChannel Id="VideoStream" VideoDataSourceId="Video" />
      </OutputChannels>
    </Device>
    <Device
      Id="CaptureDevice"
      Type="VirtualCapture"
      BaseFilename="RecordingTest.igs.mha"
      EnableCapturingOnStart="FALSE" >
      <InputChannels>
        <InputChannel Id="VideoStream" />
      </InputChannels>
    </Device>
  </DataCollection>
 
  <PlusOpenIGTLinkServer 
    MaxNumberOfIgtlMessagesToSend="1" 
    MaxTimeSpentWithProcessingMs="50" 
    ListeningPort="18944" 
    SendValidTransformsOnly="true" 
    OutputChannelId="VideoStream" > 
    <DefaultClientInfo> 
      <MessageTypes> 
        <Message Type="IMAGE" />
      </MessageTypes>
      <ImageNames>
        <Image Name="Image" EmbeddedTransformToFrame="Image" />
      </ImageNames>
    </DefaultClientInfo>
  </PlusOpenIGTLinkServer>

</PlusConfiguration>