camerad.conf

Originally written for ROTSE-I, which had four co-mounted cameras, camerad.conf is written to accommodate up to four cameras, designated a,b,c, and d. For ROTSE-III, only one camera needs to be specified as follows:

# configuration file for camerad

#

# format is "key   value"

# comments start with `#' and go to end of line

# blank lines are okay

# lines cannot be continued

loglevel         0                              # 0,1,2 = terse,verbose,debug

logfile          /rotse/run/log/camerad.log

poll_time        0.1                            # main loop time quantum

sample_time      8.0                            # sample time in seconds

err_tout         5.0                            # timeout for ALRM_ERR condition

#

cam_temp         -20                            # target temp. (in C) for cameras

csrv_wait        5                              # wait time for camserverd

There is one temperature that is used for all the cameras (in this case just 1). The temperature setting can depend on the season and the particular camera. Note that the first ARC Camera (serial #80, planned to go to SSO) does not have the correct temperature calibration, so the nominal -20${^\circ}$C does not actually represent the physical temperature of the CCD.

cama sock        1                              # 0/1 to run camera

cama port        3900                           # port for camera 'a' node

cama name        cam3a                          # name for camera 'a' node

cama path        /rotse/data/3a1/               # path to camera 'a' sky/drk images

cama alertpath   /rotse/data/3a2/               # path to camera 'a' alert images

cama image_id    3a                             # image identifier

cama ra          0.0                            # offset in RA

cama dec         0.0                            # offset in dec

cama focus       0.0                            # focus position

cama telman      Schier                         # Telescope/lens manufacturer

cama telmodel    1.9deg                         # Telescope/lens model

cama telsn       0                              # Telescope/lens serial number

cama camman      ARC                            # Camera manufacturer

cama cammodel    EEV                            # Camera model

cama camsn       0                              # Camera serial number

cama cardsn      80                             # Camera PC card serial number

On startup, camerad will send a socket connect request to the port on the camera node. The inetd service file is configured to automatically start up camserverd on receipt of this connect request. camerad will then wait csrv_wait seconds for the camera server to start up and respond. If the camera computer does not respond or if it does not respond fast enough, camerad will shut down the system.

This configuration file also specifies the paths for writing files. The paths should be local drives on the camera computer to remove any nfs latency. Separate hard drives are used for regular data and burst response (``alert'') data so that the disk will not fill up if and when a burst trigger arrives. Each image is named as described in Appendix A.

The ra and dec offsets were used in ROTSE-I when each camera had an offset from the mount position. The focus option is also for ROTSE-I's fixed focus cameras. These should be set to 0.0 for ROTSE-III. The rest of the values are useful values that are stored in the FITS header, described in Appendix C.