How to close internal shutter?

[gholsclaw]

I have successfully read out the detector for my QEPro, but I cannot seem to figure out how to send a command to close the internal shutter. Apologies for the basic question; I am a Python novice. Thanks.

[ap--]

Hi @gholsclaw

I can't find a reference to an "internal shutter" in the QEPro datasheet. Do you have some documentation for it? Or can you describe what you have to do to close the shutter in the original oceanview software?

Cheers,
Andreas 😃

[gholsclaw]

@ap-- Andreas, thanks for the reply. Here are segments of relevant text from the QEPro manual I have:

"An optional internal shutter is available on custom-configured spectrometers (INTERNAL-SHUTTER-LRG-BENCH). This makes it easier to take dark measurements and when you need fast integration times with the best possible signal. This optional feature is also recommended for probe-based or emissive measurements where it is difficult to introduce a shutter into the optical path. The shutter can be added to an existing QE Pro for an extra charge."

Usage with OceanView software:
Optional Shutter - Procedure
To enable the optional shutter,

1. In the Acquisition Group window, click on the Add/Remove Controls tab.
2. Select GPIO. The GPIO controls appear on the Main Controls tab.
3. Check the Out box for Index 4. This makes the GPIO an output.
4. Check the Value box for Index 4 to close the shutter. You can now take your dark measurement.
   Notes
   Make sure the ALT checkbox for the GPIO (Index 4) is not selected, which would prevent the shutter from triggering.
   The activation time of the internal shutter is 11 ms.

I found this in the pyseabreeze documentation, which I assumed was provided for internal shutter control:
class seabreeze.pyseabreeze.SeaBreezeShutterFeature(protocol, feature_id, **kwargs)
https://python-seabreeze.readthedocs.io/en/latest/backend_api.html#seabreeze.cseabreeze.SeaBreezeShutterFeature

[ap--]

Hi @gholsclaw

Thanks for the info 👍

So to get this working you will need to implement the GPIO feature for the QEPro.
It's not really complicated to do so, and I have started a new branch: https://github.com/ap--/python-seabreeze/tree/qepro-gpio-wip for you where I sketched out the implementation for pyseabreeze: 3d0d32b

But I don't have a QEPro. So from this branch you should be able to continue implementing the GPIO feature and test it with your spectrometer. (It might already work. Just set gpio pin4 as an output and try toggeling it.)

Here is the command reference from the datasheet:

I hope that helps! It would be great if you could finish the implementation and make a pull request ❤️

Cheers
Andreas