VariSpec Liquid Crystal Tunable Filter (LCTF) by CRi

(This page is a work in progress...)

This document provides README-level information about the LCTF in the PSM Lab at UBC. It contains pointers to relevant information on the installation and use of this device. For more information, contact one of the following people who have experience with this device.

• Alex Gukov
• Allan Rempel

Installation

The LCTF comes with a CD that includes software (SDK) to be installed. For more information, see Chapter 2 and Appendix B of the User's Manual. The software is designed to run in Visual Studio on Windows platforms only. However, additional low-level drivers are available for Mac OSX and Linux.

Do not attempt to connect the LCTF until you have read Appendix B or the VariSpec Quick Start Guide!

Several steps are required in order to use the LCTF on a new (Windows) computer.

• Ensure you have Visual Studio 2008 installed and registered.
• Install the VariSpec LCTF as indicated in Chapter 2 or Appendix B.
• Install the Prosilica FireWire driver if using the Prosilica camera with the LCTF.

The LCTF requires more current than is supported by laptop FireWire and USB ports. An externally powered FireWire/USB PCMCIA adapter card or an ExpressCard may provide the necessary power. However, it seems to work ok directly when connected to a desktop.

Unix Platform

It seems that it may be possible to use the VariSpec LCTF on a Unix platform, though probably without the SDK since that is developed for Windows. Instead, it may be necessary to directly control the VariSpec ASCII commands sent through the USB port. However, until we have better information on how to do this, the LCTF should not be used on a unix platform to avoid the possibility of damage.

FilterViewer

Alex Gukov wrote an application "FilterViewer" that uses the VariSpec SDK. The application can be obtained at ...

This application requires wx to be installed first.

-- AllanRempel - 04 Mar 2009