The Santa Barbara Instruments Group (SBIG) provides a number of different CCD cameras and accessories for astronomical imaging. This package adds operations and functions to Wavemetrics' Igor Pro that enable it to control SBIG cameras through SBIG's low-level driver routines. This allows you to write Igor Pro functions which can script the behavior of an SBIG camera for whatever application you may have.

The SBIG XOP provides:

• Scriptable control of all camera functions, including the thermoelectric cooler and the filter wheel.
• Support for a remote guiding head (if the camera supports it)
• Support for an attached SBIG Adaptive Optics unit.
• Support for up to 4 cameras connected either on the USB bus or through SBIG's Ethernet-to-Parallel converter.

System Requirements:

• A Macintosh computer running OS-X V10.4 or later,
• A licensed copy of Igor Pro, V6.0 or later,
• Installation of the Universal Binary SBIG Driver which comes with all SBIG cameras and is also available online at their web site www.sbig.com. Note: There are two links on their web page for drivers. Make sure you download the Universal version ("Universal Binary SBIG Driver Installer"). This XOP will not work with the older driver.

Downloading:

A single file "sbig.zip" will unzip into a folder named SBIG XOP containing four files:

• The SBIG.XOP file, in universal binary format so it will work on Intel or PowerPC Macs.
• A detailed Igor help file (SBIG Help.ihf) providing on-line documentation for all operations and functions
• A 23–page PDF manual (sbig.pdf) which will walk you through the installation and setup of the camera. It will explain how to control the thermoelectric cooler, the filter wheel, the external relays, and an attached adaptive optics unit. It will show how to take and read out images. There is also a discussion of how to control multiple cameras. Some code examples are provided, followed by detailed descriptions of all the operations and functions of the XOP.
• An Igor experiment file (SBIGControlPanel.pxt) containing a sample point-and-click interface using the SBIG XOP to control a camera. (See picture below.)

After unzipping it, the first part of the manual (sbig.pdf) will contain instructions on how to install the software.

The software was written by me, Dan Briotta, and may be downloaded from the Igor Echange site.
Comments and questions about the package may be sent to briotta@ithaca.edu.

Version Status:

• Version 1.0: This intial version was compiled for the driver and framework contained in "SBIG Universal Driver Installer.pkg" Version 2.05, dated June 14, 2007.

Periodically, SBIG releases newer versions of the driver and its associated framework to include support for their most recent products. Updates to SBIG.XOP will be posted here when available. Stay tuned.

Here is an image of the point-and-click control panel provided in SBIGControlPanel.pxt: