Base commands

Every command camerad dispatches. Instrument modules add their own on top of these; see instruments.

Any command accepts ? as its argument to return its own syntax.

The Controller column marks the commands only the Archon interface implements. The server recognizes the core’s commands and calls the interface’s function for each. It hands any other name to controller_cmd, where the Archon interface handles its own commands and forwards the rest to the instrument. On an ARC build the Archon commands return not_supported unless the instrument claims them.

Command	Syntax	Controller	Description
abort	abort	any	Abort an exposure in progress
acfmode	acfmode [ ? | <name> ]	Archon	Apply an ACF mode section directly
autodir	autodir	any	Write images into a dated subdirectory Not implemented: the Archon interface logs not yet implemented and returns an error. Use FITS_AUTODIR instead.
autofetch_mode	autofetch_mode	Archon	Control autofetch, where the controller pushes frames continuously rather than on request
basename	basename	any	Set or get the image base name
bias	bias	any	Read or set the attributes of a bias channel, or list them all
bin	bin ? | <axis> [ <binfactor> ]	any	Set or get the binning factor Not implemented: the Archon interface logs not yet implemented and returns an error.
close	close	any	Disconnect from the controller
datacube	datacube [ true | false ]	any	Set or report whether reads are written as one multi-extension FITS file
exit	exit	any	Shut the server down
expose	expose	any	Take an exposure, or a counted series of them
exposuremode	exposuremode	any	Select or report the exposure mode
exptime	exptime [ <exptime in msec> ]	any	Set or report the exposure time
getp	getp	Archon	Read an Archon parameter value
heater	heater <module> <A|B> [ <on|off> [target] | <target> | PID [<p> <i> <d>] | RAMP [<on|off> [rate]] | ILIM [val] | INPUT [A|B|C] ]	Archon	Control a closed-loop heater on a Heater or HeaterX module
inreg	inreg	Archon	Write a VCPU input register
key	key	any	Add, list or delete a user FITS keyword written into every exposure
load	load [ ? | <acffile> ]	any	Load firmware, defaulting to DEFAULT_FIRMWARE from the config
loadtiming	loadtiming	Archon	Load a timing script and its parameters
native	native ? | [<DEV>|<CHAN>] <CMD> [ <ARG1> [ < ARG2> [ <ARG3> [ <ARG4> ] ] ] ]	any	Send a command straight to the controller and return its reply
open	open [ ? | <devlist> ]	any	Connect to the controller
power	power	any	Turn detector power on or off, or report the current state
raw	raw [ ? | config | set <KEY> <VAL> [...] | read ]	Archon	Read or write the Archon configuration memory directly
readacf	readacf [ ? | <acffile> ]	Archon	Read an ACF file into the controller configuration
sensor	sensor <module> <A|B|C> [ <current> | AVG [ <N> ] ]	Archon	Set or get a temperature sensor’s excitation current and digital averaging
setp	setp	Archon	Write an Archon parameter value
test	test ? | <testname> ...	any	Run a development-level test

Note

This table is generated from the dispatch chains in camerad/camera_server.cpp and camerad/archon_interface.cpp, so it lists what camerad actually answers. The help command is a separate hand-maintained list in common/camerad_commands.h that has drifted: it advertises around two dozen commands the server no longer implements, and omits several it does, including power. Trust this table over help.

Syntax not shown

A few commands are dispatched but absent from the syntax list, so no argument syntax is generated for them. They are power, getp, setp, inreg and autofetch_mode. Use ? against a running server for the authoritative syntax.