Base commands

Every command the server 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 distinguishes commands the interface implements directly from those routed through controller_cmd, which only the Archon interface implements. On an ARC build the latter return not_supported.

Command	Syntax	Controller	Description
abort	abort	any	Abort an exposure in progress
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	Set or get a bias voltage
bin	bin ? | <axis> [ <binfactor> ]	any	Set or get the binning factor Broken: the server routes this to the bias handler, so an argument is applied as a bias rather than a binning factor.
bob	bob	Archon	Reach the BOB interface Non-functional: no controller implements a handler for it, so it always 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
mode	mode [ ? | <mode> ]	Archon	Select a camera mode defined in the ACF
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 chain in camerad/camera_server.cpp, so it lists what the server 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, autofetch_mode and bob. Use ? against a running server for the authoritative syntax.