Timepix2cbf

Program Description

The ASI TIMEPIX detector is a direct electron detector used in electron crystallography. It has various output formats, e.g. TIFF, or a binary format. In order to process the data with XDS, it is (currently) easiest to convert the files to CBF format. The program timepix2cbf converts the ASI TIMEPIX binary format to cbf, while taking care of the special pixels at the rim of each 256x256 panel: These are 3 pixels long. timepix2cbf splits these pixels into three. The intensities are distributed evenly, which is the simplest, but not the best, approach to maintaining the data. Instead of dividing the content of the rim-pixels by three, all other pixel values are multiplied by three. This maintains data precision of the integer values in the CBF files. The GAIN keyword in XDS or DIALS should thus be set to 3. In case XDS is allowed to determine the GAIN automatically, it should produce a similar value. Please read the INIT.LP log file, or take a look at GAIN.cbf.

1024x1024 vs. 512x512 panel

timepix2cbf works both for the TIMEPIX 1024x1024 detector and the 512x512 detector. The larger version, 1024x1024 contains gaps between the four 512x512 panels ("quads"). These gaps are detector specific and need to be described with the SEGMENT= keyword in XDS.

Availability

timepix2cbf is available for download as source code, or as 64bit linux binary. The source code contains a project description for Netbeans, and the zip-archive can thus be imported into Netbeans directly. The linux binary is statically linked and should run on recent linux distributions.