DDE Control Center

DDE Control Center is the control software of the CAEN / Nuclear Instruments digital detector emulators. A detector emulator generates in real time the analog signals a radiation detector and its front-end electronics would produce, so that an acquisition chain can be tested and calibrated without a detector or a source. This application sets what the instrument generates and shows what comes out, on Windows and Linux.

It replaces the DT5810 Control Software, with all its functions.

Supported instruments

Several instruments can be open at the same time, also of different models. The USB models have a simulator, always listed, so the software can be tried without an instrument.

Main functions

• Energy: fixed amplitude, spectrum or sequence, with spectra imported from files
• Pulse shape: exponential or custom shapes, transistor-reset preamplifier
• Rate and time statistics: constant rate, Poisson, dead time, rate profiles and rate files
• Noise and baseline: noise, offset and drift, arbitrary baseline movement
• Correlation between channels: delay, coincidence, energy sharing
• Waveform generator and digital I/O functions
• Live plots: signal and spectrum loopback, analog input MCA, rates and statistics, with recording
• Spectrum tools: measured spectrum catalog, spectra built from isotope lines, composer and importer
• XRF scanning: a complete image generated pixel by pixel with the hardware pixel clock of the instrument, from a generated scene or from a file, with every scan trajectory. It needs a DT5810B with firmware 18.0 or later
• Workspaces and configurations: instruments, settings and files saved together. When an instrument is connected you choose the last configuration, a file or the defaults, and see what each one would set before it is sent
• Firmware update and licence activation from the application
• Remote control over HTTP, and a server mode that opens the user interface in a browser

The available functions depend on the model: the application only shows what the connected instrument can do.

Installing

Windows

Windows 10 or 11, x64. Download DDE-Control-Center-Setup-<version>.exe and run it with administrator rights. It installs, each with a checkbox, selected by default:

• the DT5810 USB driver
• the firmware service DT5810FwService, described below
• the DT4800 USB driver
• the DT5800 USB driver (FTDI)

The application uses Microsoft Edge WebView2, which is part of Windows 11 and of recent versions of Windows 10. The setup tells you if it is missing.

Linux

Ubuntu 24.04 or later, amd64, with the NI Packages apt repository configured:

sudo apt install dde-control-center

The package brings in the dt5810-sdk, dt4800-sdk and dt5800-sdk packages. They install the libraries, the udev rules that give every user access to the instruments, with no kernel driver, and the dt5810-fwservice systemd service, enabled and started.

USB firmware of the DT5810

The USB controller of the DT5810 and DT5810B has no firmware of its own when it is powered on: the PC must load it at every power-up. The firmware service does it automatically as soon as an instrument is connected, so normally there is nothing to do.

If an instrument does not appear, check that the service is running: DT5810FwService in Windows Services, systemctl status dt5810-fwservice on Linux. Then disconnect and reconnect the USB cable.

Using it

1. Connect the instrument and start DDE Control Center. For a DT4810, add it by its network address
2. Open Devices, connect the instrument and choose the configuration
3. Set the channel and turn on its output: the outputs are always off after a connection

If the connection drops, the application says so and reconnects by itself when the instrument comes back, sending it the configuration it had. The outputs return as they were. The Reconnect button in Devices does the same by hand.

To use the browser interface:

dde-control-center -server                          # http://localhost:8080
dde-control-center -server -host 0.0.0.0 -port 9000 # reachable from other computers

The server has no authentication: with -host 0.0.0.0, whoever reaches the computer can control the instruments. Use it only on a network you trust.

Compatibility

• Configurations are saved as .ddecfg and workspaces as .ddews. The .dde files of the old DT5810 Control Software are not imported
• XRF scanning needs a DT5810B with firmware 18.0 or later. The firmware is published separately as DT5810B-<version>.NIU

Support

Nuclear Instruments: https://www.nuclearinstruments.eu