Implementation of rapid imaging system on the COMPASS tokamak

The COMPASS tokamak has been recently equipped with two new fast (max. 800kfps) color cameras Photron FASTCAM Mini UX100 operating in the visible spectral range. A new data acquisition system called RIS (Rapid Imaging System), including both node’s software and hardware, was developed for these cameras to ensure automatic and reliable operation and its integration to the control and data acquisition system of COMPASS. The node provides camera function control, parameter setting, data transfer from the camera to the node computer, demosaicing, encoding of a preview video, and data saving to the COMPASS database. Raw data that keep full information are saved to HDF5 files (up to 10GB per shot). Moreover, the node encodes color video (less than 60MB per shot) that is displayed on the COMPASS control room panel, in the logbook and the COMPASS database. The video processing toolchain also allows playing HDF5 files with raw data in almost every media player on simple single double click. All data are available in less than 2min after the shot.