spectro/spyd2en

Summary

A special purpose tool that enables the Spyder 2 colorimeter.

Usage summary

spyd2en [-v] [inputfile]
 -v level      Verbose
 -S d          Specify the install scope u = user (def.), l = local system]
 creates spyd2PLD.bin from vendor install files.

Flags and Parameters

The inputfile argument is optional, and and can be used to specify the MSWindows setup.exe file from the installation CD (or possibly downloaded from the manufacturers website), if spyd2en is unable to locate this file automatically on the CD.

The -v parameter enables verbosity. This may be of use in figuring out what went wrong if it doesn't work.

The -S option allows installing the PLD pattern file in a local system location, rather than the default user accessible location. You may need to run this as superuser using the "sudo" command on Linux systems.

Usage Details and Discussion

The Spyder 2 instrument cannot function without the presence of the instrument vendors PLD firmware pattern for the device. This firmware is not provided with Argyll, since it has not been made available under a compatible license.

The purchaser of a Spyder 2 instrument should have received a copy of this firmware along with their instrument from the original vendor, and spyd2en enables their instrument, by locating the firmware in the users copy of the instrument install files.

On Microsoft Windows or Apple OS X platforms, spyd2en will look to see if the vendors drivers have been installed on the users machine, and locate the firmware pattern from there. If the vendors drivers have not been installed, or the user does not wish to install them, or no vendors drivers are available for the users platform (i.e. Linux), then spyd2en will also attempt to locate the Spyder 2 installation CDROM, and make use of the firmware pattern from there. In this case, the CDROM should be placed in a CD drive prior to running spyd2en. If your Linux system is not running automount, or your automount is setup to mount CDROM's somewhere other than /media, /mnt/cdrom, /media/cdrom or /cdrom, then you will have to mount the CDROM manually, and give spyd2en the path to the CDROM setup/setup.exe file as the argument inputfile.

NOTE
that under OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) you may need to run spyd2en as root to be able to mount the CDROM's ISO partition. The simplest way of doing this is to use the "sudo" commands. e.g. "sudo spyd2en", which will then ask you to enter the root password.

If the instrument firmware pattern is successfully located, then spyd2en will create a spyd2PLD.bin file in a subdirectory of the users home directory, or if the -S l option is used, will store it in a system wide location. (the XDG Base Directory specifications are used as a basis for storing the file). Programs that access instruments such as  spotread, dispcal and dispread, can then locate and load the firmware into the instrument.

Note that the spyd2PLD.bin file created by spyd2en contains the proprietary and copyrighted firmware provided by the instrument vendor, and while the vendor has provided the firmware to the end user to facilitate the use of their purchased instrument, the instrument vendor (typically) does not permit the user to distribute such a file or make copies for purposes other than making use of their own instrument.