Gamma spectroscopy file types

[Sesselmann]

Matthias,

Dash is ideally meant to run on a web server, in this case one would have to have a light program running on the local machine for listening to the sound card and converting the stream of data to a json histogram API request. This is essentially what my program does, with the localhost server on your own machine.

This architecture would allow for the server side to be constantly upgraded and improved without the need for client software update.

Steven

[NuclearPhoenix]

In the mean time, I've updated the JSON schema to allow for multiple spectra to be stored in a single file completely independently from each other. That should make the whole schema a lot more useful and resilient, especially since Steven has already made a similar change to the files in impulse IIRC. Also, it's a requirement to be able to store multiple spectra in one file in some programs such as BecqMoni for example, so that should hopefully make it interesting for those programs as well.

I've updated Gamma MCA to be able to import and export the new version already, and maybe impulse as well as BecqMoni can do so soon too, we'll see... :)

I can't upload any example files, since JSON is not supported by the forum, but as always you can have a look at them (and also the schema itself of course) on GitHub:
https://github.com/OpenGammaProject/NPES-JSON/tree/main

[Sesselmann]

Matthias,

As mentioned, I have been working on a new version of IMPULSE to make it compatible with the GS-MAX and ATOM-NANO products and since this was a lot of work I did not want to complicate it by changing the schema.

Once I have had a few people test and confirm that the new version is working, I will look at implementing your new schema.

Steven

[jneilson]

Hi all,

I've been wondering if there was a somewhat universal file format for gamma spectroscopy that also allows saving meta data. I'm thinking of stuff like device, calibration, time, and so on.
Most of the time what you're using is a plain old CSV with the spectrum histogram. Then with theremino you get a simple file header too, I think, but the rest is just the histogram too.

One thing I can think of are the XML files that are used with BecqMoni 2011. That's a great format, but can it be read by other applications? I'm not sure. In addition to that, the file size can get big really quick as the XML formatting is just so bulky that most of the size is just XML tags.

Is there anything else I forgot?

- Matthias

I just wish the world could agree on some kind of universal file format for this kind of data. It's really not that hard at all, it mostly worked with CSV histograms too. But maybe I'm being way too naive with this, who knows.

I think ideally, most people are agreeing that ANSI N42.42 (*.n42 XML files) is supposed to be the universal standard now.
[ broken link removed - Steven]
[Although in practice, N42.42 is too new for the older stuff so I find the most universal are ASCII .SPE or .IEC files (I'm not actually sure what IEC standard these are - could be IEC 61445, which shows as Withdrawn).]

you could just build some sort of file converter and that doesn't really need to do "live" conversion with both programs connected at the same time. Just a plain simple "Select Input Program" and "Select Output Program", load the file and save the output.
But that, again, wouldn't really save us the hassle of reverse-engineering some more complicated file formats in the first place and god forbid software X gets an update that changes the output syntax.

For converting between formats, I find Sandia Labs Cambio (https://github.com/sandialabs/cambio/releases) to be very useful and preserves most meta data when switching format - it even tells you what meta data will be preserved and indicates what won't be carried into the new format.
Cambio can handle quite a few of the nasty complicated proprietary binary formats like Camberra/Mirion .CNF CAM files - so someone else has done that reverse-engineering for us!
Just note that the command line version is good, but I'd scroll down the releases to find a GUI release rather than a CL only version, as it's much more obvious to a beginner what's going on in the GUI.