acqspect - Acquire a spectrum from an Ocean Optics USB spectrometer
===================================================================
acqspect is a command-line program that acquires a spectrum from an
Ocean Optics USB spectrometer and dumps the data in ascii form.
Currently, only the USB2000+ spectrometer is supported, but adding
support for others, such as the USB4000, should be relatively easy.

Requirements
------------
libusb-0.1

Installation
------------
Edit config.mk to match your local setup. acqspect is installed into
the /usr/local namespace by default, and is built for little-endian
systems.

Afterwards enter the following command to build and install acqspect
(if necessary as root):

    make clean install

Running acqspect
----------------
Just run acqspect to acquire a spectrum with an integration time of
100ms (by default). The spectrum is printed on standard output in
two-column format. The first column is the wavelength, and the second
column is the intensity. When acquiring multiple spectra, the spectra
are separated by two blank lines.

Options:
-t NUM  Set the integration time in microseconds (default 100000)
-n NUM  Set the number of acquisitions (default 1)

While it is possible to run acqspect in a loop as provided by your
shell, the -n option was included on purpose. Each call to acqspect
locates the device, downloads calibration parameters, powers up the
spectrometer and, after acquisition, powers it down again. Using an
external loop would repeat all these steps, whereas use of the -n
option only loops the acquisition.

Operating systems
-----------------    
This has been tested to work on linux, and should work on windows
using libusb-win32, but is untested. Support for bigendian systems
is included, but also untested.

Supported spectrometers
-----------------------
USB2000+

© 2011 S.S.R. Oemrawsingh