Ximea Py Setup

ximea-py is a Python driver library, not a standalone tool — like optotune-lens, you don't run it directly as part of normal rig setup. It wraps the XIMEA camera vendor SDK (xiApi) so Python code can open a XIMEA camera, set exposure/gain, and pull image frames. liquid-lens-calibration uses it to read frames from the XIMEA focus camera during lens calibration.

You only need to set this up standalone if you're developing the driver itself, or testing XIMEA camera communication directly in Python.

Install (standalone)

cd ~/src/ximea-py
uv sync --group dev

This installs pytest, ruff, and numpy for development. The XIMEA Linux software package (libm3api.so.2) must already be installed system-wide — see Environment Setup.

Run the test suite

uv run pytest

You should see all tests pass, ending in a line like X passed in Y s.

This repo builds a Python package named ximea (not ximea-py — that name belongs to an unrelated, pre-existing package on PyPI). Both liquid-lens-calibration and optofly depend directly on ximea @ git+https://github.com/mpinb/ximea-py.git, so uv sync in either repo always resolves this driver, not the PyPI package.

⚠️ Common failure (older checkouts): if lens calibration behaves as though this driver isn't installed at all, check uv pip show ximea inside liquid-lens-calibration — if it reports a stale version, or uv pip show ximea-py resolves to anything, pull the latest pyproject.toml/uv.lock from that repo and re-run uv sync.

Full documentation

Ximea Py README — full usage examples, sensor correction defaults, and frame buffer management notes.