DICOM Troubleshooting

1 Overview

The following is a summary of troubleshooting information for DICOM print that was gathered during software testing and validation of the DICOM print feature.

There is also a significant amount of additional troubleshooting procedures, and the theory of the DICOM print feature in the System Service Manual. If you have problems installing a DICOM print camera, read the information in System Service Manual.

2 Error Bringing Up the Camera Installation/Filming Application

Symptom: After creating/modifying the DICOM print camera the install camera interface does not come up and the filming application indicates it cannot bring up the film composer.

Cause: The configuration field contains invalid information such as a back-slash (\) as the final character in the field or brackets ({}).
Solution: The camera.dev file in ~ctuser/app-defaults/devices must be manually edited to remove the offending characters in the set configuration line. Invalid characters include the following:

\{}

3 Configuration Information Field

Symptom: Cannot view the entire configuration field (> 25 characters)
Solution: Hold down the middle mouse button and move the field contents

4 Need to Set DASM Print Attributes Not Supported by S/W

Symptom: User wants the white border around each image box ON/OFF permanently for this system and it cannot be set as the default for the camera.
Solution: Using your favorite editor, add the following line to the camera.dev file located in ~ctuser/app-defaults/devices after the DICOM print device has been otherwise configured.

For Trim Off - set TRIM NO

For Trim On - set TRIM YES
Symptom: DICOM print camera supports multiple film sizes and the user only wants to print if the film size is correct for LightSpeed (14x17). [Otherwise the camera will queue the films or return an error causing the queue to pause (based upon the DICOM print camera specifications).]
Solution: Using your favorite editor, add the following line to the camera.dev file located in ~ctuser/app-defaults/devices after the DICOM print device has been otherwise configured.

To force a 14x17 film size - set filmSize 14INX17IN

5 Need to Prevent DICOM Print Attributes from Being Sent to DICOM Print camera

Symptom: Some DICOM print attributes are optional, and may result in fatal errors. For example, the Fuji camera does not support the Empty Image Density parameter for the film box.
Solution: Using your favorite editor, add the following line(s) to the camera.dev file located in ~ctuser/app-defaults/devices after the DICOM print device has been otherwise configured.
- To prevent sending the Smoothing Parameter set FB_Smooth FALSE
- To prevent sending the Border Density set FB_Border FALSE
- To prevent sending the Empty Image Density set FB_EID FALSE
- To prevent sending the Minimum Density set FB_MinD FALSE
- To prevent sending the Trim Parameter set FB_Trim FALSE

6 Error Trying to Connect to the DICOM Print Camera

Symptom: DICOM print server can be reached (ping), but Application error indicates “Unable to start filming interface”, and the help message talks about running the install.dasm (Association Error)
Solution: The system is unable to complete the association. Check the AE Title and the Port number of the DICOM print server and correct them through the Install Camera procedure.

7 Film Composer Error Not Usable

Symptom: Film composer error displays “unrecognized status - code 0”
Solution: Review the log file, the attention, and the status windows. These areas have the correct filming status (for example, “film jam” and “supply empty”).

8 Debugging Connection Issues Difficult

Symptom: The time-outs for the DICOM print are very long, which means that you need to wait a long time before you know the application is not working.
Solution: The time-outs for the DICOM print were setup to ensure that the system would work regardless of whether the DICOM print camera was on a LAN or a WAN halfway around the world. The DICOM print time-outs for the association and DIMSE classes (for example, “N-GET, N-DELETE”) can be modified within the DICOM print camera installation. They can be reduced down to 90 seconds.

9 DICOM Print Error on N-GET Time-out Confusing

Symptom: When the N-GET time-out goes off, the error message in the prslog file will be “Could not get printer status, invalid command sequence for N-GET”.
Solution: When the user sees the above error they may want to consider that the issue may be an inactivity timer on the N-GET DIMSE service.

10 DICOM Print Camera Slide Support

Symptom: Current implementation of DICOM print does not allow selection of slide format.
Solution: Feature is not currently supported. It may be supported in future releases.

11 Confusion on Film Format Notation

Symptom: GEMS Laser Camera and DICOM Print film format notations are opposite.
Solution:
- GEMS Laser Camera film format notation has always been row x col (for example, 12 on 1 = 4x3)
- DICOM Print Standard film format notation is col x row (for example, 12 on 1 = 3x4)