Installation Instructions
This section explains how to install the Time Tagger Software on Windows and Linux. Before installing and operating the Time Tagger, users are strongly advised to follow the guidelines for proper handling. For detailed information on operating conditions and limits, please refer to Safety & Compliance.
Time Tagger software download
Windows
Time Tagger software requires Windows 10 or higher (64 bit). For Windows 10, we provide full support only for those versions that are still actively supported by Microsoft. Older versions, while untested, might still work.
Installation
Download the installer from our downloads site.
Run the installer and follow the instructions. This installs C++, Python, .NET, C#, LabVIEW, and MATLAB libraries together with the graphical user interface (GUI) Time Tagger Lab, the examples and the offline documentation.
Connect your Time Tagger.
Make sure that your computer is connected to the internet once you run the Time Tagger software. The software needs to request its license from our server. Once the license is transferred, no internet connection is required anymore. If this PC cannot be brought online even once, see Offline installation for manual license retrieval and offline prerequisites.
Now you are ready to make a first measurement. You can either use:
Graphical user interface: launch the Time Tagger Lab. Please refer to the Time Tagger Lab paragraph below.
Programming languages: use the examples installed with the software (see your installation’s
examples/<language>/folder) to get familiar with the Time Tagger API. Please refer to Programming Languages section for further details.
Time Tagger Lab
Time Tagger Lab is the GUI application for Windows operating systems. It is designed to perform standard measurements quickly and to get an interactive experience with your Time Tagger. For a step-by-step walkthrough, see the Time Tagger Lab section. Here, you can follow simple instructions to enable the Time Tagger’s internal test signal and measure a cross correlation between two channels.
Launch the Time Tagger Lab application and select your device,
switch to Detailed View, and enable the internal test signal on inputs 1 and 2 by checking the boxes on the very right column.
You should see live count rates. Open Creator (F2), choose Bidirectional histogram – Correlation,
set Reference = 1 and Click = 2, then add the measurement and press Play.
A Gaussian peak should be displayed. You can zoom in using the controls on the plot.
The detection jitter of a single channel is 
times the standard deviation
of this two-channel measurement (the FWHM of the Gaussian peak is 2.35 times its standard deviation).
Linux
Installation
Global
Download and install the package for your Linux distribution from our downloads site. The package installs the Python and C++ libraries including the examples and offline documentation.
Connect your Time Tagger.
Make sure that your computer is connected to the internet once you run the Time Tagger software. The software needs to request its license from our server. Once the license is transferred, no internet connection is required anymore. If this PC cannot be brought online even once, see Offline installation for manual license retrieval and offline prerequisites.
Now you are ready to make a first measurement. You can either use:
Graphical user interface: launch the Web Application via
timetaggerfrom the console or the application launcher. Please refer to the Web Application section.Programming languages: use the examples installed with the software (see your installation’s
examples/<language>/folder) to get familiar with the Time Tagger API. Please refer to Programming Languages section for further details.
Custom Python installation
Install NumPy (e.g.
pip install numpy), which is required for the Time Tagger libraries.The Python libraries are installed in your default Python search path:
/usr/lib/pythonX.Y/dist-packages/or/usr/lib64/pythonX.Y/site-packages/.The examples can be found within the
/usr/share/timetagger/examples/python/folder.
You can compile a Python module for custom Python installations in the following way:
The source of the Python wrapper _TimeTagger.cxx is provided in /usr/lib64/pythonX.Y/site-packages/.
For building the wrapper, the GNU C++ compiler and the development headers of Python and numpy need to be installed.
The resulting _TimeTagger.so and the high-level wrapper TimeTagger.py relay the Time Tagger C++ interface to Python.
PYTHON_FLAGS="`python3-config --includes --libs`"
NUMPY_FLAGS="-I`python3 -c \"print(__import__('numpy').get_include())\"`"
TTFLAGS="-I/usr/include/timetagger -lTimeTagger"
CFLAGS="-std=c++17 -O2 -DNDEBUG -fPIC $PYTHON_FLAGS $NUMPY_FLAGS $TTFLAGS"
g++ -shared _TimeTagger.cxx $CFLAGS -o _TimeTagger.so
Local
Install the Python module for the Time Tagger in your local environment (see venv documentation) using the command:
pip install Swabian-TimeTagger
Create a udev rule granting user access to Swabian Instruments devices (vendor ID 151f):
# Create /etc/udev/rules.d/60-swabian.rules with the correct permissions echo 'SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="151f", MODE="0666"' | sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/60-swabian.rules >/dev/null
This rule matches all USB devices with vendor ID 151f and sets their permissions to be readable/writable by any user on the system (MODE=”0666”).
Warning
MODE=”0666” makes the device accessible to all local users. If you prefer a tighter policy, you can restrict access to a specific group (e.g. plugdev).
Reload udev rules so new devices plugged after this step are granted access:
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
Connect your Time Tagger.
Make sure that your computer is connected to the internet once you run the Time Tagger software. The software needs to request its license from our server. Once the license is transferred, no internet connection is required anymore. If this PC cannot be brought online even once, see Offline installation for manual license retrieval and offline prerequisites.
Now you are ready to make a first measurement. Please refer to Programming Languages section for further details.
Web Application
The Web Application is the GUI provided for Linux for quick measurements. It allows you to work with your Time Tagger interactively. Here, you can follow simple instructions to enable the Time Tagger’s internal test signal and measure a cross correlation between two channels.
Click Add TimeTagger, click Init (select resolution if available) on any of the available Time Taggers.
Click Create measurement, look for Bidirectional Histogram (Class: Correlation) and click Create next to it.
Select Rising edge 1 for Channel 1 and Rising edge 2 for Channel 2.
Set Binwidth to 10 ps and leave Number of data points at 1000, click Initialize.
The Time Tagger is now acquiring data, but it does not yet have a signal. You need to enable its internal test signal.
On the top left, click on the settings wheel next to Time Tagger.
On the far right, check Test signal for channels 1 and 2, click Ok.
A Gaussian peak should be displayed. You can zoom in using the controls on the plot.
The detection jitter of a single channel is times the standard deviation
of this two-channel measurement (the FWHM of the Gaussian peak is 2.35 times its standard deviation).
Caution
The Web Application uses the TCP port 50120 as default port.
If this collides with another application you can change the port
with passing the argument TimeTaggerServer.exe -p <port>.
Moreover, in case you have installed a previous version of the Time Tagger software, please reset the cache of your browser. Closing the Web Application server may cause an error message to appear.
Offline installation
The TimeTagger software may require an internet connection to download necessary components and, as such, installation with network access is recommended. The following must be kept in mind when access to a network upon installation is limited.
License retrieval
If you require a license upgrade, an internet connection is required to download the software license used to enable the hardware channels. After the license has been retrieved, the TimeTagger and its software may be used offline on this computer from that point onward.
In some cases, it may not be possible for a computer to be connected to the internet under any circumstances. In this case, a license may be manually requested by contacting support@swabianinstruments.com.
Windows installer
In addition to the above, the Windows TimeTagger installer may require an internet connection to download and authenticate necessary components of the software.
.NET Desktop Runtime
To use TimeTaggerLab, the .NET Desktop Runtime version 8 is required.
The installer will detect the runtime present on the computer and attempt to download the latest required version. If it is unable to do so, the installation will proceed but the TimeTaggerLab application will be blocked until a suitable run time is installed.
To manually install the .NET Desktop Runtime,
download the installer from the official Microsoft website using a computer with network access,
transfer the downloaded installer to the offline computer (e.g. via a USB pen-drive),
install the software by following the instructions.
After successful installation, TimeTaggerLab should be ready to use.