Trigger And Strobe; Introduction; Trigger Source - Photon Focus MV1-D4096 Series User Manual

5.2 Trigger and Strobe

5.2.1 Introduction

The start of the exposure of the camera's image sensor is controlled by the trigger. The trigger
can either be generated internally by the camera (TriggerMode = Off) or by a selectable trigger
source (TriggerMode = On).
The trigger source can be selected when TriggerMode = On (see Section 5.2.2). The trigger signal
can be configured to be active high or active low. When the frequency of the incoming
triggers is higher than the maximal frame rate of the current camera settings, then some
trigger pulses will be missed. A missed trigger counter counts these events. This counter can be
read out by the user.
The exposure time can be defined by the setting of the exposure time register (camera
controlled exposure mode) or by the width of the incoming trigger pulse (trigger controlled
exposure mode, only if TriggerMode = On) (see Section 5.2.4).
A trigger pulse normally starts the exposure of one image. In Burst Trigger Mode however, a
trigger pulse starts the exposure of a user defined number of images (see Section 5.2.7).
The start of the exposure is shortly after the active edge of the incoming trigger. An additional
trigger delay can be applied that delays the start of the exposure by a user defined time (see
Section 5.2.5). This is often used to start the exposure after the trigger to a flash lighting
source.

5.2.2 Trigger Source

The trigger signal can be configured to be active high or active low by the TriggerActivation
(category AcquisitionControl) property. One of the following trigger sources can be used:
Free running The trigger is generated internally by the camera. Exposure starts immediately
after the camera is ready and the maximal possible frame rate is attained, if
AcquisitionFrameRateEnable is disabled. Settings for free running trigger mode:
TriggerMode = Off. In Constant Frame Rate mode (AcquisitionFrameRateEnable = True),
exposure starts after a user-specified time has elapsed from the previous exposure start so
that the resulting frame rate is equal to the value of AcquisitionFrameRate.
Software Trigger The trigger signal is applied through a software command (TriggerSoftware
in category AcquisitionControl). Settings for Software Trigger mode: TriggerMode = On
and TriggerSource = Software.
Line1 Trigger The trigger signal is applied directly to the camera by the power supply
connector through pin ISO_IN1 (see also Section A.1). A setup of this mode is shown in
Fig. 5.11 and Fig. 5.12. The electrical interface of the trigger input and the strobe output
is described in Section 6.5. Settings for Line1 Trigger mode: TriggerMode = On and
TriggerSource = Line1.
PLC_Q4 Trigger The trigger signal is applied by the Q4 output of the PLC (see also Section 6.6).
Settings for PLC_Q4 Trigger mode: TriggerMode = On and TriggerSource = PLC_Q4.
ABTrigger Trigger from incremental encoder (see Section 5.2.9). The A/B Trigger feature is not
available on all camera revisions, see Appendix B for a list of available features.
Some trigger signals are inverted. A schematic drawing is shown in Fig. 7.4.
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5.2 Trigger and Strobe
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