Camera Power; Trigger-To-Image Reliability - Dalsa PC2-CamLink User Manual

Camera Power

PC2-CamLink can provide up to 1.5A of 5V or 12V power to the camera through the DB-15
connector.
The voltage supply is dependent on the configuration of jumper J13. Refer to "J13: Power to Camera
Voltage Selector" on page 72
The floppy power connector J14 must be connected if your camera requires more than 0.5A. That is, if
J14 is not connected, the PC2-CamLink will use power from the PCI connector to power the camera.
PCI specification limits the amount of power a card can take to 0.5A from the PCI connector.
Note: DALSA always recommends to connect the floppy power connector J14 when the PC2-
CamLink feeds power to the camera.
Caution: Drawing more than 500mA from the PC2-CamLink PCI connector may result in the auto-
reset fuse blowing or in erratic behavior of the camera, if the camera requires slightly more than
500mA. In this situation LED3 (Host 12V Overload) will light. Check your camera datasheet on how
much current is required.

Trigger-to-Image Reliability

Trigger-to-image reliability incorporates all stages of image acquisition inside an integrated controller
to increase reliability and simplify error recovery. The trigger-to-image reliability model fuses together
all the elements required to acquire images so that a central unit manages them coherently. These
elements include, among others, I/O to control timing to the camera and error notification. Whenever
PC2-CamLink detects a problem, the user application is immediately informed and can take
appropriate action to return to normal operation. PC2- CamLink offers this robustness through its
ACU (Acquisition and Control Unit), which manages the frame grabber input and monitors in real
time the acquisition state. As such, it is for the most part transparent to user applications.
On PC2- CamLink, user applications can interact with trigger-to-image reliability by means of the
following:
•
Glitches on the external trigger and shaft encoder lines are debounced by the ACU. A parameter is
available to indicate the minimal pulse duration to consider an external trigger pulse valid.
•
For each field, a number of interrupts are generated to indicate the following events:
•
Trigger interrupt
•
Start of capture interrupt
•
End of capture interrupt
•
End of transfer interrupt
•
By monitoring these events, it is possible to know the flow of acquisition of the system
•
If something goes wrong during the acquisition process, a notification is sent for the following:
•
Skipped frame: Occurs when PCI bandwidth is limited or onboard FIFO is full. The
remaining data of the frame in the process of being acquired is discarded.
60 • Part I: PC2-CamLink Board
for jumper settings.
PC2-CamLink User's Manual