Analog Frame Grabber

Description

The Xcelera-AN LX1 Quad is a high-performance PCI-X bus compatible frame grabber. Driven by the need to integrate vision automation with multiple view inspection, the X64-AN Quad is designed to deliver concurrent image acquisition from multiple independent standard and progressive scan analog cameras. The Xcelera-ANLX1Quad is capable of grabbing from four independent cameras at the same time, and offers independent control signals for each input channel to acquire, transfer and track images accurately. Supporting high-resolution 8-bit image digitization, the X64-AN Quad offers independent image paths creating virtually four frame grabbers in one slot. The Xcelera-AN-LX1-Quad has been engineered within DALSA’s exacting Trigger-to-Image Reliability technology framework to more reliably and efficiently control and monitor the entire image acquisition sequence.

Unprecedented Acquisition Control

Successful machine vision applications require consistent and

predictable results in demanding operating environments. With all

image acquisition functions integrated on a single board and under

a single API, the Xcelera-AN LX1 Quad ensures highly reliable acquisition control throughout the entire image capture sequence—from the time a trigger is fired to the time an image is available in host memory. Embedded timing logic within the board’s Acquisition Control Unit (ACU) provides timing signals to drive HD and VD for each input channel. A dedicated timer/counter for each module also ensures that the acquired images are tracked reliably throughout the data path allowing image data to be readily

correlated with physical objects on the production line. Capable of

acquiring images at rates up to 50MB/s per input path, the

Xcelera-ANLX1Quad makes image acquisition from the new generation of analog cameras more efficient and supports operating modes such as asynchronous reset, E-donpisha, partial scan, and WEN.

Improved Anti-Aliasing Filter

For improved image quality and accuracy, the Xcelera-AN-LX1-Quad offers an optional fifth order Butterworth anti-aliasing filter to remove unwanted noise from the video signal; separate gain and offset controls for each video input span the entire 0.4 to 1.2V range in steps of 780μV. These precise and flexible controls give operators the ability to adapt input video signals to deliver digitized images that are highly linear and have low jitter noise.

Camera Support

The Xcelera-AN LX1 Quad performs acquisitions from up to four independent format analog cameras with a comprehensive suite of independent control signals such as master mode synchronization, WEN, frame reset, trigger, and strobe outputs. The X64-AN Quad comes bundled with CamExpertTM a proprietary camera configuration utility specifically designed to leverage the power of Teledyne DALSA’s image acquisition boards. This Windows-based utility provides an interactive environment within which to create a new, or modify an existing, configuration file for both standard and progressive scan cameras.

Visual Status LED

The Xcelera-ANLX1Quad features visual status LEDs to simplify system setup and diagnostics. A status indicator LED provides visual feedback once the camera connection is made and properly synchronized. These visual indicators greatly facilitate the diagnostic process by allowing developers to instantly recognize if cabling has been correctly set up.

Optimized Data Transfer

Delivering fast and secure data transfer with zero CPU usage, the

Data Transfer Engine (DTE) features a high-speed memory interface,

multiple independent Direct Memory Access (DMA), and onboard tap

descriptors, the DTE’s powerful architecture delivers robust

performance for critical machine vision tasks. The DMAs allow the

DTE to transfer images from the ACU to local frame buffer memory,

or transfer the same image to multiple addresses in the host

memory. The ACU and DTE use the onboard 128MB memory to perform

these operations concurrently, yet at different rates, yielding

optimal utilization of system bandwidth.

Conventional PCI bus transfers, utilizing scatter-gather

techniques, rely on the CPU to load the host frame buffer

destination memory addresses during live acquisition, which

increases the load on the CPU and slows image-processing tasks. The

DTE offloads this task by automatically capturing and storing the

destination frame buffer addresses from the host memory. In

addition, it performs autonomous and robust image transfers in

non-real-time operating systems, such as Windows XP, Windows

2000.

General Purpose I/Os

An optional module offers opto-coupled inputs and outputs for

demanding industrial environments. These interrupt-driven,

general-purpose input and output controls allow X64-AN Quad boards

to react to external inputs more rapidly and predictably increasing

the quality of acquired images.

External Event Synchronization

To synchronize image captures with external events the Xcelera-AN-LX1-Quad features an optically isolated trigger input and a strobe control signal for each input channel. The signals can be programmed as active high or active low, edge or level based and can be controlled independently.

Serial Communication Ports

The Xcelera-AN LX1 Quad features four independent onboard RS-232C ports that provide integrated support for camera control and setup for machine vision applications. PC-independent in nature, these communication ports can easily be used with off-the-shelf communication utilities such as Windows-based HyperTerminal.

Software Support

The Xcelera-ANLX1Quad is fully supported by Teledyne DALSA’s Sapera™ Essential vision software. Sapera Essential is a suite of image acquisition and processing libraries, tools and utilities. Sapera Essential offers a powerful camera configuration utility called CamExpert™ and image processing library evaluation tool, Sapera Architect. In addition to more than 300 image processing functions, Sapera Essential offers a selection of image processing tools for machine vision including pattern finding (area and edge based techniques), OCR, barcode, calibration and blob analysis. Fully supported by Teledyne DALSA’s Trigger-to-Image Reliability framework, applications based on the Xcelera-AN LX1 products deliver robust, reliable and cost effective solutions.

In addition, Sapera Essential applications can be developed using

C/C , C#1 and Visual Basic using Microsoft® Visual Studio® 6.0 and

higher on Windows XP or Vista 32-bit platforms.