National Instruments PCI-1428 User Manual

™

IMAQ

IMAQ PCI-1428
User Manual

High-Quality Camera Link Image
Acquisition Device for PCI

IMAQ PCI-1428 User Manual

January 2002 Edition

Part Number 322862B-01

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Important Information

Warranty

The IMAQ PCI-1428 is warranted against defects in materials and workmanship for a period of one year from the date of shipment, as
evidenced by receipts or other documentation. National Instruments will, at its option, repair or replace equipment that proves to be defective
during the warranty period. This warranty includes parts and labor.

The media on which you receive National Instruments software are warranted not to fail to execute programming instructions, due to defects
in materials and workmanship, for a period of 90 days from date of shipment, as evidenced by receipts or other documentation. National
Instruments will, at its option, repair or replace software media that do not execute programming instructions if National Instruments receives
notice of such defects during the warranty period. National Instruments does not warrant that the operation of the software shall be
uninterrupted or error free.

A Return Material Authorization (RMA) number must be obtained from the factory and clearly marked on the outside of the package before
any equipment will be accepted for warranty work. National Instruments will pay the shipping costs of returning to the owner parts which are
covered by warranty.

National Instruments believes that the information in this document is accurate. The document has been carefully reviewed for technical
accuracy. In the event that technical or typographical errors exist, National Instruments reserves the right to make changes to subsequent
editions of this document without prior notice to holders of this edition. The reader should consult National Instruments if errors are suspected.
In no event shall National Instruments be liable for any damages arising out of or related to this document or the information contained in it.

E

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INJURY TO A HUMAN.

(2) IN ANY APPLICATION, INCLUDING THE ABOVE, RELIABILITY OF OPERATION OF THE SOFTWARE PRODUCTS CAN BE
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Compliance

FCC/Canada Radio Frequency Interference Compliance*

Determining FCC Class

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has rules to protect wireless communications from interference. The FCC
places digital electronics into two classes. These classes are known as Class A (for use in industrial-commercial locations only)
or Class B (for use in residential or commercial locations). Depending on where it is operated, this product could be subject to
restrictions in the FCC rules. (In Canada, the Department of Communications (DOC), of Industry Canada, regulates wireless
interference in much the same way.)

Digital electronics emit weak signals during normal operation that can affect radio, television, or other wireless products. By
examining the product you purchased, you can determine the FCC Class and therefore which of the two FCC/DOC Warnings
apply in the following sections. (Some products may not be labeled at all for FCC; if so, the reader should then assume these are
Class A devices.)

FCC Class A products only display a simple warning statement of one paragraph in length regarding interference and undesired
operation. Most of our products are FCC Class A. The FCC rules have restrictions regarding the locations where FCC Class A
products can be operated.

FCC Class B products display either a FCC ID code, starting with the letters EXN,
or the FCC Class B compliance mark that appears as shown here on the right.

Consult the FCC Web site

FCC/DOC Warnings

This equipment generates and uses radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in strict accordance with the instructions
in this manual and the CE Mark Declaration of Conformity**, may cause interference to radio and television reception.
Classification requirements are the same for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Canadian Department
of Communications (DOC).

Changes or modifications not expressly approved by National Instruments could void the user’s authority to operate the
equipment under the FCC Rules.

http://www.fcc.gov for more information.

Class A

Federal Communications Commission

This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class A digital device, pursuant to part 15 of the FCC
Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference when the equipment is operated
in a commercial environment. This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and
used in accordance with the instruction manual, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. Operation of this
equipment in a residential area is likely to cause harmful interference in which case the user will be required to correct
the interference at his own expense.

Canadian Department of Communications

This Class A digital apparatus meets all requirements of the Canadian Interference-Causing Equipment Regulations.

Cet appareil numérique de la classe A respecte toutes les exigences du Règlement sur le matériel brouilleur du Canada.

Class B

Federal Communications Commission

This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to part 15 of the
FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation.
This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the
instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not
occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can
be determined by turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of
the following measures:

• Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.

• Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.

• Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected.

• Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.

Canadian Department of Communications

This Class B digital apparatus meets all requirements of the Canadian Interference-Causing Equipment Regulations.

Cet appareil numérique de la classe B respecte toutes les exigences du Règlement sur le matériel brouilleur du Canada.

European Union - Compliance to EEC Directives

Readers in the EU/EEC/EEA must refer to the Manufacturer's Declaration of Conformity (DoC) for information** pertaining
to the CE Mark compliance scheme. The Manufacturer includes a DoC for most every hardware product except for those bought
for OEMs, if also available from an original manufacturer that also markets in the EU, or where compliance is not required as
for electrically benign apparatus or cables.

* Certain exemptions may apply in the USA, see FCC Rules §15.103 Exempted devices, and §15.105(c). Also available in

sections of CFR 47.

** The CE Mark Declaration of Conformity will contain important supplementary information and instructions for the user or

installer.

Conventions

This manual uses the following conventions:

<> Angle brackets that contain numbers separated by an ellipsis represent a

range of values associated with a bit or signal name—for example,
DBIO<3..0>.

» The » symbol leads you through nested menu items and dialog box options

to a final action. The sequence File»Page Setup»Options directs you to
pull down the File menu, select the Page Setup item, and select Options
from the last dialog box.

This icon denotes a note, which alerts you to important information.

This icon denotes a caution, which advises you of precautions to take to
avoid injury, data loss, or a system crash.

bold Bold text denotes items that you must select or click on in the software,

such as menu items and dialog-box options. Bold text also denotes
parameter names.

italic Italic text denotes variables, emphasis, a cross reference, or an introduction

to a key concept. This font also denotes text that is a placeholder for a word
or value that you must supply.

monospace Text in this font denotes text or characters that you should enter from the

keyboard, sections of code, programming examples, and syntax examples.
This font is also used for the proper names of disk drives, paths, directories,
programs, subprograms, subroutines, device names, functions, operations,
variables, filenames and extensions, and code excerpts.

Contents

Chapter 1
Introduction

About the IMAQ PCI-1428 ...........................................................................................1-1

Camera Link ..................................................................................................................1-2

Overview .........................................................................................................1-2

Interfacing with the PCI-1428 .......................................................................................1-2

Software Programming Choices ....................................................................................1-3

NI-IMAQ Driver Software..............................................................................1-5

National Instruments IMAQ Vision ................................................................1-6

IMAQ Vision Builder......................................................................................1-6

Integration with DAQ......................................................................................1-7

Vision and Motion...........................................................................................1-7

Chapter 2
Installation

What You Need to Get Started ......................................................................................2-1

Optional Equipment.......................................................................................................2-2

Setting up Your IMAQ System .....................................................................................2-2

Unpacking......................................................................................................................2-4

Safety Information .........................................................................................................2-4

Installation .....................................................................................................................2-6

Configuring the PCI-1428 .............................................................................................2-7

Chapter 3
Hardware Overview

Functional Overview......................................................................................................3-1

Camera Link and PCI-1428.............................................................................3-2

Base Configuration ...........................................................................3-2

Medium Configuration......................................................................3-3

Data Transmission...........................................................................................3-3

LUTs................................................................................................................3-3

Multiple-Tap Data Formatter ..........................................................................3-4

SDRAM...........................................................................................................3-4

Trigger Control and Mapping Circuitry ..........................................................3-4

High-Speed Timing .........................................................................................3-4

Acquisition, Scaling, ROI................................................................................3-5

Scatter-Gather DMA Controllers ....................................................................3-5

Bus Master PCI Interface ................................................................................3-5

© National Instruments Corporation vii IMAQ PCI-1428 User Manual

Contents

Start Conditions............................................................................................... 3-5

Acquisition Window Control.......................................................................... 3-6

Serial Interface ................................................................................................ 3-6

Chapter 4
Signal Connections

Connectors..................................................................................................................... 4-1

MDR 26-Pin Connector .................................................................................. 4-2

68-Pin VHDCI Connector............................................................................... 4-2

Connector Signal Connection Descriptions.................................................... 4-3

Appendix A
Specifications

Appendix B
Cabling

Appendix C
Technical Support Resources

Glossary

Index

IMAQ PCI-1428 User Manual viii ni.com

Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of the PCI-1428 image acquisition

device, the Camera Link standard, Camera Link/PCI-1428 interfacing

guidelines, and your software programming choices.

About the IMAQ PCI-1428

The PCI-1428 is a highly flexible IMAQ device that supports a diverse

range of Camera Link-compatible cameras from various camera

companies. The PCI-1428 acquires digital images in real time and stores

the images in onboard frame memory or transfers them directly to system

memory. Featuring a high-speed data flow path, the PCI-1428 is ideal for

both industrial and scientific environments.

The PCI-1428 is easy to install and configure. It ships with NI-IMAQ, the

National Instruments complete IMAQ driver software you can use to

directly control the PCI-1428 and other National Instruments IMAQ

hardware products. With NI-IMAQ, you can quickly and easily start your

applications without having to program the device at the register level.

1

The PCI-1428 supports the Camera Link Base configuration, and the

VHDCI 68-pin connector provides access to the 8-bit × 4 mode of the

Camera Link Medium configuration. For further configuration

information, see the Camera Link and PCI-1428 section in Chapter 3,

Hardware Overview.

The VHDCI 68-pin connector has four external input/output (I/O) lines you

can use as triggers or as high-speed digital I/O lines.

Note To use the trigger lines as digital I/O lines, go to the LabVIEW palette, and select

Motion & Vision»Image Acquisition»Signal I/O VIs.

For more advanced digital or analog system triggering or digital I/O lines,

you can use the PCI-1428 and NI-IMAQ with the National Instruments data

acquisition (DAQ) or motion control product lines.

© National Instruments Corporation 1-1 IMAQ PCI-1428 User Manual

Chapter 1 Introduction

Camera Link

Overview

Easily synchronizing several functions to a common trigger or timing event
is a common challenge with image acquisition devices. The PCI-1428 uses
the Real-Time System Integration (RTSI) bus to solve this problem. The
RTSI bus uses National Instruments RTSI bus interface and ribbon cable to
route additional timing and trigger signals between the PCI-1428 and up to
four National Instruments DAQ, motion control, or IMAQ devices. The
RTSI bus can even synchronize multiple IMAQ hardware captures.

Detailed specifications of the PCI-1428 are in Appendix A, Specifications.

This section provides a brief overview of the Camera Link standard.
For more detailed information about Camera Link specifications, reference
the Specifications of the Camera Link Interface Standard for Digital
Cameras and Frame Grabbers manual. This manual is available on several
Web sites, including the Automated Imaging Association site at

machinevisiononline.org.

Developed by a consortium of camera and frame grabber manufacturers,
Camera Link is a standard for interfacing digital cameras with image
acquisition devices. Camera Link simplifies connectivity between the
image acquisition device and the camera by defining a single standard
connector for both. This standard ensures compatibility of devices bearing
the Camera Link logo.

The basis for the Camera Link standard is the National Semiconductor
Channel Link chipset, a data transmission method consisting of a
general-purpose transmitter/receiver pair. The Channel Link driver takes
28 bits of parallel digital data and a clock and serializes the stream to four
LVDS (EIA-644) data streams and an LVDS clock, providing high-speed
data transmission across 10 wires and over distances of up to 10 m.

Interfacing with the PCI-1428

The Camera Link standard defines physical connections between image
acquisition devices and Camera Link cameras, and it allows for flexibility
of image format and data transfer protocols. The camera manufacturer
defines image parameters, such as image resolution and the number of bits
per pixel. Camera control parameters, such as frame-on-demand and
exposure control signals, are also defined by the camera manufacturer.

IMAQ PCI-1428 User Manual 1-2 ni.com

Chapter 1 Introduction

These variable parameters are defined on a per-camera basis in a camera

file (

camera_model.icd) supplied by National Instruments. The

NI-IMAQ driver software uses the information in this camera file to

program the PCI-1428 to acquire images from a specific camera. Without

this camera file, the driver does not have the information necessary to

configure the PCI-1428 for acquisition.

Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX), the National Instruments

configuration utility, provides a simple interface for associating a camera

file with the PCI-1428. Use the following guidelines to access the camera

file in MAX:

1. Launch MAX, and expand the Devices and Interfaces branch of the

configuration tree.

2. Expand the IMAQ PCI-1428 branch.

3. Right-click Channel 0, and select Camera.

4. Select your camera from the pop-up menu. If your camera is not in
the pop-up menu, verify that the camera file is installed in the

NI-IMAQ/Data directory.

Many camera files are installed on your computer when you install
NI-IMAQ, and many more are available for download from the National
Instruments Camera Advisor at
camera files, save them to the

National Instruments\NI-IMAQ\Data

ni.com\camera. When installing new

Data folder located at Program Files\

.

Contact National Instruments technical support to request camera files not
available in the Camera Advisor. See Appendix C, Technical Support

Resources, for information on National Instruments technical support.

Software Programming Choices

Use NI-IMAQ, the National Instruments image acquisition driver software,
to program your IMAQ device to acquire, display, and save images. You
can use NI-IMAQ with other National Instruments software for a complete
image acquisition and analysis solution, as shown in Figure 1-1.

NI-IMAQ works with LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, Visual C++, and
Visual Basic. National Instruments IMAQ Vision adds powerful image
processing and analysis to these programming environments. You can also
use IMAQ Vision Builder to quickly and easily prototype your IMAQ
image analysis applications.

© National Instruments Corporation 1-3 IMAQ PCI-1428 User Manual

Chapter 1 Introduction

Vision Software

IMAQ Vision

Image

Analysis

LabVIEW

Filters

Blob

Analysis

Pattern

Matching

Color Matching

and Analysis

Application Software

(LabWindows/CVI, Visual C++, Visual Basic)

Driver Software

Hardware

DAQIMAQ

Gauging and

Measurement

Display

and ROI

Measurement Studio

NI-MotionNI-DAQNI-IMAQ

ValueMotion/

FlexMotion

Morphology

Figure 1-1. The Relationship between the Programming Environment,

NI-IMAQ, and Hardware

IMAQ PCI-1428 User Manual 1-4 ni.com

NI-IMAQ Driver Software

The NI-IMAQ driver software is included with your IMAQ device.
NI-IMAQ has an extensive library of functions you can call from your
application programming environment. These functions include routines
for video configuration, image acquisition (continuous and single-shot),
memory buffer allocation, trigger control, and device configuration,
as shown in Figure 1-2.

Chapter 1 Introduction

NI-IMAQ

Acquisition

Triggering

and Timing

DAQ

Synchronization

Buffer ControlImage

Figure 1-2. NI-IMAQ Functions

Camera Control Lookup Table

The NI-IMAQ driver software performs all functions required for acquiring
and saving images, but it does not perform any image analysis. For image
analysis functionality, refer to the National Instruments IMAQ Vision
section in this chapter.

For maximum flexibility and performance, NI-IMAQ features both
high-level and low-level functions. Examples of high-level functions
include the functions to acquire images in single-shot or continuous mode.
An example of a low-level function is configuring an image sequence, since
it requires advanced understanding of the IMAQ device and image
acquisition.

NI-IMAQ internally resolves many of the complex issues between the
computer and the IMAQ device, such as programming interrupts and DMA
controllers.

NI-IMAQ is also the interface path between LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI,
or a text-based programming environment and your IMAQ device. The
NI-IMAQ software kit includes a series of libraries for image acquisition
for LabVIEW and Measurement Studio, which contains libraries for
LabWindows/CVI, Visual C++, and Visual Basic.

Control

© National Instruments Corporation 1-5 IMAQ PCI-1428 User Manual

Chapter 1 Introduction

National Instruments IMAQ Vision

IMAQ Vision is an image acquisition, processing, and analysis library of
more than 200 functions for grayscale, color, and binary image display,
image processing, pattern matching, shape matching, blob analysis,
gauging, and measurement.

For unique image processing, you can use IMAQ Vision functions
individually or in combination. With IMAQ Vision you can acquire,
display, manipulate, and store images as well as perform image analysis,
processing, and interpretation. Using IMAQ Vision, imaging novices and
experts can program the most basic or complicated image applications
without knowledge of any algorithm implementations.

IMAQ Vision is available for LabVIEW and Measurement Studio, which
includes support for LabWindows/CVI, Visual C++, and Visual Basic.

IMAQ Vision Builder

IMAQ Vision Builder is an interactive prototyping tool for machine vision
and scientific imaging developers. With IMAQ Vision Builder, you can
prototype vision software quickly or test how various vision image
processing functions work.

As shown in Figure 1-3, IMAQ Vision Builder generates a Builder file,
which is a text description containing a recipe of the machine vision
and image processing functions. This Builder file provides a guide you can
use for developing applications into any development environment, such as
LabWindows/CVI or Visual Basic, using the IMAQ Vision machine vision
and image processing libraries. Using the LabVIEW VI creation wizard,
you can create a LabVIEW VI that performs the prototype that you created
in IMAQ Vision Builder.

IMAQ PCI-1428 User Manual 1-6 ni.com

IMAQ

Vision Builder

Builder File

Chapter 1 Introduction

Prototype

Integration with DAQ

Any platform that supports NI-IMAQ also supports NI-DAQ and a variety
of National Instruments DAQ devices, allowing your IMAQ device and
NI-IMAQ development to integrate with National Instruments DAQ
products.

Vision and Motion

With National Instruments IMAQ hardware and IMAQ Vision
pattern-matching software, you can quickly and accurately locate objects in
instances where objects vary in size, orientation, focus, and even when the
part is poorly illuminated. Use National Instruments high-performance
stepper and servo motion control products with pattern-matching software
for inspection and guidance applications, such as locating alignment
markers on semiconductor wafers, guiding robotic arms, inspecting the
quality of manufactured parts, and locating cells.

Vision Application

Development

Figure 1-3. IMAQ Vision Builder and Application Development Tools

IMAQ Vision

LabVIEW

IMAQ Vision

Application

Software

© National Instruments Corporation 1-7 IMAQ PCI-1428 User Manual

Installation

This chapter contains a list of necessary and optional items for getting
started acquiring images with your IMAQ device. This chapter also
explains how to unpack, configure, and install your IMAQ device.

What You Need to Get Started

You need the following items to set up and use the PCI-1428:

❑ PCI-1428

❑ Getting Started with Your IMAQ System

❑ IMAQ PCI-1428 User Manual

❑ NI-IMAQ Release Notes

❑ NI-IMAQ for Windows 2000/NT/Me/9x and documentation

❑ Pentium-based PCI computer running Windows XP/2000/Me/NT/9x

2

❑ Camera Link camera

❑ MDR 26-pin Camera Link cable from 3M

❑ Optional software packages and documentation:

– IMAQ Vision for LabVIEW or Measurement Studio

(LabWindows/CVI, Visual C++, Visual Basic)

–IMAQ Vision Builder

–LabVIEW

– Measurement Studio (LabWindows/CVI, tools for Visual Basic)

© National Instruments Corporation 2-1 IMAQ PCI-1428 User Manual