Data Translation DT3145 User manual

DT3145
UM-19603-B
User’s Manual

Second Edition
June, 2003
Data Translation, Inc.
100 Locke Drive
Marlboro, MA 01752-1192
[phone]
www.datatranslation.com
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [email protected]
Copyright © 2003 by Data Translation, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form by any means,
electronic, mechanical, by photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of Data Translation, Inc.
Information furnished by Data Translation, Inc.
is believed to be accurate and reliable; however,
no responsibility is assumed by Data Translation,
Inc. for its use; nor for any infringements of
patents or other rights of third parties which
may result from its use. No license is granted by
implication or otherwise under any patent rights
of Data Translation, Inc.
Use, duplication, or disclosure by the United
States Government is subject to restrictions as set
forth in subparagraph (c)(1)(ii) of the Rights in
Technical Data and Computer software clause at
48 C.F.R, 252.227-7013, or in subparagraph (c)(2)
of the Commercial computer Software -
Registered Rights clause at 48 C.F.R., 52-227-19 as
applicable. Data Translation, Inc., 100 Locke
Drive, Marlboro, MA 01752.
Data Translationand GLOBAL LABare
registered trademarks, and Imaging OMNI
CD, DT-Active Camera Link Frame Grabber,
and DT Vision Foundryare trademarks of Data
Translation, Inc.
All other brand and product names are
trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective companies.

Radio and Television Interference
This equipment has been tested and found to comply with CISPR
EN55022 Class A and EN50082-1 (CE) requirements and also 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.
Changes or modifications to this equipment not expressly approved
by Data Translation could void your authority to operate the
equipment under Part 15 of the FCC Rules.
Note: This product was FCC-Certified under test conditions that
included use of shielded cables and connectors between system
components. It is important that you use shielded cables and
connectors to reduce the possibility of causing interference to radio,
television, and other electronic devices.
Canadian Department of Communications Statement
This digital apparatus does not exceed the Class A limits for radio
noise emissions from digital apparatus set out in the Radio
Interference Regulations of the Canadian Department of
Communications.
Le présent appareil numérique n’émet pas de bruits radioélectriques
dépassant les limites applicables aux appareils numériques de la class
A prescrites dans le Règlement sur le brouillage radioélectrique
édicté par le Ministère des Communications du Canada.

v
Table of Contents
About this Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Intended Audience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
What You Should Learn from this Manual. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Conventions Used in this Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
Related Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
Where to Get Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Principles of Operation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Video Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Camera Link Cameras Supported . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Data Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Triggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Area-Scan Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Line-Scan Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Controlling the Acquisition of Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Controlling the Acquisition of Lines and Frames . . 7
Look-Up Tables (LUTs). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Acquiring Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Acquisition Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Area-Scan Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Line-Scan Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Acquisition Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Data Transfer and Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Displaying Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Source Origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Overlays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Contents
vi
Camera Control Output Signals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Expose Output Signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Integrate Output Signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Strobe Output Signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
General-Purpose Output Signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Digital I/O Signals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Appendix A: Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Appendix B: Connector Pin Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
J2 Connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
STP15 Connectors and Screw Terminals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Appendix C: Values for Use with the DT-Active Camera Link
Frame Grabber Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41

vii
About this Manual
This manual describes the features of the DT3145 frame grabber
board and provides technical reference information.
Intended Audience
This document is intended for engineers, scientists, technicians, or
others responsible for programming and/or using the DT3145 board
to perform machine vision and/or image analysis operations. It is
assumed that you have some familiarity with imaging principles and
that you are familiar with the operating characteristics of your
camera.
What You Should Learn from this Manual
This manual provides detailed information about the features of the
DT3145 board. It is organized as follows:
•“Principles of Operation,” describes all of the supported features
of the board.
•Appendix A, “Specifications,” lists the specifications of the
board.
•Appendix B, “Connector Pin Assignments,” describes the pin
assignments for the connectors on the DT3145 board and on the
STP15 screw terminal panel.
•Appendix C, “Values for Use with the DT-Active Camera Link
Frame Grabber Control,” lists the supported values for the
DT3145 and the DT-Active Camera Link Frame Grabber
Control.
• An index completes this manual.

About this Manual
viii
Conventions Used in this Manual
The following conventions are used in this manual:
• Notes provide useful information that requires special emphasis,
cautions provide information to help you avoid losing data or
damaging your equipment, and warnings provide information to
help you avoid catastrophic damage to yourself or your
equipment.
• Items that you select or type are shown in bold.
•Courier font is used to represent source code.
Related Information
Refer to the following documents for more information on using the
DT3145 board:
•DT3145 Getting Started Manual (UM-19601). This manual
(GS3145.PDF), included on the Imaging OMNI CD, describes
how to set up, install, and wire signals to the DT3145 board, how
to configure the DT3145 Device Driver, how to verify the
operation of the board, and how to troubleshoot issues with the
DT3145 board should they occur.
•DT-Active Frame Grabber Controls Getting Started Manual
(UM-19336). This manual (DTFG.PDF), included on the Imaging
OMNI CD, describes how to install, set up, and use the DT-Active
Frame Grabber controls (including the DT-Active Camera Link
Frame Grabber control) to develop imaging or machine vision
application programs using MicrosoftVisual Basic or
Microsoft Visual C++.
•GLOBAL LAB Image/2 User’s Manual (UM-17790). This manual
(GLIUM.PDF), included on the Imaging OMNI CD, describes
how to use GLOBAL LAB® Image/2 to create scientific
applications.

About this Manual
ix
•DT Vision Foundry User’s Manual (UM-17755). This manual,
available from Data Translation, describes how to use DT Vision
Foundryto create machine vision applications.
• Camera Link Specification, available from the Automated
Imaging Association (AIA) at http://machinevisiononline.org.
In addition, you may want to read other material in order to gain a
better understanding of image processing concepts, algorithms, and
their applications. The Data Translation Technical Support
Department recommends the following resources for understanding
image processing concepts, processing, and coding:
Baxes, Gregory A. Digital Image Processing, Principles &
Applications. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1994.
Introduction to image processing and hardware/software
basics.
Benson, K. Blair, and Donald G. Fink. HDTV Advanced TV for the
1990's. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990. Details high-definition
television concepts.
Castleman, K. R. Digital Image Processing. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall, 1987. Explains major image processing
concepts and mathematical concepts involved in digital
image manipulation.
Gonzalez, Rafael C., and Paul Wintz. Digital Image Processing.
Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley, 1987. Explains major
image processing concepts and mathematical concepts
involved in digital image manipulation, including FFT
processing, filtering operations, geometric functions,
histograms, and linear equalization.

About this Manual
x
Lindley, Craig. Practical Image Processing in C. Somerset, NJ: John
Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1991. Explains basic image processing
techniques using C, provides many programming examples,
covers TIFF and PICT file formats, and describes how to map
images into VGA memory space.
Luther, Arch C. Digital Video in the PC Environment. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1991. Explains Digital Video Interactive (DVI)
technology.
Pratt, William K. Digital Image Processing. Somerset, NJ: John
Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1991. Detailed text on image processing,
including morphological processing, feature extraction,
image segmentation, and shape analysis.
Rosenfeld, Azriel, and Avinash C. Kak. Digital Picture Processing.
New York: Academic Press, Inc., 1990. Describes image
processing techniques and concepts.
Russ, John C. Computer-Assisted Microscopy, The Measurement
and Analysis of Images. New York: Plenum Press.
Watkinson, John. The Art of Digital Video. Stoneham, MA: Focal
Press, 1990. Provides an in-depth description of digital video
fundamentals.
Where to Get Help
Should you run into problems installing or using the DT3145 board,
the Data Translation Technical Support Department is available to
provide technical assistance. Refer to the DT3145 Getting Started
Manual for more information. If you are outside the U.S. or Canada,
call your local distributor, whose number is listed in your Data
Translation product handbook, or contact the Data Translation web
site (www.datatranslation.com).

1
Principles of Operation
Video Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Acquiring Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Displaying Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Camera Control Output Signals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Digital I/O Signals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

2
This chapter describes the features of the DT3145 frame grabber
board from a functional point of view. To aid the discussions in this
chapter, refer to the block diagram of the DT3145, shown in Figure 1.

Principles of Operation
3
Figure 1: DT3145 Block Diagram
PCI INTERFACE
FIFOACQ_DATA[23:0]
PCI BUS 32-bit 33MHz
TIMING
&
CONTROL
FIFO_DATA_IN[31:0]
16.5MHz
FIFO_DATA_OUT[31:0]
DIGITAL_OUT[3:0]
ACQ_CLK
DIGITAL
I/O
CONTROL
DIGITAL_IN[3:0]
CHANNEL LINK
RECEIVER
SP
DVAL
FVAL
LVAL
LVDS
DRIVER
CAMCTRL1 CAMCTRL2 CAMCTRL3 CAMCTRL4
UART
LVDS
DRIVER /
RECEIVER
UART_BUS (8-bit)
RS232_TX
RS232_RX
ISO_TRIGGER
CL_CTRL1 CL_CTRL2 CL_CTRL3 CL_CTRL4
CL_CLK
CL_DATA0 CL_DATA1 CL_DATA2 CL_DATA3
CL_TX
CL_RX
OPTO-
ISOLATOR
TRIGGER
Camera Link
Connector
15-pin
'D' Shell
LOCAL_BUS (16-bit)
DIG_IO_INT
UART_INT

Video Input
4
Video Input
This section describes the following aspects of the video input:
• Camera Link cameras supported,
• Data formats,
•Triggers,and
• Look-up tables (LUTs).
Camera Link Cameras Supported
The DT3145 frame grabber board supports Camera Link cameras that
conform to the Base Mode Camera Link Specification and the Camera
Link Serial I/O Port Specification. Supported Camera Link cameras
include the Basler A202K, the Basler A102K, and the Dalsa Dalstar
DS-11-1M28 camera.
Note: The list of supported cameras is constantly expanding. Refer
to the Data Translation web site (www.datatranslation.com) for
information on the cameras supported for use with the DT-Active
Camera Link Frame Grabber control.
Data Formats
Using software, you can specify the data format in which your
Camera Link camera acquires data. For the DT3145 frame grabber
board, the following data formats are supported: single-port format
(8-bit, 10-bit, 12-bit, 14-bit, or 16-bit monochrome), dual-port format
(8-bit, 10-bit, or 12-bit monochrome), and RGB format (24-bit color).

Principles of Operation
5
Vi
Vi
V
Vi
V
Vi
The higher the number of bits that the camera supports, the better the
granularity of the image (the more gray levels provided). For
example, an 8-bit data format provides 256 shades of gray; a 10-bit
data format provides 1024 shades of gray.
In the dual-port (also called dual-tap) formats, two pixels are
acquired for each clock pulse. This allows your camera to transfer
data twice as fast for a given clock rate or to run at a slower clock rate.
Note: When acquiring data, 8-bit data formats (single-port and
dual-port) require 1 byte per pixel; 10-bit, 12-bit, 14-bit, and 16-bit
data formats (single-port and dual-port) require 2 bytes per pixel;
and RGB data formats require 4 bytes per pixel.
Triggers
The following sections describe how to use triggers to control the
acquisition of ROIs in area-scan mode and the acquisition of lines in
line-scan mode. Refer to page 10 for more information about
area-scan mode and line-scan mode.
Area-Scan Mode
In area-scan mode, you can use an ROI trigger to control the
acquisition of ROIs. The DT3145 board supports both a software
trigger and an external trigger input. The external trigger input is
provided through pin 13 of connector J2 on the DT3145 board. You
can access this signal using the STP15 screw terminal panel.
If you specify a software trigger (Internal) using software, the
acquisition starts when you execute an acquisition command.

Video Input
6
If you specify an external trigger using software, the acquisition is
synchronized with a change-of-state on the external trigger input
line. Through software, you can specify whether you want to acquire
an ROI when a low-to-high (OnLowToHigh) transition occurs or
when a high-to-low (OnHighToLow) transition occurs.
You can also specify whether to use a single external trigger event to
start the acquisition of a series of ROIs (ExternalToStart), or whether
to use a separate external trigger event to acquire each ROI in a series
of ROIs (ExternalForEach).
Note: If you plan to use the camera control output signals, you
must specify either an Internal trigger (for use when acquiring one
ROI) or an ExternalForEach trigger (for use when acquiring one or
more ROIs).
Line-Scan Mode
In line-scan mode, you can use a line trigger to control the acquisition
of individual lines and/or a frame trigger to control the acquisition of
the frames that are built by acquiring multiple lines.
Controlling the Acquisition of Lines
To control the acquisition of individual lines, connect an external line
trigger to the external trigger input, which is provided through pin 13
of connector J2 on the DT3145 board. You can access this signal using
the STP15 screw terminal panel.
Use software to specify the trigger type as ExternalForEach and to
specify whether you want to acquire a line when a low-to-high
(OnLowToHigh) transition occurs or when a high-to-low
(OnHighToLow) transition occurs. The acquisition is synchronized
with the change-of-state on the external trigger input line.

Principles of Operation
7
Vi
Vi
V
Vi
V
Vi
Note: If you do not want to use an external line trigger, you can
specify the trigger type as Internal. The acquisition starts when you
execute an acquisition command, and the lines are acquired as
quickly as possible. If you specify an Internal trigger, the lines that
you acquire may not be contiguous and the timing between lines
may not be determinate.
Controlling the Acquisition of Lines and Frames
To control the acquisition of both individual lines and frames that are
built by acquiring multiple lines, you use an external line trigger (set
to ExternalForEach, as described in the previous section) to control
the acquisition of individual lines and an external frame trigger to
control the acquisition of frames.
The frame trigger input is provided through digital input line 0 (pin 1
of connector J2 on the DT3145 board). You can access this signal using
the STP15 screw terminal panel. The frame trigger must have a
minimum pulse width of 10 µs.
If you enable the frame trigger using software, the acquisition is
synchronized with a change-of-state on digital input line 0. Through
software, you can specify whether you want to acquire a frame when
a low-to-high (OnLowToHigh) transition occurs or when a
high-to-low (OnHighToLow) transition occurs.

Video Input
8
Notes: The DT3145 board first waits for the frame trigger event to
occur, then waits for the line trigger event to occur.
If you do not want to use an external line trigger, you can specify the
trigger type as Internal. The acquisition starts when you execute an
acquisition command, and the lines are acquired as quickly as
possible. If you specify an Internal trigger, the lines that you acquire
may not be contiguous and the timing between lines may not be
determinate.
If you are acquiring multiple frames of multiple lines, the time
between the acquisition of each frame is less than 1 ms.
Look-Up Tables (LUTs)
The DT3145 board provides two LUTs (0 and 1) that you can use to
change the value of an incoming pixel or affect the displayed image.
When the LUT receives an input pixel value, it modifies this value
according to the corresponding value in the LUT.
By default, LUT 0 is the Identity LUT (the image is unaltered) and
LUT 1 is the Inverse LUT (the image is inverted - black becomes
white and white becomes black). In addition, your Camera Link
camera may be shipped with LUTs that allow you to perform pixel
point operations, such as image multiplication and division and
brightness correction. You can use the camera configuration software
provided with your camera to specify which of these LUTs you want
to use.

Principles of Operation
9
Vi
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V
Vi
V
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Note: If you do not get the results you expect using the default
LUT 0 or the default LUT 1, try using software to load one of the
LUT files shipped on the Imaging ONMI CD. These LUT files are
located in C:\Program Files\Data Translation\DT3145\LUTFiles,
by default.
It is strongly recommended that you do not open or modify these
LUT files. If you do, the results will be unpredictable.

Acquiring Images
10
Acquiring Images
This section describes the following topics related to acquiring
images:
• Acquisition type (area-scan or line-scan),
• Acquisition mode, and
• Data transfer and storage.
Acquisition Type
You can use software to specify whether to perform an area-scan
operation or a line-scan operation, as described in the following
sections.
Area-Scan Mode
In an area-scan operation, you acquire regions of interest (ROIs), also
called areas of interest or AOIs. Using software, you can specify the
size of your ROI.
Note: The maximum size that you can specify for the ROI depends
on the Active Pixel Count and Active Line Count supported by your
camera. To ensure that your ROI is valid, it is recommended that
before you specify the size of your ROI, you use software to specify
the Active Pixel Count and Active Line Count. Refer to your camera
documentation for more information.