FastVision FC40 User manual

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FASTCAMERA USB
USER’S AND REFERENCE MANUAL
FVM-00398

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COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Copyright ?2005 by FastVision LLC.
All rights reserved. This document, in whole or in part, may not be copied, photocopied,
reproduced, translated, or reduced to any other electronic medium or machine-readable
form without the express written consent of FastVision LLC.
FastVision makes no warranty for the use of its products, assumes no responsibility for
any error, which may appear in this document, and makes no commitment to update the
information contained herein. FastVision LLC. retains the right to make changes to this
manual at any time without notice.
Document Name: FastCamera USB User’s and Reference Manual
Document Number: FVM-00398
Revision History: 1.0 February 4, 2005
2.0 February 14, 2005
3.0 March 3, 2005
4.0 April 29, 2005
5.0 May 18, 2005
6.0 July 21, 2005
Trademarks:
FastVision?is a registered trademark of FastVision LLC.
Channel Link?is a trademark of National Semiconductor
Virtex?is a trademark of Xilinx Inc.
Windows?, Windows 95?, Windows 98?, Windows 2000?, Windows NT?, and
Windows XP?are trademarks of Microsoft
All trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

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FastVision LLC.
131 Daniel Webster Highway, #529
Nashua, NH 03060 USA
Telephone: [phone] Fax: [phone]
Web Site: http://www.Fast-Vision.com
Email: [e-mail], or [e-mail]

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Table Of Contents
COPYRIGHT NOTICE_____________________________________________2
USB2.0 USER’S GUIDE TO FC13 AND FC40 __________________________5
The USB 2.0 Versions of Fast Camera 13 and 40___________________________________________5
Computer System Requirements________________________________________________________5
Hardware and Software Installation_____________________________________________________6
Cables and Connectors ________________________________________________________________6
DirectX Installation___________________________________________________________________7
Installing Fast Viewer-USB Application__________________________________________________7
Using Camera for the First Time________________________________________________________7
FastCamera USB Operating Modes and States ____________________________________________8
Fast Camera-USB Application Controls_________________________________________________11
Continuous Capture and Preview Mode_________________________________________________________ 11
Setting Camera Capture Parameters____________________________________________________________13
Saving and Restoring Camera Settings _________________________________________________________ 19
Triggered Mode to Complete Capture of a Video Sequence _________________________________________19
Downloading Captured Video to the Host PC Mode _______________________________________________ 19
Review Captured Video in the Camera Memory __________________________________________________24
Specific Fast Camera Issues___________________________________________________________26
Trade-off between Frame Size and Frame Rate___________________________________________________26
Exposure_________________________________________________________________________________26
Triggering Video Recording Externally_________________________________________________________ 26
FastCamera Test Data _______________________________________________________________28
REFERENCE FOR THE FC13 AND FC40 CAMERAS___________________31
Control FPGA ______________________________________________________________________31
Sensor Control ____________________________________________________________________________31
Flash Memory ____________________________________________________________________________ 36
Serial Camera Control Interface_______________________________________________________________ 41
Inter-FPGA Communications_________________________________________________________________49
Embedded Soft Processor Core _______________________________________________________________50
Data FPGA_________________________________________________________________________59
DDR FPGA ______________________________________________________________________________59
Recording Modes __________________________________________________________________________ 59
Details of Implementation:___________________________________________________________________60
TROUBLESHOOTING ___________________________________________64
FASTVISION TECHNICAL SUPPORT_______________________________64
Contacting Technical Support _________________________________________________________64
Reporting Bugs _____________________________________________________________________66

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USB2.0 USER’S GUIDE TO FC13 AND FC40
THE USB 2.0 VERSIONS OF FAST CAMERA 13 AND 40
The USB 2.0 versions of Fast Cameras FV-13 and FV-40 make use of the widely used
USB 2.0 computer interface that can carry up to 40 MB/s of data. This interface is a
standard part of all recently manufactured desktop and portable computers. Since the
FastCamera image sensor is capable of capturing video data at rates higher than 660
MB/s such connection required re-thinking of the traditional digital video camera concept
and significant stand-alone operating capabilities in the camera itself.
The FastCamera-USB is able to capture digital video at a very high resolution and frame
rate and save it in the camera’s internal memory so it can be later downloaded directly to
the computer at the USB 2.0 data rate without the need for a specialized frame grabber
board.
COMPUTER SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Your computer must be running Windows 2000 or Windows XP for this software to work.
No other version will work, nor have they been tested.
You need at least 3GB of free space on the system’shard disk to install the program, and
depending on the amount of memory in the camera, you may need more to store the
results. You need at least 256 MB of system memory.
You must have a USB 2.0 interface. The software will install but will not operate correctly
without one. In addition the software will not tell you, that you do not have the required
USB 2.0 interface. Please refer to your computer’s documentation to determine if you have
a USB 2.0 port. If you find you do have USB 2.0 support in your computer, you may have
to try all the USB ports to find the one that is actually USB 2.0, some of the older
computers did not have USB 2.0 on all of their USB ports.
The FastCamera USB will work with laptop computers that meet these requirements. Note
that some older laptop computers do not have USB 2.0 ports.
The FastViewer USB application will not interoperate with other USB cameras at the same
time. You must use the FastVision camera alone when you intend to use this software. It is
sufficient to un-plug your other USB cameras and you do not need to un-install their
software.
In addition only one FastVision USB camera will be recognized by the application software,
additional cameras will be ignored.

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HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE INSTALLATION
Installation of the camera hardware is very simple and has only one hard rule:
CABLES AND CONNECTORS
Operating the USB-connected FastCamera FV13 or FV40 require the use of only two
cables: Standard USB 2.0 AB cable and the Camera specific power cable that can be
optionally equipped with a connector for the external hardware trigger. The USB version of
the FastCamera uses only two connectors on the back of the camera. See Figure 1 below.
Figure 1. USB 2.0 and power connectors.
Connect the power supply cable to the camera first by gently rotating the round connector
until it finds the proper position and slides right in. Plugging in the power cable connector is
easy and doesn’t require any significant force. Disconnect the power cable by gently
pulling it out. No rotation is needed for disconnect.
After connecting the power cable to the camera, power it up by plugging one end of the
standard power cordin the power supply converter and the other end in the AC power
outlet. The LED on the converter box should display a steady green light. If this light is
blinking or dark,the power supply unit is damaged and must be replaced.
DO NOT CONNECT THE U
SB CABLE TO THE
CAMERA AND COMPUTER UNTIL THE
SOFTWARE HAS BEEN INSTALLED.

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Figure 2. The USB 2.0 A-B cable
Connect the standard USB 2.0 AB computer cable to your computer but do not connect it
to the camera until after the FastCamera application software is installed.
DIRECTXINSTALLATION
Proper operation of the FastCamera USB requires presence of the up-to-date DirectX
support on the computer. There is a setup program for installation of Microsoft DirectX
version 9 on the Installation CD in a sub-directory called DirectX9. This software provides
many of the functions needed by the FastViewer application which may not be present on
your computer. The Microsoft installation program may require you to re-boot your
computer.
You should install DirectX support first, or at least before you run the FastViewer
application for the first time.
INSTALLING FAST VIEWER-USB APPLICATION
Run the setup.exe program on the root of the Installation CD. Take all the defaults but be
sure to read the Readme page (and the license page if you wish).
Just install and do not run the program initially. Start application only after you connect the
USB and power cables to the camera and follow plug-and-play hardware installation dialog
by taking all the defaults on the New-Hardware-Wizard. It is not necessary to try to find an
update on the Web.After the new hardware wizard tells you the hardware is installed, then
you can start the Fast Viewer-USB program.
USING CAMERA FOR THE FIRST TIME
When you start up the program you should see the main application screen like the image
in the Figure 3below. You should see camera video in the rectangle. If you do not see
video, your camera may be powered off or it may not be generating images. Try pressing
the clear memory button to enable the camera video.

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Figure 3. Fast Viewer-USB Main screen and camera controls.
FASTCAMERA USB OPERATING MODES AND STATES
Operation of the FastCamera USB is presumed to alternate between three main and one
optional state:
1. Continuous capture is the mode when all incoming video data are stored into the
circular buffer located in the camera memory. The preview images of the captured
video are down-sampled from their actual resolution to 640x480 pixels and
displayed in the Preview Display window. Erasing camera memory will restart this
mode from the beginning of the memory buffer. Asserting the internal or internal
Trigger will push the camera to switch out of this state and into the Triggered

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Capture state. Continuous capture mode is expected to be used as a main
maintenance mode to adjust camera parameters, target and focus the camera on
the object. You can end this mode only by asserting the internal or external Trigger
and shifting into the Capture Completion mode. The software version of the trigger
is asserted by clicking on the Trigger button.
2. The Trigger mode tells the camera to complete video capture into the internal
circular memory buffer by counting down the number of the post-trigger frames
specified by the operator. It starts by the assertion of the internal or external trigger
and stops at the last frame. At the completion of this task, the application
continuously re-displays the last captured image frame creating visual impression of
the stopped camera. Upon completion of the video capture sequence the camera’s
internal memory is full of video data that can be reviewed from that memory or
moved (downloaded) to the computer memory.
3. Downloading images from the camera’s internal memory buffer moves video data
into the host computer memory as TIFF files. Preview Video area is blank during
this operation. After completion of the download the camera retains all image data
until explicitly erased by the operator. The image download can be repeated
multiple times if necessary. The operator can observe the frame indicator and stop
download at any moment reducing the amount of storage used in the download
operation.
4. (Optional) –The operator can choose to review images stored in the camera’s
memory directly and decide if they should be downloaded or erased. This operation
requires download of only image headers to the host computer memory which is
usually faster than the full download. Most of the time this step is unnecessary and
images can be reviewed directly from the computer memory after the full download.
The diagram in the Figure 4 below illustrates the camera operating modes and transitions
between them.

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Figure 4, FastCamera Operating modes and transitions.