GT-Vision GXCAM User manual

GT-Vision
GXCAM Quick Start
Guide
European HQ:
GT Vision Ltd.
Hazel Stub Depot
Camps Road
Haverhill
Suffolk
CB9 9AF
UK
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
e-mail: [e-mail]
Web: www.gt-vision.com
www.gxoptical.com
www.gxmicroscopes.com
N America HQ:
10205 Easterday Court
Hagerstown
MD 21742
USA
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
e-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.gt-vision.com
www.gxmicroscopes.com

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Getting Started
Introduction
This manual describes the most important aspects of the GXCAM camera and software installation procedure in the
simplest form.
Please take a few moments to read through this manual before you begin using the camera and programs,
because it should answer some questions that you may have. Please contact GT Vision should you encounter
difficulty at any time, or if you have any questions.
System Requirements
To use the camera and camera control programs, you need:
•A Intel Pentium 4 2.6GHz or higher processor for use with Microsoft Windows XP
•GXCAM Camera
•A fully powered USB2 port
•512MB RAM
•High quality, modern Graphics Card
•Windows XP or 2000 or Vista
•HDD 1G unused
•Display memory 32MB
•Large, good quality monitor (we recommend 17” minimum LCD)
Accessories Included (Figure 1)
•GXCAM camera (a)
•Camera Driver and software CD for the control of camera
on a PC
•USB cable (b) for connection of PC and GXCAM camera
•0.5X C-mount adaptor (c) for mounting the camera to an
eyepiece (Diameter 23.2mm, normally for biological
upright microscopes)
•Eyepiece adaptors (d) and (e) for stereo microscopes
(Diameter 30mm and 30.5mm respectively, used together
with the 0.5X C-mount adaptor)
•Graticule (f), for measurement calibration
•Quick Start Guide
Fig 1

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Installation Procedure
PLEASE NOTE Underneath the black screw-on cover on the front/bottom of your camera you may find a film of
protective plastic over the camera sensor. With the sensor pointing down remove this film by pulling the tag.
Installing your GXCAM camera and associated software programs should only take a few minutes. Please follow
the steps below:
•Installing the camera onto your microscope or lens and the software for your camera into your PC
1. Before you attach the camera always follow these basic rules when handling your camera. When you
unscrew the camera cover or when you attach a camera adapter to the camera or when you are
generally manipulating the camera ALWAYS hold the face of the camera (ie the hole with the chip inside)
pointing vertically downwards, no matter how uncomfortable or awkward it may feel. If you do not do this,
tiny particles of dust or swarf from threaded fittings will definitely land on the chip surface and, especially in
microscopes, these will be permanently visible in your images. They can be extremely difficult to remove.
We recommend that you become obsessive about the cleanliness of your camera, it certainly pays off!
Always place a cap on the camera when not in use and unattached.
2. Attach the camera to your microscope, telescope or lens using the appropriate adapter. Do not
connect the camera to your PC yet.
3. Insert the disk which contains the GXCAM camera driver and GXCAPTURE software
4. Connect the camera to a convenient USB2 port, make a note as to which port you are using (changing
ports requires re-installation of the driver). It is important that the USB port has sufficient power. The
GXCAM draws power from the USB2 port and draws less than the standard amount of power specified for
a USB2 port. However we have found, very occasionally, that some ports have insufficient power usually
resulting in a black image in the GXCAPTRE application. Disconnecting other USB devices sometimes
increases the power available to a port.

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5. The Operating System should automatically detect the camera.
6. In the driver installation window, it is best to select the location of the driver yourself and point the driver
installation to your CD drive and then to the ‘Drivers’ folder on the CD (have disk).

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7. (Automatic installation can be used but it may go wrong if you already have previously installed an
imaging device, in which case it may automatically find the wrong driver resulting in a range of effects
when trying to use the camera, this is the source of nearly all support calls regarding USB camera
installations.)
8. Ignore the warning message and ‘continue anyway’. When the installation is completed, click ‘Finish’.
9. If the Operating System cannot detect the camera automatically, open the ‘Device manager’ from the
Windows ‘Control Panel’, in the ‘Universal Serial Bus controllers’ term find ‘USB2.0 Camera’ and right click it.
10. From the right-click menu, select the first option ‘Update driver’.
11. In the driver installation window, select the location of the drivers to be installed (see 6) and click ‘Next’.
12. Ignore the warning message and ‘continue anyway’. When the installation is completed, click ‘Finish’.
13. Restart your computer (recommended).
Note:, Reinstallation of driver may be needed when the camera is attached to a different USB port.

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•Installation of the camera control software (GXCapture)
Follow the steps below to install the GXCapture camera control software:
1. Use Windows Explorer to display the contents of the installation CD
2. Double click the file ‘GXCapture.exe’ to run the GXCAPTURE software installation.
3. Click ‘Next’ in the welcome window
4. When the installation is completed, click ‘Finish’
5. Find ‘GXCAPTURE’ shortcut in the Windows start menu and click ‘GXCAPTURE’ to run the GXCAPTURE
software.

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Using your camera
Follow the steps below to operate the GXCAM camera with GXCAPTURE software:
1. Select the GXCapture application from your START menu.
2. In the ‘File Menu’ click on the “Capture” Tab, the capture panel will be shown on the right hand side of the
window. The interface of GXCAPTURE is shown as follows:
3. If your camera is still connected it will automatically be detected by the GXCapture application and a live
preview will appear. The camera should be displayed in the “Camera:” box:

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4. If the camera is not connected, or the drivers have not been installed, or if the camera has been
connected to a different (drivers not installed) USB port, then this will appear:
5. You can freeze the image by pressing the ‘STOP Preview’ Button
When the live preview is stopped you can select the resolution of the previewed image from the pulldown
list and press Start Preview. The higher the resolution the slower will be the refresh rate. Video/TV
resolution is 640x480.

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6. In the “Capture Tab” click “Start Preview” button to show the live image from the camera. The default
settings will automatically adjust the exposure. The more light you deliver to the camera the better will be
the image quality. You can change the default settings in the “Advance” Button. This will open a range
of live camera adjustment functions. Exactly what is displayed is camera specifi, here is a typical
non-cooled GXCAM set of controls:
7. While in Live Preview mode you can set up the White Balance by either moving to a white region of your
specimen (not too bright so that it is bleaching the camera) and then press the “Auto White Balance”
button
8. Or you can select an area on your image that should be white and click on it using the “Area White
Balance” button.

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9. Click “Stop Preview” button to freeze the image or click the “Capture” button to capture the image into
temporary-memory

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10. After pressing the “Capture” button the image is displayed in the “Capture Picture Preview” section:
11. If you have captured a number of images you can scroll between them by pressing the arrow buttons.

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12. To make measurements, annotate or process an image press the “Open And Edit” button. This moves the
image to the ImageProcess Tab:
13. You can switch between the ImageProcess and Capture Windows by pressing the tabs:
14. The Image Process Tab provides a very wide range of functions for manipulating, annotating and storing
the image. When an image first appears in the ImageProcess tab a default scale bar is displayed on the
image. The calibrated values will not be correct until you have calibrated the image.

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15. To change the properties of the scalebar, first select the arrow control from the toolbar
then double click on the scalebar to open the following controls:
You can also move the scalebar to any position on the image
16. To change the calibration which will affect the scalebar and any measurements:
a. you first need to capture and store an image of a calibration scale such as a stage graticule for
each magnification you intend to use. So, for instance, you will have an image stored of the
scale at 100X magnification, another at 200X, another at 400X
b. view the first calibration image in the imageprocess tab
c. Go to the menu Measure…Calibrate. The image cursor will now change to a cross. Mark a line
across the scale and enter the values into the ‘Add calibration’ dialog box

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d. Repeat this procedure for each magnification.
e. The calibrations can be selected from the menu Measure…Calibration Table
17. Other functions can be accessed from the menus and toolbars.