MREL Blaster's Ranger II Lt User manual

MREL GROUP OF COMPANIES LIMITED
1555 Sydenham Road Kingston, Ontario K7L 4V4 Canada
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Operations Manual
Edition 1.1
Lt

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Copyright Information
Publication History
Edition 1.1, January 2016
This edition of the manual.
Edition 1.0, October 2015
First edition of the manual.
MREL Group of Companies Limited (MREL) warrants that the product is free from Manufacturer’s defects for a period of one (1) year from
the date of shipment to the Customer. This Warranty covers all parts and labour.
MREL does not warrant that the product will meet the Customer’s requirements, or that it will operate in the combinations which may be
selected by the Customer.
MREL does not and cannot warrant the performance or results that may be obtained by using the product. Accordingly, the product and its
documentation are sold “as is” without warranty as to their performance, merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. The Customer
assumes the entire risk as to the results and performance of the product.
MREL is committed to product innovation; accordingly product may undergo specification improvements without notice. Copyright © 2016
MREL Group of Companies Limited. Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt High Speed Camera, Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt High Speed Camera Logo,
and MREL Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of MREL Group of Companies Limited. Windows®is a registered trademark of
Microsoft Corporation. ProAnalyst® is a registered trademark of Xcitex, Inc.
© Copyright 2016, MREL Group of Companies Limited. This Operations Manual supersedes any earlier editions. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction or adaptation of any part of this documentation or Software without written permission of the Copyright owner is unlawful.

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
1.1 Introduction 2
1.2 High Speed Photography 2
1.3 High Speed Photography of Blasts 2
Chapter 2: Hardware 5
2.1 Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt High Speed Digital Video Camera 6
2.2 Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt Accessories 7
2.2.1 Protective Carry Case 7
2.2.2 Zoom Lens 7
2.2.3 Tripod and Grip ball Head 7
2.2.4 Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt DC Power Cable 7
2.2.5 Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt I/O Cable 7
2.2.6 Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt AC Adapter 8
2.2.7 Trigger Switch Cable With Button 8
2.2.8 SD Card 8
2.2.9 USB Communication Cable 8
2.2.10 ProAnalyst® Introductory Edition Software 8
Chapter 3: Getting Started 9
3.1 Introduction 10
3.2 Powering Up 10
3.2.1 Attaching the External DC Power Supply 10
3.3 Camera Setup 10
3.3.1 Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt Setup 11
3.3.2 Mount the C-Mount Zoom Lens to the camera 11
3.3.3 Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt I/O Cable and Trigger Switch Cable 11
3.3.4 DC Power Connection 12
Chapter 4: FasMotion 13
4.1 Install FasMotion Control Software on PC or Mac 14
4.1.1 To install FasMotion on a Windows PC 14
4.1.2 To Install FasMotion on your Mac 14
4.2 Language Selection in FasMotion 15
4.3 Connect the Camera to a Wired Network 15
4.4 Managing Camera Network Settings in FasMotion 15
4.5 WiFi Setup 16
4.5.1 WiFi Setup for an Existing Network 16
4.5.2 WiFi Setup for an Ad Hoc Network 16
4.5.3 Connecting to the Camera via WiFi 16

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4.6 FasMotion Application Window 17
4.7 Controlling the Image Displays 17
4.7.1 Setting Default Gamma 17
4.7.2 Display Rate for live images 18
4.7.3 Setting up the HDMI display 18
4.8 Name the Camera 18
4.9 Camera Time and Date 19
4.10 Connect to the Camera Outside FasMotion 19
4.10.1 To open the Networked Camera in a Web browser in the... 19
4.10.2 To open the Networked Camera in a Windows Explorer menu 19
4.10.3 USB OTG... 19
4.11 Storage Setup 20
4.11.1 Configure Session (Standard Mode) 20
4.11.2 Formatting the SSD 20
4.11.3 Formatting SD Cards and USB drives 20
4.11.4 Exploring Camera Media 20
4.12 Configurations 21
4.12.1 To Save the Current Configuration 21
4.12.2 To Load a Saved Configuration 21
4.12.3 To Load the Factory Configuration 21
4.13 Reboot and Power Down 21
4.14 Camera Information 22
Chapter 5: Recording 23
5.1 Long Record and Standard Modes 24
5.1.1 Switching from Standard mode to Long Record Mode... 24
5.1.2 Switching Back to Standard Mode 24
5.2 Setting Frame Rate and Resolution 24
5.2.1 To set the Resolution of the Camera 25
5.2.2 To set the Frame Rate of the Camera 25
5.2.3 Offset Control 25
5.3 Setting Shutter Speed 25
5.3.1 Setting the Shutter Speed 26
5.3.2 Low Light Mode 26
5.4 Setting Bit Depth 27
5.5 Configuring the Trigger 27
5.5.1 To Set the Trigger Position in the Camera 27
5.5.2 Enabling the External Trigger 27
5.6 Configuring Sync and Arm I/O 28
5.6.1 IRIG Enable 28
5.6.2 Enable Sync In / Sync Out 28
5.6.3 Enable Arm In / Arm Out 28
5.7 Black Level Calibration 28
5.7.1 Calibrate Black Level 29
5.7.2 To Calibrate the Camera 29
5.8 Record: Arm and Trigger 29

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5.8.1 Take a Still JPEG 29
5.8.2 Standard Basic Mode Recording 30
5.8.3 To end Recording, Click the Trigger Button 30
5.9 Autosave 30
5.9.1 To set up Autosave 31
5.10 FasFire 31
5.10.1 Entering FasFire via FasMotion 31
5.10.2 Cancelling FasFire 31
5.10.3 Video Review with Multiple Partitions 32
5.11 Long Recording Modes 32
5.12 Reviewing Captured Imagery: Playback 33
5.12.1 Searching for Interesting Parts 33
5.12.2 Using the Slider 33
5.12.3 Setting the Start Clip and End Clip points: 34
5.12.4 Jumping to a Frame by Time 34
5.12.5 Jumping to Markers 34
5.12.6 Setting up Event Markers 34
5.12.7 Using the I/O Graph Display 35
5.12.8 Zooming in on the Timeline 35
5.12.9 To Zoom In 35
5.12.10 Viewing Per Frame Metadata in FasMotion 35
5.12.11 To View Per Frame Metadata 35
5.13 Image Processing 36
5.13.1 Image Processing Pipeline 36
5.13.2 User Control of Image Processor 37
5.14 Custom Color Correction 37
5.14.1 Using RGB Gain Controls 38
5.15 Saving Images to Mass Storage 38
5.16 Transfers, Batch Transfers and Conversions 40
5.16.1 Move 40
5.16.2 Convert JPEG or BMP Stacks to AVIs 40
5.16.3 Batch Copy and Convert CAP Files 40
Chapter 6: Using the Web App 41
6.1 Web App Overview 42
6.2 Camera Tab 42
6.3 Storage Settings Tab 43
6.3.1 Formatting 44
6.3.2 Setting the Session Length 44
6.3.3 Long Recording Mode 44
6.4 Record Settings 44
6.4.1 Setting ROI 45
6.4.2 Setting the Frame Rate 45
6.4.3 Setting the Shutter Speed 45
6.4.4 Low Light 45
6.4.5 Select Bit Depth for Recording: 45

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6.4.6 Select FPN Setting 45
6.5 Record Controls 46
6.5.1 Setting the Trigger Position: 46
6.5.2 Sync In and Sync Out 46
6.6 Display Settings Tab 46
6.7 Arm, Trigger, Live, and Review Buttons 46
6.8 Review Tab 47
6.8.1 To save a video clip 47
Chapter 7: Field Operations 49
7.1 Introduction 50
7.2 Selecting a Camera Position 52
7.3 Field Setup 52
7.3.1 System Setup 52
7.3.2 Power Supply Option 53
7.3.3 Camera Setup 53
Chapter 8: ProAnalyst®Introductory Edition Software 55
8.1 About ProAnalyst® Introductory Edition 56
8.2 Example Demonstration File Explanation - Mining Example 56
8.2.1 Image Processing 57
8.2.2 Multi-Plane Calibration 57
8.2.3 Display Layers 58
8.2.4 Notes 58
8.2.5 Annotations 58
8.2.6 Feature Tracking 58
8.2.7 Under the Tracking box 60
8.2.8 Save All Toolkits 60
8.3 Excel Spreadsheet - Mining_Demo.xls 60
8.3.1 Explanation of the Unshaded Cells 61
8.4 Example Demonstration File Explanation - Disrupter Example 62
8.4.1 Image Processing 63
8.4.2 Multi-Plane Calibration 63
8.4.3 Display Layers 64
8.4.4 Notes 64
8.4.5 Annotations 64
8.4.6 Feature Tracking 64
8.4.7 Under the Tracking box 65
8.4.8 Save All Toolkits 66
8.5 Excel Spreadsheet - ProAnalyst_Demo.xls 66
8.5.1 Explanation of the Unshaded Cells 66
Chapter 9: Contacting MREL for Technical Support 69
9.1 Contacting MREL 70

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Chapter 1
Introduction

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1.3 High Speed Photography of Blasts1
1.1 Introduction
1.2 High Speed Photography1
This Chapter provides an introduction to high speed photography and to high speed
photography of blasts.
Congratulations on your purchase of a Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt high speed digital video camera system. This Operations Manual provides
instructions on the use of the hardware supplied with the Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt.
High speed photography is the practice of recording photograph images in rapid succession for playback at a lower speed. The event can then
be viewed in what is commonly referred to as “slow motion”. Standard video plays at a rate of 33 frames per second (fps) because standard video
cameras record at 30 frames per second. However, it is possible to magnify the time scale if the playback speed is slower than the recording speed.
The following is a simple equation to express time scale magnification in terms of the recording and playback speeds:
For example, a blast is recorded at 500 fps and played back at 10 fps. The time scale is therefore magnified 50 times, and as such the event will
appear to occur 50 times slower in playback. If the event took two seconds to occur, it will now run for 100 seconds in playback.
The human eye cannot accurately resolve motion that occurs in less than 1/4 of a second. Short duration events such as a blast cannot be visually
analyzed without the use of high speed photography.
High speed film cameras have been used by blasters to assist in optimizing blasts for many years. With the evolution of the high speed digital
camera, blasters are now able to play, pause, and analyze a blast in perfect clarity as soon as the event has occurred!
It is the goal of the
Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt High Speed Digital Camera to put the simplicity of digital video editing and analysis into your hands
without sacrificing the resolution that has typically accompanied high speed film cameras of the past.
One of the major concerns of a surface mining operation is the high cost of drilling and blasting. In some mines operating in hard taconite-iron
formations, this can account for 60% of the mining costs. In coal operations, blasting can be used to excavate nearly 50% of the overburden
material. With the aim of reducing costs, mine personnel have been attempting to optimize blasting operations. In the past, blast designs have been
based largely on the personal experiences of the blasting crew, and blast evaluations were done by visual observations - with changes being made
on a trial and error basis. This traditional approach is gradually being replaced by a technology based on the concepts of energy input per ton of
rock, fragmentation and rock movement, along with the use of high speed video for the analysis of the blast movement.
High speed video has two main uses in helping to optimize surface blasting resu
lt s. The principal use is the direct photography of the blast, with the
analysis of the resu
lt ing video and/or digital images representing the bulk of the optimization work. However, high speed video also can be used to
analyze and inspect the performance of individual blast components, particularly the actual delay times for such accessories as detonating relays,
down-the-hole delays and other delaying and initiating systems.
Camera Recording Rate (fps)
Viewing Rate (fps)
(1)
Overview

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The information that may be obtained from high speed video includes: the firing sequence of the blast; the location of the first rock movement and
the shape of the face movement; the occurrence of gas venting at the face; the degree of confinement due to stemming; the occurrence and location
of misfires; the nature of the muck-pile formation; the onset time for rock movement (both at the face and at the top of the bench); the acceleration,
velocity and direction of flyrock travel from the face and the top of the bench; the hole venting and stemming ejection velocities; the actual hole/
deck delay times; and the casting range of the muck.
With proper preparation and care during the set-up, operation and analysis, considerable information may be obtained which can suggest where
improvements may be required in the blasting operation. In addition, the video provides a permanent record of the event and allows any changes
made between blasts to be easily and accurately analyzed. Before the introduction of high speed photography, what occurred during a blast had
to be inferred from observing the resu
lt s after the fact. With high speed digital video photography, many of these phenomena and occurrences can
now be observed “as they happen”.
1. “High Speed Photography in Open Pit Blasting” by Mining Resource Engineering Limited. March 1983.
ISBN 0-9691314-0-2. Available from the International Society of Explosives Engineers (www.isee.org).

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Chapter 2
Hardware

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The Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt High Speed Digital Video Camera is encased in a rigid steel housing. The housing is sealed to resist dirt and
moisture and is equipped with many connection ports: the Ethernet Communication port and the Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt I/O Cable port.
The Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt I/O Cable is comprised of a total of three connectors: Sync In, Sync Out and Trigger In.
Photographs of the Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt are shown below. The Mounting Adapter is attached to the bottom of the Blaster’s Ranger
II™ Lt to allow the Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt to be quickly mounted onto the Tripod’s Grip Action Ball Head (shown in Section 2.2.3). The
Mounting Adapter and the Tripod’s Grip Action Ball Head are part of the Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt Accessories Package. The Blaster’s
Ranger II™ Lt is equipped to accept any standard C-Mount or F-Mount Lens depending on the resolution of the camera.
2.1 Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt High Speed Digital Video Camera
This Chapter describes all of the hardware components provided with the Blaster’s Ranger II™
Lt High Speed Digital Video Camera.
Overview
1. Camera Function Lights - Back
2. Power On / Off Button
3. USB Port
4. SD Card Port
5. Ethernet Port
6. I/O Port
7. HDMI Port
8. Power Port
9. eSATA Port
10. Camera Function Lights - Front
11. C-Mount Connect
12. Camera Lens Focus Rings
13. C-Mount Lens
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3
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5
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2.2 BLASTER’S Ranger II ™ Lt ACCESSORIES
2.2.1 Protective Carry Case
The Carry Case is designed to contain, for transportation and storage all the components required for
setup and use of the Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt in the field. The Carry Case is a pelican case which has water
resistance capabilities.
2.2.2 Zoom Lens
The Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt is supplied with a Zoom Lens
appropriate for imaging of blasts. The Zoom Lens (80-200 mm)
is for the model of resolution of 1280X1024, and shown to the
right. Zoom lens (12.5 – 75 mm) is for the model of resolution of
800X600.
2.2.3 Tripod and Grip ball Head
This is an all aluminum Tripod with a 3/8” mounting screw. This Tripod is designed to support the
Grip Action Ball Head with the
Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt attached. This is the only item that does
not fit inside the Protective Carry Case.
2.2.4 Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt DC Power Cable
The Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt DC Power Cable is used to connect to a 12V DC battery,
the external DC power supply with a range of 12-26 VDC
2.2.5 Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt I/O Cable
The Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt I/O Cable is comprised of a total of three connectors: Sync
In(blue), Sync Out (green) and Trigger In (red).

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2.2.6 Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt AC Adapter
The Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt AC Power Cable will connect to a 110V to 220V power
source.
2.2.7 Trigger Switch Cable With Button
The trigger cable with switch allows the user to trigger the camera at a distance. The user can extend
this cable with the appropriate BNC connectors and a reel of RG-58 coaxial cable.
2.2.8 SD Card
The Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt is shipped with a 16GB high performance SD-Card.
2.2.9 USB Communication Cable
It is a USB-A to USB-Micro-B cable. Once connected via the Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt OTG
port to a PC, any mass storage device on the camera can be accessed by the PC. This
includes an SD-Card, Solid State Drive, or thumb drive in the USB port.
2.2.10 ProAnalyst® Introductory Edition Software
ProAnalyst® Introductory Edition allows auto-tracking of one feature, and manual tracking of up to
32 features. ProAnalyst® allows the user to export data to Excel or Matlab with ease for further
analysis or graphing. This software is provided under licence from Xcitex, and as such requires
the use of the included software key for installation. Instructions on using ProAnalyst® Introductory
Edition are included in Chapter 7.

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Chapter 3
Getting Started

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The Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt is powered by the external 12V power supply cable or
the AC adapter provided,which is included with the camera.
3.2.1 Attaching the External DC Power Supply
The 12V DC Power Supply operates on 100-240VAC, 50-60Hz. The socket is a
standard IEC 13, used worldwide for all types of electronic equipment.
1. Attach a power cord to the power supply and connect it to an AC power
outlet.
2. Attach the power supply output cord to the camera via LEMO connectors. The
LEMO connector is keyed: the red dot on the connector will face the LCD side
(back) of the camera.
Table 1: Battery LED States
Operating / Charging Charge Status LED Behavior
Operating >15% Green
Charging > 15% Blinking Green
Operating < 15% > 5% Amber
Charging <15% >5% Blinking Amber
Operating <5% Blinking Red
Charging <5% Blinking Red
Operating Not Installed Blue
3.3 Camera Setup
There are several precautions that must be remembered prior to using the Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt. The suggested procedure for assembly
of the system is detailed in the following sections.
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Powering Up
This chapter provides an outline of how to setup the Blaster’s Ranger II™. This chapter assumes
that the User will first want to unpack the Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt and set it up in an office
environment in order to learn the camera controls.
This chapter provides a detailed description of the setup procedure for the Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt. For instruction on using the Blaster’s
Ranger II™ Lt, please refer to Chapter 4 and 5. For Instruction on using the Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt in the field, please refer to Chapter 6.
Overview
Figure 1: Attaching the DC Power Supply

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3.3.1 Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt Setup
Open and extend the Tripod legs. Attach the Grip Action Ball Head to
the top of the Tripod using the 3/8”screw mount. Remove the Mounting
Adapter from the top of the Grip Action Ball Head and connect the
threaded screw of the Mounting Adapter to the bottom of the camera.
Be sure that the Lens arrow is pointing towards the front of the Lens.
Attach the Mounting Adapter to the Grip Action Ball Head. Secure the
camera using the locking lever located on the Grip Action Ball Head.
It is also good practice to utilize the locking camera.
DO NOT over tighten the lens! The lens should be “finger tight” only--just
tight enough that you can adjust focus and aperture without unscrewing
the lens. See Figure 2: Mounting the lens.
3.5.2 Mount the F-Mount Zoom Lens to the
camera
If you have the high resolution 1280 X 1024 camera, it is a F-Mount
with a 80-200 mm lens. Remove the lens receptacle cover from the
camera’s F-mount. This is a cover that is installed at the factory to
protect the camera optics and sensor from dust contamination.
NOTE: Whenever threading lenses on or off the camera, face the
camera lens down so that any contamination on the threads
will tend to fall away from the camera rather than into it.
Thread the F-mount lens into the lens mount located in the front of the
camera. DO NOT over tighten the lens! The lens should be “finger tight”
only--just tight enough that you can adjust focus and aperture without
unscrewing the lens.
3.3.3 Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt I/O Cable and
Trigger Switch Cable
The I/O Cable has 8-pin LEMO camera connector and BNC connectors
for Sync-In, Sync-Out, and Trigger-In. The Trigger switch cable is
attached to the Trigger-In connector. See Figure 4: I/O Cable and
Trigger.
Figure 2: Mounting the lens
Figure 3: Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt Complete

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3.3.4 DC Power Connection
The camera can be powered by a 12 V AC/DC adapter or the external
12V DC battery.
3.3.5 Ethernet connection
Connect the camera with your laptop, a computer or a network switch using one cat5 or cat6 straight through Ethernet cable.
Figure 4: I/O Cable and Trigger

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Chapter 4
FasMotion

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4.1 Install FasMotion Control Software on PC or Mac
Before we can begin setting up the camera, you must first install the Fastec FasMotion Controller software. The FasMotion software install
program is available on the MREL USB thumb drive that shipped with your camera. With it you may configure all recording parameters
including Record Mode, Session Length, Resolution, Frame Rate, Exposure, Color Balance, Autosave, Trigger point, and Sync options.
4.1.1 To install FasMotion on a Windows PC:
1. Run the FasMotion executable on your PC. The file will have the format: FasMotion<OSbit><version>.exe. For example,
FasMotion64_2.1.13.exe would be version 2.1.13, on a 64 bit Windows machine. If your Windows is a 32 bit machine, then
use the other one, FasMotion32_2.1.13. It is recommended that you copy the install file to the hard drive of your PC for safekeeping.
2. The Windows Account Control will display a message asking if you want to allow the installer to make changes to your computer.
Answer “Yes.”
3. The Installer Setup window will appear as shown informing you that the install process has begun. Click on “Next.”
4. The next window allows you to choose a location for the program. Select a location and click on “Next.”
5. The next window gives you the option on creating a shortcut for FasMotion in the directory of your choice. Select a directory for a
shortcut or click the “Do not create shortcuts” check box. Click on “Install” to continue.
6. FasMotion will now be installed on the PC. A window with a progress bar will appear and inform you when the install is complete.
7. The final install window gives you the option to run FasMotion software and a link to the Fastec web page. Click on “Finish” when
done to exit the install program.
4.1.2 To Install FasMotion on your Mac:
FasMotion software has been tested on Mountain Lion (10.8) and Mavericks (10.9). Some of the best file transfer performance
we have seen has been using a MacBook Pro (2014 model: 8GB RAM, Intel (R) Core(TM) i7-4750HQ) with an SSD, running Mavericks
and Windows 7 Professional (BootCamp).
1. Copy FasMotion.dmg to your Mac.
2. Double-click on FasMotion.dmg to run. A Window will open with icons for FasMotion and the Applications folder.
3. Drag the FasMotion icon into the Applications window.
4. If you are updating FasMotion it is recommended that you only use the version of FasMotion that matches the camera firmware
version. Do not keep the old version of FasMotion unless you need it for cameras that are not on the same version as the FasMotion
software you are loading.
This chapter provides an outline of how to setup the Blaster’s Ranger II™ Lt for recording,
viewing, and saving events.
Overview