THORLABS DC210 User manual

DC210, DC310
Firewire CCD Camera
ThorSight Image Acquisition
Software
Manual

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Table of Contents
Part 1. Thor Sight Software Guide..........................................................................................................4
1.1. Image Capture..........................................................................................................................................4
1.2. Saving Individual Images........................................................................................................................6
File Types: ................................................................................................................................................................. 6
1.3. Recording a Movie Clip to an AVI File..................................................................................................7
1.4. Camera Control Dialog Functions..........................................................................................................7
General Camera Properties ........................................................................................................................................8
Format and Frame Rate............................................................................................................................................10
Custom Image.......................................................................................................................................................... 11
Info/Support............................................................................................................................................................. 12
Register ....................................................................................................................................................................13
Trigger ..................................................................................................................................................................... 14
White Balance.......................................................................................................................................................... 15
Color Processing ......................................................................................................................................................15
1.5. About Thor Sight....................................................................................................................................17
1.6. External Trigger Setup..........................................................................................................................17
Part 2. DC210 Technical Reference......................................................................................................18
2.1. General Specifications ...........................................................................................................................18
2.2. Camera Power........................................................................................................................................18
2.3. Typical Spectral Response.....................................................................................................................19
2.4. Infrared Cut-Off Filters ........................................................................................................................20
2.5. Analog to Digital Converter..................................................................................................................21
Part 3. Camera Operation and Features...............................................................................................22
3.1. Gain and Shutter Settings .....................................................................................................................22
Gain.......................................................................................................................................................................... 22
Shutter......................................................................................................................................................................22
Extended Shutter...................................................................................................................................................... 23
3.2. Camera Interface ...................................................................................................................................24
General Purpose IO.................................................................................................................................................. 24
IEEE-1394 Connector.............................................................................................................................................. 24
3.3. Automatic Inter-Camera Synchronization..........................................................................................25
3.4. Supported Data Formats and Modes ...................................................................................................25
Standard Formats, Modes and Frame Rates............................................................................................................. 25
Customizable Formats and Modes........................................................................................................................... 25
Image Data Formats................................................................................................................................................. 26
Mechanical Specifications .......................................................................................................................................27
Part 4. Regulatory ..................................................................................................................................28
Part 5. Thorlabs, Inc Worldwide Contacts............................................................................................29

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Table of Figures
Figure 1: Select Camera Dialog Box..................................................................................................... 4
Figure 2: Thor Sight Main Screen and Tool Bar................................................................................... 5
Figure 3: Image from a DC210 ............................................................................................................. 6
Figure 4: General Camera Properties Tab............................................................................................. 9
Figure 5: Format and Frame Rate Tab ................................................................................................ 10
Figure 6: Custom Image Tab............................................................................................................... 11
Figure 7: Info/Support Tab.................................................................................................................. 13
Figure 8: Register Tab ......................................................................................................................... 14
Figure 9: White Balance Tab............................................................................................................... 15
Figure 10: Color Processing Tab........................................................................................................... 16
Figure 11: Thor Sight About Dialog Box.............................................................................................. 17
Figure 12: Thor Sight External Trigger Parameters Dialog Box .......................................................... 17
Figure 13: Spectral Response for DC210.............................................................................................. 19
Figure 14: Spectral Response for DC210C ........................................................................................... 19
Figure 15: Spectral Response for DC310.............................................................................................. 20
Figure 16: IEEE 1394 Connector .......................................................................................................... 25
Figure 17: Mechanical Drawing of the DCx10 Housing....................................................................... 27

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Part 1. Thor Sight Software Guide
The Thor Sight application is a streaming image viewer used to interface with your DC210/DC310
camera. It allows you to view a live video stream from the camera, save individual images, save AVI
movie clips, trigger the camera to capture trigger-generated images, adjust camera settings, select
different frame rates, and access the camera registers.
1.1. Image Capture
Launch the Thor Sight executable from the desktop icon. The Select Camera dialog box (Figure 1) will
appear.
Figure 1: Select Camera Dialog Box
From the list of cameras, choose the one that you wish to use for image capture. Once the camera is
selected, click the “OK” button, and the main Thor Sight application window will open. If you wish to
change the camera that is being displayed, access the camera dialog box by clicking on the Camera
Dialog icon ( ), which is the leftmost icon on the toolbar.

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Figure 2: Thor Sight Main Screen and Tool Bar
To start capturing images, click the Stop Light icon ( ) on the toolbar. The video will be displayed in
the main Thor Sight window with the frame rate and timing information displayed in the lower status
bar.
To stop the image capture, click the Stop Light icon ( ) again. Alternatively, you can also click the Stop
Sign icon ( ).
Trigger Logo Icon – External Trigger Setup
Thorlabs Logo Icon – Information about ThorSight
AVI Camera Icon – Creates an *.avi Movie Clip
Stop Light Icon – Stat and Stop Video Capture
Stop Sign Icon – Stops the Video Capture
Camera Property List Icon – Access Camera Controls
Save Icon – Saves a single Video Image
Camera Dialog Icon– Switch to a Different Camera

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Figure 3: Image from a DC210
1.2. Saving Individual Images
To save a single video frame, click the Save icon ( ) on the toolbar. A save file dialog box will appear,
enabling you to save the image.
File Types:
1. Portable Pixelmap (*.ppm). PPM is a simple color image file format that can store pixel values
up to 24 bits in size. These images can be viewed and edited using Paint Shop Pro from Jasc
Software.
2. Bitmap (*.bmp). BMP are an extremely popular format for Windows. BMP images can range
from black and white (1 byte per pixel) up to 24 bit color (16.7 million colors), and can be
viewed by most image viewers especially Microsoft Paint.
3. Portable Gray Map (*.pgm). PGM format is a simple grayscale file format. It is designed to be
extremely easy to learn and write programs for, and is capable of storing 16 bit images. Paint

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Shop Pro from Jasc Software is a good image editor that can open and display .pgm images. The
Linux application XV is the only application know to handle 16 bit images.
4. Raw (*.raw). Raw image files contain no header or footer information, and are the basic raw
data (pixel values) represented by the image.
1.3. Recording a Movie Clip to an AVI File
Thor Sight allows you to save a specified number of images as an Audio Video Interleave (.avi) movie
clip. To access this functionality, stop the camera then click the AVI Camera icon ( ) on the toolbar. A
dialog box similar to the one below will appear:
•The Frames field is the number of images that will make up the AVI. Each image is allocated its
own buffer in main memory which will limit the number of frames that can be specified.
•The Frame rate override controls the playback rate of the AVI. If this is left as 0, the playback
rate defaults to the image grab rate of the camera (i.e. 30 Hz). This is useful for creating slow
motion video.
•The Path field specifies the directory path and filename of the saved AVI file. The default
directory and filename is: C:\Thorsight\thorsight.avi.
1.4. Camera Control Dialog Functions
The Camera Control dialog box allows you to manipulate most camera properties, check camera
information and allows you to directly access camera hardware registers to get and set specific register
values.
To access the Camera Control dialog click the Camera Property List icon ( ) on the toolbar. Some of
the controls in the camera dialog box may be grayed out. This means that the camera being used does
not support that functionality. There are eight register tabs on the camera control dialog. Each tab will be
discussed below.

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General Camera Properties
Property Description
Brightness (%) This is the level of black in an image. A high brightness will result in a low amount of
blackness in the image.
Saturation This is how far a color is from a gray image of the same intensity, i.e. red is highly saturated,
where as a pale pink is not.
Exposure (EV) This is the average intensity of the image. It will use other available (non-manually adjustable)
controls to adjust the image. Specifically, when shutter and gain are both in auto mode,
manually adjusting the exposure slider control is actually adjusting the auto-exposure, which
tries to make the average intensity of the image ¼ of the auto exposure value, i.e. exposure is
400, the camera will try to adjust shutter and gain so that the average image intensity is 100.
When the auto checkbox is checked for exposure, auto-exposure is enabled, which tries to
manipulate shutter and gain such that a percentage of the image is saturated, i.e. pixel value of
255.
Gain (dB) The amount of amplification that is applied to a pixel. An increase in gain can result in a
brighter image and an increase in noise.
Gamma Gamma defines the function between incoming light level and output picture level. Gamma
can also be useful in emphasizing details in the darkest and/or brightest regions of the image.
Sharpness This works by filtering the image to reduce blurred edges in an image.
Shutter (ms) This is the amount of time that the camera shutter stays open for; also know as the integration
time.
Frame Rate This is the speed at which the camera is streaming images to the host system. It basically
defines the interval between consecutive image transfers.

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Figure 4: General Camera Properties Tab
Some general properties will have an Auto Mode in which the camera will automatically make property
adjustments to get the best image possible (given the environment and lighting conditions). Some
properties can also be turned On/Off, effectively disabling the property control. The One Push button is
another automatic control mode, but the camera only performs automatic control of the feature for a
specific period of time. After this time, automatic setting adjustment stops and manual control is given
back to the user.
General camera property values can be displayed in either absolute mode or integer mode. Absolute
values are real world values, such milliseconds (ms), decibels (dB) or percent (%). Using the absolute
values is easier and more efficient than applying complex conversion formulas to the integer values. In
addition, these conversion formulas can change between firmware versions, Thorlabs therefore
recommends using the absolute values to determine camera values.
The Broadcast Modifications checkbox allows you to broadcast the current camera’s settings to other
cameras of the same type that are on the same 1394 bus. Checking this and making a change to your
current DCx10’s gain settings will cause other DCx10s on the same Fire Wire bus to have the same gain
settings. Clicking the Broadcast Properties button causes all current camera settings to be sent one time
only to all compatible cameras on the Fire Wire bus.

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Thor Sight also provides the ability to save and restore all general camera properties to and from the
system registry using the Save and Restore buttons. The specific location these settings are saved to is:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Thorlabs, Inc.\Camera Settings\
Relevant Camera Registers:
Control and Status Registers for Features: 800h->83Ch
Format and Frame Rate
On the Format and Frame Rate tab you can change the resolution (horizontal and vertical pixel
dimensions), image format (i.e. Y8, RGB, YUV422, etc.) and frame rate (number of frames of
transmitted per second) of the camera. Different cameras may have different formats and frame rates
implemented; modes that are not implemented are grayed out. These modes conform to IEEE-1394
Digital Camera specifications.
Figure 5: Format and Frame Rate Tab
Relevant Camera Registers
Control and Status Registers for Features: 600h->630h

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Custom Image
The Custom Image tab provides and interface for putting the camera into Format 7, which is a partial
image video mode. Some custom image modes allow faster frame rates due to the reduced amount of
data (bytes per packet) being transmitted by the camera to the host system.
Figure 6: Custom Image Tab

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Property Description
Mode Most DCx10s allow you to capture custom sized images using a variety of IEEE-1394 DCAM-
compliant Format 7 custom image modes.
Image Size/Position The custom image dimensions are relative to the top left corner of the image sensor. The top left
corner is given coordinates (column 0, row 0). The custom image size must be evenly divisible
by the Unit Size and less than or equal to the Max Image Size. For example, a size of 120(width)
x 60(height) in Mode 0 is correct – 4 divides evenly into 120, and 4 divides evenly into 60.
Pixel Format The Pixel Format is used to indicate the color-coding capability of the camera. Raw8 and Raw16
images will be color processed and displayed as color in Thor Sight. Specifying Mono8 or
Mono16 for a color camera effectively disables color processing, and the raw stippled Bayer
images will be displayed.
Speed The Speed section contains two interfaces into controlling the effective frame rate of the camera
while in Custom Image (Format 7) mode. The traditional method is via the Speed slider bar,
which sets the number of bytes per packet to be a percentage of the maximum possible bytes per
packet. The more bytes of image data that can be sent in each packet, the faster the frame rate.
The other method is by manually controlling the Packet Size (in bytes). As values are entered in
the Image Size/Position text fields, the minimum and maximum bytes per packet are
automatically updated.
Info/Support
The Info/Support tab provides information about the camera, installed Thor Sight software, and links to
technical support resources.

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Figure 7: Info/Support Tab
Property Description
Camera Information The camera information displayed includes the version of firmware that is loaded onto the
camera, the camera serial number, model name, and type of image sensor. Firmware is
programming that is inserted into programmable read only memory, thus becoming a permanent
part of a computing device. Firmware is created and tested like software and can be loaded onto
the camera.
Software Information The software displayed includes version information for Thor Sight, the DLL’s being used by the
current instance of Thor Sight and the version number of the driver currently being used by the
camera.
Technical Support Thorlabs, Inc. provides technical support resources by calling our tech support number 973-579-
7227.
Register
The Register tab provides direct access to camera registers, and is recommended for advanced users.
When the Broadcast checkbox is checked, any register writes are broadcast to all cameras on the same
1394 bus.

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Figure 8: Register Tab
Trigger
The Trigger tab provides easy access to the camera’s asynchronous transmission modes, which are
implemented on the DCx10 line of cameras.
Property Description
Trigger Mode On/Off Checking the Trigger Mode On/Off checkbox turns on or off asynchronous transmission mode.
Delay This provides control over the time delay between an external asynchronous trigger and the
start of integration. (shutter opening)
Trigger Mode This defines the specific trigger mode the camera is in. Some triggers take a value that can be
set using the Param text box.
Fire Software Trigger This causes a software asynchronous trigger to be fired.
Relevant Camera Registers
TRIGGER_MODE: 830h

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TRIGGER_DELAY: 834h
SOFTWARE_TRIGGER: 62Ch
SOFT_ASYNC_TRIGGER: 102Ch
White Balance
This option is only available for color cameras. White Balance allows you to control the relative levels
of red and blue in an image to achieve proper color balance. Moving both red and blue values toward
zero should make the image appear greener. Green is kept as a constant and the red and blue
Colors are adjusted relative to the green pixel. Hardware white balance is actually performed prior to
the signal being digitized as it comes off of the sensor, which results in higher quality images. Selecting
the On/Off check box turns on or off white balance control – this functionality only works with cameras
that have recent versions of firmware.
Figure 9: White Balance Tab
Relevant Camera Registers
WHITE_BALANCE: 80Ch
BAYER_TILE_GAIN:1044Ch
Color Processing
The option is only available for color cameras. For most DC210C color cameras, the conversion of the
Bayer Tiled images produced by the image sensor into color takes place on the PC, and not on the
camera itself. If there is no visible difference in the image quality when selecting different color
processing methods, your camera does not color process on the PC.

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Which color conversion process is more beneficial will depend on the application of the color
conversion. On-board conversion will take more bandwidth on the bus but less processor resources,
whereas PC conversion does not take as much bandwidth on the bus but will be more demanding of the
processors resources.
Figure 10: Color Processing Tab
The differences between the various color processing algorithms are as follows:
Property Description
Nearest Neighbor Faster This is the fastest of all of the provided color processing algorithms. It is generally considered
to provide the poorest results
Nearest Neighbor Fast Based on a very similar algorithm to the Nearest Neighbor Faster this algorithm is slower but
performs slightly better
Edge Sensing The algorithm is the second slowest algorithm available. The algorithm weights surrounding
pixels based on localized edge orientation.
Rigorous This algorithm is the slowest of all of the algorithms and, without a doubt produces the best
color quality. Rigorous image processing takes seconds, not microseconds, and is not meant
for real-time processing like the other algorithms
Image Format The Image Format is the orientation of the Bayer Tiling on your image sensor. This will
default to the correct Bayer Tiling. The Enable sensor-specific filters checkbox only applies
to some versions of the DCx10 cameras.
Relevant Camera Registers
BAYER_TILE_MAPPING: 1040h

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1.5. About Thor Sight
To Learn about Thor Sight, click the Thorlabs Logo icon ( ).
Figure 11: Thor Sight About Dialog Box
1.6. External Trigger Setup
1. To Set up the external trigger capture, click the Trigger Logo icon ( ).
The Trigger parameters dialog box will appear:
Figure 12: Thor Sight External Trigger Parameters Dialog Box
Property Description
Trigger Timeout (ms) The time the camera will wait to receive an external trigger on the input pins. A trigger is
generated by a low going pulse between the trig pin and gnd on the external trigger
connector. A flying lead cable is included for convenience
Number of Images The number of images that will be saved. Each image will require a pulse, i.e. 10 images will
require 10 pulses.
Thor Sight Image This path field specifies the directory path and filename of the saved images. Multiple images
will be incremented from 0 to number of images saved, i.e. thorsightimage00.bmp,
thorsightimage01.bmp
Arm Button Click to have the camera begin waiting for the trigger.

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Part 2. DC210 Technical Reference
The DC210/DC310 is a compact CCD camera suitable for a variety of end user applications. This
section of the manual attempts to provide the user with a detailed specification of the DC210 camera.
2.1. General Specifications
Specification DC210 DC310
Style CCD camera in Black aluminum housing
with flying lead cable for external triggering
CCD camera in Black aluminum housing
with flying lead cable for external triggering
Sensor Sony 1/3" Type Sony HAD CCD
ICX084/ICX424
Sony 1/3" Type Sony HAD CCD ICX204
Resolution 640x480 1024x768
A/D Converter Analog Devices AD9841A A/D n/a
Video Output Signal 8 bits/pixel, 10 bits/pixel Digital Data
Interfaces 6-Pin IEEE-1394 for camera control and video data transmission 6 pin digital I/O
connector with flying lead cable
Voltage Requirements 8-32V
Power Consumption Less than 2W
Frame Rates 3.75,7.5,15,30 fps 1.875,3.75,7.5,15 fps
Gain Automatic/Manual Modes
0 dB through 30 dB
0 dB through 27 dB
Shutter Automatic/Manual/Extended Shutter modes
1/30 s to 1/8000 s @30 Hz
Automatic/Manual/Extended Shutter modes
1/15 s to 1/6000 s @15 Hz
Signal to Noise Ratio 50 dB or better at minimum gain
External Trigger DCAM v1.30 Trigger_Mode_0
Dimensions 2.86 x 2.13 x 0.7 inches
Lens Adapter Thorlabs DCM1 C mount adapter or DCSM1 CS Mount adapter
Camera Specification IIDC 1394-based Digital Camera Specification v1.30
Operating Temperature Commercial Grade Electronics rated from 0 to 70 ºC
Storage Temperature Room Temperature
Camera Upgrades Please visit our website: www.thorlabs.com
FCC Compliance The DC210 and DC310 comply with Part 15 of FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the
following two conditions: (1) this device may not cause harmful interference; and (2) this
device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause
undesired operation.
2.2. Camera Power
The 6 pin 1394 connector connects to a standard IEEE 1394 (Fire Wire) 6 pin cable and provides the
camera with both power and a connection to your computer. The ideal input voltage is 12V DC;

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however, the camera is designed to handle voltages between 8 V and 32 VDC according to the IEEE
1394 standard. The power consumption of the DCx10 is less than 2 W at 12 VDC.
Some 1394 PCMCIA cards fro laptop / notebook computers require a 4 pin cable. A 4 pin cable does not
provide power and will therefore not work with the DCx10.
2.3. Typical Spectral Response
Figure 13: Spectral Response for DC210
Figure 14: Spectral Response for DC210C

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Figure 15: Spectral Response for DC310
2.4. Infrared Cut-Off Filters
The DC210C cameras have an additional infrared cut-off filter included. The approximate properties of
this filter are illustrated by the IRC30 curve in the graph below.