Camera link to FPGA development board

[MJ Pearson]

I couldn't find any add-on boards either!

I built my own add on board using  the chips mentioned above. There is alot of information out there regarding camera link. I do not think it would be too hard to build what basically is a frame-grabber on the FPGA.

I only did this one way, I did not have to provide any camera control signals (CC1, CC2, CC3, CC4, serTC etc) as I still used a PCI framegrabber. I just provided the FPGA with the camera link outputs (x0+, x0-, x1+,x1- etc), via the chip DS90CR288A (camera link reciever), aswell as the timing signals this provides (FVAL, LVAL, DVAL) .  You would need to use the camera link transmitter chip if you want a stand-alone system.

I used the high speed expansion connector on the xupv2p, I got some connectors direct from the manuafacturer Hirose. Here you are provided with ground and power, and have 40 (I think) i/o's to play with.

Some people have tried to perfrom the LVDS deserialization on the FPGA, but make life easy - use the dedicated IC's! I found this document quite useful, there's some schematics towards the back.

http://www.latticesemi.com/documents/TN1134.pdf?jsessionid=ba30ba2f959f$84$0A$9

[addicted2failure]

hi Marc
thank you so much for your prompt replies and valueable info n tips
I'll look into this solution of making our own PCB.
great idea
thanks alot

take care
Best regards

Aali khan

[addicted2failure]

hi Marc
thank you so much for your prompt replies and valueable info n tips
I'll look into this solution of making our own PCB.
great idea
thanks alot

take care
Best regards

Aali khan

[GavinPerry]

It's actually quite easy to layout a 2 sided board using the NatSemi chips discussed, and map the parallel data to one of your headers on teh Virtex board.  I did this with the Spartan 3 NU Horizon dev board a couple years ago, and can share my ExpressPCB board schematic and layout.
I did a CamLink sender (DS90CR287) but it's no problem to go the other way (with the 288)
You will also need a DS90LV049 for the serial ports, and a DS90LV019 for the CameraControl if you are implementing these.
Gavin

[GavinPerry]

oops,  CamControl lines are driven by DS90LV048A, not DS90LV049  sorry for the typo.
As I said, I have the layout and schematic so you can build your own,  have ExpressPCB
make 3 boards for you for $60, and have fun with your soldering iron!

contact me: gavin (at) pcg (dot) wustl (dot) edu
G

[addicted2failure]

I'm really Obliged Gavin!

take care

have fun

Aali khan

[catding]

HELLO ALL

i 'v just found this usefull topic.

i have a project on hand deals Camera Link linescan Camera with TI DM642.

i made a board with DS90CR288A ,IDT72V2105 and ALTERA EPM7128

EPM7128 deals with LVAL,DVAL and FVAL, and triger IDT72V2105 to FIFO the valid line pix data,when FIFO goes to HF, it trigers DM642 read off the FIFO with EDMA,

But I have a big problem right now, The pix data i read is always be 0x00 or 0xff ,even i put the camera direct to the sun light...

I don't know why..

and I don't know did i capture the right line pix data..The FIFO data when {LVAL,DVAL,FVAL == 111}

and my camera is DALSA Spyder3

Can You help me and give me a hand .thanks.

My MSN: info@live.iandron.cn

Email: catding@gmail.com

[dummy_decoy]

you may have a look at hunt engineering. i am not sure but i remember their module can run standalone.

never thought of making your own interface ? i can't find it, but there exists some camera link chips which allows you to interface a camera link port to a fpga or a microcontroller.
you may also make your own: the camera link specification is available for free and is quite clear on the signals and how the lines are driven (i've seen this done before and it ran perfectly).

[MJ Pearson]

I know  when my camera is in line scan mode, FVAL is always low.

I capture the data when LVAL and DVAL are both high.

Other than that I can't help...


Message Edited by MJ Pearson on 04-17-2008 04:39 AM

[Ian Colman]

Hi Catding,

I reccomend that you post your question as a new thread as, from what I have seen, you may get more response from people if they see your new query in it's own thread.

Thanks Very Much,

Ian C
Applications Engineer
National Instruments UK & Ireland