Config external trigger to PCIe-1427

[George051]

Hello everybody.

I have a 1427 framegrabber conected to Basler Ral2048-80Km trough camera link. My problem is to obtain images synchronized by  one of the hard inputs conected to an external encoder.

Up to now got only free running images. I appreciate any help whit that, I'm almost sure is something about the framegrabber config.

Tks.

[Tepig]

Is this document helpful?

Complex Hardware Triggering for the PCIe-1427 - National Instruments 

[George051]

Hello Emboar.

I'm using NIMAX Version 18.5.0f0. So in the top bottom menu i have no the frame grabber attributes.

up to this point anything action described on it is not available to mi.

Tks

[Tepig]

No configuration? Could you share the MAX view?

[George051]

Hi Emboar. Hope it helps.

[Tepig]

Thanks. Second picture is what I would like to see.

I might have a misunderstanding, how are you going to use trigger signal?

It seems that raL2048-80km has an external triggering feature. If you directly connect the trigger into the camera, you don't need any 1427 settings I guess. In general, 1427 just waits for image coming. Once an image is received, the device handles it in LabVIEW.

As my conclusion, why don't you try following steps?

1. Connect Encoder signal to Camera (refer camera manual)
2. Set camera setting to use external trigger (I "guess" you can do the configuration on "Camera Attributes" in  MAX)
3. Run your LabVIEW program

[George051]

Hello Emboar.

Unfortunately my camera is a camera link model, so there is no way to trigger beyond  grabber options. In my case i must to trigger each line. It is not clear to me how to configure an external AB encoder. I did a lot of tests based on sample vi: HL Trigger Each Line From Encoder without success The cluster "Encoder parameters" have no effect on system behavior.

In block diagram: Selecting Trigger Type: External or Iso_In, respond to Iso_IN(0) Pin 5-6 from D SUB hardware grabber connector. It seems to me, that must be a tool to choose the channel trigger,  which is not intuitive (at least to me) onto my MAX version.

Tks

George051

[Tepig]

You said "It is not clear to me how to configure an external AB encoder.",

you have no confidence of the hardware configuration, don't you?

As 1st step, why don't you try with Basler pylon?

On LabVIEW side, PCIe-1427 is waiting for a image coming from camera and once receives,

pass it via Vision API. I guess since the board doesn't receive it, you cannot see any image on LabVIEW.

If it's ok on pylon, we must dig into LabVIEW but if not, you must check the hardware setup.

[George051]

Hi Emboar.
Basler Pylon let me change the camera config. The only way to change PCIe-1427 config is through MAX or programmatically. As you say I’m not confidence to handle all the parameters programmatically, I have no more options though. MAX does no give me the option to change Iso_In 0 to A/B encoder. That’s the only thing remaining to complete the app.

[lcady · Accepted solution]

This is a solution, but it requires editing the camera file.  Also, this is an IMAQdx solution.  Since NI MAX is now using IMAQdx there is a copy of the IMAQ camera file in the path 

C:\Users\Public\Documents\National Instruments\NI-IMAQdx\Data

The camera file generator program will edit the camera file in the IMAQ path

C:\Users\Public\Documents\National Instruments\NI-IMAQ\Data

But MAX creates a .icd file in \IMAQdx\  and links to the file in \IMAQ\ to get the camera attributes.

This work is done in Camera File Generator:

https://www.ni.com/en-us/support/documentation/supplemental/19/creating-a-camera-file-using-the-ni-c...

Control line 0 or CC1 needs a pulse defined by a selected attribute.

In my example I send a serial command to the camera to switch to external trigger mode, and define a pulse.

The pulse defined from two other attributes, but it can be fixed microsecond values.

Save and open MAX.  Select the camera file (right click on the camera and go to camera selection)

I'm using NI MAX 19.5.0f0

In Camera attributes, select the attribute that defines the pulse.

In FrameGrabberAttributes::

      AcquisitionControls::

        TriggerSelector    = Line start

        TriggerMode        = ON

        TriggerSource      = Encoder

        TriggerDivider      =  1

      EncoderControlls::

        EncoderDivider    =  What ever you want

        EncoderUseIOBoardInput  =  True if using the cameraLink IO expansion card

!!!  Some of the settings do not save in the .icd file.  The EncoderUseIOBoardInput is not in the file.  You must add a property node.  AND even though some values are in the icd file, they will not be read when you open the camera in MAX.  The Trigger mode is "ON" in the file, but will be off in MAX.