Proper camera config for Hamamatsu c1000

[citra_Stow]

I have an old vidicon IR camera (Hamamatsu C1000, type 53 Head) and have been trying to get it to function properly in Labview.  The camera works fine (as tested via an analog monitor) but has been functioning very oddly when connected to the framegrabber.

I am using:

NI PCI1407 framegrabber,

Labview ver 11,

NI-Imaq 4.6,

NIMAX 15.3,

Vista based desktop.  

I had initially suspected the output from the camera controller was RS-170 format and used the standard camera file provided in NIMAX.  The acquisition works fine until any significant intensity is provided to the camera.  The program throws up an error "0xBFF60022" stating that the device timed out.  After turning down the intensity the grab refused to function again throwing up a "0xBFF6001F" error telling me that it can't recognize a video source.  I usually have to restart to get it to recognize again.  Function of the problem is the same in Labview.

I don't have access to a scope (yet) but threw the video output on a NI-USB6008 to get a sense of the output.  It has nowhere near the bit rate for me to view the actual signal but i can see max and min voltages that are being hit.  Low intensity I see less than 1Vpp but when the signal is increase I see that 1Vpp is exceeded.  Could this be the issue?  Does it have to do with anything else in my setup?

I have never needed to alter a camera config file and am not sure which parameters to start with.  Does anyone have any experience with a similar camera?  Does anyone know which parameter to alter in the config to get this to function properly?

Thanks!

[esoDerek]

Hello citra_Stow,

I have a few questions for you to help narrow down what might be going wrong! The main thing I'd like to know is what you mean by intensity. Is this a setting on your camera? The literal intensity of the light being shone on the camera? A clarification on what this means, and how you've been increasing intensity, would be helpful here.

Second, do you have any documentation on the Hanamatsu C1000? I can't narrow down the model on the Hamamatsu website! My suspicion is that the "intensity" is causing some part of this system to go out-of-spec. Either this camera has strange behavior when exposed to too much light, or too much light causes it to provide an unexpected signal to the framegrabber. Once again, the intensity will be the best way to narrow this down - but if you have more detailed model information, or can link to the Hanamatsu manual, this would be very helpful for us.

Thanks,

Derek B

[citra_Stow]

Thanks for the response, Derek.

What I mean about the intensity is signal that is sent to the framegrabber.  For exampe, if I turn on the source that I want to image and keep the sensitivity and gain knobs on the camera controller at 0 I get video, however as I turn up the sensitivity and gain knobs I will eventually get an image, however, if i keep turning them up the acquisition will crash.  additionally, if I keep the knobs at a level where I get an image (though dim) and I turn up the intensity on the device I am trying to image - the physical light source - the acquisition will crash.  This leads me to believe the camera controller may be outputting too much voltage.

I have since tried to alter the "WhiteLevel_mV" in the RS_170 camera file with mild success.

I talked to engineers at Hamamatsu but the camera has long passed its support timeline and no one there could find information other than the brochure that is attached (which was somewhat useful, had to edit it down to meet attachment size). 

I have also attached a saved image to show what image I do get and there is something very wrong with the syncing.  the image's interlaced fields are mismatched and the image scrolls from top to bottom a few times a second.  I've altered the VSYNCSample parameter in the camera file but haven't haven't noticed any change in the displayed image.

Hopefully that helps!

Ben

[esoDerek]

Hi Ben,

Thanks for the follow up! A few things to note. First, the PCI 1407 is well outside of it's support lifecycle as well, so our resources to assist with this are unfortunately limited. However, I'll still do my best to assist. I've linked a product manual below:

http://www.ni.com/pdf/manuals/322156c.pdf

On page A-2, they discuss the input voltage ranges for a variable gain device. The 1407 should be able to handle up to 1.26V. When testing the output of your camera, you mentioned that the Vp-p was rising and falling based on intensity - how high did it go? How low?

If the voltage output was within spec, the PCI-1407 should have been able to handle that voltage - which means this may have something to do with the camera. Do you have any other cameras you can try with this card? Do you have any other devices that can view the camera output? A CRT monitor, for example?

Finally, has this system ever worked as expected? Is this new behavior? Has anything changed between this application and any previous applications?

We're working with some quite old hardware - if an analog camera is essential for your application, it might be wise to consider using an analog-to-GigE adapter to (somewhat) modernize the setup! Pleora makes some of these:

http://www.pleora.com/our-products/frame-grabbers/iport-analog-pro

I hope this helps! Thank you,

[citra_Stow]

Thanks again Derek, very helpful.

We have been trying to build an Electroluminescence station on a budget and happened to get the camera and card (separate suppliers) very cheap.  Both do function (tested separately) and were taken from working systems, but have never been integrated together until now.  I was aware that the 1407 was well beyond the support cycle but have used them in the past with success an figured this would be no issue.  The analog to GigE adaptor is very interesting, but I'm unsure that the system would work with it if it can't work with the 1407.

The camera works with an old CRT monitor that we have in the lab (75ohm input).  The monitor is a Hitachi VM-902U.  the monitor has an output port on it as well that I connected to the 1407 (camera to monitor, monitor to 1407) to see if the monitor would somehow massage the signal but while the image was correct on the monitor, the image from the 1407 was not.  I have also confirmed the correct operation of the 1407 as I have connected two cameras to it and have gotten clear images.

I've attached a screen grab of the waveform that I see.  As can be seen the voltage varies between 1.4 and 2.4 volts - i'm not sure why it is offset or negative - but i can get video from these voltages.  The waveform is distorted as it was acqured at 10kHz while the signal is >15kHz, so there could be larger/smaller voltages that are missed.  If i increase the sensitivity of the camera some of the spikes do increase and I lose the video (probably due to over voltage).

However, now my issue is the quality of the image.  The second attachment shows the image I get from the 1407.  It appears that the interlacing is off by about 24 lines (bottom of the image, there are two device edges present).  The odd and even lines have each been shifted it appears.  the image also scrolls top to bottom about 5 times a second.  this appears to be a VSync issue but i've tried changing the value in the camera config file but haven't seen any change.  I'm not very familiar with the camera config file and am unsure if changing "VSYNCSample" is even the correct value to change.   

Hopefully this gives you a better idea of what may be causing the issue.  I really feel it may be just a setting in the camera file.

Thanks again,

Ben