Table of Contents. Getting Started. Automation Technology

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Page 1 of 17 Table of Contents Table of Contents... 1 Getting Started... 1 How to Configure the C3 camera by using example configuration files... 2 How to Configure the C3 camera manually.

1 Page 1 of 17 Table of Contents Table of Contents... 1 Getting Started... 1 How to Configure the C3 camera by using example configuration files... 2 How to Configure the C3 camera manually... 2 Getting a live image... 5 Setting up 3D mode... 6 Adjusting the integration time of the image acquisition... 9 Validating the COG results Starting the image acquisition with an external signal Triggering the profile acquisition with an external signal Triggering the profile acquisition with an external encoder signal (RS422) Saving image data Troubleshooting Getting Started Connect the C3 camera both to the C3-I/O-Panel and CameraLink frame grabber of the PC. Be sure that the power supply unit of C3-I/O-Panel is connected to the mains. Start the C3-Explorer by double clicking the shortcut icon on the desktop. The dialog Interface Selection appears. Choose your interface and press OK

2 Page 2 of 17 The C3-Explorer user interface appears. Start live image Stop live image Snapshot Configure C3 camera How to Configure the C3 camera by using example configuration files You can use example configuration files (.c3c files) for configuring the camera. Use menu File and select Load camera configuration, choose the appropriate configuration file from folder <installation folder>\c3_13\examples\c3c. Now the camera registers are automatically updated with the values from the configuration file. An overview of available camera configuration files is given in the document C3_CFG_Files.pdf. How to Configure the C3 camera manually Click at the symbol located on the C3 explorer toolbar. The dialogue box C3-Settings appears. Click at the tab General and select Image from the list Algorithm. The checkbox DC0 (Img, MI, CI) and DC 16-bit mode are enabled by default. Click DC 8-bit mode in order to acquire 8 bit images.

3 Page 3 of 17 Click at the tab AOI s. In the text field AOI0 enter the values for the measurement region (Area Of Interest) as well as for the threshold value: YS=start row (0-1023/1727), DY=number of rows (1-1024/1728), TRSH= threshold value (0-1023/1727)

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A pop-up window appears showing the live image.

5 Page 5 of 17 Getting a live image Put an object under the laser line generator: Click at the symbol located on the C3 explorer toolbar, in order to start the live image acquisition. A pop-up window appears showing the live image. Adjust the focus and iris of the camera objective lens in order to get a sharp laser line image without reflection. max. and min. intensity of the live image acquisition

6 Page 6 of 17 Setting up 3D mode Click at the symbol on the C3 explorer toolbar, in order to stop the live image acquisition. Click at the tab General and select one of the following 3D image algorithms from the list Algorithm (Please refer to the C3 hardware reference manual for more details): Threshold Position Maximum Pos.+Intensity COG (Center Of Gravity) The check boxes DC0 (Img, MI, CI), DC1 (TL, TW, CW), DC2 (TR, SP, MP, CM) are used to configure the C3 camera data output channels: Algorithm DC0 DC1 DC2 Image Grey scale values Not used Not used Maximum Pos.+Intensity Maximum intensity Left edge of laser line (PosL) or line width (PosR-PosL) Threshold Position Maximum intensity Left edge of laser line (PosL) COG Sum of intensity values Is Left edge of laser line (PosL) or laser line width (PosR-PosL) Right edge of laser line (PosR) or line position with 1/2 pixel accuracy (PosL+PosR) Position of maximum intensity (PosM) Line position with 1/X pixel resolution, where X=1,2,4,8,16,32,64

7 Page 7 of 17 Enter the number of 3D profiles to be acquired per CameraLink frame: After setting the data channel configuration you can start the 3D profile acquisition by clicking at the symbol on the C3 explorer toolbar. The C3 camera scans the object continuously. By using a linear stage system moving the object, the camera scans the complete 3D shape of the object.

8 Page 8 of 17 The pop-up window, which shows the acquired image, contains a toolbar used to adjust the parameter of the profile data visualisation: Scale to fit (allow deformation) Scale to fit (without deformation) Data scale move adjust limits doubleclick fix limits Scale 1:1 Load color palette You can stop the profile acquisition by clicking at the symbol toolbar. located at the C3 explorer

Page 9 of 17 Adjusting the integration time of the image acquisition Furthermore, you can adjust the integration time and the shutter mode of the C3 camera.

9 Page 9 of 17 Adjusting the integration time of the image acquisition Furthermore, you can adjust the integration time and the shutter mode of the C3 camera. Click at the tab Sensor and enter the desired integration time in the text field Integration Time (µs). Select the desired shutter mode at the combo box Shutter Mode. Depending on camera model, the following shutter modes are supported: Interleaved Mode Sequential Mode Rolling Mode The Timing groupbox shows information about the acquisition timing. The option Lock Integration Time to Readout Time can be used to let C3-Explorer automatically set the integration time to the minimum possible value. In Interleaved Mode (C and C3-A1024) the integration time can not be set smaller than the Sensor Readout Time (3D mode) or Frame Readout Time (Image mode). In case of

10 Page 10 of 17 excessive illumination, the integration time can be reduced further by using the parameter Integration Reduction. In Rolling Mode (C3-2350) the integration time can not be set smaller than the Sensor Readout Time (3D mode) or Frame Readout Time (Image mode). In case that the integration time is needed to be reduced beyond these limits it is advised to enable the Short Integration Mode. In this mode the integration time is defined as the time to readout a certain number of rows. For convenience the C3-Explorer shows the resulting integration time.

11 Page 11 of 17 Validating the COG results When using the COG algorithm, the C3 camera offers the ability to validate the resulting height data. Using criteria related to the Gaussian distribution area (sum of intensity values) and Gaussian distribution width, it is possible to suppress invalid height values. By activating the option Suppress Invalid Gaussian" the camera firmware validates every detected Gaussian curve along a column of the line image. The validation is performed using the tolerances for minimum width ( Min Gauss Width"), maximum width ( Max Gauss Width"), minimum area ( Min Gauss Area") and maximum area ( Max Gauss Area"). In addition, by setting the flag Use First Falling Edge", the firmware stops the search after the first valid detected Gaussian curve. If the flag Use First Falling Edge" is not set, then the COG calculation takes into account multiple valid detected curves along the column. This can be useful when the laser line is distorted due to speckle effect. In this case the option Clear Invalid Pos. Value" can be used to check the validity of the "speckled" curve. Moreover, the COG search direction can be inverted by setting the flag Vertical Invert.

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13 Page 13 of 17 Starting the image acquisition with an external signal The image acquisition can be started using an external signal (CL frame trigger). Connect the signal to the terminal IN1 of the C3-I/O-Panel. For TTL level voltage set the jumper JP2. Click at the tab General and select Camera Input 1, 2 from the list Sequencer Start/Stop. If you need to stop the camera after the first CameraLink frame acquisition then set the flag Stop Sequencer At Frame End. Once this mode is set, the middle green LED ( SEQ ) located at the rear of the camera is turned off. This indicates that the camera is stopped awaiting an external signal. As soon as the external signal changes to high state, the camera begins to acquire profiles immediately. Furthermore, it is possible to start the camera manually by simulating an external signal. From menu Camera select Camera Control and Start Sequencer.

14 Page 14 of 17 Triggering the profile acquisition with an external signal An external signal can be used to trigger every single profile acquisition (profile trigger). Connect the signal to the terminal IN1 of the C3-I/O-Panel. For TTL level voltage set the jumper JP2. Click at the tab General and select Camera Input1 from the list Image/Line Trigger. Once this mode is set, the camera will await an external signal to trigger a profile scan. As soon as the rising edge of the external signal is detected the camera acquires a single profile and waits for the next rising edge

15 Page 15 of 17 Triggering the profile acquisition with an external encoder signal (RS422) The profile acquisition can be synchronized to the motion of the scanned object by using an external encoder signal (RS422 profile trigger). The C3 camera features an integrated two-channel RS422 interface. Connect the encoder signal to the terminal A+, A-, B+ and B- of the C3-I/O-Panel. If the encoder signal has only channel, connect B+ and B- to GND Click at the tab General and select Resolver RS422 from the list Image/Line Trigger. Once this mode is set, the camera will await the encode signal to trigger a profile scan. As soon as the rising edge of the RS422 signal is detected the camera acquires a single profile and waits for the next rising edge. If the encoder pulse frequency is too high then an Overrun event occurs. This is shown as OVR in the Status row. In this case, the encoder trigger frequency can be scaled down by increasing the parameter Trigger After Number Of Steps. Press the button Clear Overrun Status to clear

16 Page 16 of 17 the OVR flag. The scaled RS422 trigger signal can be monitored at the OUT2 of the C3-I/O- Panel using an oscilloscope by setting Camera Output2 to Resolver Trigger. Saving image data Click at the symbol located at the C3 explorer toolbar, in order to save the current image data. A dialogue box appears. Enter the filename of the 3D image, e.g. 3DImage. Depending on which data channels were enabled during the 3D image acquisition, the following files (TIFF, PNG or BIN) are produced: o 3DImage_0.tif contains the data of the first enabled channel o 3DImage_1.tif contains the data of the second enabled channel o 3DImage_2.tif contains the data of the third enabled channel Example: if only DC2 was enabled then a single file will be saved ( 3Dimage_0.tif ) containing the data of DC2. The data are saved depending on the selected mode (8, 12 or 16 bit). Using an external image or data processing software (like Matlab), which can import TIFF bitmap files, you can process and evaluate the data.

17 Page 17 of 17 Troubleshooting Error Description/Symptom Possible Cause Action to take Pop-up error message appears: Could not load interface DLL: *.dll, where * is the name of c3lib DLL. Error message appears in the log window: No camera detected during enumeration Error message appears in the log window: c3lib error: -1 Error message appears in the log window: c3lib error: -10 Error message appears in the log window: c3lib error: -12 The camera does not stop the acquisition after completion of CameraLink frame although the flag Stop Sequencer At Frame End is set. The software and drivers of frame grabber are not installed or they are not supported from C3Lib The camera is not powered or the boot procedure is not completed. The CameraLink cable is not connected to the camera and frame grabber. The number of installed cameras in the host PC exceeds the maximum limit. The communication to the camera is broken. A camera configuration file (C3C) of a different camera type was tried to be loaded The frame grabber has reported a timeout. The CameraLink frame transfer was not completed within the predefined time interval. The camera begins to send the next CameraLink frame immediately, because a high state of the external trigger signal was detected. Install the frame grabber software and drivers provided in the C3-SupportPackage CD Check if the lower green LED ( RDY ) is turned on. If not, then check camera power supply and cable. Check CameraLink cable connection. Use a second PC to connect additional cameras. Check if camera is powered. Check connection of camera cables. Load a camera configuration file of same camera type. Increase the Grab Timeout parameter in menu Options. When the external trigger mode is used, check if the trigger signal is broken. Possibly adjust the camera timing to increase the frequency of profile acquisition. Check the state of external trigger signal. In some cases the jumper GND_IO_SHELL of the C3- I/O-Panel must be set.

Help Manual Rev C3-Explorer. Automation Technology GmbH

Help Manual Rev C3-Explorer. Automation Technology GmbH Help Manual Rev. 1.6 C3-Explorer Automation Technology GmbH Contents Contents iii Overview 2 Introduction... 2 Warranty... 2 Trademarks... 2 Installation 3 System Requirements... 3 Installing the Software...