7.1.2   Tab Connection

This tab card is only available if the image source is set to an image acquisition interface. The connection parameters are described below. See the description of the operator open_framegrabber for additional information about the fields.

Configuration

Device  
Select the ID of a board, camera, or logical device if multiple devices are available for the selected image acquisition interface.

Upon building the list of devices, the assistant queries the status of each device. Depending on the image acquisition interface, devices may be reported as misconfigured. If you select such a device, the assistant may suggest a Generic parameter that potentially resolves the misconfiguration. If you confirm this suggestion, the parameter will be entered into the Generic slot (see below). If a device is labeled with a question mark icon, it is either read-only, busy, or unknown.

Port  
Specify the ID of the input port.

Camera Type  
Select a camera configuration or signal type.

Select...  
Select a camera configuration file (in XML format) from a file browser.

Trigger  
Tick the check box if the image acquisition is controlled by an external trigger.

Resolution (X / Y)  
Specify the factor for image width / height.

Color Space  
Specify the configuration for color acquisition.

Field  
Specify the frame selection for interlaced cameras.

Bit Depth  
Specify the number of bits used for one image channel.

Generic  
Some image acquisition interfaces support device-specific parameters to preset selected values before the camera is initialized. The parameters the interface claims to support are suggested as a drop-down list. To set a generic parameter, select it from the list, and edit the assigned value, that is, the value after the =. Multiple generic parameters may be set by separating the entries with a comma.

If the selected image acquisition interface does not support generic parameters, this field is grayed out.

See the documentation of the individual image acquisition interfaces for more information about the supported generic parameters.

Action Buttons

When the connection parameters are set up, the action buttons are used to connect to and acquire images from the specified device. Messages about connection errors are displayed in the status line of the image acquisition assistant window.

Connect  
Connect to the specified image acquisition device. If the connection fails, carefully check the configuration in the above fields. Not all combinations of settings are allowed for all devices. It is recommended that you enable low level error messages (see General Options Experienced User) to find out what is going wrong. Please note that an established connection is closed automatically, if the connection parameters are modified.

When the connection is established, this button can be used to disconnect the device.

Snap  
Acquire a single image from the device (first connecting to the device if needed). The image is displayed in the active graphics window unless Display Image is set to Disabled (see Inspect).

Live  
Start/stop live image acquisition mode. The images are displayed in the active graphics window unless Display Image is set to Disabled (see Inspect).

Detect  
Clicking this button will attempt to redetect valid parameters for the current device.

Reset All  
Reset all connection parameters to their default values.