Adimec Camera Link OPAL Series, Operating And Users Manual

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OPERATING AND USER MANUAL OPAL FAMILY
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CONTROL OF THE CAMERA
Controlling the camera with the Command Console application 5.3
The Command Console application is a basic communication console. Commands entered at the
prompt line are directly sent to the camera. The program will run on W9x, NT, 2000 and XP (32 bit)
operating systems and in 32 bit mode on Vista (64 bit) systems.. It does not need installing, simply
copy the files to your hard disk drive.
NOTE: The serial control signals of the camera needs to be mapped onto a communication channel,
either by means of a hardware breakout circuit (to a hardware COM-port) or by mapping the control
signals onto a serial communication channel supported by the Frame Grabber. In Figures 5.1 and 5.2
both possibilities are depicted in a simplified diagram. The camera in these pictures can either be a
Camera Link version or a CoaXPress version (CL with additional CXP interfacebox).
Before launching the program the correct COM-port number must be entered by editing the console.ini
file. Replace the line PORT=0 by PORT=x, where x = your COM-port number minus 1. In case of serial
communication per Camera Link interface, set CLSELECT to 1.
Controlling the camera with your own dedicated software 5.4
The camera can also be controlled by a host system connected to the Camera Link interface using the
serial communication link of the Camera Link. Commands and resulting data are transferred between
the host system and the camera according to the communication protocol as defined in par 10.3. The
camera will always act as slave in the communication link, the host system must be master. All actions
are initiated by the host system, the camera only replies on messages received from the host system.
Command structure 5.5
Introduction 5.5.1.
When the camera is controlled by means of the Console Application or with your own dedicated
software, the following command structure is used.
Parameters 5.5.2.
Most camera o peration commands need one or more parameters. In general the command therefore
consists of a command keyword and the required parameters for that specific command. If more
parameters are required they should be separated by a semicolon (;).
Almost all parameters are signed integer values. Negative values must start with a minus sign
character (-). A plus sign character (+) for positive values is allowed, but not required.
For some commands a parameter may consist of a string of characters rather than a number. In that
case this string must be preceded by the double-quote sign character (“).
Commands accompanied by the wrong number of parameters are ignored.
Command example:
Command syntax: WB100;150;235