2012-03-29 Manual Q-8V100 and S-25A30 Rev. 0.1
preliminary
13
5. CONTROL OF THE CAMERA
The Quartz cameras are fully software controlled via the Camera Link serial channel using a
simple ASCII based protocol.
It is possible to save settings as ‘power-up default settings’ in the camera.
A command line control application is available to interactively control the camera settings.
Please contact your local Business Office to obtain a copy of the latest release.
Although this is an easy way of changing camera settings, it is also possible to communicate
with the camera using self deployed software. Please refer to chapter 5.2 for the
communication protocol.
Use chapter 6 as a detailed reference of the control commands.
5.1. Communication protocol
The camera is 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 by means of a communication protocol. The host
system is the master in the communication link. All actions are initiated by the host system.
The camera only replies to a message received from the host system.
5.1.1. Data link settings
The data link set tings that shall be used for communication with the camera are:
Baud rate
57600 baud
stop bit
1
data bit
8
parity
none
handshaking
none
5.1.2. Data flow characters
The communication protocol uses data flow control characters to identify a message and for
acknowledgement.
The following data flow characters are defined:
CHAR
DEC
Description
NUL
0
NUL character, is ignored
STX
64
Start of message identifier
ETX
13
End of message identifier
ACK
6
Positive acknowledgement
NAK
21
Negative acknowledgement
5.1.3. Message Format
Command and data are packed in a message. A message starts with the STX character
followed by the message content. The message ends with an ETX character. The characters
allowed in the message content range from decimal 32 to 255.
Format:
STX <message content> ETX
