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APDCAM User’s Guide
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munication a media converter is needed on the PC side. Adimtech recommends D-Link
DMC-700SC media converters, which were extensively tested with APDCAM.
On the camera side the media converter is included in the camera. Connect a short
UTP cable between the camera UTP port and the camera Fibre module’s UTP port. Con-
nect the optical cable to the camera fibre converter optical connector. On the PC side
similarly connect the media converter between the PC Gigabit interface and the optical
cable.
To communicate with APDCAM
the PC Ethernet interface IP address should be set up
to the same subnet as the camera. The default IP address of the camera is 10.123.13.101,
therefore the PC can be set up e.g. to 10.123.13.202. The netmask should be 255.0.0.0.
The camera Gigabit interface can be set up for a different IP address using a software
command over the internet connection; therefore it can also be connected to a local net-
work shared by other devices. However, in applications needing high data acquisition
performance this is not recommended as high network traffic can result in loss of data.
If the camera network address was set up in a wrong way or the address is not noted it
can happen that the PC cannot find the camera on the network. In such cases consult the
manufacturer for a solution.
2.6. Software
interface
A user program can control APDCAM by sending UDP datagrams to the Gbit com-
munications module (Gigabit Ethernet Controller, ByteStudio, www.bytestudio.hu). The
control datagrams fall into two basic categories: control for the Gbit interface and register
read/write in one of the two internal modules of APDCAM: the data acquisition module
and the control module. The camera may answer to these UDP datagrams by sending one
ore more responding UDP datagrams.
For a standard setup the Gigabit interface parameters need not be modified. For spe-
cial settings please consult the separate Gigabit interface documentation.
Additionally to register read/write operations data form the camera are also sent to the
PC in UDP datagrams. This form of communication is optimal for sending large amounts
of data but it has no feedback to the sending device. This means that if a data packet is
lost the camera will not resend it. UDP packets are counted sequentially, therefore the
receiving program can detect when data loss occurred.
To ease usage a Windows library (CamControl.dll) is provided which can perform all
necessary register read/write and data stream control operations. The functions can be
called from C++ or IDL. Detailed description of the DLL functions and their use is pre-
sented in Section 3.6.
During data collection the PC might need a large amount of memory. These DLL
functions attempt to allocate this in a way which prevents it from being paged to virtual
memory. This possibility is by default not enabled for all users of a PC, and should be
enabled in the Windows Control Panel. For details see Section 3.6.
2.7.
Optical input interface
APDCAM has a standard Nikon F-mount as optical input interface. A BK7 glass win-
dow is located in the F-mount therefore dust will not enter the detector housing. A shutter
is mounted between the window and the detector. The shutter can be opened either with a
software command or via an external TTL signal. A calibration light source is coupled to