Desert Star SharkEye Operator & Technical Reference Manual Download

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SharkEye



Digital Still Camera

Operator & Technical Reference Manual

Revision 1.22

Desert Star Systems, LLC

761 Neeson Road #9

Marina, CA 93933

(831) 384-8000 (831) 384-8062 FAX

www.desertstar.com

Summary of Contents for SharkEye

Page 1: ...1 SharkEye Digital Still Camera Operator Technical Reference Manual Revision 1 22 Desert Star Systems LLC 761 Neeson Road 9 Marina CA 93933 831 384 8000 831 384 8062 FAX www desertstar com ...

Page 2: ...k is desired we recommend the Quatech FastCOMM 422 PCI card We have not found any PCMCIA RS 485 adapter to work suitably use of an RS 232 port and the supplied adapter is recommended 2 FireWire link and Strobe Photography Firing of an attached strobe can cause the PC to lose a Firewire link to the camera It is strongly recommended that when a strobe is in use that the RS 485 link be used 3 Out of ...

Page 3: ...arations For Operation 10 5 2 Activating the Camera 10 5 3 The Status LED 11 5 6 Battery Charging optional 11 5 7 Connecting a Strobe 11 6 Standard Camera Operation 12 6 1 Starting the SharkEye Desktop Application 12 6 2 Connecting the Camera 13 6 2 1 IEEE 1394 FireWire Connection 13 6 2 2 RS 485 RS 232 Connection 13 6 3 Acquiring Images 13 6 4 Resolution Control 14 6 5 Focus Control 14 6 6 Exposu...

Page 4: ... 19 7 Autonomous Camera Operation 21 7 1 Scheduled Operation 21 7 2 External Triggered Operation Optional 21 8 Camera System Maintenance 22 Appendix A Using the FastComm PCI RS 485 Adapter 22 Appendix B Guidelines For SharkEye Photography 23 ...

Page 5: ...ommunication Adapter 1 ea RS 485 RS 232 Converter Communication Adapter 1 ea Umbilical Adapter optionally terminated to AMP w locking sleeve 1 ea Y Splitter Adapter 1 ea Power Adapter Charger 1 ea Battery Charger Connector Adapter 1 ea Software Installation Disk This manual In order to use your SharkEye you will also need a personal computer If a shipment is incomplete please immediately contact D...

Page 6: ...strobe and for battery charging Bulkhead Connector Subconn MCBH5F Cable Connector Subconn MCIL5M 1 Ground 2 Strobe Trigger shorted to ground for trigger 3 Strobe Quench shorted to ground to stop strobe 4 Battery Charge Input 24V supply through 2 Ohm 10 Watt resistor in charger 5 Power Output for strobe 6V Standard or optional signal from pin4 of umbl connector 4 SharkEye Cables Multi Function Conn...

Page 7: ...apter Optional MCIL6F to 9 pin AMP male A MCIL6F cable can be terminated with a 9 pin AMP connector if desired However normally an Unterminated whip is supplied Function MCIL6F 9 pin AMP male Ground 1 4 TXD or TX RX 2 2 RXD or TX RX 3 3 External Power Input 8V to 25V 4 7 Trigger 5 NA Trigger GND 6 NA The standard SharkEye is delivered with a short whip that can be used to interface the camera to y...

Page 8: ...er 9 Pin AMP connector to RS 485 RS 232 Converter This converter allows for the use of a standard RS 232 communication port with the standard SharkEye camera Function 9 pin AMP female data RS 485 RS 232 Converter TXD or TX RX 2 A RXD or TX RX 3 B ...

Page 9: ...ion 9 pin AMP male power 9 pin AMP male data 9 pin AMP female Ground 4 4 4 TXD or TX RX NA 2 2 RXD or TX RX NA 3 3 Firewire TPA NA 1 1 Firewire TPA NA 5 5 Firewire TPB NA 8 8 Firewire TPB NA 9 9 External Power 7 NA 7 Note Pin 6 of the AMP connector is not used Power Adapter Charger 9 Pin AMP to 110V 24V converter The power adapter can be used to externally power the SharkEye or to charge any inter...

Page 10: ... necessary Connect the SharkEye to your computer Activate and test SharkEye on your desktop Deploy for your actual mission 5 2 Activating the Camera The SharkEye offers two power ON options Permanent ON is achieved by rotating the power knob to the ON position In this mode the camera will not perform timed autonomous captures Permanent ON is appropriate for most missions where the camera is contro...

Page 11: ...ional The SharkEye camera can be equipped with up to 3 internal battery packs The batteries can be charged using the supplied battery charger Connect the battery charger to the camera using the Battery Charger Connector adapter The Battery Charger Connector adapter has an AMP connector on one end and a 5 PIN male underwater connector on the other end The Battery Charger Connector adapter connects ...

Page 12: ...lication can not open the selected serial port an error message box will appear You can select a different serial port to resolve this problem The SharkEye application is shown below Once the application has started the camera can be connected and turned on Title Bar Resolution Control Menu Bar Histograms and Balance Controls Exposure Control Camera Storage Control Image Upload Progress Bar Image ...

Page 13: ...it is best to reset the software and reset the camera 6 2 2 RS 485 RS 232 Connection When the application is started the software will attempt to open the last used serial port at the last used baud rate If this port can not be opened an error message will be shown In this case please see the chapter on Negotiating an RS 485 RS 232 Link The SharkEye camera uses RS 485 serial communication An RS 48...

Page 14: ...uicker the image can be uploaded to the PC NOTE The camera will always save full resolution images to it s internal storage The resolution controls only modify the size of the image uploaded to the PC 6 5 Focus Control The internal focus control dialog can be displayed by pressing the Focus button at the top right of the application window The Focus Dialog is shown below The Focus Indicator the sl...

Page 15: ... enable auto exposure When auto exposure is enabled the camera will automatically attempt to find the best exposure for each image capture The Auto Exposure algorithm only looks at the center 128x128 pixels of the image so it is possible that while the exposure of the center of the scene will be optimum the overall image exposure will not In this case it is best to use the result provide by the Au...

Page 16: ...rol White Balance Control Panel There are also 4 Simulated Film Speed buttons on the control These buttons change the baseline gain on all color channels to simulate a change in film speed Increasing the simulated film speed increases the sensitivity of the camera but can cause increased noise in the image The B W button tells the SharkEye application that an optional black and white image sensor ...

Page 17: ...dividual images can be saved on the PC by selecting File Save Image from the main menu bar Pressing the right mouse button while the cursor is anywhere in the image window can save an annotated image The annotation window will pop up Selecting an annotation in the list box will save an image annotated with the selected string An additional annotation string can also be entered into the edit box on...

Page 18: ...d storage Note If the SharkEye camera is not equipped with a hard disk the on board image storage can be filled quickly 128 MB of FLASH storage will hold 64 images Images stored on board the camera can be retrieved using the Image Retrieval Dialog which is accessed by selecting Camera Storage Get Images from the main menu 6 10 Retrieving Stored Images Selecting Camera Storage Get Images from the m...

Page 19: ...lected through the Comm Settings dialog This window is displayed by selecting Communications Comm Settings from the main menu When the window pops up select the desired Comm port and type See the appendix on configuring a Quatech FastComm card if one is being used The default baud rate 4800 baud will be automatically selected Turn on the camera and wait about 60 seconds The application should dete...

Page 20: ...20 The last successful negotiated link will be used next time the application is started ...

Page 21: ...desired time between autonomous image captures Then press the Set Configuration button to download the new schedule to the camera The new autonomous mode schedule will be used whenever the camera On Off Knob is set to the Stand by position halfway between On and Off 7 2 External Triggered Operation Optional An image capture can also be triggered through the use of the optional external trigger lin...

Page 22: ...he FastComm PCI RS 485 Adapter Configuring the Adapter Card The Fastcomm 422 2 PCI adapter allows for high performance RS 485 data exchange up to 1 25Mb s Currently SharkEye is pre configured to use this adapter for RS 485 communications It is necessary to properly configure the adapter for use with SharkEye you must use the serialgt exe software that comes with the FastComm card This software is ...

Page 23: ...4 from 1 and requiring a lengthening of exposure time to a still acceptable 1 50 second Closing the aperture down somewhat will also improve image quality because the less precise edges of the lens play a lesser role Find good camera settings and an imaging strategy then stick with them The feedback process through the umbilical is slow The diver or ROV can t hold still for even several seconds so...

Page 24: ...f the anode The diver thought he was aiming right ask him to over compensate to the left The over compensation requirement will increase the closer the object distance This picture was aided by ambient light near the surface Exposure time was shorter 1 50 sec so there is no noticeable blur The photographer choose a shorter exposure time to reduce blur but light levels were insufficient so the pict...

Page 25: ...igher light levels too A decent shot of a break in a pipe Notice how the diver started rotating his hand when the upper half of the picture was exposed SharkEye was using a rolling shutter so a shorter exposure time more light would help A scientific instrument photographed with 6 5 mm lens The field of view exceeded the beam width of the ROV light Perhaps a second light could have filled in the b...

Page 26: ...t but over exposed in the blue band on the bright anode surface Reduce exposure time somewhat A focus alignment shot in a bucket 9 stand off rods were mounted on the camera The paper in the bottom of the bucket provides a flat surface with fine detail to focus on The bits of hardware simulate the type of objects that will be photographed ...

Page 27: ...g small black dots of the metal is clearly visible Two 75 watt lights were used same settings as last shot Light pointing could use some improvement to prevent shadows Also a red infrared cut off filter may be useful at this close distance 9 to improve color definition A close up shot of an anode The lights close to the camera caused excessive glare Move them to the side Exposure 1 150 second 150 ...

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