HUYGENS OPTICS
CS-2/3 camera strobe manual V01
7
Operation
General operation principle
The CamStrobe units generate high-intensity light flashes with a duration between 5-200
microseconds (µs). The pulses are triggered from the positive flank of the trigger input.
Controlling the flash duration
The duration of the light flash can be controlled by the length of the trigger pulse. Generally, the
flash duration will be equal to the duration of the trigger pulse. However, in order not to damage the
LEDs, the length of the flash is internally limited to a maximum of 200µs. If the trigger pulse duration
is longer than 200µs, the light flash will be cut off after 200µs. This is illustrated in figure 1.
Figure 1: Trigger input pulse and the resulting light output pulse.
In the same reason (damage to the LED’s), the maximum frequency that the device accepts is also
limited. The maximum device frequency is specified as 150Hz. However, the physical limitation is set
at about 175 Hz. If trigger frequencies above 175 Hz are fed into the device, it will automatically
switch back to a frequency that is one n
th
of the input frequency (where n = 2, 3, 4, etc.). This is
illustrated in figure 2, where the resulting light pulse train is shown for a frequency below- and
above 175 Hz.
Figure 2: Trigger input pulse train and the resulting light output frequency.
