Adapt-A-Link
Manual
Imperx Inc.
Adapt-A-Link Manual
6421 Congress Ave.
Rev 1.0
Boca Raton, FL 33487
01.14.05
6
1.1 General
Description
Camera Link is a communications interface developed for use in vision applications. The
specification for the Camera Link interface was developed by a group of industrial camera and
frame grabber manufacturers. The Camera Link specification is an open structure, which gives
manufacturers the ability to differentiate their products while maintaining interface
compatibility. In the past, the industrial digital video market had lacked a standard method of
communication between the cameras and frame grabbers. Since Camera Link is a relatively new
standard, many current digital video camera manufacturers use LVDS communication as
specified for RS644. Although RS644 is an improvement over older methods utilizing
differential signals for communication, such as RS422, there are still many cameras in
production and on the market using RS422. The major obstacle for the users of these cameras is
the frame grabber interface, where different frame grabbers, not compatible with each other, are
needed for the different camera interface standards.
To overcome this obstacle,
IMPERX
has developed a series of interface adapters, the Adapt-A-
Link family, which convert the interface signals from cameras using DVI, LVDS (RS644) and
RS422 standards to a set of signals fully compatible to the Base or Medium configuration
Camera Link interface. The adapters also convert Base or Medium configuration Camera Link
interface to LVDS (RS644) and RS422 standards, so legacy frame grabber can be used with new
cameras. Thus, all available DVI, LVDS, RS422, and Camera Link digital cameras on the
market can be interfaced to all available LVDS, RS422, and Camera Link frame grabbers –
Figure 1. The adapters cover a wide range of data signal configurations, camera enable signals,
camera control signals, data clocks and asynchronous RS232 serial communication. Adapt-A-
Link technical specifications are shown in Table 1. Each adapter is designed as a stand-alone unit
with autonomous power supply.
Figure 1. Adapt-A-Link Connectivity.