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Interfacing the Sony XC-7500/XC-8500CE camera to the MV-1000/1300 board

The M-Vision-1000 (MV-1000) is a monochrome digitizer board, which interfaces to the PCI bus. The MV-1000 product line includes a base board with analog camera support, a 3 Megabyte memory upgrade module (MV-1200), two analog color modules (MV-1300 and MV-1350), and a 32 bit digital interface module(MV-1100).

The XC-7500 or XC-8500CE may be connected to the MV-1000 which will allow independent capture of either video output channel, but not simultaneously. Simultaneous capture of both channels is supported by using an MV-1300 RGB interface module. In this mode, the two video channel signals are sent to two separate inputs on the MV-1300. The external trigger capability of the XC-7500/XC-8500CE may be externally stimulated or may be driven by a general purpose control signal on the MV-1000.

The XC-7500 camera from Sony is a full-frame, high performance, high sensitivity, high resolution 659(H) x 494(V) (EIA), monochrome, progressive scan camera with asynchronous electronic shutter and E-DONPISHAâ /S-DONPISHAâ capability as well as single frame or continuous video output.

The XC-8500CE camera from Sony is a full-frame, high performance, high sensitivity, high resolution 782(H) x 582(V) (CCIR), monochrome, progressive scan camera with asynchronous electronic shutter and E-DONPISHAâ /S-DONPISHAâ capability as well as single frame or continuous video output.

Both cameras have three output modes, 2I, 2N and 1N. The 2I mode provides normal video output (EIA from XC-7500; CCIR from XC-8500CE) on both video channels. The 1N mode transfers progressive scan frames at 30 frames per second on Video Output 1 only. The 2N mode transfers progressive scan frames at 60 frames per second by sending Even lines on Video Output 1 and Odd lines on Video output 2. All modes are available when using internal synchronization. Only certain output modes are available when external synchronization signals are supplied, please refer to camera manual for complete information.

The XC-7500/XC-8500CE require no input signals for basic operation. However, the user can drive the EXT-TRG for E-DONPISHAâ operation via a general purpose signal on the MV-1000 board. Switches inside the XC-7500/XC-8500CE enable this mode. This application note focuses on the following switch configuration:

On the back of the camera-

Video Out=2N
Gain=Fixed
Shutter=ED

inside the camera, SG-235 switches-

S1=OFF		(VD 75 ohm termination Off)
S2=H-V OUT	(HD + VD as camera output)
S3=OFF		(HD 75ohm termination off)
S5=+ (plus)	(Positive trigger polarity)
S7-1=OFF	(WEN = -1 V)
S7-2=OFF	(Video at 1 V)
S7-3=ON		(Reset Mode)
S7-4=OFF	(WEN negative)

Refer to the XC-7500/XC-8500CE Operation Guide for additional details.

Cable Connections

Video Out 1 of the XC-7500/XC-8500CE should connect to the GREEN channel of the MV-1300. Video Out 2 of the XC-7500/XC-8500CE should connect to the BLUE channel of the MV-1300. The MVC-5RGB-HD will connect the both video channels into the MV-1300. These connections are shown in Figure 2a.

If E-DONPISHAâ operation is desired, a cable is required to drive the camera’s EXT-TRG signal. To synchronize the MV-1000 framegrabber to the camera in E-DONPISHAâ mode, a connection from the WEN output of the camera to the TRIGGER of the MV-1000 is necessary. The EXT-TRG and WEN signals may be connected to the MV-1000 by an MVC-7 cable as illustrated in Figure 2b. [Note: When attaching the WEN signal from an XC-7500/XC-8500CE to the MV-1000 TRIGGER line, attention must be paid to the version level of the MV-1000. For version C5 and earlier, the Black wire of the MVC-7 cable is used. For version C6 and later, the Yellow wire must be used.]

Other than the default jumper settings, on the MV-1000, JP17 must be IN and JP10 should be OUT for the MV-1300 operation. JP25 should be checked as BOTTOM. On the MV-1300, JP15 and JP16 need to be OUT for external H and V sync. A full list of jumper positions may be found in the XC7500.jmp file.

From a software point of view, the concept of video acquisition from standard or non-standard cameras is based on the use of a Camera Configuration File. Camera "Config" files are ASCII files that hold all of the values relevant to the proper usage of a particular camera with the MV-1000.

Camera Configuration files for most commercially available cameras are included on a MuTech distribution diskette and by default are loaded into the directory ..\mv-1000\camcfg. All MuTech distribution software use these Camera Config Files to set the board and chip registers into the correct state to work with a particular camera.

The key parameters in the configuration file for the XC-7500/XC-8500CE are:

In [Color RGB] section,

RGB_External_CSync=0 ; For separate external H and V sync
RGB_Sync_On_Green=0 ; No sync on Green
RGB_HSync_Polarity=0 ; Active low
RGB_VSync_Polarity=0 ; Active low

In [General Control] section,

Data_Packing=2 ; For A3 version MV-1300, use Data_Packing=4 for earlier versions
Flag_Interlace=0 ; For 2N or 1N mode, use Flag_Interlace=1 for 2I mode

In [Sync/Trigger Selection] section,

External_Trigger=1 ; For WEN signal in E-Donpisha, use External_Trigger=0 for normal
VSync_Trigger_Polarity=0 ; In software version 2.20, MV-1000 version C5 and below
VSync_Polarity=0 ; Version 2.21+, C6 and above
Trigger_Polarity=0 ; Version 2.21+, C6 and above

In [Grab Window Control] section,

V_Max_Capture_Size= ; One-half the actual number of lines to capture, see note below

The XC-7500/XC-8500CE may be used in normal video modes on a single channel by using the MuTech demonstration program provided on the M-Vision 1000 Video Digitizer Distribution Disk.

A special program is available from MuTech, XC85TEST.EXE, that will capture from two channels into an MV-1300 simultaneously. For normal capture, place the camera in NORMAL mode and type "xc85test xc85hv2n.ini". For Triggered capture, set the camera to ED and type "xc85test xc85hvtr.ini". While this program is running, the space bar will cause a single trigger pulse to be sent from the MV-1000.

The XC-7500/XC-8500CE output two video lines simultaneously. The MV-1000/MV-1300 capture two pixels simultaneously and assume they are two contiguous pixels on the same video line. For proper pixel positioning, a function is required to rearrange the pixels.

If the MV-1300 is version A2 or before, the Data_Packing must be 4. This means that two extra "fill" bytes will be captured to VRAM and transferred to system memory for every valid pixel pair.

Because two lines are simultaneously captured, the V_Max_Capture_Size needs to be set at half the actual number of lines to be captured.

The MV-1000 DOS and Windows Software Developer’s Kits provide flexible high level functions that enable quick application development. Normal two channel capture requires the pixels be rearranged. The following ‘C’ function may be used to rearrange the pixels from two channels per pixel clock period into the normal DDB bitmap order: