MV1000 Application Notes

Interfacing the EG&G Reticon LD2040 Camera to the M-Vision 1000/1100

Overview

M-Vision-1000
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), and a 32 bit digital interface module (MV-1100).

Interfacing to the LD2040 camera in digital mode requires the addition of the MV-1100 digital module. This module accepts the RS-422 differential video and timing signals from the LD2040 camera. It also can generate timing and control signals to be sent to the camera.

LD2040 Camera
The LD2040 camera from EG&G Reticon is a variable rate (over 40 Mhz pixel rate, up to 9000 lines per second), 4096 pixels per line, digital output, CCD line scan camera. The output data is 10 bit digital, one-channel multiplexed or two-channel non-multiplexed RS422. The camera requires (15V and +5V DC power. The camera has three interface connectors - one 62 pin High Density D-Type Subminiature (male) connector which outputs one or two, 10-bit digital data channels, one 9 pin RS-232 Subminiature connector for optional camera control and one 10 pin Hirose RM215TR-10SD connector which supplies power to the camera head. The imaging area (sensor area) is an array of 4096 elements. It also contains a multiplexor which may alternate the 4096 pixels into two separate (odd and even) data channels of 2048 pixels each. Figure 1 on the following page shows the timing diagram for a single output, multiplexed connection and Figure 2 shows the timing diagram for a dual output, unmultiplexed connection.


Figure 1. Timing Diagram, Single Output, Multiplexed


Figure 2. Timing Diagram, Dual Output, Non-multiplexed

The LD2040 requires no input signals for basic operation. However, the user can program the camera to accept any combination of the following input signals by accessing the internal microprocessor through the RS-232 port: Master pixel clock (MCLK), start pulse (START), and exposure control (SHUT). The MCLK signal in the camera drives the photosensor and determines the output pixel frequency of the video. The START signal causes the accumulated charge on each photocell to be transferred to the horizontal shift registers of the image sensor for horizontal readout. The scan rate is controlled by the start signal. The SHUT signal allows external control of the integration period. When SHUT is enabled, charge present in the pixel is shunted to the antiblooming drain of the sensor, thus yielding direct control over the integration time. The SHUT signal, in conjunction with the START signal, controls the integration period. The timing diagram showing the interaction of the START and SHUT signals is given in Figure 3.


Figure 3. START and SHUT timing

Interfacing the LD2040 camera to the MV-1000/1100 board

Cable Connections
The J2 connector on the MV-1100 is a high density 51 pin female Airborne connector. The pinouts for this connector are listed in Appendix A of the MV-1100 User's Guide and Technical Reference. This connector is connected to the High Density DB-62 connector on the LD2040 camera. Three different cables are available from MuTech for this interface depending on the video requirements. To connect a single, 8-bit channel which takes the higher 8 bits from the 10 bit video output of the camera, MVC-EG&G1 cable is used. For a single, 10-bit channel, MVC-EG&G10 cable is required. The single channel cable configuration is shown in Figure 4. And, the MVC-EG&G210 supports two channel, 10-bit video by also connecting via an MVCD-32 cable to a 50 pin connector (J1) on the MV-1100. This dual channel cable configuration is shown in Figure 5.


Figure 4. Single channel cable configurations


Figure 5. Dual channel cable configuration

Camera Configuration Files
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 Camera Configuration Files for the three video configurations of the LD2040 are discussed below.

The LD2040 can be used with the MV-1000/1100 in three different modes of operation - Free running mode, Triggered mode without shutter control and Triggered mode with shutter control. The standard factory configuration is Free running mode. An RS-232 port on the camera is used to change the operating mode. Consult camera documentation for details.

Free running mode (without shutter control):

In this mode, the camera generates the Data Valid (DVAL) signal to drive the Line Data Valid (LDV) signal on the MV-1100 when a line of pixels is transferred. The Pixel Clock (CCLK) on the camera pulses the Pixel Clock (PIXCLK) signal on the MV-1100 for each pixel transfer. In this mode, the MV-1100 synchronizes to the LD2040. A camera configuration file, ld20408.ini, is available as an example of 8-bit transfer in this mode.

In the camera configuration file, [General Control] section, the Data_Packing should be set to 1 for 8-bit, single channel video data, set to 2 for 10-bit, single channel video data, and set to 4 for 10-bit, dual channel video data. Flag_Digital_Camera must be set to 1 for digital cameras. Flag_Line_Scan must be set to 1 for line scan cameras.

In the [PLL Control] section of the camera configuration file, Clock_Reference_Select must be set to 3 to select the on-board 14.3 MHz clock. Then, the Pixel_Clock_Freq entry may be used to specify the actual frequency generated by the PLL.

Triggered Mode with shutter control:

In this mode, a horizontal sync signal is sent to the camera's START input. A separate control signal is used to control the PRIN signal line to control the SHUT signal input to the camera. The duration of the PRIN exposure delay is controlled by several entries in the camera configuration file, [Digital Camera Control] section. Flag_LS_Exp_En must be set to 1. LS_Exp_Start should be set to 2. LS_Exp_End may be adjusted to control the exposure time, the larger the LS_Exp_End, the shorter the time remaining for exposure. The camera configuration file for this mode is called ld204010.ini for 10-bit, single channel data.

In the camera configuration file, [General Control] section, the Tim_Gen_Enable must be set to 1 to drive the camera. In the [Timing Generator Control] section, the Camera_Drive_HPolarity must be set to 1 so the Start Pulse is active high.

Jumper Settings

The following jumper settings on the MV-1100 need to be verified for 8-bit operation:
JP1 = TOP
JP2 = OUT
JP3 = IN
JP4 = IN
JP5 = OUT
JP6 = OUT
JP7 = OUT
JP8 = OUT
JP9 = OUT
JP10 = RIGHT

These are all factory default settings, except for JP6 and JP10. (You may refer to the configuration file LD20408.JMP for a complete list of MV-1000 and MV-1100 jumper settings.)

The following jumper settings on the MV-1100 need to be modified for 10-bit, single channel operation:
JP3 = IN
JP4 = OUT

On the MV-1000, the following jumpers should also be changed:
JP7 = BOTTOM
JP8 = BOTTOM
JP19 = BOTTOM
JP20 = BOTTOM

(You may refer to the configuration file LD204010.JMP for a complete list of MV-1000 and MV-1100 jumper settings.)

The following jumper settings on the MV-1100 need to be verified for 10-bit, dual channel operation:
JP3 = OUT
JP4 = IN

On the MV-1000, the following jumpers should also be changed:
JP7 = BOTTOM
JP8 = BOTTOM
JP19 = BOTTOM
JP20 = BOTTOM

DOS Utility - "camtest.exe"

The easiest way to verify proper functioning of the LD2040 camera with the MV-1000/1100 is through the DOS testing program "camtest.exe". This program is included in the distribution diskette and is contained in the sub-directory "diag" under directory MV-1000. A Windows 3.1 based program called "xmv1demo.exe" is included in the distribution diskette and is contained in the sub-directory "win" under directory MV-1000.

To use camtest.exe with the LD2040 camera in 8-bit, free running mode, type...

"camtest ..\camcfg\LD20408.ini" at the DOS prompt. This assumes that the camtest program is in the ..\diag directory and .ini files are in the ..\camcfg directory.

To use wmv1demo.exe with the LD2040 camera in 10-bit, trigger with shutter control mode, run the MV1 Demo icon in the MuTech group. Then, under Video, select Set Camera, and choose NON-STANDARD. After selecting ld204010.ini, you may OK your way back to the main menu and select the desired display and capture choices.

The standard demonstration programs, camtest.exe and WMV1DEMO.EXE, do not currently support dual displays. Programs may be written to handle two channel display using the MuTech Software Developer's Kits.



MuTech Corp. Sept 1996
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