MV1000 Application Notes


Interfacing the Kodak Megaplus ES 1.0 camera to the MV-1000/1100 board

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), two analog color modules (MV-1300 and MV-1350), and a 32 bit digital interface module(MV-1100).

Interfacing to the Megaplus ES 1.0 camera in digital mode requires the use of the MV-1100 digital module. This module accepts the RS-422 differential video and timing signals from the Megaplus ES 1.0 camera. Generally, the MV-1200 will also be used to provide a total 4 Megabytes of VRAM.

Kodak Megaplus ES 1.0
The Megaplus ES 1.0 is an 8-bit per pixel digital camera. There are 1008 pixels per horizontal line and there are 1018 lines per frame. In the digital mode, the Megaplus ES 1.0 outputs non-interlaced digital video and timing in RS-422 (differential) format. The MV-1000/1100 supports the Megaplus ES 1.0 camera in three modes - Continuous Mode, Controlled Mode and Triggered mode.

The Megaplus ES 1.0 transfers data out via two channels simultaneously. One channel transfers odd lines and the other channel transfers even lines. This requires the image be rearranged when in dual channel capture. Sample code of a 'C' function is provided in a later section to accomplish this operation. The Megaplus ES 1.0/SC has only a single data output channel and does not require pixel rearrangement.

The Megaplus ES 1.0 uses RS-232 communication with the host PC to change operating mode and control parameters. Please refer to the Megaplus ES 1.0 manual for additional information on this interface.

Interfacing the Megaplus ES 1.0 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. The J1 connector is a 50-pin connector on the top of the MV-1100. An MVCD-32 is used to connect J1 to the rear panel of the host computer.

MuTech supplies a digital cable for interfacing to the Megaplus ES 1.0. The part number is MVC-MD-ES2. The MVC-MD-ES2 cable has a 68-pin female AIA connector which mates with the 03173-001 cable from Kodak MASD. The 03173-001 cable has a female 9-pin D-subminiature connector which attaches to a COM port on the host computer to support RS-232 communication and control of the Megaplus ES 1.0.



Figure 1. Kodak MASD Megaplus, model ES 1.0, cable configurations.


Interfacing the Megaplus ES 1.0 camera to the MV-1000/1100 board

Jumper Settings
The only jumper settings on the MV-1100 that need to be modified from factory default for proper operation are JP4, which needs to be OUT for 2 channel, 8-bit per pixel operation and JP1, which needs to be RIGHT on Rev. D boards and DOWN on Rev. C boards. (For single channel operation, both JP3 and JP4 should be IN.) The full jumper configuration is given in the mpes10.jmp file.

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 Config 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 uses these Camera Config Files to set the board and chip registers into the correct state to work with a particular camera.

MPES10d.ini: This file configures the MV-1000/1100 to interface to the Megaplus ES 1.0 in continuous mode. In this mode, the camera captures frame after frame according to the exposure settings in the camera.

MPES10c.ini: This file configures the MV-1000/1100 to interface to the Megaplus ES 1.0 in controlled mode. In this mode, exposure is controlled by the width of the FRAME RESET/EXPOSURE signal. The width can be changed by the Counter_Value in the MPES10c.ini file

MPES10t.ini: This file configures the MV-1000/1100 to interface to the Megaplus ES 1.0 in the trigger mode. In this mode, exposure is initiated by the falling edge of the EXPOSE signal on connector pin 17. The ES 1.0 camera terminates the exposure (according to the camera setting) then outputs the video. The exposure can be changed by the EXE command sent via the COM port.

Key Entry Settings in Camera Configuration file
Counter_Value
The Counter_Value is an important parameter in the MPES10c.ini configuration file. As far as the control mode is concerned, the width of the EXPOSE pulse determines the duration of the exposure. With the parameter Counter_Clock_Source=0, this will be the number of horizontal lines as measured by the LINE ENA signal from the camera.

V_Max_Capture_Size
The V_Max_Capture_Size parameter controls the number of horizontal lines to capture per frame. Because the ES 1.0 transfers two lines simultaneously, the V_Max_Capture_Size will be half the actual number of lines captured. Thus, rather than the 1018, the full height frame is specified as 509 lines.

Windows 3.1 Utility - "WMV1Demo.exe"
The MuTech Distribution diskette includes a Windows utility that can be used to acquire video from the Megaplus ES 1.0 camera. The utility is named WMV1demo.exe and is under the mv-1000\win directory. To use this utility with the Megaplus ES 1.0, under "Video"==>"Set Camera" click "Non-Standard", then load MPES10d.ini for continuous digital acquisition.

An equivalent utility "CMV1DEMO.EXE" is available for Windows 95. Windows NT users require "NMV1DEMO.EXE".

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


	void convert_mpes10_image(unsigned char huge *buffer_in,	//Must be at least 
									//row_size * number_of_rows
				unsigned char huge *buffer_out, 
				unsigned short row_size,		// Horizontal capture size		
				unsigned short number_of_rows)		// Actual number of rows
									// = 1018 for full frame
	{
	unsigned short col, row;
	unsigned char huge *p0, huge *p1, huge *p2;
	
		p0 = buffer_in;
		p1 = buffer_out;
		p2 = buffer_out + row_size;
	
		for (row=0; row < number_of_rows/2; row++) {
			for (col=0; col < row_size; col++) {
				*(p1++) = *(p0++);
				*(p2++) = *(p0++);
        		}
    			p1 += row_size;
    			p2 += row_size;
    		}
	}





MuTech Corp. Sept 1996
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