Product FAQ

	Frame Grabber Questions Is it possible to display real time video in a window?  Is it possible to display overlay graphics in real time?  What is the pixel clock (sample rate) and can it be changed?  Can the CPU do other things while grabbing frames? Can I put more than one frame grabber in my system?  What is the timing of the strobe output?  Do your boards have a video output connector?
	Camera Questions Do you support digital camera output?  Do you support asynchronous resettable cameras?  What is the switching time between cameras? Do you support progressive scan cameras?
	Software Support and Compatibility Do you support LabVIEW?  Do you support LINUX?  Which Operating Systems do you support?  Do you support Windows CE?
	Hardware Configuration Questions Will CACHE RAM speed up my process?  Are your PCI products compatible with docking stations?
	Is it possible to display real time video in a window? Yes. Video display is achieved though a software technique. Each of our frame grabbers comes with sample software that illustrates this technique. You can run our code on your system and check the speed, and you can also feel free to use our code as a starting point for your own application. Whether the display is real time or not depends on your processor speed, vga card, and operating system. In general, an 8-bit monochrome image will usually display in real time on most modern computers. However, in the case of very large images or 24-bit color images, the answer is not quite as simple since the amount of data is much greater.
	Is it possible to display overlay graphics in real time? The CX100 can be purchased with optional OVERLAY RAM. In that case, displaying real time graphics depends on the amount of graphics you want to display and the frequency. If you want to store a graphic design in overlay once and display it often, then it can be displayed in real time. Data being written to overlay RAM is moving across the ISA bus at 1 megabyte per second. If the amount of graphics is very small, then you can probably achieve real time. The graphics overlay on the CX100 is only available on the video output connector for display on an external monitor.
	What is the pixel clock (sample rate) and can it be changed? CX100: 9.723 MHz. Cannot be changed. PX610: 12.1547 MHz. Cannot be changed. PX104 / PX610: 12.166 MHz for 640 resolution. Cannot be changed. 14.600 MHz for 768 resolution. Cannot be changed.
	Can the CPU do other things while grabbing frames? Yes. It is possible to grab frames in the background with all of our frame grabbers. Our PCI products (PX610A, PXC200, and PXD1000) implement a feature that we call QUEUING. You can queue up a command such as a GRAB, and it will execute while your program is doing other processing. The CX100, being an older design, does not offer queuing, but you can achieve the same effect by using the hardware grab feature.
	Can I put more than one frame grabber in my system? Yes. You can use multiple copies of all of our products in the same computer. When there are several boards, your software will identify each one by a number: 0, 1, 2, 3, etc. The limit for CX100s is 8. Each board can be set to one of 8 different port addresses. The limit for PCI products (PX610A, PXC200, PXD1000) is the number of PCI slots in your computer.
	What is the timing of the strobe output? All strobes on the following products are TTL outputs. CX100: The strobe is toggled high or low through software. PX610A: The strobe pulse and gap can be pre-programmed and then fired as needed. PXC200-L: This product does not have any output lines. If you need strobes, you need to purchase the PXC200-F which has the control package. PXC200-F (Control package): The strobes can be pre-programmed and fired as needed through software, or they can be set to fire automatically on a specific line of video in each field or in every other field. The strobes can also be automatically fired upon the receipt of a trigger. PXD1000: Each of two strobe generators can be pre-programmed to fire a pulse sequence consisting of up to 4 pulses separated by gaps. Pulse and gap lengths can be programmed from about 1 microsecond to about 3 seconds, accurate to 0.5 microseconds or 0.1%. The strobes can be fired once, continuously, or upon receipt of a trigger.
	Do your boards have a video output connector? The CX100 has a BNC connector for connecting analog video to an external monitor. The CX100 is an ISA frame grabber and will display either incoming video or the contents of memory in real time on an external monitor. You can also purchase the CX100 and CX104 with overlay RAM for drawing graphics or writing text on an external monitor.  The CX104 (for PC/104 systems) also has video output capabilities on one of its pins, but it does not use BNC connectors. None of our PCI boards (PX, PXC, or PXD) have video output connectors. The PCI boards pipe the video directly into PC memory in real time without the ability to display it on an external monitor.
	Do you support digital camera output? Yes, we do support digital camera outputs. Imagenation now has a new digital frame grabber, the PXD1000. The PXD1000 Digital Frame Grabber is a low-cost, PCI-compliant video capture board suitable for machine vision systems utilizing RS422 and EIA-644 based digital cameras. The PXD1000 is characterized by its high input data rates, reliable data transfers, large onboard FIFOs, high speed, efficient PCI performance and "on the fly" reformatting. The PXD1000 family includes a comprehensive SDK for the major operating systems. The PXD1000 library allows frame grab operations to be queued in the background, freeing the host processor for applications processing. An easy-to-use Camera Configuration Application and customizable cable assemblies simplify camera and frame grabber setup.
	Do you support asynchronous resettable cameras? CX100 - YES The CX100 can acquire sync in less than one horizontal line time making it an ideal match for use with asyncronous cameras for capturing fast moving objects or events that may happen independent of standard RS-170 / CCIR video timing.  PX610A - YES The PX610A can acquire sync in less than one horizontal line time making it an ideal match for use with asyncronous cameras for capturing fast moving objects or events that may happen independent of standard RS-170 / CCIR video timing.  PXD1000 - YES The PXD1000 can be used with asyncronous resettable digital output cameras. PXC200 - NO The PXC200 will not work with resettable cameras.
	What is the switching time between cameras? The PX610A and the PXC200 have built-in multiplexors and the switching time immediate, however, the time required to synchronize to the new input signal varies. The CX100 and the PXD1000 do not have multiplexors. If you need to multiplex up to 4 cameras into the CX100, you can buy our VM400, a video multiplexor that plugs into an ISA slot. In order to switch between cameras without losing a field, the cameras must be:  genlocked (all synchronized to the same signal)  the same video type (NTSC or CCIR / PAL)  generating video of approximately the same brightness  If the above conditions are met, you can switch cameras during the vertical blanking period and not miss a field with the CX100, PX610A, and PXC200. If the above conditions are not all met, then the answer becomes more complex. In general, the CX100 and PX610A will synchronize to the new video signal in 1 or 2 fields if the cameras are all of the same type, i.e., NTSC or CCIR / PAL. If the cameras are of different types, then the boards will synchronize in about 4 fields or two frames. The PXC200 is slower to synchronize to a new video input. For switching applications, you should use the PXC200-F (with the optional control package). It will synchronize to video signals of the same type within 2 to 4 fields, but it will take 8 to 10 fields to synchronize to dissimilar inputs.
	Do you support progressive scan cameras? Yes. The PX610A is designed to be used with cameras that produce a non-interlaced output. Most progressive scan cameras produce a non-interlaced output and will work quite well with the PX610A if the output occurs at the rate of 30 frames per second (NTSC) or 25 frames per second (CCIR). "Frame store" cameras take a progressive scan picture, but produce the output as two interlaced fields and these cameras do not require a progressive scan frame grabber.  A frame store camera that produces an interlaced output will work with the CX100 or the PXC200.
	Do you support LabVIEW? LabVIEW does not require any special support or drivers. Most of our products can be used with LabVIEW 4.0 or greater. Beginning with version 4.0, LabVIEW is capable of making calls to a standard Windows DLL. All of our PCI products (PX610A, PXC200, PXD1000) come with standard Windows DLLs that are directly compatible with LabVIEW. In the case of the CX100, the special Visual Basic DLL is compatible with LabVIEW.
	Do you support LINUX? No, we do not have support for LINUX. However, there are Linux drivers for most of our products. You can find links to those drivers in our Support Area. Go the the Technical Support Area and click on the product you are interested in, i.e., PX Series, PXC Series, etc. Most of the LINUX drivers were built by Alessandro Rubini who lives in Italy. You can reach him at: alessandro.rubini@linux.it
	Which Operating Systems do you support? Most of our products are supported for all Microsoft desktop operating systems: DOS 16-bit and 32-bit Windows 3.1 Windows 95 and 98 Windows NT and 2000 The only exception is our new digital frame grabber, the PXD1000. It is not supported for DOS 16-bit nor Windows 3.1. Our low-cost color frame grabber, the PXC200, is supported for QNX 4.24.
	Do you support Windows CE? No. At the moment, we do not have Windows CE support.
	Will CACHE RAM speed up my process? No. The Cache RAM on the PX610 will not increase the rate of image capture. It is designed as a holding buffer so that a grab may occur asynchronously to PCI bus traffic. You would direct the PX610 to store the image date to the CACHE RAM first, then you read the cache into main memory when you are ready for the data. The transfer from CACHE Ram to system memory happens at video rate, not PCI data rates. The board maintains video timing at all times, no speed advantage is seen.
	Are your PCI products compatible with docking stations? We have not done any testing with docking stations, but some of our customers have reported mixed results. As an example, the Toshiba 740CDT laptop in conjunction with the Desk Station 5+ docking station seems to work quite well.