| GRABLINK Value | GRABLINK Value cPCI | GRABLINK Avenue | GRABLINK Express | GRABLINK Expert 2 | GRABLINK Expert 2 cPCI | GRABLINK Quickpack ColorScan | GRABLINK Quickpack CFA | GRABLINK Quickpack CFA PCIe |
| Form factor | 32-bit, 33 MHz PCI Full height, half length | 64-bit, 66 MHz cPCI 6U/4HP | 64-bit, 66 MHz PCI Full height, half length | x1 PCI Express Full height, half length | 64-bit, 66 MHz PCI Full height, half length | 64-bit, 66 MHz cPCI 6U/4HP | 64-bit, 66 MHz PCI Full height, half length | 64-bit, 66 MHz PCI Full height, half length | x4 PCI Express Full height, half length |
| Camera Link configuration | Base | Base | Base | Base PoCL Safe Power | Base, dual-Base, Medium | Base, dual-Base, Medium | Base | Base | Base PoCL Safe Power |
| Tap demultiplexing incl. tap reversal | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ |
| Max. pixel-clock frequency | 24 bits @ 60 MHz | 24 bits @ 60 MHz | 24 bits @ 85 MHz | 24 bits @ 85 MHz | 48 bits @ 60 MHz | 48 bits @ 60 MHz | 24 bits @ 60 MHz | 24 bits @ 85 MHz | 24 bits @ 85 MHz |
| Gray scale | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ | - | - | - |
| Color | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ |
| Area scan | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ | - | √ | √ |
| Line scan | √ | √ | ADR | ADR | √ | √ | √ | - | - |
| Max. delivery bandwidth | 90 MB/s | 90 MB/s | 240 MB/s | 180 MB/s | 240 MB/s | 240 MB/s | 240 MB/s | 240 MB/s | 320 MB/s |
| On-board memory | 8-MB | 8-MB | 32-MB | 32-MB | 16-MB | 16-MB | 128-MB | 128-MB | 128-MB |
| Pre-processing - Input images - Pre-processing functions - Max. processing rate | LUTs 3x (8-bit x 8-bit) for R, G, B | LUTs 3x (8-bit x 8-bit) for R, G, B | - | - | - | - | For color line-scan inspection 3 x 8-bit Scan delay compensation Shading correction LUTs 3x (8-bit x 8-bit) for R, G, B White balance Up to 50MPixels/s | For color area-scan inspection 8-bit, 10-bit or 12-bit Bayer decoding Luminance blender LUTs 4x (16-bit x 16-bit) for R, G, B, Y Automatic white balance Up to 80MPixels/s | For color area-scan inspection 8-bit, 10-bit or 12-bit Bayer decoding Luminance blender LUTs 4x (16-bit x 16-bit) for R, G, B, Y Automatic white balance Up to 80MPixels/s |
| I/O electrical style -system functions- | 4 externally | 4 externally | 9 internally & externally | 9 internally & externally | 26 on an I/O board | 26 externally | 2 externally | 9 internally & externally | 9 internally & externally |
| Isol. multi-mode bidirectional I/O* & isol. 5V power supply -IN (Trigger/Line trigger) OUT (Strobe)- | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Non-isol. TTL input -Trigger/Line trigger- | 1 | 1 | - | - | 3 | 3 | - | - | - |
| Non-isol. TTL output -Strobe- | 1 | 1 | - | - | 3 | 3 | - | - | - |
| Non-isol. bidirectional CMOS I/O | - | - | - | - | 16 | 16 | - | - | - |
| Non-isol. universal differential input** -Trigger/Line- | - | - | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | 2 | 2 |
| Isol. contact output -Strobe- | - | - | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | 1 | 1 |
| Non-isol. bidirectional TTL I/O -Trigger/Line trigger- | - | - | 4 | 4 | - | - | - | 4 | 4 |
| 5V Power supply | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ (2) | √ (2) | √ | √ | √ |
| 12V Power supply | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ | √ |
GRABLINKTM ser
# High- performance LINE-SCAN and AREA-SCAN Applications
# Flexible and reliable LINE-SCAN acquisition
Camera modes The Grablink series interfaces to state-of-the-art Camera Link line-scan cameras with line rate and exposure control. Free running cameras are supported as well.
Continuous web scanning The «web mode» allows inspecting a continuously moving surface without losing a single line.
Successive object scanning In «page mode», a Grablink acquires a set of consecutive lines constituting a 2D image. The acquisition starts when the object enters the camera field of view, as signaled by an external trigger.
Motion encoder When the observed web or object moves at a variable speed, the frame grabber imposes a camera scanning rate derived from a motion encoder. This guarantees a fixed pixel aspect ratio. Perfect square pixels are achievable. A built-in rate converter of the Grablink boards defines any ratio between the camera scanning rate and the encoder pulse rate with 1/1000 resolution. Thus, an off-the-shelf encoder can serve several applications. The exposure control feature guarantees a constant sensitivity despite the speed variation.
# ADR TechnologyTM\*
Simple and reliable LINE-SCAN acquisition with constant lighting sensitivity and line rate
In many applications, a line-scan camera has to be operated at a constant cycling rate in order to maintain a constant sensitivity. The Grablink Avenue and the Grablink Express implement ADR\*, a unique downweb resampling feature, yielding a defined aspect ratio irrespective of web speed variations, even without an electronic shutter on the camera.
A built-in rate converter accommodates an off-the-shelf motion encoder to control the line acquisition process, enabling any programmable aspect ratio, including perfect square pixels.
ADR\* makes the most of the line-scan camera, as the sensitivity is not impaired by the shuttering.
AD TM
Download the “About ADR Technology” flyer from our web site: www.euresys.com.
# Full support of AREA-SCAN acquisition
Camera modes Features such as asynchronous reset, exposure control, strobe lighting often required in industrial applications are available on the Grablink series. The synchronous mode is also supported.
Trigger and exposure control An external signal can be sent to the frame grabber to trigger the acquisition. The Grablink series is capable of consistently controlling the exposure time and the illumination.
Camera tap structure For any tap structure, a Grablink delivers a re-ordered bitmap image to the PC memory. Tap-reversal is supported. With the multiplex tap technique, several taps are interleaved over Camera Link as long as the combined data rate remains below the pixel clock frequency specified for the board.
# Main Features
Acquisition:
Up to 24-bit / 48-bit at maximum 85 MHz
Camera Link configurations: Base, dual Base or Medium
Support of LINE-SCAN and AREA-SCAN cameras
Multiple taps, tap reversal, tap multiplex
• Large on-board memory
Asynchronous reset, exposure control and I/O lines -trigger & strobe-
. Camera Link serial line configurable as an additional PC COM port
. MultiCam drivers for Windows® and Linux
The Grablink series is a range of high-speed PCI, PCI Express and Compact PCI frame grabbers for line-scan or area-scan digital Camera Link cameras. State-of-the-art cameras are easily connected with off-the-shelf Camera Link compliant cables. The Grablink series is ideal for industrial applications such as inspection of high-speed moving objects, web inspection or high-resolution acquisition.
# Serial control of camera
The Grablink series supports the Camera Link pseudo RS-232 serial line. The application software can use the Camera Link API functions to control the camera. Alternatively, the serial line can be configured as an additional PC COM port ensuring interoperability with existing camera control software.
# Bus mastering
All Euresys frame grabbers are PCI bus mastering agents that directly store the acquired images into the PC physical memory without CPU involvement. As a unique feature, a Euresys board automatically recovers the scatter-gather virtual memory mapping to present the data as a regular bitmap image in a user allocated memory buffer.
# Windows Of Interest (WOI) support
The Grablink series seamlessly support the acquisition of a WOI rather than a full image.
# Interfaced cameras
The Grablink series interfaces an impressive choice of different cameras.
An up-to-date list is available on the Interfacing Cameras page on www.euresys.com.
# GRABLINK ValueT
Cost-effective Camera Link acquisition
Base configuration -24-bit at 60 MHz-
8-MB on-board memory
Form factors: Conventional PCI 32-bit 33 MHz bus
Compact PCI 6U/4HP 64-bit 66 MHz bus
The Grablink Value is an affordable Camera Link frame grabber for cost-effective industrial applications. The Grablink Value is recommended for single-camera systems.
Support of the Base configuration
| CAMERA COMPATIBILITY | Monochrome or Bayer | Color RGB |
| single-tap | dual-tap | quad-tap | single-tap |
| Tap configuration | Base_1T8, Base_1T10, Base_1T12, Base_1T14, Base_1T16 | Base_2T8, Base_2T10, Base_2T12, Base_2T14B2, Base_2T16B2 | Base_4T8B2 | Base_1T24, Base_1T24B3, Base_1T30B2, Base_1T36B2, Base_1T36B3, Base_1T42B2, Base_1T42B3, Base_1T48B2, Base_1T48B3 |
| Camera Link configuration | Base | 1 tap x (8-10-12-14-16 bits) | 2 taps x (8-10-12 bits) | - | 1 tap x (24 bits) |
| Extended Base* | - | 2 taps x (14-16 bits) | 4 taps x (8 bits) | 1 tap x (24-30-36-42-48 bits) |
\*Multiplex tap
# 9 various I/O lines available on an external HD26 connector and on an internal 26-pin header connector
# I/O electrical style
- 2 isolated multi-mode bidirectional I/O and associated isolated 5V power supply
• Input: isolated TTL, isolated 12V
• Output: isolated TTL, isolated open collector, isolated open emittor
- 2 non-isolated universal differential inputs (LVDS and more)
- 1 isolated contact output
- 4 non-isolated bidirectional TTL I/O
- 5V and 12V power supplies
# I/O electrical style and function
- TTL trigger or page trigger input
- LVDS trigger or page trigger input
- Opto-isolated trigger or page trigger input
- TTL strobe output
- Opto-isolated strobe output
- Fast opto-isolated strobe output
- TTL line trigger or encoder input
- Opto-isolated line trigger or encoder input
# GRABLINK ExpressTM
Cutting-edge PCI Express Camera Link acquisition
Base Camera Link 1.2 configuration -24-bit at 85 MHz-
-Power over Camera Link compliant -PoCL-
Full support of AREA-SCAN cameras -Asynchronous reset and exposure control-
Simple and reliable LINE-SCAN acquisition -ADR Technology™-
32-MB on-board memory
Form factors: PCI Express Full-height, half-length, x1
The Grablink Express is at the cutting-edge of the Camera Link technology through the compliance with the new standard 1.2 including PoCL - Power over Camera Link-. It allows a single Camera Link cable to supply power to the camera, on top of transferring high-speed images and controlling the camera. The Grablink Express PoCL frame grabber interfaces the smallest and fastest cameras on the market while still being safely compatible with cables and cameras from the previous Camera Link standards.
# Support of Camera Link 1.2 Base configuration -including PoCL-
The Grablink Express supports the same type of cameras as the Grablink Avenue -see the chart on page 6-.
The Power over Camera Link standard specifies how to supply power to the camera through the Camera Link connector without losing backward compatibility with the previous Camera Link standard.
\- Conventional and PoCL cameras and cables supported
\- “SafePower” feature
\- Over-Current Protection and Over-Voltage Protection circuits
9 various external and internal I/O lines identical to the Grablink Avenue I/O lines
\*Patent pending
# GRABLINK Expert 2TM
High-performance Camera Link acquisition
Dual Base or Medium configurations -48-bit at 60 MHz-
16-MB on-board memory
Form factors: Conventional PCI 64-bit 66 MHz bus
Compact PCI 6U/4HP, 64-bit 66 MHz bus
The Grablink Expert 2 is a Camera Link frame grabber for demanding industrial applications.
Support of dual Base or Medium configurations
| CAMERA COMPATIBILITY | Monochrome or Bayer | Color RGB |
| single-tap | dual-tap | quad-tap | single-tap | dual-tap |
| Tap configuration | Base_1T8, Base_1T10, Base_1T12, Base_1T14, Base_1T16 | Base_2T8, Base_2T10, Base_2T12, Medium_2T14, Medium_2T16 | Medium_4T8, Medium_4T10, Medium_4T12 | Base_1T24, Medium_1T30, Medium_1T36, Medium_1T42, Medium_1T48 | Medium_2T24 |
| Camera Link configuration | Base | 1 tap x (8-10-12-14-16 bits) | 2 taps x (8-10-12 bits) | - | 1 tap x (24 bits) | - |
| Medium | - | 2 taps x (14-16 bits) | 4 taps x (8-10-12 bits) | 1 tap x (30-36-42-48 bits) | 2 tap x (24 bits) |
# Multiple Windows Of Interest (WOI) support
With some specific CMOS cameras, the Grablink Expert 2 supports their possible feature of acquiring up to 16 WOI in the image, with overlapping of the windows.
# 26 I/O lines
The Grablink Expert 2 is delivered with an auxiliary I/O board implementing the trigger and strobe facilities. On the Grablink Expert 2 cPCI, the two I/O connectors are located directly on the front panel.
# I/O electrical style
\- 4 isolated multi-mode bidirectional I/Os and associated isolated 5V power supply
• Input: isolated TTL, isolated 12V
• Output: isolated TTL, isolated open collector, isolated open emittor
- 3 non-isolated TTL inputs and 3 similar outputs
- 16 non-isolated bidirectional CMOS I/Os
- 5V and 12V power supplies
# I/O electrical style and function
- TTL trigger or page trigger input
- Opto-isolated trigger or page trigger input
- TTL strobe output
- Opto-isolated strobe output
- TTL line trigger or encoder input
- Opto-isolated line trigger or encoder input
# GRABLINK Quickpack ColorScan M
High-resolution Camera Link image acquisition and pre-processing for color LINE-SCAN inspection
Image pre-processing accelerated by the FPGA -up to 50MPixels/s-
Scan-delay compensation
Shading correction
Look-up table transformation
White balance
Base configuration 24-bit at up to 60 MHz
Output formats RGB 24- and 32-bit packed
RGB 24-bit planar
128 MB on-board memory
Form factor: Conventional PCI 64-bit 66 MHz
The Grablink Quickpack ColorScan provides on its FPGA the accelerated image pre-processing functions necessary for color scanning applications. Color document scanning or PCB inspections are then considerably eased and accelerated providing on the fly enhanced images ready for further processing.
# Image pre-processing functions accelerated by the FPGA
• Scan-delay compensation A trilinear color camera captures the luminance information at three light wavelength ranges from three distinct locations. A gap between these lines analyzed in red, green and blue is resulting due to the sensor geometry and the optical arrangement. The scan-delay compensation offered in the Grablink Quickpack ColorScan gathers the color information coming from three different locations in order to reconstruct consistent RGB information.
• On the fly shading correction on the three color components After the calibration phase, the six profiles are compiled into the frame grabber hardware to correct the distortions. This correction is handled applying a multiplicative -gain- and an additive -offset- correction to each pixel issued in the scanned signal. This processing drastically improves the quality of the acquired images facilitating the application processing.
• Three 8-bit x 8-bit Look-up Table Transformer for the R the G and the B components They include the following setup methods: exhaustive definition of the transformation law, parametric shaping of the transformation law through a few intuitive controls, white balance by RGB gain correction implemented as special transformation laws.
• White balance correcting for RGB channel imbalance This imbalance can be due to differences in sensitivity of sensors, to the illumination system and to the optical filter. After calibration, a correcting gain is applied to each color channel to compensate for unbalanced R, G and B components.
Raw acquired image
Scan-delay compensated
Scan-delay compensated and shading corrected image
Scan-delay compensated, shading corrected and white balanced image
# Image acquisition and transfer
• Support of Base configuration for RGB LINE-SCAN camera
Two kinds of RGB imagers are supported: trilinear and 3-CCD. Only RGB single-tap with Base\_1T24 tap configuration is supported.
• Downweb resampling feature for shutterless cameras
Most high-resolution color line-scan cameras have no electronic shutter capability. Consequently, they have to be operated at a constant cycling rate in order to maintain a constant sensitivity. The Grablink Quickpack ColorScan implements a unique downweb resampling feature yielding a defined aspect ratio irrespective of web speed variations. A built-in rate converter accommodates an off-the-shelf motion encoder to control the line acquisition process, enabling any programmable aspect ratio, including perfect square pixels.
# 2 I/O lines available externally on a DB-9 connector
# I/O electrical style
- 2 isolated multi-mode bidirectional I/Os and associated isolated 5V power supply
• Input: isolated TTL, isolated 12V
• Output: isolated TTL, isolated open collector, isolated open emittor
- 5V and 12V power supplies
# I/O electrical style and function
- TTL trigger or page trigger input
- Opto-isolated trigger or page trigger input
- TTL strobe output
- Opto-isolated strobe output
- TTL line trigger or encoder input
- Opto-isolated line trigger or encoder input
# GRABLINK Quickpack CFATM boards
Camera Link image acquisition and pre-processing for color AREA-SCAN inspection
Image pre-processing accelerated by the FPGA on 8-bit, 10-bit or 12-bit input images -up to 80MPixels/s-
Bayer Pattern decoder
Luminance blender
Base configuration 24-bit at up to 85 MHz
128 MB on-board memory
White balance operator
Four LUT operators
The Grablink Quickpack CFA -Color Filter Array- offers a set of dedicated on-board preprocessing functions to speed up image processing for applications such as PCB, food or pharmaceutical inspection without loading the host CPU.
# Image pre-processing functions accelerated by the FPGA
All operators are compatible with 8-, 10- and 12-bit input images.
• A Bayer Pattern decoder computes the R,G and B components of the image
• An automatic white balance operator
- The white balance parameters can be specified by the user or computed automatically from the image.
- They can be computed continuously (on each image) or once only (under user control).
- Moreover, they can be computed from automatically selected white pixels in the image, or from a user-specified region of interest.
• A luminance blender computes the Y component of the image
• Four 16-bit x 16-bit LUT operators on R, G, B and Y channels
# Image acquisition and transfer
• Support of Base configuration for AREA-SCAN single or dual-tap cameras
\- Bayer pattern color
\- Also compatible with monochrome and RGB cameras
As a Base Camera Link configuration board, the Grablink Quickpack CFA supports the same type of cameras as the Grablink Avenue -see the chart on page 6-
• 9 various I/O lines available on external and internal connectors, similarly to the Grablink Avenue -page 6-
• Output format
- 8-, 10-, 12- and 16-bit components (R, G, B and Y)
- A wide range of formats is available in the following classes:
• monochrome
• Bayer CFA
• three packed R G B components
• three planar R G B components
Raw image
Bayer pattern decoder
• four packed R G B a components
• four packed R G B Y components
• three packed R G B components + Y component
• three planar R G B components + Y component
White balance
Luminance blender
# GRABLINK Quickpack CFA
Form factor: Conventional PCI Image Resolution
64-bit, 66 MHz, 3V/5V signaling Up to 4096 by 4096
# GRABLINK Quickpack CFA PCIe
NEW
PoCL Safe Power compliant -see on page 7-
Form factor: PCI Express Full-height, half-length, x4
Image Resolution Up to 7616 x 4096
Trigger decimation: it controls the acquisition rate from an electrical signal by setting a programmable decimation factor.
# Software support
# MultiCamTM Drivers
or Microsoft Windows 2000®, XP®, Server 2003® and Vista® or Linux Suse Linux Enterprise Server 10 T classes and ActiveX controls
The MultiCam driver enables the consistent control of several Euresys frame grabbers, using an arbitrary number of cameras, from one or several software applications. MultiCam allows defining channels linking cameras to buffers in the PC memory.
The MultiCam channel identifies all parameters ruling the acquisition process from a camera. Every camera feature, such as its type, resolution or image format, is described and controlled through simple parameters, considerably easing the camera control task. For each channel-controlled camera, a set of dedicated parameters is created from a CAM file.
Euresys delivers pre-defined files for many popular cameras; still the user can customize his CAM files.
An up-to-date list is available on the Interfacing Cameras page of the Euresys web site.
MultiCam™ IDEs