Interface
The series FL3000 cameras use a fiber cable to connect with our PCIE interface board. The board has the standard full size - no small form factor / no compact Mini PC!. Dell and HP computers sometimes have problems with high data transfers, so gaming PCs are recommended. The PCIE board is a DMA bus master and transfers the data directly to the main RAM of the Computer. Here a data speed of 2.5Gbit/s is achievable where the effective data rate is up to 250 Mbyte/s. All RAM which is installed in the computer can be used. Every pixel value is saved as a word (16bit = 2 bytes). This board is type Gen1 with 1 lane (simplest version) where here this data rate limits the camera speed to 200kHz line rate. In fact additional delays in software, DMA controller and operating system limits the speed of our HSVIS camera (series 3030) to max. 100kHz. If two parallel running HSVIS cameras are needed, two PCIe Interface boards must be used. Both are triggered with the same 100kHz signal. We offer driver for the MS windows 64bit systems and Linux. Windows home limits the RAM to 128GB, so Pro is preferred.
The PCIE board has 2 additional inputs to store the state of a shutter or chopper in realtime. This value is written to the data stream when the camera read is done. So each data set contains also this information (chopper was open/closed).
Camera systems
Our cameras can be delivered in 3 different versions. They differ in speed and noise performance. The following table shows the differences. trms is the root mean square noise of a single pixel over 100 scans - the max. line rate (mlr) is the max. single shot trigger frequency for a 1024 pixel sensor.
| series | AD res | trms [counts] | dynamic range | max. lr. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3001 | 16 (65k) | <6 | >10000:1 | 1 kHz |
| 3010 | 16 (65k) | <13 | >5000:1 | 8 kHz |
| 3030 | 14 (16k) | <9 | >1500:1 | 100 kHz |
series 3001
Our slow scan sensors have the best noise. They use a Camera Control Box (CamControl or CC) with a 16bit AD converter which is connected via fiber link to our PCIE interface board. Up to 2 sensor heads are connected via SubD15 cable to the CamControl. To run up to 8 sensors parallel, the CamControl boxes can be connected in a queue.
series 3010
Also our mid speed sensors are managed with our CamControl CC. Up to 2 sensor heads are connected via SubD15 cable to the CamControl.
series 3030
Our high speed cameras are stand alone systems and do not use a CamControl. They are directly connected to the PCIE board. They can also be queued, but if the max. speed is required, 2 separate PCIE boards must be used.