How to route Quadrature Encoder signal to CC1 using PCIe 1429 + IO extension card

Question

Hi there,
i am currently trying to interface the Basler L304kc to the NI PCIe 1429 + Cameralink IO extension board
I want to operate the camera in Ex-SYNC level controlled mode. I would like to route external Quadrature Encoder signals (connected to the IO extension board) to the CC1 cameralink control of the camera
Currently, I cannot find this option either in MAX or the Camera File Generator.The L304kc camera file only provides pre-defined pulses, or MAX only offers "External","ISO","RSTI" options for the CC1 sources.
Is it possible to route the encoder signal from the IO extension board directly to the CC1 of the camera? Or is there a work-around?
Thanks!
Derek Chan
Application Engineer
Basler Asia Pte Ltd

Answer 1

Hi Alex,
I posted the following (similar) text to the support center but I think it is of common interest:
A) CL-card with ext. board. One can use the ISO, ext. and RS422 encoder inputs and also output cannels ISO and external.
There is also a SMB connector corresponding to the ext. channel 0.
B) with MAX one can define what kind of signals should be routed to CC1 to CC4. As I learned from
this side one cannot use MAX or the Camera File generator but has to do this manually in order to use RS422 encoder triggering!!!
C) on the other side there exists function to route and control signals explicitely, for example
* imgSessionLineTrigSource2 -> what is this good for then? All your manuals are saying that this is done in MAX or the camera file by defining what signal drives the correspondung CC ine?? On the other side there is an example in CVI that does not work ("Trigger Each Line From Encoder") (at least it does not work with the PCIe1430).
D) Can one implement the CC routing from MAX or the camera file manually with the following functions
* imgSessionLineTrigSource2
* imgPulseCreate2
* imgSessionTriggerDrive2
or does MAX use hidden functions ore mechanism to control the CL Cards?
E) I can use one single line to setup scaled encoder triggering
* imgSessionLineTrigSource2(iLS_ZK1_SessionID, IMG_SIGNAL_SCALED_ENCODER, 0, IMG_TRIG_POLAR_ACTIVEH, 0);
but this only starts to work if I reset the encoder position to zero by sending this to the CL card, i.e.
* imgEncoderResetPosition(SessionID);
AND only in positive counting direction!
 If I just run though the zero position without a position reset I do not get ExSync on CC1????
Is the information where to route the Scaled encoder to coming from the camera file? Why cannot I simply and explicitely route the scaled encoder
signal to a certain CC line? Why using all those different approaches?
F) now if in addition to E) i use
* imgSessionTriggerDrive2(iLS_ZK1_SessionID, IMG_SIGNAL_EXTERNAL, 0, IMG_TRIG_POLAR_ACTIVEH, IMG_TRIG_DRIVE_SCALED_ENCODER);
to drive ext. 0 (SMB connector) I can see exactly this behavior on the scope. No signal until I reset the encoder counter. Then I get signals as long as the image sequence is running. After the recording the signal disappears.
kind regards, Holger h.baur(at)ivisso.com