KEY FEATURES

• Flexible frame grabbing from area & line scan cameras.
• Analog input up to 20 MHz and digital input up to 32 Mbytes/Sec.
• Up to eight software selectable analog channels.
• Very high accuracy analog to digital circuitry.
• Support for digital multi-tap cameras.
• Support for digital cameras up to 16 bits per pixel.
• Up to 16 bit input LUT.
• Software library under Windows 95 & NT.
• Fully software compatible with XPG-1000 and FPG-44 Power Grabber.
• Lightning fast PCI interface supporting bus master mode.
• Attractive low price.

INTRODUCTION

The LPG-132 Power Grabber product line is a member of the Power Grabber family of products from DIPIX, covering applications requiring flexible frame grab directly to the PC over the PCI bus without on board processing. It is designed specifically for vision applications which require low recurring cost and high / flexible performance.

The LPG-132 Power Grabber product line is a family of imaging boards and software offering flexible frame grabbing and high speed transfers to the PC over the PCI bus. The LPG-132 will easily interface to virtually any analog or digital camera and provides lightning fast PCI transfers at an amazingly attractive price.

The LPG-132 will interface with any camera or sensor at data rates up to 32 Mbytes/Sec. It has a PCI interface supporting bus master mode for fast data transfers to the host PC. The LPG-132 is fully software compatible with the popular XPG-1000 and FPG-44 Power Grabber boards, and comes complete with a comprehensive software package.

CONFIGURATION

The LPG-132 comes in two configurations - one for analog input and the other for digital inputs. These are two separate boards with different front end circuitry.

See LPG-132 System Architecture Block Diagram.

CAMERA AND SENSOR INPUT:

The LPG-132 provides flexible camera input to easily interface with virtually any type of analog / digital camera or sensor including RS170, CCIR, high resolution area or line scan cameras and multi-tap sensors. Input images can be as large as required with no limitations on image or line size. The camera acquisition circuitry is controlled directly by an intelligent on board controller, allowing fast and efficient data transfer to the PC memory over the PCI bus.

ANALOG INPUT LPG-132

• Four software selectable analog channels (optional eight inputs available).
• Each channel accepts single ended or differential video.
• Square pixels from RS170, CCIR or any non-standard analog camera or sensor.
• Composite sync on video or separate sync can be used.
• Precision gain circuit to enhance video signal.
• Software adjustable gain and offset control, with 12 bits precision.
• Software selectable internal (programmable) pixel clock or external camera clock.
• Genlock circuitry to synchronize camera input with internal pixel clock.
• Programmable sub window acquisition and de-interlacing on input data.
• Four general purpose inputs and outputs (selectable as RS422 or TTL), and additional four outputs (TTL only).
• 256 grey-level digitization with maximum pixel jitter of +/- 4 nsec.
• 8 bit input LUT for real-time thresholding or grey level adjustment.
• Supports data rates up to 20 MHZ.

DIGITAL INPUT LPG-132

• 8 or 16 bit digital input as TTL or RS422.
• Input data rates up to 32 Mbytes / Sec.
• Supports any digital area or line scan cameras including multi-tap sensors.
• Eight general purpose RS422 or TTL inputs and outputs for camera control.
• Programmable sub window acquisition and de-interlacing on input data.
• Optional 16 bit input LUT for real time thresholding or grey level adjustment.

IMAGE DISPLAY:

Images acquired on the LPG-132 can be displayed by transferring data from the LPG to the host PCI VGA card over the PCI bus in real time. Comprehensive display software supporting Direct Draw is included with the LPG-132 to provide real time display to VGA screen under Windows 95 and NT. The PCI interface supports bus master mode, and provides sustained data transfer up to the maximum data rate of the input device.

HIGH ACCURACY ANALOG CIRCUIT

The LPG-132 incorporates very high accuracy analog and data conversion circuitry to ensure sharp image acquisition. The analog to digital circuitry on the LPG differs from other low-end frame grabbers in two significant ways. The digital Phase Lock Loop (PLL) and the Programmable Gain Amplifier (PGA). The digital PLL ensures a maximum pixel jitter of +/-4 ns regardless of the sampling rate, with the "jitter" occurring only at the horizontal sync position where video is not typically digitized. The digital PLL uses a high-stability crystal oscillator which guarantees an accurate pixel to pixel sample time on each digitized line of video. Most other frame grabbers use an analog PLL which constantly adjusts the pixel clock every line in order to maintain genlock with the video source, resulting in slightly different sampling rates for every line in the digitized image.

The PGA on the LPG is an innovation which again is not generally found on other lower cost frame grabbers. The LPG contains in its video path a Programmable Gain Amplifier which can be adjusted with 12 bits of accuracy (from 0db to +30db). This, coupled with a 12 bit adjustable offset stage, can enhance the video before it is sampled by the A/D convertor. Other frame grabbers typically adjust the A/D convertor’s digitization range by controlling the positive reference input (gain) and the negative reference input (offset). Controlling the analog conversion range in this manner results in a significant amount of increased noise, especially when dealing with low contrast images. By comparison, with the separate PGA on the LPG, the noise does not change regardless of the gain or offset setting because the A/D convertor always digitizes a fixed range. This also allows the LPG to enhance low-contrast images, effectively increasing the dynamic range available from the A/D convertor.

PLUG-AND-PLAY CAMERA INTERFACE:

The LPG-132 offers plug-and-play compatibility with most standard and non-standard cameras including area and line scan cameras. The camera interface includes pre- configured camera definition files, application notes, cables and demo software for most non-standard cameras including ones from DALSA, EG&G Reticon, Kodak, Pulnix, Loral Fairchild, Cohu, Amber and many others.

POWER GRABBER COMPATIBILITY:

The LPG-132 is fully compatible with the more powerful XPG-1000 and FPG-44 range of Power Grabber imaging boards which offer on board DSP processing. All the Power Grabber boards have identical camera / sensor interface and run the same XVL software package. Any application developed on the LPG-132 will run on the XPG-1000 or FPG-44 without any change. This allows customers to easily migrate up from the LPG-132 to much higher performance imaging boards as their application gets more demanding.

PCI INTERFACE

The LPG-132 offers very high speed data transfer to the host PC over the PCI bus. The PCI interface supports target and master mode, burst mode and DMA access. The PCI interface on the LPG is accomplished through on board parallel DMA channels under the control of an intelligent controller. This achieves a maximum sustained data rate of over 25 Mbytes/Sec and burst rates of up to 132 Mbytes/Sec. The LPG-132 PCI interface conforms to the PCI Plug-n-Play specifications and supports auto-configuration, allowing smooth integration of the board in the host PC.

SOFTWARE

The LPG-132 comes complete with a comprehensive software package for flexible image grabbing, and transfer to the host PC memory. The software provides easy configuration for any analog or digital camera type. The software includes Windows 95 and NT DLLs for image grab, transfer to host memory and SVGA screen. The software package also includes several demo and sample programs in source code form.

APPLICATIONS

The LPG-132 is suitable for many applications which require flexible frame grab from any area or line scan camera and fast transfer to host PC. These include:

• Machine vision & industrial inspection.
• Medical & Scientific imaging.
• IR and thermal imaging.
• Document imaging.
• Non-standard sensor acquisition and control.

For further information, contact:
Dipix Technologies Inc.
Vision Products Division
1051 Baxter Road,
Ottawa, Ontario
K2C 3P1, Canada

Tel: 613-596-4942
Fax: 613-596-4914
Toll Free: 800-724-5929
E-mail: sales@dipix.com

Dipix and Power Grabber are registered trademarks of Dipix Technologies Inc.
Microsoft WindowsЄ is the registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
TMS320C40 is a registered trademark of Texas Instruments Corporation.
IBM is the registered trademark of IBM.

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