User Guide¶

Getting Started¶

The first step is to connect cameras to GigE or GigE Vision network adapters.

Install Pylon software. For non GigE Vision adapters Pylon will install filter drivers.

Verify or setup IP addresses of the cameras. See Network Setup for more details.

Optionally cameras can be checked with Pylon Viewer.

If several cameras need to share the same adapter, bandwidth load must be estimated. See Bandwidth Control for more details.

Network Setup¶

Basler GigE cameras can run on 100Mbit and 1000Mbit adapters. If high performance is expected, the camera can to be connected directly to dedicated GigE or GigE Vision adapter on the target PC.

For non GigE Vision adapters Pylon will install filter driver. This can be verified by going to Control Panel-Network Connections-Connection Properties. Make sure filter driver is present and activated on the correct adapter. Cameras won’t work without filter driver.

When Basler cameras are connected they do get IP addresses. Even so, pylon IP Configurator should be invoked to verify that cameras get correct addresses.

Begin by verifying that adapters have correct subnets. Then see that cameras have IP addresses from those subnets. Use static addresses if automatic or dhcp does not work.

Pylon Viewer¶

pylon Viewer from Basler allows to view existing connected cameras, open them, change their parameters and test different modes of operation.

Among other things pylon Viewer can be used to stress test network setup. Open and run cameras at high framerates and monitor message log for error messages. Also notice read-only counters at Stream Parameters-Statistics. See if failed frame count stays at zero.

Bandwidth Control¶

Although theoretical throughput of Gigabit network is around 120MB/s, it should be expected that cameras can transfer maximum of 80-100MB/s of image data.

• Multiple cameras will share the available bandwidth
• More bandwidth can be added to a system by using multiple adapters
• Adapter performance can be improved by enabling Jumbo Frames and disabling Interrupt Moderation
• Limiting camera framerate is an easy way to do bandwidth management. See Triggering Control for more details.

For standard GigE adapters jumbo frames (or large packets) can be enabled. This will increase the capacity of the system. Go to adapter properties and click on Configure, then go to Advanced tab and search for jumbo frames. Not all adapters and routers support jumbo frames.

At the same time Packet Size in camera driver must be adjusted to match size of jumbo frames (see transport layer parameters)

However it would work best only on short direct connections. Over longer distances large packets can make things worse.

GigE vision adapters will be already optimized for this, no additional setup needed.

When there are several cameras on the same adapter, the sum of load across all cameras must not exceed total line throughput. However, even then there may be packet conflicts - if cameras grab images simultaneously and try to transfer them as quickly as possible.

The following parameters may be adjusted to avoid packet conflicts (more details in transport layer parameters):

• Packet Size - making it larger (as allowed by network adapter) will reduce load. But conflicts on larger packets will take longer to resend.
• Inter-Packet Delay - may be increased to reduce load.
• Frame Transmission Delay - may be differentiated across several cameras.
• Bandwidth Reserve - reserve bandwidth to handle packet resend and transmission collisions
• Bandwidth Assigned - read-only parameter tells exactly how much bandwidth a camera is using. Have a sum of this for all cameras on the same adapter.

Triggering Control¶

By default camera will be in freerun mode without framerate limit. Scorpion may trigger images at defined slower rate, but camera would still stream images as fast as possible under given image size, exposure, etc. Network may get unnecessarily overloaded.

Another option to limit network overload is to use Hardware or Software camera trigger. Trigger is enabled with TriggerMode parameter set to on, then Trigger Source can define either Hardware Line or Software trigger.

Some Basler cameras provide both AcquisitionStart and FrameStart trigger groups.

Using Software Trigger¶

Software Trigger will not be as fast as Hardware trigger but it can be used as an alternative to camera freerun mode, especially when network load must be reduced. In order to use software trigger the following parameters must be checked:

• Trigger Mode is on
• Trigger Source is set to Software

Software trigger will be automatically issued with Scorpion’s Grab command (via python or via Scorpion actions).

Python example: ExecuteCmd('Grab','')

Alternatively software trigger can be issued directly to the camera via setProperty:

Python example: GetCamera("0").setProperty("softwareTrigger", 1)

Scorpion Continous Mode¶

Scorpion Vision 8 and higher supports continous mode. This mode is implemented in order to reduce the overhead when using high framerates. Scorpion can handle framerates up to 100..250 frames per second. The actual number depends upon camera type and interface used. The continous mode eliminates the need and overhead to issue a Grab command for each image. This means that Scorpion only concentrates to receive the images as fast as they flow into the PC.

Activate continous mode for the first camera:

GetCamera("0").setProperty("continous", 1)

DeActivate continous mode for the first camera:

GetCamera("0").setProperty("continous", 0)

Camera Configuration in Scorpion¶

Camera parameters can be configured via configuration dialog:

When parameters have been changed press either Apply or OK. In both cases the new parameters (and only those that were actually edited) are written to camera.

But in case of Apply the dialog remains open. The parameter values will be updated and will reflect what actually was accepted by the camera. It may turn out that changing one parameter modifies another (e.g. changing Binning will change Width/Height). This is a convienent way to iteratively navigate through parameter interdependencies towards target settings.

The parameters are provided via GeniCam interface directly from camera. The particular names and order of parameters may differ from camera to camera. However the bulk of essential parameters usually do not change. Below is definition for some of the most common parameters.