Support of line-scan or area-scan cameras in Base, dual Base or Medium Camera Link configurations Form factors: desktop PCI, 32-bit 33 MHz / 64 bits, 66 MHz bus 6U/4HP Compact PCI, 64-bit 66 MHz bus Acquisition: up to 24 bits / 48 bits at maximum 85 MHz On board memory: 8 / 16 / 32 Mbytes Asynchronous reset, exposure control and I/O lines (trigger & strobe) Camera Link serial line configurable as an additional PC COM port Multiple taps, tap reversal, tap multiplex, dynamic windowing

Camera Link image acquisition

	GRABLINK Value	GRABLINK Value cPCI	GRABLINK Avenue	GRABLINK Express	GRABLINK Expert 2	GRABLINK Expert 2 cPCI
Form factor	Desktop PCI	6U/4HP cPCI	Desktop PCI	x1 PCI Express Full height, half length	Desktop PCI	6U/4HP cPCI
Bus	32-bit, 33 MHz	64-bit, 66 MHz	64-bit, 66 MHz		64-bit, 66 MHz	64-bit, 66 MHz
Camera Link configuration	Base	Base	Base	Base PoCL compliant	Base, dual-Base, Medium	Base, dual-Base, Medium
Gray scale
Color
Progressive scan
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
Area-scan
Line scan				ADR Technology™
ADR Technology	-	-			-	-
Pre-processing	-	-	-	-	-	-

Camera Link image acquisition and pre-processing

	NEW GRABLINK Quickpack CFA	GRABLINK Quickpack ColorScan
Form factor	Desktop PCI	Desktop PCI
Bus	64-bit, 66 MHz	64-bit, 66 MHz
Camera Link configuration	Base	Base
Gray scale		-
Color
Progressive scan		-
Max pixel-clock frequency	24 bits@85 MHz	24 bits@60 MHz
Area-scan		-
Line scan	-
ADR Technology	-	-
Pre-processing	for color area-scan inspection	for color area-scan inspection

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.


Interfaced cameras
The Grablink series interfaces many different cameras.
An up-to-date list is available on the Interfacing Cameras page.

GrabLink Series, Frame Grabbers for line scan and area scan applications

Line-scan applications

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", the 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 Technology*: In many applications, a line-scan camera has to be operated at a constant cycling rate in order to maintain a constant sensitivity. Grablink Avenue implements 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.


See our Grablink Quickpack ColorScan for RGB line-scan inspection.


Area-scan applications

Camera modes: features such as asynchronous reset, exposure control, strobe lighting often required in industrial applications are available on 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. Grablink series is capable of consistently controlling the exposure time and the illumination.


Camera tap structure: any tap structure, 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.


See our New Grablink Quickpack CFA for color area-scan inspection.

-Base Camera Link 1.2 configuration,
- 24 bits at 85 MHz
- Power over Camera Link compliant
- 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

- Dual Base or Medium   configurations
- 48 bits at 60 MHz
- 16-MByte on board memory
- Form factors:
    - desktop PCI 64-bit 66 MHz        bus
    - 6U/4HP Compact PCI  

       64-bit 66 MHz bus