Hardware Triggering with StreamPix

Most cameras and frame grabbers come with trigger inputs. By enabling hardware triggering in StreamPix, it is possible to capture one or multiple images based on a external trigger signal. NorPix has built systems that simultaneously triggered over 12 cameras simultaneously.

Two options are available:

  • Event triggering: The camera or the frame grabber can be triggered for each frame to be captured. This is called edge event triggering (rising or falling edge).
  • Level triggering: Another method is to assert a trigger signal and maintain it active to have StreamPix continuously acquiring until the signal is inactive. This mode is called level triggering (high or low level).

Most cameras/frame grabbers support some or all of these modes:

  • Rising edge trigger
  • Falling edge trigger
  • High level trigger
  • Low level trigger

If an external trigger source is not available, StreamPix includes a custom triggering module that can be used to generate a trigger signal.

Available as a module to control the National Instruments NI6601 digital timing generator directly from StreamPix. Generates external pulses to sync one or multiple cameras simultaneously.

Plugin Trigger Module
StreamPix: PlugIn trigger module GUI.

CA1000 control box
National Instruments: CA1000 control box with PCI6601 digital timing generator. (Available from National Instruments, CA1000 control box not required).

The plugin allows control of the NI6601 digital timing generator to generate external pulses to sync all cameras and make sure cameras acquire images at the exact same time. The National Instrument NI 6601 is a PCI adapter that includes a timer counter as well as 8 digital IO ports. NI6601 Plugin is a software plugin for StreamPix that allows control of the board. The plugin module allows timer control to generate an output pulse at a user-defined frequency. The plugin module can also monitor some input lines on the NI6601 board to allow detection of the recording start and stop conditions. The pulse frequency can run from 0.01 Hz to 1000 Hz.

Note: It is possible to increase the pulse frequency in order to find the maximum possible frequency before the camera starts dropping some trig and frames. In trigger mode, an internal electrical circuitry prevents the camera from starting a new exposure until the previous frame is completely exposed and transferred.

Recording Start and Stop conditions can be detected as some rising edge or falling edge on either the same or different input line.

Recording Start and Stop conditions can also be used to control the output pulse.

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