Scorpion Vision Software supports the complete range of Prosilica GigE cameras using the

• PVGrab.dll - Scorpion Camera Driver, standard mode
• PVGrabNoBroadcast.dll - Scorpion Camera Driver, initializes in no-broadcast mode only
• PVAPI.dll - Prosilica API dll

Note: please specify cameras by their IP addresses when using PVGrabNoBroadcast.dll

Standard or No Broadcast mode driver - which one to choose

PVGrab.dll initializes in standard Prosilica API mode. In standard mode broadcast messages are sent periodically over the network in order to discover new cameras.  The advantage for the user is that in Scorpion there is a list of camera names presented the user can choose from.
However if broadcast messages are annoying the user can choose PVGrabNoBroadcast.dll, which does not send any broadcast messages. As a consequence, Scorpion cannot present camera list, so the user has to specify cameras by their IP addresses in the camera name field.
Otherwise the two drivers are identical.
It must be noted, that IP addresses (instead of camera names) can be used with PVGrab.dll as well.

Installing Scorpion camera driver

Scorpion driver PVGrab.dll or PVGrabNoBroadcast.dll require Prosilica API library PVAPI.dll. Normally they are installed when installing Scorpion. However if you require the latest drivers please make sure both Scorpion driver and Prosilica's PVAPI.dll are copied into Scorpion folder. See Release Notes for download links.

Important: When switching between PVGrab.dll and PVGrabNoBroadcast.dll please remove first all cameras from Scorpion camera list and restart Scorpion. After that you can add cameras and select the other driver. You may need to recreate image which is removed along with camera removal. If you use more than one Prosilica camera in Scorpion profile, only one type of Scorpion Prosilica drivers can be used in the same profile.

For camera installation see the Prosilica documentation.

More information about Prosilica - http://www.prosilica.com/

More information about ethernet - http://computer.howstuffworks.com/ethernet.htm/printable>

If there is more than one NIC on the host computer, then you must make sure that the camera and the NIC associated with that camera are on the same subnet.  

By using the subnet mask 255.255.255.0, then the host computer and the camera know that they are talking on the same subnet.  

If you do not mask the subnet (ie. if you use 255.255.0.0), then camera does not know which network it is talking on and commands get lost.   Be sure to review the following FAQ:

http://www.prosilica.com/support/gige/multiple_network_cards.html


The following is true about the gigE cameras:

1. The camera should answer a ping.
2. If the camera is on a different subnet, it will not hear the ping, and so will not answer.
3. In order for the Prosilica Viewer to see a camera, the camera and the NIC must talk on the same subnet and the subnet mask must be set properly too.
4. The Viewer only sees cameras that are on the local subnet.  The GigEIPConfig utility sees beyond the subnet and will list every camera on the local network without regard to subnet.
5. Use the GigEIPConfig program to manage / configure the ip-address of a connected camera
6. Use the Prosilica to test a configured and connected camera

Prosilica GigE Property Pages

Below are the property pages explained.

The camera setup dialog allows the user to set the most common properties of the camera. To access other properties use the Scorpion commands described in the command section or by the python camera interface

Camera visibility 

Prosilica cameras are visible to the driver only if they are connected to the same subnet as the computer and they are not blocked by the computer firewall.  Normally cameras can be selected using the ... browse button.

Note: To access cameras on different subnets you can type the ip-address - 192.0.0.1 -  in the Camera field of the Camera Settings dialog - see below.

General page

Image format

• Supported formats
  • Mono8
  • Bayer8
  • Rgb24
  • Y411
  • Y422
  • Y444
    

Trigger mode

• Freerun - continuous video stream. This option reduces the acquisition time but increases the Ethernet load.
• SyncIn1..4 - hardware triggered. Triggered due to the Trigger event settings
• FixedRate - acquires images at a fixed rate set by the frame rate value
• Software - a trigger command is sent to the camera for each image request. This option reduces the Ethernet load to a minimum but increases the acquisition time.

Note: Freerun is a fast streaming mode using bandwidth continously - Software is slower but uses less bandwidth

Trigger Event

• Applies to Trigger mode SyncIn1..4 only. See actual camera documentation for event settings.

Framerate

• Applies to Trigger mode FixedRate only.
• Defines number of frames per second (fps)
• The framerate maximum depends of physical Ethernet capacity, GigE settings and image size.

Controls page

Sets the most common controls for the camera. See the camera specification for actual camera for further information.

LUT page

Apply lookup table. Lookup table must follow some rules, see example.

LUT File

• The File Name of LUT file.

Column

• In drop down list choose column to use.

Generate LUT

• Logarithmic LUT generation.

GigE page

PacketSize

• This parameter determines the Ethernet packet size. Generally speaking this number should be set to as large as the network adaptor will allow. If this number is reduced, then CPU loading will increase. These large packet sizes are called Jumbo Packets in Ethernet terminology. If your Gigabit Ethernet - 1000baseT network adaptor does not support Jumbo Packets of at least 9 Kbytes, then you will need to reduce PacketSize parameter of the camera to match the maximum Jumbo packet size supported by your Gigabit Ethernet inteface. The default value for GigE is 8332.

Note: Use 1500 as packetsize for fast ethernet - 100baseT

StreamBytesPerSecond

• This control is very useful. This control can be used to moderate the data rate of the camera. This is particularly useful for slowing the camera down so that it can operate over slower links such as Fast Ethernet - 100 MBit or wireless networks. It is also an important control for multicamera situations. When multiple cameras are connected to a single Gigabit Ethernet port (usually through a switch), StreamBytesPerSecond for each camera needs to be set to a value so that the sum of each cameras StreamBytesPerSecond parameter does not exceed the data rate of the GigE port.

Note: Setting this number to 994952 = 8 MBit is good for 100baseT. On 1000baseT a value corresponding to 80 MBit is a conservative value. One byte is 8 bits. The practical capacity on a 100BaseT is 60 - 80 MBit.

Attributes page

The Attribute page lists all available camera properties

• Attribute - attribute name, this is the name to be used in get/set property commands
• Type
  • C - command
  • E - enumeration
  • S - string
  • I - integer
  • F - float
• Flags
  • R - readable
  • W - writable
  • C - constant
  • V - volatile (camera controlled value)
• Value - current value
• Range - attribute range
• Category - the attribute category

For detailed attribute information see http://www.prosilica.com

Example 1: Settings white balance from Central script

def SetWhiteBalance(red,blue):
  cam=GetCamera("0") #equals cam=GetCameras().getCamera(0)
  cam.setProperty('WhitebalValueRed',red)
  cam.setProperty('WhitebalValueRed',blue)

  #verify set ok
  print 'red',red,cam.getProperty('WhitebalValueRed')
  print 'blue',blue,cam.getProperty('WhitebalValueBlue')