Trigger LABview actions using 1429 trigger input

[binareda]

Hi there:

I am planning to use Labview 8 and PCIe 1429 card to communicate with a Basler line scan camera. I am providing a trigger input to 1429. I was able to feed the trigger to the camera using MAX.

I was wondering how I can use the this trigger in Labview to initiate camera line image acquisition and some simple processing on the image data.

Best!

Bing

[Allison_S]

Bing,

    You may have looked already, but there are a few example programs that do what you are needing.  If you open the LabVIEW example finder, click the Browse tab and the Task button.  On the right find Hardware Input and Output >> IMAQ >> Signal Input and Output and there are a few triggered programs in there.  I would recommend looking at the HL Triggered Snap.vi example.  This accounts for a trigger coming into the card.  Then, whatever processing you want to do on your image would be done between the two sequence blocks, you could add another in the middle there.  Let me know if you have more questions, and best of luck!

-Allison S.

Applications Engineering

[binareda]

Allison:

Thank you very much for taking the time to provide me with very helpful suggestions. I was able to run quite a few Labview examples in my setup, such as "HL triggered snap" and "LL Triggered snap".

My application calls for continuous inpection of a moving web. The 1429 will be receiving a triggering pulse (from an encoder) at about 1000Hz constantly. For each trigger, I'd like to pull the line image from the camera, perform some simple inspection process and append (save) the results to a file. At the same time, I'd like the camera to use the 1ms interval between two adjacent triggers to expose the sensor and get ready for next trigger.

I do have a few more questions:

1. Do you think that my setup would be feasible for the applications?

2. Can Labview's actions, such as pulling image from camera, processing and saving, be triggered by the external trigger line of 1429? If so, could you kindly point me to the examples that would do this?

3. There is a vi example called "LL trigger each line from encoder" which I was not able to run in my setup. I think the example requires phase A and phase B encoder signal which I cannot provide since 1429 only has one trigger input. Do you think this example would be somehow usable for my application?

Thank you again for your attention and kind reply.

Best!

Bing

[Allison_S]

Bing,

    It sounds like you are trying to get a lot done for your application.  You said that you wanted to read an image, inspect it, and save it at 1000Hz, right?  Most cameras can take an image at 1000Hz easily, but the processing may slow it down, and saving to a file can be very slow within a loop.  It is possible, but you will definitely want to try to reduce the amount of things done within the loop.  As far as having the camera use the interval between adjacent triggers to prepare for the next image, I believe it does so automatically, though I am not sure exactly what you mean by exposing the sensor.

    Using the trigger input as a trigger for image acquisition can be done, and it is done in some of our example programs.  In the Hardware Input and Output >> IMAQ >> Signal Input and Output folder there are many triggering VI's for you to choose from.  I would recommend LL Triggered Ring.vi, and you will want to set the Trigger Action on the IMAQ Configure Trigger to Trigger each buffer (it will wait for a trigger for each individual image).  These are triggering only the acquisition, but if you add the processing and saving after the acquisition within the loop, they will run as soon as the image is acquired.

    I would not use the VI that you mentioned, it is for encoders, which you don't have.  When you look at the example finder, in the bottom left corner there is an option to limit the examples by hardware.  Limit the search by the PCI-1428, it is very similar to your card and the VI's that will work for it will work for the 1429.

    Best of luck, and let me know if you have more questions!

-Allison S.

Applications Engineering

[binareda]

Great comments! Thanks!

Bing