Phoenix PC-1280
USB Digital Camera
User’s Guide
MuTech Corporation
When Your Image Counts
Copyright 2004
MuTech Corporation
85 Rangeway Road
Billerica, MA 01862
USA
Telephone: 978-663-2400
Fax: 978-663-3444
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.mutech.com
Revision 1.1
12/23/04
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Phoenix PC-1280 USB Digital Camera User’s Guide Revision 1.1
Table of Content
1 Introduction 5
1.1 Phoenix Digital Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2 Phoenix Camera Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2.1PhoenixView DEMO & Utility Program........................................6
1.2.2Phoenix PC-1280 SDK...................................................................7
2 Installation 9
2.1 Pre-Installation Check List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 Phoenix Camera Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2.1Device Driver Installation...........................................................10
2.2.2Distribution Software Installation...............................................11
2.3 To Remove an USB Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3 Camera Operation Overview 13
3.1 Using the PhoenixView DEMO & Utility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4 Theory of Operation 17
4.1 Hardware Block Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.2 Software Block Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
A Specification of Connectors 23
B Camera Miscillanous 25
B.1 Spectrum Responses...........................................................................25
B.2 Camera Dimensions ...........................................................................26
B.3 Mounting Mechanics..........................................................................27
B.4 Lenses...................................................................................................27
B.5 Power Consumption...........................................................................27
B.6 Operating Environment......................................................................28
C Product Specification 29
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Introduction 5
Phoenix PC-1280 USB Digital Camera User’s Guide Revision 1.1
1
1 Introduction
This manual describes the usage of the Phoenix PC-1280 USB Dig-
ital Camera products. The brief introduction of the PC-1280 prod-
ucts in this chapter is followed by the installation, the operation of
the camera hardware/software, then a chapter talks about the work-
ing theory of the products. Several appendices at the end of this Us-
er’ Guide list specific detailed information as references to the user.
1.1 Phoenix Digital Camera
The Phoenix PC-1280 USB Digital Camera is a line of high-reso-
lution progressive scan digital cameras. The PC-1280 Camera is
designed to provide high quality video/images for Professional,
Medical, and Industrial applications with low cost. It provides
Plug-n-Play and hot swappable feature, and the video/image cap-
ture and camera control functions are through the 480 Mb/s high
speed USB 2.0 interface.
Two versions of Phoenix Camera are available. PC-1280/M is the
monochrome version and PC-1280/C is the color version. The PC-
1280/M is a monochrome digital camera with 10 or 8 bit black/
white pixel formats. It also supports the CCIR 601 YCbCr (YUV)
pixel format (16 bit) for easier Windows Overlay Display. The PC-
1280/C supports several user selectable pixel formats. They are the
Raw Bayer (8 or 10 bit), the CCIR 601 YCbCr (YUV-16 bit) and
the RGB (24 bit) formats. The RGB and YUV color video is pro-
duced using a bi-linear interpolation algorithm, in real-time, by the
PC1280/C camera. This gives the user a choice of the best pixel for-
mat for the application without the burden of doing software format
conversion.
There is a built-in 10 bit LUT in the PC-1280 Camera. For 8 bit pix-
el modes, the LUT can be loaded with a 10 to 8 mapping. For the
PC-1280/C model, a second 8 bit LUT is added after the color
space converter. This LUT works with the YUV pixel format only.
It has two 8 bit paths, one for Y the other for U/V.
6 Introduction
Revision 1.1 Phoenix PC-1280 USB Digital Camera User’s Guide
To reduce the fixed pattern noise from the CMOS image sensor, the
PC-1280 Camera provides a Fixed Pattern Compensation Feature.
The user can capture a Black Field with the particular fixed pattern
of a camera, then load it to the Fixed Pattern Buffer in the camera.
This Black Frame will be subtracted from the video frames during
live video capture to effectively reduce the Noise.
The PC-1280 Camera employs a ½" CMOS image sensor (with
Bayer color mask on color version). The sensor chip provides 54dB
dynamic range. The camera delivers 15 FPS at full resolution (1280
x 1024), 60 FPS at VGA resolution (640 x 480). The PC-1280 also
supports user defined Region Of Interest (ROI) capture.
The Phoenix PC-1280 USB Digital Camera uses C-Mount lens (C-
S lens is supported with an adaptor) with 1/2" optical format. This
makes easy to replace existing CCD 1/2" cameras without chang-
ing the optical and mechanical design.
The PC-1280 Camera connects to the PC with a USB 2.0 cable. All
the image data transfers and all camera control commands are de-
livered on this cable. A separate Trigger Input is provided for trig-
ger/reset one or multiple Phoenix Digital Cameras at the exact time
for highly accurate images capture. A Strobe Output is provided by
the camera to control the external shutter or strobe light. The time
relation between the Shutter and the Trigger is software program-
mable.
The user can control and operate the PC-1280 Camera with the
PhoenixView DEMO & Utility Program. MuTech also provide
standard TWAIN and WIA image capture drivers for the Phoenix
PC-1280 products. A software development kit (Phoenix PC-1280
Software Development Kit) is available for OEM customers.
The Phoenix PC-1280 software supports Windows 2000 and Win-
dows XP platform. Multiple Cameras can be installed and operated
in one system.
1.2 Phoenix Camera Software
1.2.1 PhoenixView DEMO & Utility Program
The PhoenixView provides direct control for most features of the
PC-1280 Camera. For simple applications, it can be used to acquire
image frames and/or video sequences under the desired conditions.
Introduction 7
Phoenix PC-1280 USB Digital Camera User’s Guide Revision 1.1
The PhoenixView works with multiple cameras by selecting the
Camera ID. It operates on one camera at a time.
The PhoenixView provides the following controls for the user:
Selecting Camera ID
Changing Resolution, Pixel Format, Frame Rate
Controlling Capture Mode
Changing Image Sensor and other Video Settings
Selecting different LUTs
Capturing/Loading the FP Frame, enabling the FPC
Capturing and displaying a video sequence
Adjust Trigger and Strobe Settings
1.2.2 Phoenix PC-1280 SDK
The Phoenix PC-1280 Software Development Kit offers program-
ming interface for OEMs and other users who are developing ap-
plication programs for the Phoenix PC-1280 products. The SDK
supports Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The components of the
SDK are:
DLLs
Header files
Sample source codes (to show typical calling sequences of
core functions)
SDK Manual “Phoenix Digital Camera Software Develop-
ment Guide”
Functions in the Phoenix PC-1280 SDK provide to the programmer
the capabilities to open and initialize the camera, to setup a grab
window, to adjust camera gain, exposure, offset and white balance,
to set the camera working mode and pixel format, to load LUT or
FPN to the camera and to control the Trigger, Reset and the Strobe
of the camera.
The functions are divided into the following groups:
Camera Initialization Functions
Image Sensor Control Functions
Capture Control Functions
8 Introduction
Revision 1.1 Phoenix PC-1280 USB Digital Camera User’s Guide
Exposure and Trigger Control Functions
Image Preprocessing Functions
Installation 9
Phoenix PC-1280 USB Digital Camera User’s Guide Revision 1.1
1
2 Installation
2.1 Pre-Installation Check List
Before the installation, please check the followings:
Products In
Package
Verify that you have received the following Phoenix PC-1280
Camera components:
Phoenix Camera Model that you ordered (PC-1280/M or PC-
1280/C)
USB 2.0 Standard Cable (10 ft.)
Phoenix PC-1280 Distribution Software CD
This manual - Phoenix PC-1280 USB Digital Camera User’s
Guide
DC Power Adapter, part # PC1280-PWR (optional, must be
ordered separately)
Any other options that your ordered
System
Requirements
Verify that the host computer meets the following minimum re-
quirements:
Has Pentium 3 or better processor
CPU Runs at 1 GHz clock or higher
USB 2.0 support on the motherboard or a USB Interface Card,
with the most updated USB device driver installed.
Windows 2000/XP operating system
Minimum of 256 MB of Memory
2.2 Phoenix Camera Installation
The installation of the Phoenix Camera consists the following
steps:
10 Installation
Revision 1.1 Phoenix PC-1280 USB Digital Camera User’s Guide
Connecting the PC-1280 Camera to the computer system
and install the Device Driver
Installing the Phoenix Software from the Phoenix PC-
1280 Distribution Software CD
2.2.1
Device Driver Installation
Note: this step needs to be done only for the first time in-
stalltion. For any update, skip this step and go to the next sec-
tion - Distribution Software Installation. The “setup”
procedure will automatically update the hardware device driv-
er.
Follow these steps to connect the PC1280 Camera and to install its
driver:
Power up the PC1280 Camera with the Power Adapter.
The LED on the back of the camera should turns ON
Power up the host computer (DO NOT connect the cam-
era yet)
Plug the USB 2.0 Cable into the computer USB port (type
A connector) and the back of the PC-1280 Camera (type
B connector)
Windows will pop up the dialog box - "Found New Hard-
ware Wizard"
Select the second radio button - "Install from a list or spe-
cific location(Advanced)"; then click the “Next” button
Windows pops up another dialog box
Select the first radio button - "Search for the best driver in
these locations"
Load the “Phoenix PC-1280 Distribution Software” CD
into a CD drive, e.g. X, and select the drive and directory
for the Device Drivers as X:\drivers\Win2kXP\; then
click the “Next” button
Windows will find the correct driver files, load them and
complete the necessary registry settings
On the Windows 'Completing the Found New Hardware
Wizard' dialog box, click the "Finish" button
Reboot the computer system
Installation 11
Phoenix PC-1280 USB Digital Camera User’s Guide Revision 1.1
2.2.2 Distribution Software Installation
The following are the steps to install the Phoenix PC-1280 Distri-
bution Software on the system:
Insert the "Phoenix PC-1280 Distribution Software” CD
into a drive, e.g. X
Browse into the directory X:\Dist\, then run “Setup.exe”
The installation software will show an “Welcome Infor-
mation” panel, click the “Next” button on it
On next page, read the License Agreement and select Yes
or No button
On the “Installation Information” page, a list of files to be
installed will be shown. Click the “Next” button
On the “Choose Destination Location” page, either select
the default folder ("C:\PC-1280\") or create a different di-
rectory, then click the “Next” button
Next is the “Select Setup Type to Install” page. The “Typ-
ical” is recommended
On the “Select Program Folder” page, the user can choose
where the application is located on the Windows Start -
All Programs. The default Folder is “MuTech”. Click the
“Next” button
Now the installation software is ready. On the “Start
Copying Files” page, review the settings. If satisfied,
click the “Next” button to start the installation
Depending on the system, there might be a warning mes-
sage asking if the device driver file (a Read Only File) can
be copied over. If this message pops up, answer “Yes”
and continue
Once the installation is done, the “InstallShield Wizard
Complete” page shows. On this page select the Reboot ra-
dio button, remove the Distribution Software CD, then
click “Finish” to complete the process
At this point, clicking the PhoenixView program icon starts the
PhoenixView - DEMO & Utility Software.
12 Installation
Revision 1.1 Phoenix PC-1280 USB Digital Camera User’s Guide
2.3 To Remove an USB Device
Once the Phoenix Camera and its driver are installed and run-
ning, the user should use the
“Safely Remove Hardware" icon
on the Windows Toolbar to “Remove” the Phoenix Camera
from the USB device list before to disconnect the USB cable or
power down the Phoenix Camera. This is a general rule of ac-
tion for all Hot-swappable USB devices. If not followed, the de-
vice and the system could become unstable.
Camera Operation Overview 13
Phoenix PC-1280 USB Digital Camera User’s Guide Revision 1.1
3 Camera Operation Overview
The PC-1280 Camera comes with default factory settings. For most
applications, these defaults should work fine with only a few minor
changes. In general, the following settings should be selected by
the user to start capture videos/images:
Capture Resolution
Pixel Format
Capture Mode (single or continuous)
For more customized operation, the user may need to change the
settings on:
Exposure Mode and Setting
Gain Mode and Setting
White Balance Mode and Setting (for PC-1280/C only)
Defining a Region of Interest (ROI)
Using Triggered Capture
Using Sequence Capture
The PhoenixView DEMO & Utility is the main software program
to operate the PC-1280 Cameras, it has all the controls and user in-
terfaces to perform the tasks listed above and some more. For many
cases, it is the only software the user will need to use. Camera Con-
figuration
Camera
Configuration
At this time, there is only one configuration need to be done by the
user. That is in a multiple camera system, each camera should be
given an unique Camera ID. All PC-1280 Cameras are pro-
grammed with Camera ID = 0, when leaving the factory. The user
should set them to different IDs (e.g. 0, 1 and 2 for a three camera
system) if multiple cameras are in the same system. To program the
Camera ID, please see the following section.
14 Camera Operation Overview
Revision 1.1 Phoenix PC-1280 USB Digital Camera User’s Guide
3.1 Using the PhoenixView DEMO & Utility
There are 6 main menu items from the PhoenixView, they are File,
Capture, Adjust, Trig/Exp, Test and Help. This section will give a
brief description on their usage. On-line help is also available for
the user.
File Menu
Camera ID
The user can select a camera instance from the Camera Configure
sub-menu and assign a unique Camera ID (CID) to that camera.
The CID value must be between 0 ~ 255. The CID can then be used
to physically identify a camera.
Capture Menu
Capture Mode
The user can select Single Capture, Continuous Capture or Se-
quence Capture Mode from the Capture pull down menu. Capture
in an ROI can also be defined (a single rectangle area) and enabled
(combined with any of the three capture modes).
Sequence Capture
A Sequence Capture Dialog Box pops up when this Capture Mode
is selected. The user can specify the total number of frames desired
and the intervals (in terms of frame time) on this dialog box. Then
the sequence capture can be started and stopped by clicking the but-
tons. Once the capture is completed, the total number of frames
captured is shown.
The user can now play back the just captured frame sequence for
viewing.
Display Mode
DirectDraw or DIB modes can be selected from the Capture pull
down menu. The default display mode is DirectDraw. Only the
YUV Pixel Format is supported when this mode is selected. In DIB
Mode, the Monochrome 8 bit Pixel Format is used.
Capture Interval
For Continuous Capture Mode, the capture interval can be set by
this Dialog Box. The interval is in terms of a frames of time. If the
user selected 0, the capture will go at maximum speed.
Adjust Menu
Camera Operation Overview 15
Phoenix PC-1280 USB Digital Camera User’s Guide Revision 1.1
Capture
Resolution
The user can select the video resolution from the Video Format pull
down menu. There are two resolution settings, 1280x1024 and
640x480. The other two settings are actually implemented as ROIs
under the larger resolutions. When the PhoenixView starts, the de-
fault resolution is 640x480.
Pixel Format
Using this pull down menu to specify the Pixel Format, the user can
select from Monochrome 8 bit, YUV422 or RGB888 formats.
Note, the Pixel Format is closely related on how the video is dis-
played, therefore, the Display Mode should be set accordingly.
Frame Rate
Once the resolution is selected, the default frame rate is defined (60
fps for 640x480 mode, 15 fps for 1280x1024 mode). The user can
use this to select slower frame rate.
Using LUT
The user can Enable/Bypass the LUT. Two standard LUTs are
built-in, one is Linear, the other is Inverse Linear. The user can se-
lect one of the LUTs under live video.
Video
Adjustments
This sub-menu under the Adjust pops up an Adjust Dialog Box. On
it, the user can control most of the sensor chip settings related to the
video quality. For example, Video Gain, Exposure, White Balance,
Black Level, etc. Most of the adjustments are instantaneous.
Fixed Pattern
Compensation
Using the Fixed Pattern Compensation consists of three steps. The
first is to capture a Black Frame. The second is to load the pattern
into the camera buffer. Then enable the compensation.
The first 2 steps can be done by the Load Fixed Pattern sub-menu.
A dialog box pops up with two sections, one for capture a Black
Frame as the Fixed Pattern Frame. Cover the lens or close the lens
aperture to perform the capture. The captured Black Frame will be
displayed. Then, it can be loaded into the camera by selecting the
Image radio button. It can also be saved into a file for later use. For
testing, a constant frame can also be loaded as a pattern frame.
Once the Fixed Pattern is loaded into the camera, the compensation
can be enabled/disabled through the Enable FP Compensation sub-
menu.
Trig/Exp Menu
Trigger and
Exposure
This menu item pops up the Trigger / Strobe Control Dialog Box.
On it, the user can test the Trigger and the Strobe signals. Upon the
Trigger signal active, the user can select capture of single, contin-
uous or sequence. Also the Trigger can activate the Strobe Output.
16 Camera Operation Overview
Revision 1.1 Phoenix PC-1280 USB Digital Camera User’s Guide
The Strobe signal can be set to have a certain delay and width from
the Trigger signal (both in terms of line periods).
For testing, the PhoenixView can generate a software signal as a
Trigger signal, the signal works exactly like the hardware signal.
Test Menu
Pops the Frame Rate Display Dialog Box to show the current frame
rate being captured.
Help Menu
Starts the About Dialog Box. The user can find out most of the use-
ful information on the current version of the software and hard-
ware. For example, the software versions, the Camera version, S/
N, Camera ID and the Camera capabilities.
Tool Bar
Several buttons on the Tool Bar provide easy access for frequently
used controls. They are Configure, Save Image, Start Capture, Stop
Capture, Setting ROI, Enable FP Compensation, Help Topics
Theory of Operation 17
Phoenix PC-1280 USB Digital Camera User’s Guide Revision 1.1
4 Theory of Operation
The Phoenix PC-1280 USB Digital Camera consists of camera
hardware and support software (device driver and core DLL).
4.1 Hardware Block Diagram
The PC-1280 Camera is implemented with a CMOS image sensor
chip, a FPGA chip, a memory buffer attached to the FPGA, an USB
FYH interface and other supporting circuits. To guarantee the vid-
eo capture performance, the core functions are all designed in the
FPGA. A built-in memory buffer of SDRAM provides sufficient
buffering to prevent image data lost even under severe USB Bus
traffic. Figure 4.1 shows the Block Diagram of the PC-1280 Cam-
era Hardware.
Figure 4.1: PC-1280 Camera Hardware Block Diagram
SDRAM Buffer
(16 M B)
CMOS
Im age
Sensor
(1280 x
1024)
FP
Comp.
10 Bit
LUT
Color
Space
Conv.
Transfer
Control
GP
I/O
Capture
Control
Misc.
Control
10/8/16
USB
Bus
Trig
Strobe
10/8/16
FPGA Chip
PC1280BD.CFL
REV. 1.0 11/17//04
10
10
USB
PHY
18 Theory of Operation
Revision 1.1 Phoenix PC-1280 USB Digital Camera User’s Guide
Fixed Pattern
Compensator
If the Fixed Pattern Compensation is turned ON, the pixel from the
sensor is subtracted by the Fixed Pattern (Black Frame with the
fixed pattern associated with a particular sensor chip). The resultant
image has a reduced fixed pattern noise.
10 Bit LUT
A single bank 10 Bit LUT is provide in the pixel data path to sup-
port simple processing such as gamma correction or negative vid-
eo, etc. This LUT is used as a 10 to 8 mapping, if the 8 bit pixel
mode is selected. The LUT could be by passed if desired.
Color Space
Convertor
In this stage, the monochrome pixel is converted into YUV format,
with the U/V byte filled with 0x80. The YUV format provide con-
venient way to display on a Overlay Surface when DirectDraw is
used.
For the PC-1280/C Camera, the Bayer Patterned color pixels are
converted into RGB format (24 bit/pixel). Or they can be converted
into YUV(16 bit/pixel) format. The conversion is done by hard-
ware to reduce the burden of software conversion. However, this
results in higher data traffic on the USB Bus.
The user can decide on the right pixel format for the application. If
desired, the conversion stage may be bypassed.
SDRAM Buffer
The memory buffer provides multiple functionality. The Fixed Pat-
tern Frame is stored here and is read out to be operated with the in-
coming pixels. The captured frame(s) in all pixel formats are stored
here. When the USB Bus is ready, they are read out from this buffer
and sent to the USB.
Capture Control
The Capture Control Block determines when, how and where to
store the pixel data (after the Color Space Conversion) in the mem-
ory buffer. The user can control full or partial (ROI) frames cap-
tured. The user also specifies how the capture is done; single,
continuous or sequence capture.
Transfer Control
This block controls the data transfer through the USB Bus. It take
the frames stored in the memory buffer and puts them into USB
packets. Then according to the user’s command, the packets are
transferred via the USB protocol. The capture of a frame and the
transfer of it can therefore be separated if desired.
Miscllaneous
Control
This control handles other minor tasks, such as interfacing with the
Trigger and Strobe signals, generating the events to the user pro-
grams and control the sensor chip exposure time (when Global Ex-
Theory of Operation 19
Phoenix PC-1280 USB Digital Camera User’s Guide Revision 1.1
posure Mode is used), etc. The Strobe Output delay time relative to
the Trigger Input, and the width of the Strobe Pulse is also con-
trolled here.
4.2 Software Block Diagram
The Phoenix Camera software has a layered architecture. At the
bottom of the stack is the Standard USB Driver (provided by Mi-
crosoft), which serves all USB devices. On top of it are the kernel
mode PC-1280 Camera Device Driver and the Class Driver. These
handle all the data and control communications to/from the Phoe-
nix Camera via the USB Driver and host controller. The core func-
tions of the Phoenix Camera software are in the DLLs (SDK),
which is located above the Drivers. The SDK provides an API of
abstract layer to handle all operations required by the user applica-
tion.
Besides of the SDK interface, MuTech also provide several high
level industrial standard high level driver interfaces (such as
TWAIN and WIA). Some applications may use these interfaces to
get the data and control through the SDK. In these cases, no user
programming will be needed. The Phoenix Camera Software archi-
tecture is shown in Figure 4.2.
20 Theory of Operation
Revision 1.1 Phoenix PC-1280 USB Digital Camera User’s Guide
Figure 4.2: Phoenix Camera Software Block Diagram
The software supports both single and continuous frame capture. In
either case, the capture can be started by software or by a Trigger
signal. Capturing a sequence of frames is also supported by the
software. The user can specify the number of frames and the inter-
val (in terms of frames) between two consecutively captured
frames. For a small sequence, the driver may be able to allocate the
needed frame buffers within the kernel pool. All sequence frames
will then be captured in the buffer chain. The user can get the frame
after the sequence is complete. However, if the number of frames
in the sequence is too large to be allocated in the kernel pool, the
user must allocate the buffer chain in user mode space, and copy the
sequence frames into the buffer chain. Since the driver still pro-
vides a small buffer chain, there will be no data loss, even when the
USB Bus has other traffic.
Several events may be sent from the DLL to the user application to
indicate certain conditions, such as Trigger, Frame Sync, Frame
Capture is Done and/or Frame Data Transfer is Done. These can be
USB Host
Controller(H/W)
Application S/W
USB
Driver
Phoenix DLL
Phoenix Driver
MuTech SW
TWAIN
Driver
Other
Drivers
Microsoft SW
Legends:
PC1280SW.CFL
REV. 1.0 11/17//04
User
Mode
Kernel
Mode
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