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

NEW GRABLINK Full NEW GRABLINK DualBase NEW GRABLINK Base Form factor x4 PCI Express Full height, half length x4 PCI Express Full height, half length x1 PCI Express Low profile, half length Camera Link configuration Base, Medium, Full Dual Base Base Number of cameras 1 2 1 10-tap configuration camera support - - PoCL Safe Power - Mini Camera Link SDR connector 2 2 1 Tap de-multiplexing incl. tap reversal Max. pixel-clock frequency 24/48/64/80 bits @ 85 MHz 2x24 bits @ 85 MHz 24 bits @ 85 MHz Gray scale camera support Color camera support RGB and Bayer RGB and Bayer RGB and Bayer Area scan camera support Line scan camera support Effective delivery bandwidth Up to 850 MB/s* Up to 850 MB/s* Up to 200 MB/s On-board memory 128 MB 128 MB 64 MB On-board processing       Input images 8-bit, 10-bit or 12-bit 8-bit, 10-bit or 12-bit 8-bit, 10-bit or 12-bit Pre-processing functions       - 3 LUT operators - Bayer CFA decoder - Pixel formatting - Image reconstruction I/O electrical style       Isolated current-sense inputs for a wide voltage input range up to 30V - trigger and general purpose - 4 8 4 Isolated contact output - strobe and general purpose - 4 8 4 High-speed differential inputs - quadrature encoder and general purpose - 2 4 2 +5V and +12V power output with electronic fuse protection

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

The Grablink Full is a cost-effective full-featured frame grabber for single Camera Link camera applications. It supports one Base-, Medium- or Full-configuration camera, including 10-tap. The Grablink Full features a 4-lane PCI Express bus. This high-end acquisition board targets high-speed and high-resolution area-scan and line-scan applications such as printing, web and Flat Panel Display inspection, 3D inspection and manufacturing inspection for fast production lines.

The Grablink DualBase is a cost-effective full-featured frame grabber for two Camera Link cameras applications. It supports two Camera Link Base-configuration cameras as well as featuring on-board processing and two rich sets of I/O lines. The Grablink DualBase features a 4-lane PCI Express bus.

The Grablink Base is a cost-effective full-featured frame grabber for one Camera Link camera applications. It supports one Camera Link Base-configuration camera as well as featuring on-board processing and one rich set of I/O lines. The Grablink Base features a 1-lane PCI Express bus.

Flexibility

Fully programmable pre-processing on 8-, 10-, 12-bit input images
Y and RGB, planar or packed output formats

High-performance

Image pre-processing without loading the host CPU
Shorter acquisition and processing time