Unlimited Digital Switchability - Jai C3 Industrial Camera Suite

JAI have recently introduced the innovative digital C3 Camera Suite – a range of new industrial cameras developed with a bold vision: to allow system designers to switch among every conceivable vision application with minimal effort.

The new C3 Camera Suite is a complete digital machine vision camera family based on Jai's Core Camera Concept (C3). JAI’s Core Camera Concept (C3) suite consists of three product tiers:

• Compact
• Basic
• Advanced

Each tier offers a range of high-performance cameras with individual capabilities, putting unparalleled functionality at users’ fingertips.

With JAI’s new C3 Industrial Camera Suite, you can have it all!

• One core concept
• One interface 
• One simple choice

All the cameras share the same control and configuration methods and integrate quickly and simply with all compatible applications. This uniformity makes switching among models effortless – a key benefit for busy System Integrators and Original Equipment Manufacturers tasked with installing diverse and complex machine vision solutions.

All C3 cameras integrate smoothly with third-party software libraries, and all are backed by JAI's comprehensive Software Development Kit, ensuring straightforward configuration.

All C3 cameras offer:

• Standardized interface
• Common Software Development Kit
• Monochrome and color versions
• Industrial Gigabit Ethernet connectors with thumb-screws for GigE models
• Programmable General Purpose Inputs / Outputs (GPIO)
• Opto-isolated inputs and outputs
• Flexible system architectures with up to 100 meters of cable for GigE models
• Round-the-clock global support
• Constantly updated online resources

Switch to total flexibility
JAI’s C3 cameras are built for a wide range of industries, so they offer the diverse functionality to do it all – and the uniformity to make switching among models effortless. System designers can choose from over 16 models – with resolution ranging from VGA to 16 million pixels. All models in the C3 Compact, Basic, and Advanced tiers are interfaced and controlled in precisely the same way, allowing users to quickly switch from the simplest to the most complex applications without learning new technology, reconfiguring cables, or working with multiple Software Development Kits.

Switch to faster, easier integration
The C3 Camera Suite makes it simpler than ever to integrate cameras into machine vision solutions. System Integrators and Original Equipment Manufacturers can switch between the three tiers without changing any cabling or software.

C3 Advanced:
High-end cameras designed to handle the most demanding applications, C3 Advanced cameras combine the finest analog and digital circuit designs. The result is the ultimate high-performance cameras.

C3 Basic:
Versatile and flexible, C3 Basic cameras are in the mid-range tier. They offer superb thermal management and pre-processing – and guarantee the right image, every time.

C3 Compact:
Entry-level cameras offering small form factor, uncompromised image fidelity – and an easy switch from analog compact cameras to a digital platform.

The C3 Camera suite is continually growing to provide you more opportunities. March 2008 saw the release of four additional digital progressive scan GigE cameras - CM-040GE, CB-040GE, CM-080GE and CB-080GE which completed the Compact camera family.

The C3 Suite is now comprised of the following Industrial camera models but continues to grow:

Adept Electronic Solutions are the machine vision and imaging specialist providing expert advice and timely support. To find out more about the Jai C3 suite or any model from Jai's range of cameras please contact us or call us at Tel Perth (08) 92425411 / Sydney (02) 99792599 / Melbourne (03) 95555621

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AD & D Vision Support Systems - New AD&D Camera and Lighting Mounts

Adept is pleased to announce that it has recently been appointed as the exclusive distributor for Automated Drive and Design (AD&D). Marc Fimeri the Managing Director of Adept said "we're pleased to be given these innovative and well designed products to sell to our customers here in Australia and New Zealand. While they are not strategic to our business or our customer's businesses they do provide a very neat solution to the often cumbersome task of designing and building custom mounts for cameras and lighting. We think that they are applicable to both prototyping and production applications."

AD&D is an Indiana based Industrial Instrument manufacturing company. Their wide range of products includes vision support systems for mounting vision cameras and peripheral equipment.

AD&D Mounts provide multiple articulate positions. They are also very simple to set up and use: once your vision component has been positioned, simply tighten three bolts to provide a secure position. Once locked in position these mounts do not move and are resistant to vibration. All other camera mounting systems available on the market today are designed for the professional photography market and so are not designed for robust industrial applications. AD&D have designed their products specifically for industrial needs and so solve the problems other products have.

The design of the AD&D unit allows 360 degree continuous rotation around its axis. Typical single articulation provides for a 90 degree vertical space. A special extended range notch extends this range to 150 degrees. Camera mounts may be mounted together to provide for double articulation which expands the geometrical space for virtually any position. Additionally, telescopic units are available for fine tuning and provide yet another axis for positioning.

Several configurations of mounts are available: Standard mounting Magnetic Base Option Heavy Duty Magnetic Base Option Quick Clamp Option AD & D provide camera mounting brackets for most camera products by leading manufacturers such as Allied Vision Technologies, Cognex, Dalsa, DVT, iDS, Jai, Omron, Keyence, Sick and others. In addition to these standard designs AD & D offer customized design and building of mounting brackets for specific products. AD&D strives to provide effective solutions at low-cost for to suit even the roughest of environments. With their extensive experience and knowledge in this field, AD&D have developed a reputation for reliable and high quality camera mounting equipment.

AD&D strives to provide effective solutions at low-cost for to suit even the roughest of environments. With their extensive experience and knowledge in this field, AD&D have developed a reputation for reliable and high quality camera mounting equipment.

Adept Electronic Solutions (AES) are the machine vision and imaging specialists in Australia and New Zealand and exclusively distribute for the AD&D Vision support systems. With a broad selection of world class machine vision hardware and software products AES provides a one-stop shop for machine vision and imaging components.

So contact our sales by email or consult our expert vision engineers today by contacting us at 08 92425411 Perth / 02 9979 2599 Sydney / 03 9555 5621 Melbourne.

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New Firewire 1394b CCD camera range offers excellent value - AVT Stingray series

AVT has released its new Stingray series of IEEE 1394b CCD cameras with excellent price-to-performance value and loads of functionality. AVT have modelled the new Stingray series on their very successful world popular Marlin series, used the same sensors, improved their performance while reducing their cost and released them with 1394b.

The Stingray CCD series has 12 compact models with resolutions ranging from VGA to 2MP and come in either colour or monochrome. Some of their advanced functions include sequence mode, secure image signature (SIS), 2x to 8x binning and multiple-camera operability through its daisy chain feature.

The AVT Stingray CCD camera series uses quality Sony CCD sensors ranging from 640x480 pixels up to 1600x1200 pixels in both colour and monochrome. They're designed in a compact body 73x44x29mm which weighs below 100g. They are also available with a 90 degree angled head and can be optioned with a Fiber-Optic output for very long cable distances.

The Stingray firewire 1394b CCD camera series sequence mode allows the cameras to store up to 30 different parameter sets within its 32MB onboard internal memory. It allows fast switching between parameter sets so images can be captured real time and sequentially using different parameters. The exposure, gain, white balance and any other controllable parameter can be different for each sequential image in a sequence. This is very useful when for example lighting conditions cannot be predicted at the time of capture and only one image frame is required. The best image can be selected out of the 30 images captured with different parameter sets. However there are also many applications in which the camera settings have to be adapted to situations intuitively - from image to image. For this kind of application AVT has added the "quick format change modes" in which the new values transferred to the camera can always be activated for the next image.

The Stingray firewire IEEE1394b camera range has two connectors where cameras can be connected to one another in a daisy-chain and so be hooked into the Firewire bus with no performance loss. In multiple-camera operations this arrangement enables total cable lengths to be reduced and costs to be lowered by eliminating accessories such as hubs or repeaters. Fewer components and shorter cables also increase the reliability of the whole image processing system.

The Fiber-Optic (GOF) option offers a number of useful advantages:

• Cable lengths of up to 500 meters can be achieved. GOF easily bridges the distance between the camera and the PC.
  
• GOF is not susceptible to electromagnetic noise. It does not emanate any electromagnetic interference and is not affected by it - resulting in perfectly secure data transmission
  
• GOF has the same effect as perfect electrical insulation because it consists of glass fiber and does not conduct electricity. There is no need for any complicated potential reconciliation.

Secure Image Signature (SIS) function stamps the transferred image with various important data and camera settings which were valid at the time of exposure in a machine-readable form. Answers to various questions are captured and engrained at the PC end onto the image allowing them to be always available: The SIS function simplifies the control and handling of large volumes of data monitoring the trigger modules of the vision system and opening up new possibilities in the development and debugging phase. SIS developers have the opportunity to get their system into an error-free mass production status faster and reduce complexity and costs at the same time.

The Stingray CCD cameras are equipped with a 2x to 8x binning function that combines pixels both vertically and horizontally. Binning reduces resolution by adding neighboring pixels but also increases sensitivity proportionally.

The Stingray firewire 1394b CCD camera is equipped with a large number of other intelligent features such as real time shading correction, LUT, white balance, color correction, auto features, hue and saturation that can enhance the image content and optimize it for later image processing without increasing PC workload

The Stingray Firewire IEEE 1394b CCD camera series uses the plug & play principle for its software and supports both still images (WIA/TWAIN) and video stream (video capture and preview) as well as the integration of the camera via its own API. AVT uses a software development kit (SDK) together with a "viewer" that gives users access to all the tools needed for customer-specific applications.

AVT's Stingray family of firewire IEEE 1394b CCD cameras presents a formidable option for cameras of their class with advanced functionality and price-to-performance value.

Adept Electronic Solutions are the machine vision and imaging specialist providing expert advice and timely support. To find out more about the AVT Stingray firewire IEEE 1394b CCD camera range or any model from AVT's range of cameras please contact us or call us at Tel Perth (08) 92425411 / Sydney (02) 99792599 / Melbourne (03) 95555621

For more information please contact us.

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Board level USB 2 cameras for OEMs - iDS LE series

iDS LE CMOS board camera series stands out as compact, inexpensive and versatile range of industiral cameras. Available in both monochrome and colour, these cameras are universally supported with USB 2.0 technology, making them ideally compatible with PCs, notebooks, IPC and embedded systems. Some features are optional housing customization, flexible Software Development Kit (SDK) and bandwidth management.

These pocket-sized cameras feature high-quality CMOS sensors with resolutions starting from WVGA (752x480) to QSXGA (2560x1920). The CMOS cameras come with either a 1/3" or 1/2" sensor class and their frame speeds run up to 87 full frames per second or over 1000 frames/sec with Area of Interest (AOI). This is driven by the camera's freely selectable pixel clock.

iDS' LE series CMOS cameras provide a cost effective solution for many OEM applications where the camera is designed into a system or instrument. They are supplied with or without camera enclosure and so can be fitted into an instrument or system design easily and cheaply. The cameras come in 24 different variants including options with enclosure and M12 lens, board only with M12 lens adapter or as a board camera with no lens adapter.

The board level models measure 36 x 36 x 20 mm and 36 x 36 x 8 mm for the model without lens and weigh a mere 12g or 8g.

Figure: iDS LE series table featuring camera model, sensor type, resolution and speed

The LE series CMOS USB2 cameras feature advantages such as bandwidth management via the USB bus which allows for dynamic bandwidth assignment meaning that each connected device (camera) is allocated its own bandwidth rather than occupying an entire bus. The camera's Software Development Kit (SDK) provides over 100 functions to the user and makes it possible for integration with C++, C# and VB and is suitable for Windows and Linux development. The camera SDK functionality allows for full control of the camera operation and the process of acquiring images.

The iDS uEye LE series offers good affordability and compatibility and is suitable to many OEM applications - Your imagination is our challenge.

Adept Electronic Solutions (AES) is the machine vision and imaging specialist in Australia and New Zealand and exclusive distributor for the iDS' LE series CMOS camera range. With a broad selection of world class machine hardware and software products AES provides a one-stop shop for machine vision and imaging components.

So consult our expert vision engineers today by contacting us at 08 92425411 Perth / 02 9979 2599 Sydney / 03 95555621 Melbourne.

For more information please contact us.

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