HALCON 6.0 Frame Grabber Interface for MATRIX Vision Boards

This page provides the documentation of the HALCON frame grabber interface HFGMatrixVision.dll for the MATRIX Vision boards mvDELTA, mvSIGMA, pcIMAGE, mvTITAN, and mvGAMMA. Registered customers can download the latest revision of this interface from the MVTec WWW server.

Revision: 2.5

• Intel compatible PC with Windows NT 4.0 (Service Pack 4), Windows 2000, or Windows XP.
• Successfully installed MATRIX Vision driver from the MATRIX Vision Driver CD (CD2002/D or higher).
• Successfully installed MVpilot with MVacquireControl (version 3.121 or higher).
  If you do not find this version on your CD, please download it from the MATRIX Vision WWW server.
• Make sure that the allocated buffer size of the MATRIX Vision driver is big enough (the HALCON interface uses 2 buffers alternately!). Please check the parameter setting of AllocFrameBuffer in the file grabber.ini which is usually located in the C:\Winnt\Matrix directory! Otherwise the grabbing will lead to an error ("no video signal").
• Working on Windows NT you should enable at least the following advanced user right (via the Windows NT administration program User Manager): 'Increase scheduling priority' (for the German version of Windows NT: 'Anheben der Zeitplanungspriorität').
• HALCON frame grabber interface HFGMatrixVision.dll or parHFGMatrixVision.dll, respectively.
  If you have properly installed the interface, both DLLs should reside in bin\i586-nt4 within the HALCON base directory %HALCONROOT% you have chosen during the installation of HALCON.

• Multiple frame grabber boards.
• Multiple compatible cameras per board.
• Synchronous and asynchronous grabbing.
• External trigger (not available for MVdelta).
• Support of a large variety of analog and digital cameras based on the MATRIX Vision camera configurations.
• Software control of brightness, contrast, and exposure values.
• Software control of digital input/output masks.
• Online configuration via the MVacquireControl.

• No subsampling or cropping of image parts.
• No LUTs.
• grab_region() and grab_region_async() not supported.

Parameters for open_framegrabber():

	Name		'MatrixVision'		The name of the HALCON frame grabber interface.
	HorizontalResolution		1		Ignored (the desired image resolution is set via the camera configuration specified in the CameraType parameter or via the online camera control dialog!). Default: 1.
	VerticalResolution		1		Ignored (the desired image resolution is set via the camera configuration specified in the CameraType parameter or via the online camera control dialog!). Default: 1.
	ImageWidth		0, width		The width of the desired image part ('0' stands for the complete image). Default: 0.
	ImageHeight		0, height		The height of the desired image part ('0' stands for the complete image). Default: 0.
	StartRow		0		The row coordinate of the upper left pixel within the desired image part. Default: 0.
	StartColumn		0		The column coordinate of the upper left pixel within the desired image part. Default: 0.
	Field		---		Ignored (the desired field is set via the camera configuration specified in the CameraType parameter or via the online camera control dialog!).
	BitsPerChannel		8		Number of bits per image channel which will be delivered by the board via the PCI bus. Default: 8.
	ColorSpace		'gray', 'rgb'		Specify the desired color space and thus the number of image channels of the resulting HALCON image. Note that not all MATRIX Vision board types support both modes! Default: 'gray'.
	Gain		---		Ignored.
	ExternalTrigger		'true', 'false'		Activate/deactivate external triggering. Note that this setting overrides the corresponding setup in the camera configuration. Default: 'false'.
	CameraType		'configname'		This parameter is used to specify the camera configuration which is stored in the Windows NT registry. To check a camera or to alter the camera configuration file, use the MVconfig program delivered with the MATRIX Vision software.
	Device		---		Ignored.
	Port		number		Specifies the port the camera is connected to. The possible values (default: 1) depend on the specific board type:    mvDELTA: number = 1, 2, 3, 4    mvSIGMA-SLx: number = 1, 2, 3, 4    pcIMAGE-SG/SGVS: number = 1, 2, 3, 4    pcIMAGE-SC: number = 1, 2, 3, 4    mvTITAN-G1: number = 1, 2, 3, 4    mvGAMMA-G: number = 1, 2, 3, 4    pcIMAGE-SRGB: number = 1, 2    mvTITAN-RGB: number = 1, 2    mvTITAN-CL: number = 1, 2    PCimage-SDIG: number = 1    mvTITAN-DIG: number = 1    mvSIGMA-SQ: number = 1 ... 16    MVtitan-C16: number = 1 ... 16    MVtitan-2C16: number = 1 ... 16    pcIMAGE-SRGB(CCIR mode): number = 1 ... 8    mvTITAN-RGB(CCIR mode): number = 1 ... 8
	LineIn		---		Ignored.

Parameters for set_framegrabber_param():

	'active_dig_io_mask'		'integration_start', 'integration_stop', 'flush', 'trigger', 'user_defined'		Specify the active digital input/output mask. Default: 'integration_stop'.
	'brightness'		0...100		Specify the desired brightness value. Note that this parameter is not supported for all board types.
	'camera_definition'		name		This parameter can be used to switch between different camera definitions without closing the frame grabber in between. Valid names are all camera definitions from the camdefs.ini file.
	'brightness'		0...100		Specify the desired contrast value. Note that this parameter is not supported for all board types.
	'define_dig_io_mask'		mask		Specify the actual 16-bit mask for the active digital input/output mask (see parameter 'active_dig_io_mask'), see mvConfig documentation for more information.
	'dialog'		'enable', 'disable'		Open/close the online acquire control of the MATRIX Vision configuration software. Using this dialog you can modify the settings of the current camera configuration. Default: 'disable'.
	'expose_period_time'		usec		Specify the period time between two expose pulses in usec.
	'expose'		usec		Specify the length of the expose pulse in usec.
	'external_trigger'		'true', 'false'		Activate/deactivate external triggering.
	'grab_timeout'		msec		Specify the desired timeout (milliseconds passed as an integer) for aborting a pending grab (without external triggering). Default: 1000.
	'port'		number		Switch to the camera connected to the specified port number (see the description of possible values above).
	'shutter_time'		lines		Specify the desired shutter time in lines (or HSyncs).
	'start_async_after_grab_async'		'enable', 'disable'		By default, at the end of grab_image_async() a new asynchronous grab command is automatically given to the frame grabber board. If the parameter 'start_async_after_grab_async' is set to 'disable' this new grab command is omitted. This might be useful especially for switching between several connected cameras. Default: 'enable'.
	'trigger_mode'		'auto', 'external', 'external_start_stop'		Specify the desired trigger mode. Note that these settings are not available for every board type (see mvConfig documentation for more information). Default: 'external'.
	'trigger_timeout'		msec		Specify the desired timeout (milliseconds passed as an integer) for aborting a pending grab when using an external trigger. Default: 10000.
	'volatile'		'enable', 'disable'		In the volatile mode the two frame grabber interface buffers are used directly to store HALCON images. This is the fastest mode avoiding to copy raw images in memory. However, be aware that older images are overwritten again and again as a side-effect. Thus, you can only process one image while you grab another image. Older images are invalid! Default: 'disable'.
	'do_abort'		---		Abort the current image acquisiition. Note that this parameter only makes sense in combination with Parallel HALCON.

Parameters for get_framegrabber_param():

Additional parameters supported by get_framegrabber_param only. Note that all parameters supported by set_framegrabber_param except the ones with prefix 'do_' can also be accessed by get_framegrabber_param.

	'revision'		revision		The revision number of the HALCON frame grabber interface HFGMatrixVision.dll.

• Revision 2.5 (Nov 24, 2003):
  
  • New parameters 'active_dig_io_mask' and 'define_dig_io_mask' for control of the digital input/output masks.
  • New parameters 'brightness', 'contrast', 'expose_period_time', and 'expose_time'.
• Revision 2.4 (Oct 2, 2003):
  
  • New parameter 'shutter_time' to define the shutter time.
• Revision 2.3 (Jul 28, 2003):
  
  • New parameter 'do_abort' to stop the current image acquisition when using Parallel HALCON.
  • New parameters 'trigger_mode' and 'start_async_after_grab_async'.
  • Bugfixes in using more than one handle to the same frame grabber in connection with channel switching.
  • Adaptation to version 3.121 of MVacquireControl.
• Revision 2.2 (Feb 12, 2003):
  
  • New parameter 'camera_definition' to switch between different camera definitions during runtime.
  • New parameter 'external_trigger' to activate/deactivate the external trigger during runtime.
  • Bugfix in close_framegrabber (freeing the previously created AcquireControl instance).
• Revision 2.1 (Dec 19, 2000):
  
  • Check sdk library existence in info_framegrabber('info_boards').
• Revision 2.0 (Aug 29, 2000):
  
  • Adaptation to the HALCON 6.0 frame grabber interface.
• Revision 1.0 (Mar 15, 2000):
  
  • First official release.