Which Interface Do I need ?
Which interface you need depends on your application, your software and the physical environment. Leutron Vision offers the PicSight Camera Family with the main industrial digital interfaces usable on a personal computer today.
Gigabit Ethernet Interface
Hardware
PicSight GigE Cameras and PicSight Smart Cameras use the same hardware standard as used for a LAN (local area network) to interconnect your computers in your offce. Therefore it is possibe to build up a network of cameras connected over a switch device to one single computer. A big pro of this technology is the fact that you can have cable lengths up to 100 meters. The camera needs an external power supply.
Software
On the software side PicSight GigE and PicSight Smart offer 3 interface possibilities:
1.GigEVision / GenICam standard
These standards are used by ,image processing software like Halcon from MVTec, Common VisionBlox from Stemmer, LabView from National Instruments, MIL from Matrox, VisionPro from Cognex and more, to acquire images from GigE cameras. If you are using one of these softwaresolutions, PicSight GigE can be used as a plug and play device, and you need no drivers from Leutron Vision. As Leutron Vision is one of the leading contributors to this standards you can take full benefit of this technology. More...
2. Leutron Vision Software Developers Suite
You may want to write your own code for image acquisition routines but are not familiar with the rules of GigEVision/GenICam. In this case the image acquisition API LVSDS of Leutron Vision is the right choice. LVSDS can be used to acquire images from all Leutron Vision cameras and frame grabbers. You may change or combine the hardware interface technology acording your demands. More...
3. PicSight Smart
If you want to offload the image processing task from your computer onto the camera or you even want to realize an image processing solution without a PC, then PicSight Smart equipped with a RISC processor and a Gigabit Ethernet Interface is the right choice. More...
Camera Link Interface
Hardware
PicSight CL offers together with a grabber board, the highest image acquisition bandwith into one single PC.
Also the latency from the image acquisition trigger until the image is transfered into the PC memory is the shortest among all the interface technologies. Up to 2 cameras per frame grabber board can be connected, and depending your mainboard you can install several grabber boards in your PC. Cable length is limited up to 10 meters for each camera. PicSight CL is fully compliant with the CameraLink Standard and can be used with any compliant grabber. However Leutron Vision supplies you with a big choice of grabbers in the PicPort Camera Link family to provide the best fit for your application. Using PicPort CL grabbers, you take advantage of the PoCL standard which powers your PicSight camera directly from the grabber. With third party grabbers you may need an external power supply for PicSight CL. More...
Software
Using one of Leutron Vision's PicPort Camera Link grabbers, you may use the Leutron Vision Software Developers Suite to program your image acquisition tasks. This API can be used for all Leutron Vision products and you can combine any hardware interface technology according the demands of each of your applications. More...
Using a third party grabber you can send over the serial interface of the camera link connector ascii based commands to the camera to select the desired mode of operation.
USB2 Interface
Hardware
On each PC or Laptop you purchase today you will find several USB2 compliant connectors. Just plug in PicSight USB and your hardware installation is done. No additional power supply is needed, as the low power technology of PicSight USB allows powering the camera directly from the PC. This is a perfect fit for applications running on Laptops or on laboratory PCs. If your application does not need the highest possible image acquisition speed, PicSight USB is suitable as well for industrial applications. The main advantage of PicSight USB is the all over system price and the easy hardware installation.
Software
For PicSight USB we offer the Leutron Vision Software Developers Suite LVSDS to program your image acquisition tasks. This API can be used for all Leutron Vision products and you can combine any hardware interface technology according the demands of each of your applications. More...