Acquisition Control

Contents

• Acquisition Control
  • Acquisition Modes
    • SingleFrame Acquisition
    • MultiFrame Acquisition
    • MultiFrame with FrameBurstStart
    • Continuous Acquisition
    • Continuous Acquisition with FrameBurstStart

Acquisition Control contains features related to image acquisition. Triggering and exposure control functionalities are included in this section.

Acquisition Modes

There are 3 main types of acquisition modes - SingleFrame acquisition, MultiFrame acquisition, and Continuous acquisition.

SingleFrame Acquisition

In SingleFrame acquisition mode, one frame is acquired after AcquisitionStart is called. AcquisitionStop is an optional call as the acquisition process automatically stops after the single frame is acquired. During the acquisition process, all Transport Layer parameters are locked and cannot be modified.

If “Acquisition Stop” is executed after “Acquisition Start” but prior to when a frame is available, it is possible that no frame is acquired.

The following code block demonstrates configuring camera to single frame acquisition mode.

// Connect to camera
// Get device node map 
AcquisitionMode = SingleFrame;

MultiFrame Acquisition

In MultiFrame acquisition mode, frames are acquired once AcquisitionStart is called. The number of frames acquired is dictated by the parameter AcquisitionFrameCount. During the acquisition process, all Transport Layer parameters are locked and cannot be modified.

AcquisitionStop is optional in MultiFrame acquisition mode.

MultiFrame with FrameBurstStart

A burst of frames is defined as a capture of a group of one or many frames within an acquisition. This can be achieved with MultiFrame acquisition mode as demonstrated in the diagram below. Note that in the diagram, the second FrameBurstStart in each acquisition sequence only results in one frame acquired because AcquisitionFrameCount is set to a value of 3.

Continuous Acquisition

In Continuous acquisition mode, frames are acquired once AcquisitionStart is called. Frames are acquired until AcquisitionStop is called. During the acquisition process, all Transport Layer parameters are locked and cannot be modified.

If AcquisitionStop is called during the last frame then the acquisition sequence will stop after the current frame finishes.

The following pseudocode demonstrates how to configure the camera to Continuous acquisition mode:

// Connect to camera
// Get device node map 
AcquisitionMode = Continuous;

Continuous Acquisition with FrameBurstStart

A burst of frames is defined as a capture of a group of one or many frames within an acquisition. This can be achieved with Continuous acquisition mode as below. Note that when AcquisitionStop is called, the current frame will need to be finished.

Node Name	Description
AcquisitionMode	Specifies the acquisition mode of the current device. It helps determine the number of frames to acquire during each acquisition sequence.
AcquisitionStartMode	Specifies the acquisition start mode.
AcquisitionStart	Start the acquisition sequence for the current device.
AcquisitionStop	Stop the acquisition sequence for the current device.
AcquisitionFrameCount	This node specifies the number of frames to be acquired under MultiFrame AcquisitionMode.
AcquisitionBurstFrameCount	This parameter is ignored if AcquisitionMode is set to SingleFrame. This feature is also constrained by AcquisitionFrameCount if AcquisitionMode is MultiFrame.
AcquisitionFrameRate	Controls the acquisition rate (in Hertz) at which the frames are captured.
TransmissionFrameRate	Specifies the rate (in Hertz) at which frames are transmitted.
AcquisitionFrameRateEnable	Controls if the AcquisitionFrameRate feature is writable and used to control the acquisition rate.
AcquisitionLineRate	Controls the rate (in Hertz) at which the Lines in a Frame are captured.
PTPSyncFrameRate	Specifies the rate (in Hertz) at which frames are triggered in PTPSync AcquisitionStartMode.
TriggerSelector	This node selects the specific trigger type to configure.
TriggerMode	Controls the On/Off status of the current trigger.
TriggerSoftware	Executing this will generate a software trigger signal. Note that current TriggerSource must be set to Software.
TriggerSource	This node specifies the source of the trigger. It can be a software internal signal of a physical input hardware signal.
TriggerActivation	This node specifies the state in which trigger is activated.
TriggerOverlap	Specifies the type of trigger overlap permitted with the previous frame or line. This defines when a valid trigger will be accepted (or latched) for a new frame or a new line.
TriggerLatency	Enables low latency trigger mode.
TriggerDelay	Specifies the delay in microseconds (us) to apply after the trigger reception before activating it.
TriggerArmed	Specifies whether the trigger is armed. If the trigger is not armed, triggers will be ignored.
ISPClockSpeed	Speed of the ISP clock.
ExposureTimeSelector	Selects the exposure time.
ExposureTime	Returns the exposure time for all phases in microseconds.