What cables should I use with a machine vision camera?

While not an exact figure, we would estimate that about half our client’s problems with machine vision camera connections, dropped frames, etc. comes back to a cabling issue. This is especially true for USB and GigE cameras.

In most of these cases, the issue is that the user is using a poor/low quality cable that was not made for the high speed and/or long distance demands of the application. Most inexpensive camera cables available via mail order are not made for use in high speed highly reliable data transfer applications. If your phone isn’t transferring at the full USB3 bandwidth, you normally don’t care. You probably don’t even know. But when you purchase a high speed USB3 camera and you can’t achieve its full frame rate, or you achieve it intermittently, this becomes a big issue.

This is the reason 1stVision offers ‘machine vision/industrial’ USB3 and GigE cables.  These cables are tested to specs, come with screw locks to prevent the connectors from falling out, use larger gauge wire, are over molded.  They are designed to be twisted and bent (somewhat) and are industrial!

Signal amplitude (the voltage of the signal in the cable) is a function of distance and frequency for cables. For instance, Ethernet is specified to 100 meters.  So your cable should work when each device is 100 meters away.  However, without the proper cable, you will not maintain the full 1000 Mbits/s data transfer rate!  You might only be getting 50% of the speed depending upon the distance without a high quality cable.

Finally, consider the cost if your machine vision camera is part of an instrument or product that is being sold to your clients.  We see far too many clients who try to save $30 on the cable only to find out that it is costing them thousands of dollars to trouble shoot a problem that can be easily solved with the proper part.  Not to mention the cost to their client when the system isn’t working, and a hit to their reputation of not building a reliable system.Alysium

Here is our advice:

  1. If you are in an industrial setting, you are compromising the reliability and robustness of your system if you are not using an ‘industrial cable’.  Even if you are not operating at maximum speed of the camera, you should have these cables.  BTW, these cables are not that much more expensive mail order cables.  They are in the 10’s of dollars, but not in the 1’s of dollars.
  2. If you are using USB3 cables, you should really be using ‘industrial’ cables.  Current ‘inexpensive’ USB3 cables are not reliable at over 2M, and only 1M for USB C connector types.  If you are using USB3 specifically to get the higher speeds from this protocol, then you absolutely need to be using ‘industrial’ cables.  Inexpensive cables are not reliable for high speed data transmission.
  3. If you are in a lab environment, with the cable never moving, and only going a short distance, then a high quality ‘inexpensive’ Cat 6e cable will work.  There is a difference between inexpensive Ethernet cables.  The one that came with the security camera all folder up is NOT what you should use. A reputable mail order cable vendor selling high quality patch cables is OK.

CLICK HERE to get  GigE Cable specs and get a quote

CLICK HERE for USB3 Cable specs and get a quote

Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish. At 1stVision, we offer these cables not to enrich ourselves, there is not much profit in a $30 cable, but rather to make sure our clients systems work well.

 

1st Vision’s sales engineers have over 100 years of combined experience to assist in your camera selection.  With a large portfolio of lenses, cables, NIC card and industrial computers, we can provide a full vision solution!

Contact us to help in the specification and providing pricing

Ph:  978-474-0044  /  info@1stvision.com  / www.1stvision.com

Related Blogs & Technical resources

Imaging Quick ref Poster
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What is the fastest 2.4MP GigE camera at the lowest price point? Dalsa’s new Nano M1950 / C1950!

Dalsa Nano

Dalsa NanoTeledyne Dalsa has released the latest addition to the Genie Nano family.  Introducing the Nano M1950 and C1950 cameras using the Sony Pregius IMX392 image sensor.  This is a great replacement for older Sony ICX818 CCD sensors.

These latest Nano models offer 2.4 MP (1936 x 1216) resolution with a GigE interface in color and monochrome with up to 102 frames per second utilizing TurboDrive.

What’s so interesting about the Nano M1950 and C1950 models?

2.4 MP resolution with the speed of the popular IMX174, but at the price of the IMX249:  
Sony Pregius image sensors in a given resolution has created paired sensors, one being faster at a higher price and one slower at a lower price.  The Nano M1940 / C1940 cameras use the IMX174 which is a great sensor and historically had the fastest speed at 2.4MP in GigE, but at a premium.  We could opt for the Nano M1920 / C1920 cameras with the IMX249 at a lower price, but sacrificed speed.

Until now! – The latest Nano M1950 / C1950 models with the IMX392 provides the higher speed of the M1940 / C1940 cameras, but at the lower price of the Nano M1920 / C1920 cameras. 

2.4MP resolution using a 1 /2 in sensor format, provides cost savings on lenses.
Thanks to the Sony Pregius Gen 2 pixel architecture, the pixel size is 3.45um, allowing the same resolution and eliminating the added cost of larger format lenses found in the IMX174 / IMX249 sensors which were 1 / 1.2″ formats.

Contact 1stVision to get our recommendations on lens series designed for the 3.45um pixel pitch. 

When would you use the Sony Pregius IMX392 versus the IMX174 and IMX249 sensors? 

The Sony Pregius IMX174 / IMX249 images still have an incredible dynamic range due to the pixel architecture found in the first generation image sensors.  (Read more here on Gen 1 vs Gen 2).  If you need dynamic range, with large well depths of 30Ke-, then use the IMX174 / IM249 sensors.

I’m so confused!   Where can I get the specs on the new Nano M1950 / C1950, understand what sensors are in what cameras and get a quote?

The tough part today, is that there a ton of model #’s in the Sony Pregius sensors lineup and in turn camera product lines.  Here’s a brief table to help with links to spec’s, related image sensors and a link to get a quote.

Sensor          Model 
IMX174         Nano M1940 / C1940          GET QUOTE
IMX249        Nano M1920 / C1920           GET QUOTE
IMX392        Nano M1950 / C1950           GET QUOTE

1st Vision’s sales engineers have over 100 years of combined experience to assist in your camera selection.  With a large portfolio of lenses, cables, NIC card and industrial computers, we can provide a full vision solution!

Contact us to help in the specification and providing pricing

Ph:  978-474-0044  /  info@1stvision.com  / www.1stvision.com

Related Blogs & Technical resources

Imaging Quick ref Poster
Quick Reference Imaging poster download

https://www.1stvision.com/machine-vision-solutions/2019/04/sony-pregius-3rd-generation-image-sensor.html

Teledyne Dalsa TurboDrive 2.0 breaks past GigE limits now with 6 levels of compression

What is a lens optical format? Can I use any machine vision camera with any format? NOT!

Optotune liquid lenses – 5 case examples for machine vision

Optotune tunable lenses

Optotune & Gardasoft liquid lens controlsLiquid lens technology, with its ability to change focus within the order of milliseconds is opening up a host of new applications in both machine vision and the life sciences.  It is gaining growing interest from a wide cross section of applications and easily adapts to standard machine vision lenses.

Liquid lens technology alone provides nice solutions, but when combined with advanced controls, many more applications can be solved.

To learn the fundamentals of liquid lens technology and download a comprehensive white paper read our previous blog HERE. 

see spec's

In this blog, we will highlight several case application areas for liquid lens technology.

Case 1:  Applications requiring various focus points and extended depth of field:  This does cover many applications, such as logistics, packaging and code reading in packaging.  Optotune Liquid lenses provide the ability to have pre-set focus points, auto-focus or utilize distance sensors for feedback to the lens.  In the example below, 2 presets can be programmed and toggled to read 2D codes at various heights essentially extending the depth of field.

extended DOF

Case 2:  3D imagery of transparent materials / Hyperfocal (Extended DOF Images:  When image stackingusing an Optotune liquid lens in conjunction with a Gardasoft TR-CL180 controller, sequence of images can be taken with the focus point stepped between each image.  This technique is known as focus stacking.   This will build up a 3D image of transparent environments such as cell tissue or liquid for analysis.  This can also be used to find particles suspended in liquids.

image stacking for cells

A Z-stack of images can also be used to extract 3D data (depth of focus) and compute a hyper-focus or extended depth of field (EFOF) image.

The EDOF technique requires tacking a stack of individual well focused images which have preferably been synchronized with one flash per image.  An example is show below with the rendered hyper focus image shown at right.

Hyperfocus imageCase 3:  Lens inspection:  Liquid lenses can be used to inspect lenses, such as those in cell phones for dust and scratches looking through the lens stack.

Optotune liquid lens stack imageFor this application, a liquid lens is used in conjunction with a telescentric lens taking images through different heights of the lens stack.  

Case 4:  Bottle / Container inspection:  Optotune Liquid lenses can be used to facilitate image bottom’s of glass bottles or containers of various heights.

In this example, the camera is consistently at the neck of the bottle, but the bottom is at different heights.  optotune lens - bottle inspection

Case 5:  Large surface inspections with variation in height:  Items ranging from PCB’s to LCD’s are not flat, have various component heights and need to be inspected at high magnification (typically using lenses with minimal DOF).  Optotune Liquid lenses are a perfect solution using preset focus points.

pcb inspection

Machine Vision applications using Optotune Liquid lenses and controller are endless!

These applications are just the tip of the iceberg and many more exist, but this will give you a good idea of capabilities.   Gardasoft TR-CL controllers are fully GigE Vision compliant, so any compatible GigE Vision client image processing software such as Cognex VisionPro, Teledyne Dalsa Sherlock or National Instruments LABVIEW can be used easily.

Click to contact

1st Vision’s sales engineers have over 100 years of combined experience to assist in your camera selection.  With a large portfolio of lenses, cables, NIC card and industrial computers, we can provide a full vision solution!

Contact us to help in the specification and providing pricing

Ph:  978-474-0044  /  info@1stvision.com  / www.1stvision.com

Related Video

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Learn how liquid lenses keep continuous focus on machine vision cameras when the working distance changes.

New 1.1” FUJINON CF-ZA-1S Series machine vision lenses with 2.5um pixel resolution – Best in class

FUJI

FUJI lensesFUJINON has released its new CF-ZA-1S lens series supporting high resolution 1.1″ format images sensors down to 2.5um pixel pitches.  This new series has some unique differences making it our go-to lens for this format size.

In this blog, we cover the unique differences, which are at a price point equal to or lower than competing brands, making it the best in its class.

The FUJINON CF-ZA-1S series with support of 2.5um pixels can be used essentially with any image sensor up to 1.1″ formats needing resolution for small pixels.  Focal lengths from 8mm to 50mm are available.FUJI CFZA-1S models

contact us

CLICK HERE FOR FULL SPECIFICATIONS ON THE FUJINON CF-ZA-1S LENSES

Main Features of the FUJINON CF-ZA-1S machine vision lens series

High resolution and support of 2.5um pixels from center to edge
FUJINON’s
“4D High Resolution” keeps uniform resolution from the image center to the peripherals regardless of lens working distance and f-stop.   This is extremely beneficial in applications in which high contrast is needed from center to edge. (i.e Measurement of a part spanning the field of view)FUJI 4D high resolutionRelative illumination reaches 90% +
In general, the illumination of the peripheral areas of the image is determined by the “relative illumination” and the chief ray angle (CFA).  FUJINON has designed the lens series to constrain the CRA allowing a good balance to the peripherals of the image as seen below.   For machine vision applications needing even illumination, this becomes very important for repeatability.  Chief ray angle - FUJINON

Vibration and Impact resistant
FUJINON has done a great job within their new lens series to incorporate anti-vibration and resistance to high impacts for no extra cost!  In applications such as robotic applications, autonomous vehicles and airborne applications to name a few will benefit from this feature.  FUJI anti-vibration

This video highlights these features and more.   It nicely details how the design constraints the CFA for even illumination and is a nice tutorial.

Contact us to talk to an expert!

1st Vision’s sales engineers have over 100 years of combined experience to assist in your camera selection.  With a large portfolio of lenses, cables, NIC card and industrial computers, we can provide a full vision solution!

Ph:  978-474-0044  /  info@1stvision.com  / www.1stvision.com

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