Configuring the Applet
To configure you applet and to test the configuration, proceed the following steps:
- Start microDisplay X.
You find microDisplayX.exe in your Silicon Software runtime installation directory, sub-directory bin (for example: C:\Program Files\SiliconSoftware\Runtime5.7.0\bin\microDisplayX.exe). - Select the frame grabber you want to work with from the list in the left upper corner. A tool tip provides you with additional information on the frame grabber:
Immediately, a list of applets is displayed in the pane below:
- Select an applet out of the available applets (listed in the GUI).
A tool tip provides you with additional information on each applet:
- The applet name displayed in bold is the applet that is currently active on the frame grabber (only mE5 marathon, mE5 ironman, and LightBridge 2).
- The applets displayed in black are the applets currently available for the selected frame grabber.
- The applets which are displayed in gray are currently not available for the selected frame grabber.
When is an applet available?
The availability of applets depends on the frame grabber you use:
microEnable 5 marathon:
An applet is available as soon as it is flashed onto the frame grabber. If the applet you want to use is not flashed on the frame grabber yet, flash it according to the instructions in the Getting Started Guide for your specific frame grabber model.
microEnable IV:
An applet is available as soon as it is available in the file system of your host PC (Silicon Software runtime installation directory, sub-directories DLL or Hardware Applets). If the applet is not there, run the applet installer that contains the applet you want to use, or, if you need an applet created with VisualApplets, copy the applet file (*.hap) into the Hardware Applets folder of your Silicon Software runtime installation (e.g., ...\Runtime5.7.0\Hardware Applets\*.hap).
microEnable 5 ironman:
An applet is available as soon as it has been flashed onto the frame grabber. There is maximally one applet available. Before working with microDisplay X, flash the applet of your choice onto the frame grabber, as described in the Getting Started Guide for your frame grabber model.
Applet-Camera Match
The applet you select needs to correspond to the connected camera/cameras (number of connected cameras per frame grabber board, area or line scan, Gray, RGB, or Bayer, etc.).
- Double-click on the applet name to load the applet.
The applet is loaded. For each process defined in the applet, an according acquisition process with camera IN port(s) (Cam 0, Cam 1, ...) and DMA OUT port(s) (DMA 0, DMA 1, ...) is displayed. In the viewing pane (tab Acquisition Channel), one DMA output display pane is visible per DMA output port.
Display per applet process:
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- Make sure your cameras are connected and detected. A detected camera is marked green:
- Click on the DMA line to configure the applet for a process.
- Set the applet parameters in the pane below:
Parameter Details and Getter/Setter Code Example |
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You can always get the details of a parameter (description, current value, access rights, data type, etc.) in the bottom part of the Parameter Selection window. To get additional information and code examples for reading and writing via API:
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- Define the time-out and the number of buffers to be allocated per acquisition channel: Keep the DMA line of the process active. Click on the Edit button
. In the dialog that opes, you can set the parameters:
- Timeout: Acquisition timeout, if no image has been received in the time span you define here, acquisition is aborted
- Buffers: number of buffers to be allocated per acquisition channel:
- Repeat steps 6 to 8 for all active DMA channels.
Configuring the Camera |
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You may also need to adapt the camera settings.
For detailed information on camera configuration, see Configuring the Camera. |
Adjust Image Dimensions in Applet and Camera Settings |
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To avoid random data at the margins of the acquired images (displayed in red in the DMA output display panes), make sure the applet settings for frame width and height match the camera settings for frame width and height. |
- Start the image acquisition:
- Click on the DMA line of the process you want to start. The corresponding DMA output display pane becomes active:
- Click one of the Grab buttons to start acquisition:
Starts continuous image acquisition.
Starts acquisition of an image sequence.
Starts acquisition of one single frame.
- Use the Stop button
to stop acquisition.
Running Acquisition on Camera Port 0 (Acquisition Process 0)
- Click on the DMA line of the process you want to start. The corresponding DMA output display pane becomes active:
- Examine the acquired images. They are displayed in the DMA output display pane.
Options for examining images
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Tips for Examining Images
- Zooming in/out: Use the mouse wheel to zoom in or out.
- Moving the image: Move the image in the DMA output display pane via Drag&Drop.
- Saving last frame / last sequence: Use the buttons in the right bottom corner to save an acquired sequence or the last acquired frame.
- Get pixel values displayed: Zoom in to 32:1 or 64:1 and click the Display Pixel Value
button: The pixel value is displayed directly on the pixel field. Use the Hex button
to change value display from decimal to hexadecimal and vice versa.
Image Background
- Blue background has no meaning.
- Red background: Invalid Data. There is buffer allocated, but not used because the frame of the acquired image is smaller than the buffer allocated via applet parameters ROI width and Hight.
Make sure the ROI dimensions in your applet (DMA) configuration do not exceed the dimensions of the images acquired by the camera.
If ROI is bigger, invalid data are acquired and - in microDisplay X - displayed in red.
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Line Profile
- Click the line profile button
(right bottom corner in DMA output display pane) to open the Line Profile dialog.
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The dialog opens:
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The line profile presents the pixel values of a line (condensed view in upper pane) and of a line fraction (view 1:1 in lower pane).
- Select the line you want to examine in the Y Position box.
- Use the slider to select the part of the line you want to see in detail.
- Use the mouse pointer to get information on an individual pixel: Simply go over the lower display (horizontal direction): directly below, you get the pixel position within the line and the gray/color value this pixel has.
- Use the Line Profile Controls in the bottom part of the dialog to vary the display of the line:
Zoom (X): Zoom the line fraction you are inspecting in our out.
- Zooming in: The line fraction you are inspecting gets smaller. You see the color values of a smaller number of line pixels in the lower display. In the upper display, you see that the gray highlighted line section gets smaller. Benefit: The value for each examined pixel is better visible.
- Zooming out: The line fraction you are inspecting gets bigger. You see the color values of a greater number of line pixels in the lower display. In the upper display, you see that the gray highlighted line section gets broader. Benefit: You get values for a bigger section of the inspected line.
Vertical Marker: Entering a value for the vertical marker allows you to highlight a specific X position (a specific pixel) of the line. This allows you to control how the color/gray values behave before or after a specific pixel in the line.
Horizontal Marker: Entering a value for the horizontal marker allows you to highlight a specific color/gray value in the display. This makes it easy for you to control your success if you don't want to achieve image pixels above or below a specific value. You can adapt your system accordingly (lighting, configurations) and very easily check in the line profile if the result matches your requirements.
Line Histogram
- Click the line histogram button
(right bottom corner in DMA output display pane) to open the Line Histogram dialog.
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The dialog opens:
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The line histogram shows you how much a specific pixel value is used in the selected line.
In the example line above, there are no pixels of pure black (=0) or pure white (=255) color; you can see that darker gray values dominate the line.
- Select the line you want to examine in the Y Position box.
- Adjust the applet parameter settings so the acquired images fulfill your requirements.
- Parametrize the applet for each process.
- Optional: Save your applet configuration to file (*.mcf) if you want to reuse your applet configuration:
The *.mcf file contains the applet configuration for one frame grabber board (including the configurations for all processes (acquisition channels) of the applet). For details, see section Saving Applet Configuration (MCF/MFS).
Don't forget ... |
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Make sure you configure applet and camera for each process. Make sure the image dimensions in the applet configuration (ROI width and height) are the same size or smaller than the image dimensions in the camera configuration. |