Camera Control Signals
MultiCam identifies two classes of control signals. The upstream class encompasses all signals issued by the frame grabber towards the camera. The downstream class contains all the signals driven by the camera towards the frame grabber.
Upstream Signals
- HDRIVE: the Horizontal Drive signal is used to synchronize the horizontal timing of the camera on a horizontal time base available in the frame grabber.
- HDRIVE: the Vertical Drive signal is used to synchronize the vertical timing of the camera on a vertical time base available in the frame grabber.
- RESET: the Reset signal is used to asynchronously restart the timing and to control the exposure of an asynchronous reset-capable camera.
- AUXRESET: the Auxiliary Reset signal is used to terminate the exposure of asynchronous reset-capable camera that requires two separate signals.
Downstream Signals
- HSYNC: the Horizontal Sync signal is used to synchronize the horizontal timing of the frame grabber on the horizontal time base of the camera.
- CSYNC: the Composite Sync signal is used to synchronize both horizontal and vertical timing of the frame grabber on the time base of the camera.
- VSYNC: the Vertical Sync signal is used to synchronize the vertical timing of the frame grabber on the vertical time base of the camera.
Camera Control Connector
The standard 15-pin analog camera connector provides up to 5 single-ended camera control signals. The pins are named CC1, CC2, CC3, CC4, and CC5.
Camera Control pins assignment
Pin name |
Signal pin |
Return path |
CC1 |
14 |
3 or 13 |
CC2 |
15 |
|
CC3 |
4 |
|
CC4 |
5 |
|
CC5 |
8 |
|
— |
9 |
Camera Control Pin Usage
As shown on next table, all pins can be individually configured as singled-ended TTL input or single-ended TTL output. In addition, pin pairs CC1-CC2 and CC3-CC4 can be individually configured as differential inputs.
Pin electrical style configurability |
CC1 |
CC2 |
CC3 |
CC4 |
CC5 |
Single-ended TTL input |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
Single-ended TTL output |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
Differential input (*) |
✓ |
✓ |
|
||
(*) The "Differential input" electrical style is not available on Domino Symphony.
The electrical style of a pin is configured according to the electrical style of the control signal assigned to that pin. No jumper displacement is required.
Downstream —from camera to grabber— control signals that can be assigned to each pin
Downstream signal |
CC1 |
CC2 |
CC3 |
CC4 |
CC5 |
Rec'd Pin |
Hsync - TTL |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
CC1 |
Hsync - DIFF |
✓ |
|
✓ |
|
|
CC1 |
Csync - TTL |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
CC1 |
Csync - DIFF |
✓ |
|
✓ |
|
|
CC1 |
Vsync - TTL |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
CC3 |
Vsync - DIFF |
✓ |
|
✓ |
|
|
CC3 |
Upstream —from grabber to camera— control signals that can be assigned to each pin
Upstream signal |
CC1 |
CC2 |
CC3 |
CC4 |
CC5 |
Rec'd Pin |
Hdrive |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
CC1 |
Vdrive |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
CC3 |
Reset |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
CC5 |
AuxReset |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
CC3 |
A camera control signal is assigned to pins by means of MultiCam parameters HsyncLine, CsyncLine, VsyncLine, HdriveLine, VdriveLine, ResetLine and AuxResetLine.
The electrical style is defined for each signal by parameters HsyncCtl, CsyncCtl, VsyncCtl, HVdriveCtl, ResetCtl and AuxResetCtl.