• How to resolve dark image issue
• How to achive max. camera frame rate
• How to work with Line-scan camera

How to resolve dark image issue

If you are experiencing a very dark or completely black image display, even though the frame rate appears normal, please follow these steps to troubleshoot and resolve the issue:

1. Check Lens Aperture
   Ensure the lens iris (aperture) is open and correctly adjusted to allow sufficient light through.
    
2. Switch to Manual Exposure Mode
   Set your camera to manual exposure mode, then increase the exposure duration to allow more light to reach the sensor.
    
3. Adjust Gain Settings
   Increasing Analog Gain can help in low-light conditions but may also add noise, so find a balance that suits your needs.
   Increasing Digital Gain will boost image level by multiplication factor.
    
4. Adjust Black Level Settings: We do not recommend adjusting it.
   Analog Black Level is a sensor-specific black level compensation performed internally by the sensor. The default value is set according to the sensor manufacturer's recommendation.
   Black Level Auto is an automatic noise compensation based on the sensor’s black pixels, which are not exposed to light and therefore represent fixed sensor noise. The compensation is applied on a per-line basis.
   Digital Black Level will affect base value of image data but may impact on dynamic range.

When using the Vision Point API in your custom application, it is important to ensure that the camera’s output pixel format aligns with your post-processing tool. For example, if the camera outputs Mono12, it should be processed accordingly as a 12-bit image to maintain data integrity and image quality.

How to achive max. camera frame rate

There are numerous reasons why a camera might not achieve its maximum frame rate. 

Refer to the camera's datasheet and verifying that all connectivity requirements are met, specifically:

• Connection topology
  Ensure all connection links are properly connected according to the master-slave channel topology. 
  Verify the CoaXPress version in use: CoaXPress 2.0 offers double the bandwidth of CoaXPress 1.0.

• Check for bandwidth limitations
  Make sure there are no bandwidth restrictions in your setup, including improper connection topology and/or system hardware limitations, such as PCIe version and number of available lanes

• Check for CRC\FEC errors
  Check for CRC errors in the CoaXPress connection
  If using CoaXPress over Fiber or CLHS, monitor for FEC packet errors, which can impact throughput and stability.

If the connection quality, topology, and protocol versions are verified and no issues are found, check the camera’s configuration, including:

• Resolution
• Bit depth
• Exposure time
• Binning settings

These parameters directly affect the achievable frame rate and should be configured according to the expected performance.

How to work with Line-scan camera

For line-scan cameras, we've implemented a feature called Segments Per Buffer, which allows the stream configuration to capture multiple frames or lines before an event signal is delivered to the software.

This feature is primarily used with line-scan cameras, where several lines are accumulated before the software is notified of new data. It helps prevent the software from being interrupted too frequently, thereby reducing CPU load and improving overall system efficiency.

“SegmentsPerBuffer” parameter should be set only after a Camera has already been connected and opened. By default, “SegmentsPerBuffer” value is 1 which means that software indication signal will occur on every frame/line captured.