coaxpress/README.md

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# Coaxpress High Speed Camera
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## Getting Started
First issue was installing the framegrabber in a PCIEx4 slot. It seemed to work but was complaining about not having x8 so I moved it.
I'm not sure if cable order matters for the coax connections but I found an order that does and I'm sticking to it.
From here on I'm using the firmware pre-installed on the framegrabber and camera. The framegrabber indicates it needs a firmware update and I'll get to that at some point.
```
21:14:02.172 [WARNING] Device open with warnings: W: Firmware update required
```
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This is the what the framegrabber reports for firmware:
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![1731817045545](image/README/1731817045545.png)
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And for the camera:
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![1731817117549](image/README/1731817117549.png)
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It looks like order of operations is very important in Vision Point. This camera comes up as 1608x400 pixels at 500fps:
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![1731817401898](image/README/1731817401898.png)
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If I stream data and then decrease the resolution to increase frame rate, the preview goes crazy and I just get a bunch of garbage:
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![1731817483859](image/README/1731817483859.png)
This looks to me like desyncronization of the camera and framegrabber.
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Similarly increasing resolution after streaming data causes mayhem as well:
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![1731817591941](image/README/1731817591941.png)
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If I instead change the resolution to 1696x1710 immediately after power cycle and starting Vision Point (before streaming any data) then I get full resolution at nearly 500fps.
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![1732166650577](image/README/1732166650577.png)
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For this screenshot I also set `PixelCorrectSetMode = Raw`. It looks like the black (and maybe white too) correction data is bad. If I don't do this there are large horizontal bars of dark/light across the image.
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It is also interesting to note that there is a focus gradient vertically across the image. This makes sense since the sensor is physically slanted in the camera housing. I'm really not sure why they did this.
If I set resolution to 640x200 (which based on the label I think should give me 8000fps) as the very first thing after connecting, then I do see an increase in frame rate to 1000fps. This isn't the 8000 I expect but indicates that frame rate should adjust automatically with resolution.
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I'm now updating the firmware on the framegrabber from 4.9 to 4.11. The changelog indicates that "the FPS indicator is stable" as a change in 4.11 so maybe some of the FPS numbers I've been seeing so far are wrong.
## Cabling
Triggering the framegrabber with a 3V3 rising edge. I want to use isolated inputs because they're there so J1 pin 13 (DB25 pin 7) with J1 pin 17 (DB25 pin 9) as GND.