Varying Pulse feature (S15)

An example of this customization is the "S15" special feature which is now available on several controllers. This firmware feature outputs a series of pulses of different intensities on different channels on each trigger. When the sequence finishes it restarts from the beginning. The length of the sequence, the different intensities and the pulse width on each channel is configurable.

One input is used to trigger the light pulses and another can be used to reset the sequence to ensure that the system starts in a synchronized state. An Ethernet command can also be used to reset the sequence.

An example of a system that might use this could be a machine that measures dimensions, checks for surface defects and impurities in disc shaped products.

Light 1: on-axis top light
Light 2: dark field top ring-light
Light 3: dark field bottom ring-light

These lights are used to take four images of a component:

Image 1: lights 1, 2 and 3 on to measure dimensions, camera 1 triggered
Image 2: light 2 on half power to detect surface defects, camera 1 triggered
Image 3: light 1 on low power to detect impurities, camera 1 triggered
Image 4: light 3 on half power to detect features underneath, camera 2 triggered

This works as in this diagram. The LED lighting controller is triggered once for each image to be taken. On each trigger a different combination of lights is pulsed to take four images with different lighting schemes. When the next par arrives the sequence repeats.

Gardasoft's CC320 trigger timing controller could be used to generate triggers for the cameras and lighting controller and integrate other signals such as part sensor, conveyor belt encoder and reject gate. The S15 feature could also be used to pulse red, green and blue lights in sequence to build up a colour picture from three monochrome images.