Schäfter+Kirchhoff supplies more than 70 different types of line scan camera with either a Gigabit Ethernet, GigE Vision, USB3.0 or CameraLink interface. The choice of interface should be considered at an early stage of a new line scan camera project, because this determines important properties such as maximum cable length and maximum line frequency. The table below provides a detailed comparison of the available camera interfaces.
Choosing the appropriate camera interface
Camera Interfaces
| Features | GigE | GigEVision | USB3.0 | CameraLink | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advanced preprocessing (shading correction, thresholding) | GigE Vision™ and GeniCAM™ standards ensure third party hard and software compatibility | High performance line scan cameras, suitable for mobile measurement systems | Industry-common standard for machine vision | ||
| Customer-specific I/O signals | Large distances between camera and PC possibl | Does not require an external power supply for power consumptions up to 4.5 W | Very high transfer speeds | ||
| Large distances between camera and PC possible | Requires separate CameraLink grabber | ||||
| Properties | |||||
| Max. Cable Length | 100 m | 100 m | 3 m up to 100 m with fiber optical cable extension | 10 m | |
| Max. Pixel Frequency | 120 MHz | 120 MHz | 150 MHz | 3 x 70 MHz | |
| External Synchronization | Line Sync | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Frame Sync | yes | yes | yes | yes | |
| Sync Divider | yes | yes | yes | no | |
| Number of Device | up to 255 | up to 225 | up to 127 | up to 4 | |
| Grabber Board | no | no | no | Camera Link FrameGrabber | |
| Required PC interface | GigE | GigE | USB 3.0 | ||
| External Power Supply | required | required | not required | required | |
| Available Software | |||||
| Image Aquisition and Configuration Tools | Windows | SKLineScan | SKLineScan or 3rd party | SKLineScan | |
| LabView | NI-IMAQdx | Grabber dependent | |||
| Linux | SKLineScan | Grabber dependent | |||
| SoftwareDevelopment Kit (SDK) | Windows | SK91GigE-WIN | SK91USB3-WIN | Grabber dependent | |
| LabView | 3rd party: e.g. CVB, Halcon, NI-IMAQd | SK91USB3-LV | Grabber dependent | ||
| Linux | Pleora SDK | SK91USB3-LX | Grabber dependent | ||
| Software Compatibility | |||||
| GeniCAM™ | no | yes | no | Grabber dependent | |