Now that a PC can be purchased with an IEEE 1394 FireWire Interface, it seems that Frame Grabbers are no longer needed. However, the availability of digital machine vision cameras with this interface has only started to be available with the microscopy sector. Low cost (under $1000.00 US dollars) machine vision cameras still use Y/C video analog outputs. Thus, traditional frame grabbers are still needed.

But what if you would like to trigger an inker to mark the defects in a material? But what if you would like the FireWire camera to take a picture of an event? This is why The Imaging Source provides low cost solutions to system integrators. The DFG/LC2, $449 US dollars, allows you to have standard TTL inputs and outputs to communicate with a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). Also, many system integrators are able to provide solutions without a PLC, by using components that accept the TTL (+5V, 0V) interface. As you can see, most simple vision problems can be solved with the DFG/LC2 and its free Software Development Kit. Software Development Kit? Yes, and this is why at this time the FireWire Interface does not help system integrators.

As always, should you wish to speak to us about this or any other topic related to machine vision, please call us or email us.