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Using Matrox RadientPro CL with MIL


To use any Matrox RadientPro CL, you must allocate it using MsysAlloc() with M_SYSTEM_RADIENTPRO. This allocation opens communication with the Matrox RadientPro CL board and allows MIL to use its resources. You can allocate a MIL RadientPro CL system more than once for your board, in multiple processes (executables) or in the same process (although not very useful). If more than one process allocates a digitizer for the same acquisition path, grabs from the different processes will be queued in the order that they arrive (first in, first out).

Matrox RadientPro CL features at least one rotary decoder that can decode input from a rotary encoder with quadrature output. For more information on this feature, refer to the Using quadrature input from a rotary encoder section of Chapter 41: I/O signals and communicating with external devices. This chapter also provides information on how to configure and use the I/O signals.

Camera Link video sources, attached to Matrox RadientPro CL can use a GenICam interface. For information regarding using MIL to access the GenICam SFNC-compatible features of your camera, see the Using MIL with GenICam section of Chapter 25: Grabbing with your digitizer.

Refer to the Matrox RadientPro release notes for any additions/modifications to the MIL Hardware-specific Notes in this chapter or in the MIL Reference.

Changing the mode of your Matrox RadientPro CL-DB

The mode of Matrox RadientPro CL-DB can be changed using the MILConfig utility (Radient tab) from its factory-default. Follow all on-screen procedures. Once changed, your computer must be shut-down and then turned back on (perform a cold-boot) for changes to take effect. Note that simply restarting your computer (using the Microsoft Windows security Restart option) will not allow the changes to take affect. If you change the mode of Matrox RadientPro CL, make certain that you also choose the appropriate DCF. Using the wrong DCF when performing a digitizer allocation (using MdigAlloc()) will result in an error.

Performing Bayer color conversion in hardware

When Matrox RadientPro CL grabs color images from a video source with a Bayer color filter (as specified by the DCF), it performs Bayer color conversion in hardware, as it transfers the images to the Host. If the images require white balancing, Matrox RadientPro CL can perform this automatically if white balancing is enabled using MdigControl() with M_WHITE_BALANCE set to M_ENABLE. If performing white balancing, you can use the default white balance coefficients, automatically have them calculated (using MdigControl() with M_WHITE_BALANCE set to M_CALCULATE), or set explicit coefficients (M_BAYER_COEFFICIENTS_ID). For information on Bayer color conversion, refer to the Using images acquired with a Bayer color filter section of Chapter 21: Data buffers.

If you don't want to perform Bayer color conversion in hardware, disable it using MdigControl() with M_BAYER_CONVERSION set to M_DISABLE.

The M_BAYER... control types of MdigControl() can only be used when grabbing from a camera that has a Bayer color filter (as specified by the DCF); otherwise, an error will be generated.

Using frame burst with a multi-frame buffer

Matrox RadientPro CL support frame burst technology. This technology allows you to grab a group of sequential frames into a multi-frame buffer with one grab command (MdigGrab(), or one grab of MdigProcess()); the defined number of frames are stored contiguously in the same buffer. The end-of-grab event only occurs once the entire group of frames has been grabbed, reducing the number of events that need to be handled. This is useful in cases where you have a high frame rate and need to ensure that no frames are missed. Note that a user-defined function hooked to the end-of-grab event (MdigProcess(), or MdigHookFunction() with M_GRAB_END) is executed only once the entire group of frames has been grabbed. For information on creating a multi-frame image buffer to store sequential frames, see the Specifying the dimensions of a multi-frame image buffer subsection of the Specifying the dimensions of a data buffer section of Chapter 21: Data buffers.