National Instruments IMAQ PCI-1428 User Manual - Introduction

© National Instruments Corporation

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IMAQ PCI/PXI-1428 User Manual

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Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of the IMAQ PCI/PXI-1428 image 

acquisition device, the Camera Link standard, Camera Link and 

IMAQ 1428 interfacing guidelines, and your software programming 

choices.

About the IMAQ 1428

The IMAQ 1428 is a highly flexible image acquisition (IMAQ) device that 

supports a diverse range of Camera Link-compatible cameras from various 

camera companies. The IMAQ 1428 acquires digital images in real time 

and stores the images in onboard frame memory or transfers them directly 

to system memory. Featuring a high-speed data flow path, the IMAQ 1428 

is ideal for both industrial and scientific environments.

The IMAQ 1428 is easy to install and configure. It ships with NI-IMAQ, 

the National Instruments complete IMAQ driver software you can use to 

directly control the IMAQ 1428 and other National Instruments IMAQ 

hardware products. With NI-IMAQ, you can quickly and easily start your 

applications without having to program the device at the register level.

The IMAQ 1428 supports the Camera Link Base configuration. The 

VHDCI 68-pin connector provides access to the 8-bit 

× 4 mode of the 

Camera Link Medium configuration. For further configuration 

information, refer to the 

Camera Link and IMAQ 1428

 section of 

Chapter 3, 

Hardware Overview

.

The VHDCI 68-pin connector has four external input/output (I/O) lines you 

can use as triggers or as high-speed digital I/O lines. 

For more advanced digital or analog system triggering or digital I/O lines, 

you can use the IMAQ 1428 and NI-IMAQ with the National Instruments 

data acquisition (DAQ) or motion control product lines.

Synchronizing several functions to a common trigger or timing event can 

be a challenge with image acquisition devices. The IMAQ 1428 uses the 

Real-Time System Integration (RTSI) bus to solve this problem.