National Instruments NI 1712 User Manual - page 33

© National Instruments

|

4-1

4

Connecting Lighting and 

External Devices

This chapter provides information about connecting the NI 17xx Smart Camera to external 

devices, including external lighting and triggering devices. For information about the lighting 

connector, refer to the 

Lighting Connector

 section of Chapter 3, 

Connectors

. 

Direct Drive Lighting Controller

This section applies only to the following NI Smart Cameras:

•

NI 1752

•

NI 1754

The NI Smart Camera offers an innovative lighting controller that directly powers third-party 

current controlled lights. With other smart cameras, a lighting controller that drives a light must 

be purchased separately. The Direct Drive lighting controller is capable of powering a variety of 

third-party lights.

For a current controlled light, higher current produces more light, up to the maximum current 

rating of the light. The maximum current rating of the light is specified by the manufacturer and 

based on the average amount of power that can be safely dissipated by the light.

The Direct Drive controller can operate in continuous or strobed mode. When operating in 

strobed mode, the controller can provide more current to the light than in continuous mode. The 

average power dissipated while strobing the light for a short period of time at a higher current 

can be comparable to the average power dissipated while running the light continuously at a 

lower current. Table 4-1 shows the maximum allowed current for continuous mode and strobed 

mode.

For applications with a pause between exposures while new parts move into position, you can 

strobe the light, which allows the use of higher current and produces more light; thus you can 

reduce the exposure time. A shorter exposure time decreases the time it takes to acquire an image 

and potentially increases the total throughput of the system. Refer to the 

Exposure

 section of 

Chapter 6, 

Image Acquisition

, for more information about exposure control.

Table 4-1.  

Maximum Allowed Current for Direct Drive Lighting Controller

Maximum 

S

trobed Current

Maximum Continuous Current

1 A

500 mA