With 9 different options, you know we have your perfect CL frame grabber

28 Apr 2023

For well over 20 years the Camera Link (CL) standard has truly stood the test of time. Despite the introduction of newer protocols, such as CoaXPress, CLHS, USB3 Vision and GigE Vision, Camera Link remains popular today due to its simplicity and high data throughput rate.

For machine vision applications in the 100-800 MB/sec range it remains a reliable, high-speed universal solution supported by hundreds of camera, cable, frame grabber, software and accessories companies.

BitFlow has offered CL frame grabbers since 2000.  We are currently in our sixth generation offering nine different options from our Axion family.

BitFlow has a simple guide here to determine which of our CL grabbers will best be suited to your application.

Selecting CL Frame Grabbers

Frame grabbers are necessary to capture or “grab” high-resolution, high-speed frames from a digital video stream, and transfer data load from the camera to the memory of the PC. More advanced frame grabbers can acquire multiple inputs simultaneously from several cameras, and transform and compress images, along with other capabilities.

When designing or upgrading a Camera Link vision system, the frame grabber’s cost can be as much of a factor as its performance, depending on the application. For some, performance is the end-all and as such, they will specify the frame grabber that does precisely what is required no matter the price point. For others, however, price will dictate just how “exact” they want their system to be, or how much they can compromise with limitations such as bandwidths and distances. Application requirements determine exactly what performance features are needed in a Camera Link frame grabber. Before you buy, here is a list of questions to ask:

• Is there a large volume of data that needs to be acquired from the camera?
• Is high-speed data acquisition involved?
• What is the configuration of the camera?
• How critical is the timeframe to acquire data?
• What is the service life of the board?
• How long will the company support it?
• Is deterministic latency an essential component of the application?
• Can the system deal with dropped or lost frames?
• Are there additional components to consider such as encoders or strobes? Other I/O? 
• Is it a single or multi-camera system?
• What about cable length? In other words, how far away can the PC be stationed?

By asking and answering these questions, you will likely come to a conclusion as to what performance parameters are needed in a frame grabber to meet the complexity of your system.

Experience matters, talk to BitFlow about Camera Link.

Click here to find out more.