User`s manual

AW00098504000 Image Acquisition Control
Basler ace Camera Link 117
7.8 Maximum Allowed Frame
Acquisition Rate
The maximum allowed frame acquisition rate for your camera is not static. It can vary depending on
how certain camera features are set. In general, the following factors can affect the maximum
allowed frame rate:
 The Camera Link pixel clock speed and the Camera Link tap geometry settings.
When the pixel clock speed is set to a high value, it will take less time to transfer captured im-
ages from the camera to the frame grabber in your host PC.
When the camera is set for a tap geometry that uses more taps (e.g., the 1X2-1Y geometry uses
two taps and the 1X3-1Y geometry uses three taps), it can typically transfer data out of the cam-
era faster.
So if the camera is set for a high pixel clock speed and a high number of taps, it typically will
have a much higher maximum allowed frame rate than when it is set for a low pixel clock speed
and a low number of taps.
 The sensor bit depth setting. The sensor can capture pixel data at 12 bit or at 10 bit depth.
When the sensor is set for 12 bit depth, it operates slower than at 10 bit depth. If you have the
sensor set for 10 bit depth, you can acquire images at a significantly higher maximum allowed
rate.
 The amount of time it takes to read the data for an acquired image (known as a frame) out of
the imaging sensor. This time varies depending on the height of the frame. The frame height is
determined by the camera’s AOI settings. If you use shorter AOIs (i.e., AOIs that include fewer
lines), it takes less time to read an acquired frame out of the sensor and you can acquire more
frames per second.
Decreasing the width of the AOI can also yield a significant increase in the maximum allowed
frame rate, but this is only true when the width is lowered in increments of 50% of the sensor
width (e.g., from 2048 to 1024 or from 1024 to 512).
 Whether binning is enabled. Enabling either horizontal or vertical binning may yield a
significant increase in the maximum allowed frame rate, but this will only be true if the camera
is not already reading out image data at a rate that is near to the current data carrying capacity
of the Camera Link interface.
 The exposure time for acquired frames. If you use very long exposure times, you can acquire
fewer frames per second.
There are several ways that you can determine the maximum allowed acquisition frame rate with
your current camera settings:
 You can go to the Support section of the Basler website and use the online frame rate
calculator:
www.baslerweb.com
 You can use Basler pylon to read the value of the camera’s Resulting Frame Rate Abs
parameter (see below).
 You can use direct register access to read the value of the Resulting Frame Period register
(see below).
For more information about the image AOI settings, see Section 10.3 on page 160.