|
|
 |
| Framegrabber FG-30-II PC-Card (PCMCIA) |
a videodigitizer for laptops
for Win XP/2000/98/95...
for all PCMCIA slots – with or without CardBus, with or without ZV-port
45 source code example |
|
|
This PCMCIA Frame Grabber has been redesigned and now carries the designation FG-30-II. FG-30-II uses the latest video controller technology. One MByte, built-in, dual port memory ensures that true-color frames at highest resolutions (such as 768x576x24bits) are possible without any special laptop requirements.
The FG-30 PCMCIA, which was introduced in 1996, was the first PCMCIA card capable of grabbing video frames in full resolution. The FG-30-II is a newly enhanced PCMCIA card with additional formats and features and reduced power consumption. Of course, the FG-30-II is completely software-compatible with the previous cards. FG-30 PCMCIA cards have a 240K x 36 or a 256Kx32 frame buffer for fast data transfer. One can select up to 6 video sources. The FG-30-II now uses Berg connectors and is supplied with a standard cinch cable for composite video sources. Other cable sets are available, such as SVHS and a 15-pole open-end cable.
The first FG-30 PCMCIA series required a 12V supply from the slot, which also meant full PCMCIA compatibility was required. All newer series require only a single power supply, which is always available. The FG-30-II contains numerous features which make it compatible with difficult hardware combinations. All PCMCIA bus signals are compatible with the 3.3Volt CardBus technology. A CardBus version is available under the name FG-33. |
| No special PC requirements |
The only prerequisite for using the FG-30-II is a PCMCIA or CardBus slot. We recommend use of graphic boards with Direct X support and modern operating systems such as Windows XP, 2000 or Windows 98. Older operating systems must be adapted to run multifunction PCMCIA cards. Under early versions of Windows 95 the service packs must be installed. The FG-30-II PCMCIA can also be used with Windows NT 4.0, 3.51, Windows 3.x, OS/2 and Dos if either a 100% compatible Intel PCMCIA Controller is used in the system or if a third-party driver is available. A demo version of a driver kit is available on the CD supplied with the FG-30-II...
Accelerated by special FG-30 driver functions, a full-color moving online display of a video source is possible for older operating systems such as Dos or Windows 3.x, if a special supported VGA adapter is used. |
| Signal sources and Color processing |
Video signals in PAL-, SECAM- or NTSC-Standard can be digitized by the HaSoTec Frame Grabber FG-30. Cameras, video recorders, SVHS, Hi8 or Y/C sources, as well as any other devices with standard video outputs can be connected to 6 inputs selectable by means of software. The FG-30 uses the 4:2:2 broadcast standard in conjunction with a complete digital signal path. The main difference between FG-30-II and its previous versions is its new (2001) video chip set with enhanced features.
 Detailed structure of FG-30-II |
| Precision pixels |
| Square pixels have advantages for many applications. The FG-30 digitizes square pixels for all TV standards. This provides true-to-scale pictures without distortion and without scalings that impair quality. These formats have better resolutions in each line, e.g. 768 instead of 752 or 720 pixels. YUV and RGB modes allow color depths of up to 24 bits/pixel. HaSoTec guarantees full use of 8 bits in each of the 3 color channels. Automatic gain control and black-level reference ensure reproducible accuracy as is needed for measurements. The Frame Grabber FG-30-II has, in addition, a manual gain-control mode, which has advantages for many image-processing applications. |
| High resolution |
| FG-30 can work with variable resolutions based on a fixed grid of 768x576 pixels for European standards and 640x480 pixels for the US standard. On-board video RAM is organized to supply 1024Kx8 bits, 512Kx16 bits or 256Kx32 bits, as required by the respective mode. Programmable hardware can pass a cropped window on to this RAM, which is scaled 1:1 or 1:2 in relation to the basic grid. |
| Grey-scale images |
| A special mode allows the efficient capture of grey-scale images. Two pixels with 256 grey values can be transferred by a single CPU read cycle without wait states. This allows a variety of real-time applications. |
| Quick memory access |
| To use the full performance of modern PCs for image processing, image data often has to be transferred into the PC memory. Due to the pipelined data transfer, the FG-30 is able to supply image data at high speeds. After the first line is digitized, an image can be transferred into RAM simultaneously to further digitizing. Unfortunually PCMCIA controllers do not work with such high speeds. The only speed-limiting factor is the transfer rate of the PCMCIA-controller of the system employed. Typical data rates are 2...3 MBytes /s. 32-bit-CardBus cycles as used for the FG-33 are about 4 times faster. For fast apllications it is important to organize a highly efficient data flow. This is possible when image processing procedures use sequential image data directly from an I/O port. |
| Software for Win XP/2000, WinNT, Win98, Win95, WinMe, Dos, Win3.x (supplied with all cards) |
The application FG3xCLIP in its 16- and 32-bit versions works under MS-Windows XP/2000/NT, Windows Me/98/95/3.x. Image files can be loaded and saved in most commonly used formats (BMP, TIF, PCX, GIF ...). Images and parts of images can be copied into other programs by using the clipboard. Thanks to error diffusion dithering and optimized palettes, image monitoring is possible on all graphic boards, even in 16- and 256-color modes. Independent of display capabilities, all operations use a memory-based image with full pixel depth (16.7 mio colors / 256 grey levels). Numerous useful functions are built in, such as capturing frames with averaging or with look-up-table manipulations.
FG3xCAP allows one to capture AVI sequences both compressed and uncompressed into RAM or to hard disk. Time-lapse records are possible. The FG-30 software also includes a 16-bit and a 32-bit driver for the image-processing development package "Ad Oculos" and a Twain driver. The program FG30VGA, running under Dos, captures grey scale and color images using any VGA board. Many image file formats are implemented. SVGA chip sets are supported by an additional Dos program. |
| Writing your own programs... |
At no additional charge, each package contains a toolbox with programming examples in source code and language-specific libraries for MS-Windows XP/2000/NT, Windows Me/98/95/3.x, Dos and OS/2. The sample application FGIMAGE has 6 dialog boxes for making all manner of adjustments. Furthermore it displays the video source in a dialog box and shows in source code how to capture and display images in a Window. FGIMAGE is included in 9 versions for 32- and 16-bit-compilers, see the table below.
Overview... |
| Quellcode Beispiele für |
Win XP/2000/NT |
Win Me/98/95 |
Win 3.x |
OS/2 |
DOS |
| Microsoft C |
2.x - 6.x |
7.0 - 1.52c |
7.0 - 1.52c |
IBM C/2 |
7.0 - 1.52c |
| Microsoft C++ |
4.x - 6.x |
4.x - 6.x &
7.0 - 1.52c |
7.0 - 1.52c |
- |
- |
| Borland C, C++ Builder |
5.x, 6.0 |
3.1 - 5.x |
3.1 - 4.x |
2.0 |
3.1 - 4.x |
| Turbo Pascal |
- |
7.0 |
7.0 |
- |
6.0 - 7.0 |
| Borland Delphi |
2.x - 6.x |
1.0 - 6.x |
1.0 - 3.x |
- |
- |
| Visual Basic |
4.x - 6.x |
1.0 - 6.x |
1.0 - 4.x |
- |
- |
| Quick Basic |
- |
- |
- |
- |
4.5d + 4.5e |
| Twain driver |
32-bit |
32-bit |
16-bit |
- |
- |
|
|
|
|
