The new PL-A742 from PixeLINK combines the functionality of a frame grabber with a CMOS imager to provide a solid machine vision camera in a simple to use package. With triggering and GPO capabilities on-board the camera and no need for a separate frame grabber in the computer, your system complexity and cost are reduced. Data from the camera is transferred to the computer over a standard, inexpensive FireWire adapter and cable, which supplies camera power and provides all control inputs.

The PL-A742 is a feature rich camera with DCAM (IIDC V1.31) compatible functionality including multiple image formats and modes, including Format 7, shutter, gain, brightness (black level offset), frame-rate controls, and trigger (Modes 0 to 3 with variable polarity). In addition, the PL-A742 has extended functionality that can be accessed using the PL-SDK-VERSION-4 Application Programming Interface (API). This functionality includes additional trigger modes, general purpose outputs that can be used as communications lines or strobe signals for lighting or motion controllers, on-board user-programmable lookup table (LUT), applied in real-time, on-board non-volatile memory for camera configuration, and camera configuration descriptors for rapid changes to camera settings between frames.

The PL-A742 was designed for generic machine vision and OEM applications such inspection, testing, OCR tasks, positioning and high-contrast imaging. It can also be used as a line-scan camera for low-speed applications.