Grablink series

Camera Link frame grabbers

At a glance

PCIe frame grabbers for Camera Link 80-bit, Full, Medium, Base and Lite configuration cameras
Directly compatible with hundreds of Camera Link cameras available on the market
ECCO+ / ECCO: Extended Camera Link Cable Operation
Feature-rich set of digital IO lines
Memento Event Logging Tool

Grablink Duo

Frame grabber for one full- or two base-configuration Camera Link cameras

Grablink Full XR

Frame grabber for one full-configuration Camera Link camera with support for extra long cables

Grablink Full

Frame grabber for one full-configuration Camera Link camera

Grablink DualBase

Frame grabber for two base-configuration Camera Link cameras

Grablink Base

Frame grabber for one base-configuration Camera Link camera

<a target="_blank" href="https://www.euresys.com/ecco" >ECCO+ / ECCO</a>: Extended Camera Link Cable Operation

ECCO+ / ECCO: Extended Camera Link Cable Operation

Use longer, up to 20 meters long, Camera Link cables!

High-performance DMA (Direct Memory Access)

Direct transfer into user-allocated memory and hardware boards that expose PCI addresses
Hardware scatter-gather support
64-bit addressing capability

Line-scan triggering capabilities 2/2

The Grablink frame grabber controls the camera scanning rate based on the signals received from a motion encoder. When the parts move faster, the acquisition line rate of the camera increases. When the parts move slower, the acquisition line rate of the camera decreases.
The Grablink boards interpret A/B signals from quadrature motion encoders to know in which direction (forward or backward) the part is moving.
Optionally, the Grablink can be instructed to acquire lines only when the object is moving forward or only when the object is moving backward.
A feature called Backward Motion Cancellation stops the acquisition when a backward motion is detected. The line acquisition automatically resumes when the motion is again in the forward direction, at the exact place where the acquisition was interrupted.
A Rate Converter allows the camera to acquire lines at any programmable resolution lower or higher than the resolution of the motion encoder. This gives the designer incredible freedom and flexibility during the development of the application.
A Rate Divider allows the camera to acquire lines at a resolution lower than the resolution of the motion encoder. It divides the frequency of the incoming encoder signal by a programmable integer.

Directly compatible with hundreds of Camera Link cameras available on the market

Check out our supported cameras page (in the Support menu)

Area-scan triggering capabilities

A trigger is used to start the acquisition when the part is in position. Hardware triggers come from the Grablink's I/O lines. Software triggers come from the application.
An optional trigger delay is available to postpone the acquisition for a programmable time.
A trigger decimation function allows to skip some of the triggers.
Camera exposure control allows the application to control the exposure time of the camera.
When the acquisition starts, at the appropriate timing, the Grablink board generates a signal to control an illumination device connected to one of its output lines.

Flexible line-scan camera operation with the rate converter

The rate converter is a smart, programmable frequency multiplier/divider.
Used with motion encoders and line-scan cameras, it allows the user to choose the aspect ratio of the pixels in the image.
It provides a way to calibrate the acquisition chain to easily reach square (1:1 aspect ratio) pixels.

General purpose I/O lines

Compatible with a wide range of sensors and motion encoders.

Line-scan triggering capabilities 1/2

Grablink supports continuous web scanning (to inspect infinite, continuously moving surfaces without losing a single line) and discrete object scanning (to acquire the image of objects moving in front of the camera).

A trigger is used to start the acquisition when the part is in position. Hardware triggers come from the board's I/O lines. Software triggers come from the application.
After it is started, the acquisition either:
- Continues indefinitely (for web inspection applications)
- Continues for a programmable number of lines (to acquire the image of objects of a known length)
- Continues until an end trigger is received (to acquire the image of objects of a variable length)
An optional trigger delay is available to postpone the beginning of the acquisition for a programmable number of lines.

Windows, Linux and macOS drivers available

macOS and ARM support only available for Grablink Duo

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The differences between the products are highlighted in blue.

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Mechanical

Format

Standard profile, half length, 8-lane PCI Express card

Cooling method

Air cooling, fan-cooled heatsink

Housing

Aluminum housing

Mounting

For insertion in a standard height, 8-lane or higher, PCI Express card slot

Desktop

Connectors

'QSFP+' on bracket:
- Enhanced Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable port
- CoaXPress-over-Fiber host interface
'EXTERNAL I/O' on bracket:
- 26-pin 3-row high-density female sub-D connector
- I/O lines and power output
'INTERNAL I/O 1' and 'INTERNAL I/O 2' on PCB:
- 2x 26-pin 2-row 0.1" pitch pin header with shrouding
- I/O lines and power output
'I/O EXTENSION' on PCB:
- 26-pin 2-row 0.05" pitch pin header with shrouding
- I/O extension lines and power output
'AUXILIARY POWER INPUT' on module:
- 6-pin PEG power socket
- 12 VDC power input for I/O power
'C2C-LINK' on module:
- 6-pin 2-row 0.1" header
- Card to card link

'A', 'B', 'C', 'D' on front panel:
- 4x Micro BNC female connectors
- CoaXPress host interface
'QSFP+' on rear panel:
- Enhanced Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable port
- CoaXPress-over-Fiber device interface
'POWER IN' on rear panel:
- 2-pin 5.08mm pitch terminal socket
- 24 V DC power input for internal use and PoCXP

LED indicators

'A', 'B', 'C', 'D' on bracket:
- Bi-color red/green LEDs
- CoaXPress Host connector indicator
'FPGA STATUS LAMP' on PCB:
- Bi-color red/green LED
- FPGA status indicator
'BOARD STATUS LAMP' on PCB:
- Bi-color red/green LED
- Board status indicator

'A', 'B', 'C', 'D' on front panel:
- Bi-color red/green LEDs
- CoaXPress Host connector indicator
'A', 'B', 'C', 'D' on rear panel:
- Bi-color red/green LEDs
- CoaXPress Device connector indicator
'FPGA OK' on rear panel:
- Bi-color red/green LED
- FPGA status indicator
'BOARD OK' onrear panel:
- Bi-color red/green LED
- Board status indicator

Switches

'RECOVERY' on PCB:

3-pin 1-row 0.1" header or 2-way DIP switch
Firmware emergency recovery

Dimensions

PCB L X H: 167.65 mm x 111.15 mm, 6.6 in x 4.38 in

L 112 mm x H 55 mm x D 208 mm

Weight

176 g, 6.21 oz (without transceiver)

TBD g, TBD oz (3629)

Host bus

Standard

PCI Express 3.0

Link width

8 lanes
1 lane, 2 lanes or 4 lanes with reduced performance

Link speed

8.0 GT/s (PCIe 3.0)
5.0 GT/s (PCIe 2.0) with reduced performance

Maximum payload size

512 bytes

DMA

32- and 64-bit

Peak delivery bandwidth

7,800 MB/s

Effective (sustained) delivery bandwidth

6,700 MB/s (Host PC motherboard dependent)

Power consumption

Typ. 16.5 W ( 3.0 W @ +3.3V, 12.5 W @ +12V), excluding I/O power output and optical transceiver module

Camera / video inputs

Interface standard(s)

CoaXPress 1.0, 1.1, 1.1.1 and 2.0, CoaXPress-over-Fiber Bridge Protocol 1.0

Connectors

Enhanced Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable (QSFP+) port
Compliant with SFF-8436 (4 x10 Gbit/s Pluggable Transceiver) specification
Compliant with CoaXPress over Fiber
Available power for the module: 3.5 W (SFF-8436 Power Level 4)

Four micro-BNC 75 Ohms (also known as HD-BNC™) CXP-12

Status LEDs

One CoaXPress Host connection status LED per connection

Number of cameras

Area-scan cameras:
- One 1- or 2- or 4-connection camera
Line-scan cameras:
- One 1- or 2- or 4-connection camera

Area-scan cameras:
- One 1- or 2- or 4-connection camera
Line-scan cameras:
- One 1- or 2- or 4-connection camera

Maximum aggregated camera data transfer rate

5,000 MB/s

50 Gbit/s (5,000 MB/s)

Supported CXP down-connection speeds

1.25 GT/s (CXP-1), 2.5 GT/s (CXP-2), 3.125 GT/s (CXP-3), 5 GT/s (CXP-5), 6.25 GT/s (CXP-6), 10.0 GT/s (CXP-10), and 12.5 GT/s (CXP-12)

Supported CXP up-connection speeds

Low-speed 20.83... Mbps (CXP-1 to CXP-6)
Low-speed 41.66... Mbps (CXP-10, CXP-12)

Low-speed 20.83... Mbps (CXP-1 to CXP-6)
Low-speed 41.66... Mbps (CXP-10, CXP-12)

Number of CXP data streams (per camera)

1 data stream per camera

Maximum CXP stream packet size

16,384 bytes

PoCXP (Power over CoaXPress)

PoCXP Safe Power:
- PoCXP Device detection and automatic power-on
- Overload and short-circuit protections
A +24V power source must be connected to the POWER IN connector

Camera types

Area-scan cameras:
- Grayscale and color (YCbCr, YUV, RGB and Bayer CFA)
- Single-tap (1X-1Y) progressive-scan
Line-scan cameras and contact imaging sensors:
- Grayscale and color RGB

Camera pixel formats supported

Mono8, Mono10, Mono12, Mono14, Mono16
BayerXX8, BayerXX10, BayerXX12, BayerXX14, BayerXX16 where XX = GR, RG, GB, or BG
RGB8, RGB10, RGB12, RGB14, RGB16
RGBA8, RGBA10, RGBA12, RGBA14, RGBA16
YCbCr601_422_8, YCbCr601_422_10
YCbCr709_422_8, YCbCr709_422_10
YUV422_8, YUV422_10
Raw

Area-scan camera control

Trigger

Precise control of asynchronous reset cameras, with exposure control.
Support of camera exposure/readout overlap.
Support of external hardware trigger, with optional delay and trigger decimation.

Strobe

Accurate control of the strobe position for strobed light sources.
Support of early and late strobe pulses.

Line-scan camera control

Scan/page trigger

Precise control of start-of-scan and end-of-scan triggers.
Support of external hardware trigger, with optional delay.
Support of infinite acquisition, without missing line, for web inspection applications.

Line trigger

Support for quadrature motion encoders, with programmable noise filters, selection of acquisition direction and backward motion compensation.
Rate Converter tool for fine control of the pixel aspect ratio: Rate Conversion Ratio in the range 0.001 to 1000 with an accuracy better than 0.1%.
Rate Divider tool

Line strobe

Accurate control of the strobe position for strobed light sources.

On-board processing

On-board memory

4 GB

Image data stream processing

Unpacking of 10-/12-/14-bit to 16-bit with selectable justification to LSb or MSb
Optional swap of R and B components
Little endian conversion

Flat-field correction

Input LUT (Lookup Table)

Monochrome 8-bit to 8-bit transformation
Monochrome 10-bit to 8-, 10- or 16-bit transformations
Monochrome 12-bit to 8-, 12- or 16-bit transformations

Bayer CFA to RGB decoder

'1-camera' firmware variant:

3x3 linear interpolation method
3x3 median-based interpolation method

Pixel binning

CustomLogic firmware variants

Data stream statistics

Measurement of:
- Frame rate (Area-scan only)
- Line rate
- Data rate
Configurable averaging interval

Event signaling and counting

The application software can be notified of the occurrence of various events:
- Standard event: the EVENT_NEW_BUFFER event notifies the application of newly filled buffers
- A large set of custom events
Custom events sources:
- I/O Toolbox events
- Camera and Illumination control events
- CoaXPress data stream events
- CoaXPress host interface events
Each custom event is associated with a 32-bit counter that counts the number of occurrences
The last three 32-bit context data words of the event context data can be configured with event-specific context data:
- Event-specific data
- State of all System I/O lines sampled at the event occurrence time
- Value of any event counter

General Purpose Inputs and Outputs

Number of lines

20 I/O lines:

4 differential inputs (DIN)
4 singled-ended TTL inputs/outputs (TTLIO)
8 isolated inputs (IIN)
4 isolated outputs (IOUT)

NOTE: The number of I/O lines can be extended using I/O modules attached to the I/O EXTENSION connector.

Usage

Any I/O input lines can be used by any LIN tool of the I/O Toolbox
Selected pairs of I/O input lines can be used by any QDC tool of the I/O toolbox to decode A/B signals of a motion encoder

Electrical specifications

DIN: High-speed differential inputs, up to 5 MHz, compatible with ANSI/EIA/TIA-422/485 differential line drivers and complementary TTL drivers
TTLIO: High-speed 5V-compliant TTL inputs or LVTTL outputs, compatible with totem-pole LVTTL, TTL, 5V CMOS drivers or LVTTL, TTL, 3V CMOS receivers
IIN: 200 kHz isolated current-sense input with wide voltage input range up to 30V, compatible with totem-pole (push-pull) HTL drivers, 5V TTL/RS-422 differential line drivers, 5V CMOS drivers, potential free contacts, solid-state relays and opto-couplers
IOUT: Isolated contact outputs compatible with 30V / 100mA loads

NOTE: IIN and IOUT lines provide a functional isolation grade for the circuit technical protection. It does not provide an isolation that can protect a human being from electrical shock!

Filter control

Glitch removal filter available on all System I/O input lines
Configurable filter time constants:
- for DIN and TTLIO lines: 50 ns, 100 ns, 200 ns, 500 ns, 1 µs
- for IIN lines: 500 ns, 1 µs, 2 µs, 5 µs, 10 µs

Polarity control

Yes

Power output

Non-isolated, +12V, 1A, with electronic fuse protection

I/O Toolbox tools

The I/O Toolbox is a configurable interconnection of tools that generates events (usually triggers):

Line Input tool (LIN): edge detector delivering events on rising or falling edges of any selected input line.
Quadrature Decoder tool (QDC): a composite tool including:
- A quadrature edge detector delivering events on selected transitions of selected pairs of input lines.
- An optional backward motion compensator for clean line-scan image acquisition when the motion is unstable.
- A 32-bit up/down counter for delivering a position value.
Device Link Trigger tool (DLT): delivers an event on reception of a valid high-speed CoaXPress 2.0 connection trigger packet message from the remote device.
User Actions Scheduler tool (UAS): to delegate the execution of 'User Actions' at a scheduled time or encoder position. Possible user actions include setting low/high/toggle any bit of the User Output Register or generation of any User Events.
Delay tool (DEL): to delay up to 16 events from one or two I/O toolbox event sources, by a programmable time or number of motion encoder ticks (any QDC events).
Divider tool (DIV): to generate an event every nth input events from any I/O toolbox event source.
Multiplier/divider tool (MDV): to generate m events every d input events from any I/O toolbox event source.
The 'Input Tools' (LIN, QDC, DLT and UAS) can be further processed by the 'Event Tools' (DEL, DIV and MDV) to generate any of the following "trigger" events:
- The "cycle trigger" of the Camera and Illumination controller
- The "cycle sequence trigger" of the Camera and Illumination controller
- The "start-of-scan trigger" of the Acquisition Controller (line-scan only)
- The "end-of-scan trigger" of the Acquisition Controller (line-scan only)

I/O Toolbox composition

Determined by the selected firmware variant:

'1-camera': 8 LIN, 1 QDC, 2 DLT, 1 UAS, 2 DEL, 1 DIV, 1 MDV, 2 C2C
'1-camera, line-scan': 8 LIN, 1 QDC, 2 DLT, 1 UAS, 2 DEL, 1 DIV, 1 MDV, 3 C2C

C2C-Link

Description

Accurate synchronization of the trigger and the start-of-exposure of multiple grabber-controlled area-scan cameras.
Accurate synchronization of the start-of-cycle, start-of-scan and end-of-scan of multiple grabber-controlled line-scan cameras.

Specification

C2C-Link synchronizes cameras connected to:
- the same card
- to different cards in the same PC (requires an accessory cable such as the "3303 C2C-Link Ribbon Cable" or a custom-made C2C-Link cable)
- to different cards in different PCs (requires one "1636 InterPC C2C-Link Adapter" for each PC and one RJ 45 CAT 5 STP straight LAN cable for each adapter but the last one)
Maximum distance:
- 60 cm inside a PC
- 1200 m cumulated adapter to adapter cable length
Maximum trigger rate:
- 2.5 MHz for configurations using a single PC, or up to 10 PCs and 100 m total C2C-Link cable length
- 200 kHz for configurations up to 32 PCs and 1200m total C2C-Link cable length
Trigger propagation delay from master to slave devices:
- Less than 10 ns for cameras on the same card or on different cards in the same PC
- Less than 265 ns for cameras on different cards in different PCs (3 PCs and 40m total C2C-Link cable length)

Electrical

Supply voltage

24 V DC (tolerance. TBD), via external power supply block (not included)

Power connector

POWER IN connector: 2-pin 5.08 mm pluggable terminal block socket

Power consumption

29 W for internal use (estimation TBC)
4 x 17 W for PoCXP

Software

Host PC Operating System

Microsoft Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 7 for x86-64 (64-bit) processor architecture
Linux for x86-64 (64-bit) and AArch64 (64-bit) processor architectures
macOS for x86-64 (64-bit) and AArch64 (64-bit) processor architectures

APIs

EGrabber class, with C++ and .NET APIs: .NET assembly designed to be used with development environments compatible with .NET frameworks version 4.0 or higher
GenICam GenTL producer libraries compatible with C/C++ compilers:
- 'x86_64' dynamic library designed to be used with ISO-compliant C/C++ compilers for the development of x86-64 (64-bit) applications
- 'aarch64' dynamic library designed to be used with ISO-compliant C/C++ compilers for the development of AArch64 (64-bit) applications

Environmental conditions

Operating ambient air temperature

0 to +55 °C / +32 to +131 °F

0 to +50 °C / +32 to +122 °F (TBC)

Operating ambient air humidity

10 to 90% RH non-condensing

10% to 90% RH non-condensing (TBC)

Storage ambient air temperature

-20 to +70 °C/ -4 to +158 °F

-20 to +70 °C/ -4 to +158 °F (TBC)

Storage ambient air humidity

10% to 90% RH non-condensing

10% to 90% RH non-condensing (TBC)

Certifications

Electromagnetic - EMC standards

European Council EMC Directive 2014/30/EU
United States FCC rule 47 CFR 15

European Council EMC Directive 2004/108/EC (TBC)
United States FCC rule 47 CFR 15 (TBC)

EMC - Emission

EN 55032:2015 / CISPR 32:2012 Class B
FCC 47 Part 15 Class B

TBD

EMC - Immunity

EN 55035:2017 / CISPR 35:2016
EN 61000-6-2:2005 / IEC 61000-6-2:2016
EN 61000-4-2:2009
EN 61000-4-3:2006
EN 61000-4-4:2004
EN 61000-4-6:2014

TBD

KC Certification

Korean Radio Waves Act, Article 58-2, Clause 3

TBD

Flammability

PCB compliant with UL 94 V-0

RoHS

European Union Directive 2015/863 (ROHS3)

REACH

European Union Regulation 1907/2006

WEEE

Must be disposed of separately from normal household waste and must be recycled according to local regulations

Ordering Information

Product code - Description

3625 - Coaxlink QSFP+

3629 - Coaxlink CXP-12 to QSFP+ Converter

Optional accessories

Machine Vision for the Electronic Manufacturing Industry

High speed image acquisition for AOI, 3D SPI, 3D lead/ball inspection machines.

The Coaxlink and Grablink cards are dependable industrial frame grabbers that provide robust and stable image acquisition from the fastest digital cameras available. They feature precise camera control and synchronization functions.

AOI (Automated Optical Inspection) machines
3D SPI (Solder Paste Inspection) machines
3D lead/ball inspection machines

Associated Products

Coaxlink Duo CXP-12 , Coaxlink Mono CXP-12 LH , Coaxlink Octo , Coaxlink Quad CXP-12 , Coaxlink Quad CXP-12 , Coaxlink Quad CXP-12 DF , Coaxlink Quad CXP-12 Value , Coaxlink Quad G3 , Coaxlink Quad G3 DF , Coaxlink Quad G3 LH , Grablink Base , Grablink DualBase , Grablink Duo , Grablink Full , Grablink Full XR

Very high resolution line-scan image acquisition for Flat Panel Display inspection and solar cell inspection

Associated Products

Machine Vision for the General Manufacturing Industries

High frame rate image acquisition for inspection machines

Glass inspection: bottles, vials

Associated Products

Line-scan image acquisition for surface inspection machines

Associated Products

Line-scan image acquisition for textile inspection

Associated Products

Machine Vision for the Printing Industry

High speed line-scan image acquisition for printing inspection machines

Printing inspection for packages
Printing inspection for labels

Associated Products

Video Acquisition and Recording

High-frame-rate video acquisition for motion analysis and recording

Associated Products

Coaxlink Duo CXP-12 , Coaxlink Mono CXP-12 LH , Coaxlink Octo , Coaxlink Quad CXP-12 , Coaxlink Quad CXP-12 , Coaxlink Quad CXP-12 DF , Coaxlink Quad CXP-12 JPEG , Coaxlink Quad CXP-12 JPEG , Coaxlink Quad CXP-12 Value , Coaxlink Quad G3 , Coaxlink Quad G3 DF , Coaxlink Quad G3 LH , Grablink Base , Grablink DualBase , Grablink Duo , Grablink Full , Grablink Full XR

Grablink series

Camera Link frame grabbers

At a glance

Machine Vision for the Electronic Manufacturing Industry

High speed image acquisition for AOI, 3D SPI, 3D lead/ball inspection machines.

Very high resolution line-scan image acquisition for Flat Panel Display inspection and solar cell inspection

Machine Vision for the General Manufacturing Industries

High frame rate image acquisition for inspection machines

Line-scan image acquisition for surface inspection machines

Line-scan image acquisition for textile inspection

Machine Vision for the Printing Industry

High speed line-scan image acquisition for printing inspection machines

Video Acquisition and Recording

High-frame-rate video acquisition for motion analysis and recording

Where to buy

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High speed image acquisition for AOI, 3D SPI, 3D lead/ball inspection machines.

Very high resolution line-scan image acquisition for Flat Panel Display inspection and solar cell inspection

High frame rate image acquisition for inspection machines

Line-scan image acquisition for surface inspection machines

Line-scan image acquisition for textile inspection

High speed line-scan image acquisition for printing inspection machines

High-frame-rate video acquisition for motion analysis and recording

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