Camera Link Camera Configuration over Frame Grabber Camera Link Serial Port

Camera Configuration within Camera Link is based on a simple asynchronous serial reading and writing of configuration data. Within the Camera Link standard specification, a serial communication interface is defined. This standardized serial interface is available on the frame grabber. It enables the interaction of a vendor specific camera configuration tool and the frame grabber specific implementation of the serial communication functionality.

In simple words: Any Camera Link compliant camera configuration software runs in combination with any Camera Link frame grabber. In this project we use Bitflow Karbon-CL Frame Grabber.

CLComm - An interface to the Camera Link serial port library.

This wraps both the standard CLAllSerial.h interface, and the BFSerial.h library, which provides various useful extensions to the core library.

To access Camera Link Serial Port cameras require a DLL file, which is supplied by the frame grabber manufacturer, to be installed on the PC. To verify this, use the PC’s registry editor (regedit) to confirm the following setting:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE->SOFTWARE-> “CLSERIALPATH”.

Then, check the folder specified in the “Data” field of “CLSERIALPATH”, and verify that the folder contains a “clser***.dll” file.

Note: the file name of the DLL file is clser***.dll. “***” is up to the frame grabber  manufacturer. If the DLL file does not exist there, place the DLL file into the folder. The DLL file is supplied by the frame grabber manufacturer.

In order to use CLComm Component in the project, first add a reference to it, make sure to place the file "CLAllSerial.NET.dll" into your working directory, and set the target framework to ".NET Framework 4.5". The component "CLAllSerial.NET.dll" has compiled using ".NET Framework 4.5" so the target project must also use ".NET Framework 4.5".

Add a "CLAllSerial.NET.dll" reference to the target project, right click the project, choose "Add References" then from the "Projects" tab, choose "CLAllSerial.NET.dll" from your working directory.

	using CLComm;
	// private member
	private CLAllSerial m_clserial;
	// Initialize the first Bitflow, Inc. CLSerial Interface.
	m_clserial = new CLAllSerial();
	if (0 == CLAllSerial.GetNumPorts())
	{
	MessageBox.Show("The system has no CLSerial ports! Aborting.", "SimpleCom Initialization Error");
	Close();
	Application.Exit();
	}

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If you got this error message while debugging : " Could not load file or assembly 'ManagedBid, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=92d16d74ab2a6c4b' or one of its dependencies. An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format. " , check your "target framework" setting on your property, change to ".NET Framework 4.5".

To list available port using ComboBox DropDown list:

	serialPortDropDown.Items.Clear();
	uint numPorts = CLAllSerial.GetNumPorts();
	for (uint i = 0; i < numPorts; i++)
	{
	string manufacturer = "", portID = "";
	uint version = 0;
	CLAllSerial.GetPortInfo(i, ref manufacturer, ref portID, ref version);
	string ItemObject = "(" + i + ") " + manufacturer + ", " + portID;
	serialPortDropDown.Items.Add(ItemObject);
	}

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To list available baudrate ComboBox DropDown list:

	baudRateDropDown.Items.Clear();
	// Add all supported baud rates to the combo box list.
	CLAllSerial.BaudRates rates = m_clserial.GetSupportedBaudRates();
	string currentRate;
	// Determine the current baud rate (just set it, if we aren't a BF port).
	if (m_clserial.PortIsBF)
	currentRate = m_clserial.BFGetBaudRate().ToString();
	else
	{
	m_clserial.SetBaudRate(CLAllSerial.BaudRates.CL_BAUDRATE_9600);
	currentRate = CLAllSerial.BaudRates.CL_BAUDRATE_9600.ToString();
	}
	foreach (string rate in rates.ToString().Split(','))
	{
	string ItemObject = rate.Trim("CL_BAUDRTE ".ToArray());
	baudRateDropDown.Items.Add(ItemObject);
	}
	baudRateDropDown.Text = currentRate.Trim("CL_BAUDRTE ".ToArray());

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Initialize the port:

	try
	{
	// Stop the data receive thread.
	readThreadStop();
	// Close the opened serial port.
	m_clserial.SerialClose();
	// Attempt to open the designated port.
	m_clserial.SerialInit(index);
	string manufacturer = "", portID = "";
	uint version = 0;
	CLAllSerial.GetPortInfo(index, ref manufacturer, ref portID, ref version);
	// Set the GUI as necessary.
	serialPortDropDown.Text = manufacturer + ", " + portID;
	populateBaudRateDropDown();
	// Restart the data receive thread.
	m_readThread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(serialReadThreadFunc));
	m_readThreadContinue = true;
	m_readThread.Start();
	}
	catch (ApplicationException err)
	{
	MessageBox.Show("Serial port initialization failed: " + err.Message, "CLSerial Initialization Error");
	Close();
	Application.Exit();
	}

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Serial Receive Thread Function:

	/// <summary>
	/// The serial read thread function.
	/// </summary>
	private void serialReadThreadFunc()
	{
	try
	{
	if (m_clserial.PortIsBF)
	{
	// This is a BF port, so prefer the BFSerialRead method.
	try
	{
	while (m_readThreadContinue)
	comListAppend(m_clserial.BFSerialRead(1024));
	}
	catch (OperationCanceledException)
	{ }
	}
	else
	{
	// For non-BF ports, use the conventional SerialRead method.
	while (m_readThreadContinue)
	{
	uint readLen = m_clserial.GetNumBytesAvail();
	if (0 < readLen)
	comListAppend(m_clserial.SerialRead(readLen, 100));
	Thread.Sleep(0);
	}
	}
	}
	catch (ApplicationException err)
	{
	MessageBox.Show("Caught an exception: " + err.Message + "\n\nAborting the read thread. Data can still be written, but no data will be received.", "Data Read Thread Error");
	}
	}

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Close the Port for reading thread:

	/// <summary>
	/// Stop execution of the serial read thread. This method blocks until the read thread is halted.
	/// </summary>
	private void readThreadStop()
	{
	if (null == m_readThread)
	return;
	do
	{
	m_readThreadContinue = false;
	if (m_clserial.PortIsBF)
	m_clserial.BFSerialCancelRead();
	}
	while (!m_readThread.Join(10));
	}

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