Send Serial Commands via the Camera File Generator to My Camera Link Camera

Updated May 14, 2024

Environment

Driver

  • NI-IMAQ

Can I use the NI Camera File Generator to send serial commands to my Camera Link camera to change its camera control attributes such as data mode, exposure time, tap geometry, etc?

You can send serial commands through the Camera File Interface using the Camera File Generator. Open your camera file and choose the Camera Control Tab. There, you will see the Attribute Tree. Once you have added attributes to the tree with its list of possible values, it will look like Figure 1 below:


Figure 1. Camera Control Attributes
When you click on a possible value for an attribute, you can select the Serial tab in the Actions. From there, you can add the serial command to send to your camera to set the attribute you have selected. You can usually find the serial commands available to send to your camera in your camera manual.

The Add and Edit Serial Action Interface, as shown in Figure 2 below, lets you send commands directly to your camera.



Figure 2. Serial Interface

Additional Information

Depending on your camera, the termination character can either be \r or \n. To set the port settings such as baud rate, termination string and etc, go to Settings » Serial Settings.