Imaging Setup

Use the Imaging Setup page to adjust focus, exposure, gain, and lighting settings to obtain the best image quality for inspection, and select from different trigger options to suit your use case.

Remember to Save

Make sure to click Save Imaging Settings in the bottom right corner when you have finished setting up or editing the image.

Camera Settings

Focus - Move the slider left to focus on things closer to the camera, and right to focus on things farther away. You can either click and drag the slider, or click the slider thumb and fine-tune the focus position using the left and right arrow keys.

Focus View - Check this box above the Focus Slider to switch the image view to a live Focus View. Focus view highlights edges in the image, and shows a “focus score” in the top-right corner. A high focus score indicates good focus.

Image Rotation - This option lets you flip the image view upside-down, which may make it easier for users to interpret the live view depending on the relative positions of the camera and user workstation. This has no effect on the model.

Exposure - Set the exposure time in milliseconds (ms). Increasing the exposure time increases how long the shutter stays open, and makes the image brighter, but also increases the amount of blur for moving parts.

Gain - Set the gain (unitless). Increasing the gain digitally increases the brightness of the image without increasing motion blur, but may introduce image noise that could make it harder to see subtle features or accurate colors.

Auto White Balance - When enabled, this setting will continuously adjust white balance to color-correct the live camera view. This setting is ON by default during Imaging Setup, but should typically be turned OFF before saving and exiting.

LED Strobe Mode - When enabled, the integrated LED lights will only strobe during an exposure (i.e., the instant an image is captured). When disabled, the LED lights will remain on continuously (recommended).

LED Light Pattern - Choose light patterns from a drop-down list to control which of the integrated LED light quadrants (left, right, top, bottom) are active.

LED Light Intensity - Control the intensity (brightness) of the integrated LED lights.

Photometric Control

An advanced imaging mode to reduce glare.

When Photometric Control is active, the camera will collect multiple exposures with different light configurations and then create a composite image from all exposures. This technique can improve the image quality on challenging features, such as embossing, subtle textures, or highly reflective surfaces.

Trigger Settings

Manual HMI Trigger - Capture new images using the Capture button on the HMI page.

Hardware Trigger - Capture new images when the Trigger digital input is activated (typically via a button or sensor).

Trigger Delay - Specify a fixed delay in microseconds (μs) from when a Trigger signal is received to when an image is captured.

Trigger Debounce - Specify the minimum time period in microseconds (μs) where a signal must be stable to be considered valid. Increasing this value helps to filter out noisy signals that may cause unexpected extra triggers.

PLC Trigger - Capture new images when a Trigger signal is received via network message from a PLC. Ethernet/IP or PROFINET options must be enabled in External IO > Industrial Ethernet for this trigger option.

Interval Trigger - Continuously capture new images at a fixed time interval.

Interval - The amount of time between captures in milliseconds (ms).

Aligner Trigger - Capture new images only when the Alignment Block detects a match (Cannot Skip Aligner when using this trigger option, and vice versa).

Throttle - The minimum amount of time between captures in milliseconds (ms).

Trigger Settings Tip

In Hardware and PLC Trigger mode, live image view will be disabled, and the OV20i will only capture new images when a hardware or PLC trigger is received. When setting up the OV20i for an application that will rely on one of these trigger types, it is recommended to keep the OV20i in Manual HMI Trigger mode until you are ready to test fully automated image collection.

Imaging Setup Best Practices

1. Position the OV20i so that the inspection target fills as much of the field of view as possible to maximize resolution and make key features and defects easier to spot.

2. Control the lighting on the part as much as possible. The more light in the image that is coming from the OV20i, the lesser the effect of ambient lighting from the outside, and shadows from people or machines.

3. Consider motion blur. The higher the exposure, the brighter the image, but the more motion blur there will be. For fast moving objects lower the exposure and increase the gain.