# Camera and Lights for Alignment

Camera and lights page, located under Alignment category, is used to configure cameras and lights for feature finders.

This page consists of two sub pages: Global Settings and Exposure Settings. Global Settings page is for camera hardware selection and global parameters setting. Exposure Settings page is for individual parameters setting for each features finder when the corresponding global parameters are disabled.

## Global Settings

Global Settings include camera settings and lighting settings.

### Camera Settings

Camera Settings allow users to select camera hardware devices for feature finding, and set their global exposures/brightnesses/gains.

The steps are:

1. Select a camera device from camera list (These are camera devices configured in the Configuration Wizard).

2. Select the corresponding camera hardware device from Device list.

3. Set proper exposure/brightness/gain for each camera to obtain images of appropriate contrast in live mode.

Item | Content/Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
Use Global Exposure | Boolean | True: use the same exposure for this camera whenever it is used for a feature finder False: use local exposures for different feature finders when this camera is used
Device | / | List of all connected camera hardware devices with information of their IP addresses (if they are GIGE Cameras) or serial numbers (if they are USB3 cameras), and brand names. Click button to update if a connected camera is not listed
Use Global Brightness | Boolean | True: use the same brightness for this camera whenever it is used for a feature finder False: use local brightnesses for different feature finders when this camera is used
Exposure | Double(in ms) | Set exposure time for the selected camera
Use Global Gain | Boolean | True: use the same gain for this camera whenever it is used for a feature finder. False: use local gains for different feature finders when this camera is used.
Brightness | Double | Set the brightness value for each image acquisition.
Trigger Mode | Manual/Auto/Semi | Manual: Software triggering. Auto: Acquires when it detects a transition on an external line. Semi: Acquires when the software is running and the external line detects a transition.
Trigger LowToHigh | Boolean | Image acquisition is triggered on the rising edge of the trigger signal when Trigger Mode is set as auto or semi-auto.
Timeout(msec) | Integer | Set a timeout period that determines how long the acquisition device waits for an image to become available before the application generates a timeout error.
Gain | Double | Increasing brightness of image by amplifying both signal and noise received in each pixel. Not recommended to increase this value when there are other options to improve the image brightness.

### Lighting Settings

A light controller added in the Configuration Wizard can be configured on this page for its global parameters.

Item | Description
--- | ---
Lighting | Available light controllers
On/Off | Turn the selected channel's light on/off for image acquisition of the selected camera
Use Global | True: use the same intensity for this channel of light whenever it is used for a feature finder. False: use local intensities for different feature finders when this light is used
Channel | The channel index of selected light controller (the total number of channels for each controller is configured in the Configuration Wizard).
Intensity slide bar | Increase or decrease intensity of this channel by sliding the bar right or left (this function is convenient to monitor intensity changes on live image).
Intensity edit box | Input the intensity of current channel manually, the minimum value is 0, maximum is 255.

## Exposure Settings

When a global exposure/brightness/gain of a camera or a global intensity of a light channel is disabled, the corresponding local values for different feature finders should be configured individually on Exposure Settings page. Otherwise, this page can be skipped.

### Camera Setting

The setting steps are:

1. Choose a feature finder from the feature finder list

2. Choose an acquisition

   By default, there is only one acquisition (Exposure0) in the option list. However, if the Number of Images per Camera is configured as more than 1 in the Configuration Wizard (such as shown blow), then there will be more acquisitions (such as Exposure0, Exposure1) that require respective camera settings.

3. Choose a camera position
4. Set exposure/brightness/gain for current position, current acquisition

5. Check whether acquisition should be disabled under current position

   True: camera will acquire image at current position, current acquisition for selected feature finder

   False: camera will not acquire image at current position, current acquisition for selected feature finder

6. Walk through all feature finders, all acquisitions, and all positions to set exposures/brightnesses/gains respectively.

### Lighting Setting

The lighting setting steps are:

1. Choose a feature finder from the feature finder list
2. Select an acquisition
3. Select a camera position

4. Select a light controller, configure the on/off status and intensity for each channel

5. Choose another light controller, configure the on/off status and intensity for each channel
6. Walk through all feature finders and all acquisitions to set up their lighting respectively.

Tip: In the middle of lighting setting for different positions of a feature finder, if you would like to turn off all lights before moving on to the next position, you can click the "Turn Off" button at the lower left corner of this page to turn all lights off.