# Acquisition Panel

Use the Acquisition Acquisition is the process or result of the vision system acquiring a new image. panel to adjust settings for the next image acquisition. To open the panel, click Acquisition in the bottom right corner.

## Acquisition Panel Actions

The following table describes the icons at the top of the Acquisition panel and their actions:

Icons | Action
--- | ---
| Undo last action.
| Redo last action.
| Reset settings to the values that were in use when you first connected to the vision system.
| Reset acquisition settings to the default values.
| Show or hide settings that currently have no effect.

## Acquisition Settings

Use the acquisition settings to configure how the vision system acquires images. Some settings only appear in the user interface when you are connected to specific vision system models, such as Line Scan or HDR.

Trigger Settings

The following table describes the trigger settings available on the AcquisitionAcquisition is the process or result of the vision system acquiring a new image. panel:

Setting | Description
--- | ---
Trigger Type | Defines the type of trigger signal that begins an image acquisition. The following options are available: Single: An external trigger event triggers the start of an acquisition and an inspection. Self: Acquisitions and inspections occur periodically.
Trigger Interval (ms) | Defines the time in milliseconds between acquisitions when Self trigger type is selected. The available values are 0–10000. Note: Appears only when Trigger Type is set to Self.
Trigger Source | Defines the trigger source for the acquisition. The following trigger sources are available: Trigger Input Line: Trigger acquisition when the trigger input of the vision system line goes high. Camera Trigger Button: Trigger acquisition by pressing the trigger button on the vision system. Native Mode: Trigger acquisition by sending a Native Mode command to the vision system. Network (UDP): Trigger acquisition when the vision system receives a specifically formatted UDP package. Factory Protocols: Trigger acquisition by toggling a bit with the configured industrial protocol. WebHMIThe operator interface through which the operator interacts with the vision system. Trigger Button: Trigger acquisition by pressing the trigger button in the WebHMI. Note: Appears only when Trigger Type is set to Single.
Debounce (ms) | Defines the time in milliseconds that a trigger has to last to trigger an acquisition. The available values are 0–10. Note: Appears only when Trigger Type is set to Single.
Delay (ms) | Defines the delay between the time that the vision system receives a trigger to acquire an image, and the time the vision system begins the image acquisition. The available values are 0–10000. Note: Appears only when Trigger Type is set to Single.

General Settings

The following table describes the general settings available on the AcquisitionAcquisition is the process or result of the vision system acquiring a new image. panel:

Setting | Description
--- | ---
Exposure (ms) | Defines the exposure time. When the vision system receives an image acquisition trigger signal, light is integrated into the image sensor array for the specified duration. The minimum value is 0. The maximum value varies based on the capabilities of the connected illumination.
Override Max Exposure | Allows setting the exposure time to values greater than the recommended maximum. The following options are available: Enabled Disabled Note: When enabled, if the exposure time exceeds the capability of the illumination accessory, the illumination accessory will not remain on during the entire exposure.
Offset | Brightens the image additively. Enhances dark areas but loses detail on bright spots. Most useful when combined with Gain Factor. The available values are 0–255.
Gain Factor | Brightens the image multiplicatively. Enhances dark areas but reduces detail in bright regions and increases image noise. For best results, combine this setting with Offset. The available values are 1–251.18. To adjust the value, use the following methods: Click the arrows to increase or decrease the values by one. Enter a valid value directly into the input box. You can enter a floating-point number.
Orientation | Defines the orientation at which the vision system processes the acquired image. The following options are available: Normal Flipped vertically Mirrored horizontally Rotated 180 degrees
Image Buffers | Defines the number of image buffers allocated for acquisition. The available values are 6–25. Considerations for setting the image buffer: The first available buffer is for image acquisition. Once acquisition is complete, another buffer is locked to use for the next acquisition. The buffered image is sent to the jobA job is a user-configured program in In-Sight Spreadsheet consisting of functions and designed for specific applications. You can create and edit jobs using the In-Sight Spreadsheet interface, and load them on a vision system for deployment in a live environment. for execution. The buffer stays locked until the job is executed. Some functions (for example, WriteImage) can keep a buffer locked after the job is executed, but the job can receive another buffered image even if a functionFunctions are tools that are available in Spreadsheet for processing and analyzing acquisitions or other results. You can add functions to your Spreadsheet job to create tool chains and produce results for specific applications. has a buffer locked. Buffered images are queued if a job is being executed or if images are queued for display (from In-Sight Spreadsheet or HMI). Note: When in Single Trigger mode, if a trigger is received but no buffer is available for image acquisition, the image acquisition does not occur. In addition, if a Discrete Output line is configured to use ERR: Missed Acquisition, this signal is raised for each acquisition until a buffer becomes available.

Line Scan Settings

The following table describes the line scan settings available for the In-Sight 3800 Line Scan vision system models:

Setting | Description
--- | ---
Line Trigger Type | Defines the type of encoder. The following options are available: Software Encoder: The software encoder emulates a hardware encoder and acquires lines at a rate defined by the Line Period parameter. Hardware Encoder: An external hardware encoder drives the line triggers at the resolution defined by the Steps Per Line parameter.
Line Period | Defines the time for each image line in microseconds. The available values are 0–1000000. Line Period Setting Recommendations Cognex recommends the following line period settings to avoid line overrun, depending on the resolution mode:
Resolution Mode | Line Period
1K | 0.5 μs greater than exposure or 11.4 μs, whichever is greater.
2K | 0.5 μs greater than exposure or 5.9 μs, whichever is greater.
4K | 0.5 μs greater than exposure or 11.9 μs, whichever is greater.
Note: If you select a value that exceeds the maximum line period for a given exposure, the line period is automatically set to the fastest possible value. Note: Only available when Line Trigger Type is set to Software Encoder.
Steps Per Line | Defines the number of encoder steps for each image line. A step is a complete cycle of the encoder signal or signals, depending on the encoder you use. For a single-line hardware encoder, a complete cycle is equivalent to two signal transitions. For a quadrature hardware encoder, a complete cycle is equivalent to four signal transitions. The following image shows how steps per line correlate to signal transition for different encoders: The available values are 0.25–4000000. Note: Increment by 0.5 for single-line hardware encoders, and by 0.25 for quadrature hardware encoders. Note: The Steps Per Line parameter is only available when the Line Trigger Type is set to Hardware Encoder.
Encoder Type | Defines the type of hardware encoder used to trigger line acquisitions. The following options are available: Single (default): when using a single-line encoder, you must wire it to the first encoder input. Connecting the line to the second input has no effect. Quadrature: Quadrature encoders provide direction information and require two high-speed inputs.
Direction | Defines the forward direction of the quadrature encoder. The vision system uses the Direction to determine the correct operating direction. The following options are available: Positive (default): Positive direction indicates a part moving from right to left, from the perspective of the vision system. Negative Reversing the direction during image acquisitionAcquisition is the process or result of the vision system acquiring a new image. stops the acquisition. You can continue the acquisition when the vision system reaches the saturation boundary by advancing forward back to the original position. Note: Only available when Encoder Type is set to Quadrature.
- Clip Mode | Specifies an action if an image acquisition trigger is received, but the specified number of lines have not yet been acquired. The following options are available: No Clipping (default) Specifies that the image trigger is ignored and an "Acquisition error" event generated.
  Image Trigger |
  Number | Description
  1 | Trigger
  2 | Missed Acquisition
  3 | Trigger
  4 | Missed Acquisition
  5 | Image 1, 2048 Lines
  6 | Image 2, 2048 Lines
  Acquired Images
  1024
  2048
  Image 1 | Image 2 |
- Overlap Specifies that the system services the incoming trigger before completing the specified number of lines in the current image. Every line acquired after the incoming trigger repeats at the beginning of the next image.
  Image Trigger |
  Number | Description
  1 | Trigger Image 1
  2 | Trigger Image 2
  3 | End of Image 1
  4 | End of Image 2
  5 | Image 1
  6 | Overlap
  7 | Image 2
  | Acquired Images
  750 Lines |  | 750
  | 3346
  750 Lines | 4096
  | Image 1 | Image 2 |
- Fill Black Specifies that the remaining lines are filled with black pixels, and a new image is immediately started. An "Acquisition error" event is not generated.
  Image Trigger |
  Number | Description
  1 | Trigger
  2 | Clip
  3 | Clip
  4 | Clip
  5 | Image 1, 1134 Lines
  6 | Image 2, 1658 Lines
  7 | Image 3, 960 Lines
  8 | Image 4
  Note: To avoid missing triggers with the overlap option, limit the overlap to about 50% of the total image size. The Fill Black option requires roughly: 9.5 µsec per line of fill in 4k mode 5.0 µsec per line of fill in 2k mode 3.2 µsec per line of fill in 1k mode |
  Acquired Images
  1024
  2048
  Image 1 | Image 2 | Image 3 |
- Reduce Image Specifies that the current image is reduced to the size of the number of rows currently acquired, and a new image is immediately started. Note: You can only use the Reduce Image clip mode if you have a hardware encoder configured. Reduce Image clip mode can only be used with End of Trigger mode.
  Image Trigger |
  Number | Description
  1 | Trigger
  2 | Clip
  3 | Clip
  4 | Clip
  5 | Image 1, 1134 Lines
  6 | Image 2, 1658 Lines
  7 | Image 3, 960 Lines
  8 | Image 4
  Acquired Images
  1024
  2048
  Image 1 | Image 2 | Image 3 |
Acquisition Duration | Specifies when to end image acquisition if the Clip Mode is set to Fill Black or Reduce Image. The following options are available: Next Trigger (default): Image acquisition begins at the leading edge of the trigger pulse and ends at the beginning of the next trigger signal. End of Trigger: Image acquisition begins at the leading edge of the trigger pulse and ends at the trailing edge of the trigger pulse. Image acquisition is complete when one of the following occurs: The specified Number of Lines have been acquired, even if the trailing edge of the trigger pulse has not yet arrived. The trailing edge of the pulse arrives and terminates acquisition before the specified Number of Lines have been acquired. Note: The End of Trigger mode can only be used with the Reduce Image clip mode.
Encoder Trigger Delay | Specifies a delay to the trigger in encoder steps. Up to 18 triggers can be queued within the delay.
Encoder Acquisition Timeout | Defines the maximum amount of time to acquire an image in milliseconds. If the vision system does not complete image acquisition within the specified time, the vision system aborts the acquisition and an issues Acquisition Error. The available values are 0–10000. The default value 0 means that the timeout is disabled.

Image Size Settings

The following table describes the image size settings available on the AcquisitionAcquisition is the process or result of the vision system acquiring a new image. panel:

Setting | Description
--- | ---
Start Row | Defines the first row to transfer from the image sensor into the memory of the vision system. The available values are 0–1079. Note: For IS2800, ADV182, and IS3800 models, values must be divisible by 4.
Number of Rows | Defines the number of image sensor rows to transfer into the memory of the vision system. The available values are 4–1080. Note: For IS2800, ADV182, and IS3800 models, values must be divisible by 4.
Number of Rows (Line Scan) | Defines the number of lines to acquire to create the full line scan image. The available values are 8–16376, but not all values are valid. The spreadsheet user interface marks invalid values with a red exclamation point. Determining Valid Values To determine valid values, do the following calculation: Choose a value. Add 4 to your chosen value. Divide the sum by 12. If the result is an integer, the setting is valid. The smallest practical value is 8, so 8, 20, 32, ..., 16376 are valid values. Note: If you choose a smaller frame length option in the Camera Configuration utility, the maximum number of rows decreases accordingly.

Illumination Settings

The following table describes the illumination settings available on the AcquisitionAcquisition is the process or result of the vision system acquiring a new image. panel:

Setting | Description
--- | ---
Mode | Defines the illumination device. The following options are available: Disabled Integrated Illumination External Illumination
Intensity | Specifies the intensity of the illumination device. The available values are 0–100.
Always On | When enabled, the illumination device is on continuously. The following options are available: Disabled Enabled
Strobe Start | Defines when the strobe fires. The following options are available: Camera Trigger Acquisition Start Note: Appears only when Mode is set to External Illumination.
Strobe Polarity | Defines the signal that fires a connected strobe. The following options are available: Low High Note: Appears only when Mode is set to External Illumination.
Banks Enabled | Check or uncheck the checkboxes inside the banks on the graphic to enable or disable each bank. Banks graphics can vary depending on the illumination hardware attached to the vision system. Note: Appears only when Mode is set to Integrated Illumination.
Light Color | Defines the color of the illumination. The following options are available: WHITE RED GREEN BLUE Note: Appears only when Mode is set to Integrated Illumination.

Focus Settings

The following table describes the focus settings, which are available when a liquid lens is attached to the vision system:

Setting | Description
--- | ---
Focus Distance (mm) | Focus distance in millimeters. The available values are 65–4043.
Focus Region | Defines the size and position of lens focus region. Click on the Edit button to set.
Autofocus | A single button to auto-set the focus position based on current settings.

HDR Settings

The following table describes the High Dynamic Range (HDR) settings available on the AcquisitionAcquisition is the process or result of the vision system acquiring a new image. panel:

Setting | Description
--- | ---
HDR Mode | Enables or disables High Dynamic Range (HDR) processing. The following options are available: None HDR HDR+ Note: HDR+ is only available on IS3800 models. HDR is not available on color units. If you load a jobA job is a user-configured program in In-Sight Spreadsheet consisting of functions and designed for specific applications. You can create and edit jobs using the In-Sight Spreadsheet interface, and load them on a vision system for deployment in a live environment. with HDR+ settings on a vision system that only supports HDR, the job settings automatically switch to HDR. If you load a job with HDR or HDR+ settings on a vision system that does not support any HDR, the job settings automatically switch to None. If you load a job with HDR+ settings with an incompatible kernelA kernel is a rectangular array of numbers that defines the processing neighborhood for operations performed on each pixel location in an image. size setting on a supported vision system, the kernel size is automatically set to default.