Configuring I/O Cameras

To establish the communication via a camera device with I/O channels, you first have to select the respective device in the "I/O" tab of the MERLIC RTE Setup and configure the device for the process integration MERLIC can be used in machine vision systems that are integrated in a manufacturing machine. The machine controller, e.g., a programmable logic controller (PLC), must be able to control an integrated vision system, to monitor the execution, and to query the results. Therefore, MERLIC provides a process integration mode to enable the communication with a machine controller. The process integration mode can be started with the application "MERLIC RTE" that is provided with the MERLIC installation.. If you have selected a device, you can get information about which signals are transmitted via the respective input channels and modify the configuration. In addition, you can start to configure the channels for the digital outputs.

To ensure a correct configuration of the input and output channels, the information about the available signals of MERLIC should also be considered. The assignment of the input and output channels to the respective commands and signals is crucial for the correct usage of MERLIC in process integration mode. For more information on the available signals and commands, see Commands and Signals (I/O Camera).

To check or modify the current configuration of the digital inputs and outputs of a device, you have to enable the device first. It will then be shown in the list of enabled devices and can be selected for configuration.

Enabling the I/O Camera

First, you have to select and enable the desired device in the MERLIC RTE Setup:

  1. Open the MERLIC RTE Setup and go to the "I/O" tab.
  2. Click on " Refresh" to update the list of available I/O devices. For more information, see Setting Up I/O Devices.
  3. Select desired device and enable it via double-click or by clicking the " Enable device" button.

After enabling the device, the respective configuration of the device will be shown on the right. If multiple I/O devices are enabled, make sure to select the desired device whose configuration you want to see.

Selecting the Acquisition Interface

  1. Select the I/O camera from the list of devices.
  2. In the "General" section of the configuration area, select the respective acquisition interface of the camera device. If you are not sure which interface you need to select, you can look up the name of the interface in the Image Source Manager.
    1. Go to the "Image Sources" tab in the MERLIC RTE Setup, select the image source configuration in which the camera device is configured, and look up the name of the interface in the overview of the image sources.
    2. Go back to the "I/O" tab, scroll down to the section "General", and select the acquisition interface from the drop-down menu.

Configuring the Digital Inputs

MERLIC assigns the input signals to the available device channels automatically according to the default configuration. The configuration area in the "I/O" tab displays the current pairs of MERLIC signals and digital I/O channels. The digital input channels are listed in the section "Input". You can change the default configuration of the channels manually in the configuration area.

For camera devices with digital I/O channels, the following signal is available:

Signal

Description

StartSingleJob

Triggers a single execution of the MERLIC Vision App.

Assigning the Digital Input Channel

  1. Select the I/O device from the list of devices.
  2. Select the desired input channel for the "StartSingleJob" signal from the drop-down menu.
  3. Save the configuration via the " Save" button. Your configuration is saved as long as the device is enabled. If you disable the device, that is, remove it from the list of enabled devices, the respective changes will be lost and the default configuration is restored.

In the example configuration below, the signal for "StartSingleJob" is transmitted via the input channel "di_0.0".

Configuring the Digital Outputs

MERLIC assigns the output signals to the available device channels automatically according to the default configuration. The configuration area in the "I/O" tab displays the current pairs of MERLIC signals and digital I/O channels. The list of available signals and digital output channels is shown in the section "Output". If desired, you can change the default configuration of the channels manually in the configuration area.

For camera devices with digital I/O channels, the following signals are available for the transmission:

Signal

Description

Error

Indicates if an error occurred.

Ready

Indicates if MERLIC is ready for execution.

ResultState

Indicates the state of the state of the queried result data.

If it is set to 1, the processing was carried out correctly and the queried results are up-to-date. If it is set to 0, the processing failed or was aborted. In this case, no results might be available or the existing result values might not be up-to-date, for example, the values might be outdated and from a previous execution.

  • 0 (Undefined/Processing/Aborted/Failed): The processing failed or was aborted.
  • 1 (Completed): The processing was carried out correctly.

Resultn

Represents the n-th MVApp result that has been defined for the MVApp that is referenced in the recipe file.

Assigning the Digital Output Channels

  1. Select the I/O device from the list of devices.
  2. For each signal whose configuration you want to modify, select a the desired output channel. You have to select a different channel for each signal.

  3. Save the configuration via the " Save" button. Your configuration is saved as long as the device is enabled. If you disable the device, that is, remove it from the list of enabled devices, the respective changes will be lost and the default configuration is restored.

This way, you can select which output channel transmits a specific signal. Assigning an output channel to a result is optional. Therefore, it is possible to select the entry "--" instead of a channel.

As an alternative way to display a list of available devices for the process integration mode with their default configuration you can start MERLIC RTE with the command line option "--devices" from the directory where MERLIC is installed. For more information, see Starting MERLIC RTE on Windows.

It is mandatory to select a channel for the signals "Error" and "Ready" because they contain the decisive information about the current MERLIC state. In addition, channels cannot be assigned more than once.

Resetting the Configuration

To restore the default configuration for your device, you can reset the changes by clicking on " Reset to default" at the bottom of the "I/O" tab.