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interfaces mvtec

Interface Documentation

Contec I/O Interface for Contec digital I/O devices

Interface: Contec
Revision: 13.0.2
Date: 2017-11-28

General

This page provides the documentation of the HALCON Contec interface for accessing the Contec Digital I/O cards. Only interface specific parameters and features are described here. For general information of the operators for I/O interfaces please have a look at the HALCON Operator Reference.
Registered customers can download the latest revision of this interface from the MVTec WWW server.

System Requirements

  • Intel compatible PC with Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit) or newer that is also supported by the vendor-specific SDK, also WoW64 (using 32-bit HALCON on 64-bit Windows).
  • Installed Contec Runtime with version 4.4. (or higher). The CDIO.dll must be found within you search path.
  • Windows: HALCON I/O interface hioContec.dll or hioContecxl.dll, respectively. If you have properly installed the interface, all these DLLs should reside in bin\%HALCONARCH% within the HALCON base directory %HALCONROOT% you have chosen during the installation of HALCON.

Installation

Only when installing or updating the interface manually follow these steps:
  • Windows: Extract the archive containing the interface files to the HALCON base directory %HALCONROOT% (Note: Administrator privileges may be required for this step). Additionally, you have to move the interface examples to the directory %HALCONEXAMPLES% manually.
  • Linux: Extract the archive containing the interface files to the HALCON base directory $HALCONROOT.

Features

  • Opening and using of multiple Contec I/O ports.
  • Opening and using of multiple specific channels (specific port values).
  • Support of digital inputs and digital outputs.

Limitations

  • No support of counters.
  • No support of analog functions.
  • No support of bi-directional I/O channels.

Operator control_io_interface

Not supported by this interface.

Operator query_io_interface

query_io_interface(::IOInterfaceName, Query:Result)
Query information about the specified I/O device interface.
Parameter Values Type Description
IOInterfaceName 'Contec' string HALCON I/O interface name.
Query string Parameter name of the query.
     'io_device_names' string Returns a list of available devices.
     'param_name' string Returns the possible parameter names.
     'revision' string Revision number of the OPC_UA interface.
Result integer, real, string List of result values (according to Query).

Operator open_io_device

open_io_device(::IOInterfaceName, IODeviceName, GenParamName, GenParamValue:IODeviceHandle)
Open and configure an I/O device.
Parameter Values Default Type Description
IOInterfaceName 'Contec' [] string HALCON I/O interface name.
IODeviceName [] string I/O device name.
GenParamName [] string Dynamic parameter names.
GenParamValue [] integer, real, string Dynamic parameter values.
IODeviceHandle integer Handle of the opened I/O device.

Operator control_io_device

Not supported by this interface.

Operator set_io_device_param

Set the device parameters. Currently, no parameters are defined.

Operator get_io_device_param

get_io_device_param(::IODeviceHandle, GenParamName:GenParamValue)
Query settings of an I/O device instance.

There may exist additional parameter attributes, which can be accessed as 'ParamNames.AttributeName'. The following standard attributes may be available:
  • '.access': This attribute provides the access permissions of the corresponding parameter as a string. Possible values are 'ro' (read-only), 'wo' (write-only), 'rw' (read/write), 'na' (unavailable, perhaps due to insufficient access rights), and 'ni' (unavailable, not defined for this device or channel).
  • '.category': This attribute provides the category of the corresponding parameter as a string. 'I/O interface' for all pre-defined I/O interface parameters.
  • '.default': This attribute provides the default value of the corresponding parameter.
  • '.description': This attribute provides the description of the corresponding parameter as a string.
  • '.displayname': This attribute provides the displayname of the corresponding parameter as a string.
  • '.range': This attribute provides the minimum and maximum, (and the step width, if applicable) for the corresponding integer or float parameter as a tuple with 2 (or 3) elements.
  • '.representation': This attribute provides how the value of the parameter should be displayed in a GUI: 'ip address', 'hex', ...
  • '.tooltip': This attribute provides the tool-tip of the corresponding parameter as a string.
  • '.type': This attribute provides the HALCON value type (integer, real, or string) of the corresponding parameter as a string.
  • '.values': This attribute provides the valid value list for the corresponding parameter as a tuple.
  • '.visibility': This attribute provides the visibility of the corresponding parameter as a string. Possible values are 'common', 'extended', and 'dangerous'.
  • '.unit': This attribute provides the units of the corresponding parameter as a string. For example: 'ns', 'us' and 'ms', or 'mm', 'cm', 'dm' and 'm'.
Parameter Values Type Description
IODeviceHandle integer Handle of the opened I/O device.
GenParamName string Parameter names.
     'io_device_name' string Returns the name of the device.
     'param_name' string Returns the possible parameter names.
GenParamValue integer, real, string Parameter values.

Operator query_io_device

query_io_device(::IODeviceHandle, IOChannelName, Query:Result)
Query information about channels of the specified I/O device.
Parameter Values Type Description
IODeviceHandle integer Handle of the opened I/O device.
IOChannelName string Channel names to query.
Query string Name of the query.
     'channel_type' 'digital_input', 'digital_output' string Returns the type of a channel.
     'io_channel_names' string Returns a list of channels provided by the device e.g. 'di_0.2' describes input port channel 2 on port 0. To list only the channels of a specific type, use the special form io_channel_names.<channel_type> (for a list of valid channel types, see the description of the channel_type parameter).
     'param_name' string Returns the possible parameter names.
     'value.range' [<min>,<max>,<step>] string Return the possible range of the used I/O channel name parameter
Result integer, real, string List of values (according to Query).

Operator open_io_channel

open_io_channel(::IODeviceHandle, IOChannelName, GenParamName, GenParamValue:IOChannelHandle)
Open and configure I/O channels.
Parameter Values Default Type Description
IODeviceHandle integer Handle of the opened I/O device.
IOChannelName string HALCON I/O channel names of the specified device.
GenParamName [] string Parameter names.
GenParamValue [] integer, real, string Parameter values.
IOChannelHandle integer Handles of the opened I/O channel.

Operator control_io_channel

Not supported by this interface.

Operator set_io_channel_param

Not supported by this interface.

Operator get_io_channel_param

get_io_channel_param(::IOChannelHandle, GenParamName:GenParamValue)
Query specific parameters of I/O channels.

There may exist additional parameter attributes, which can be accessed as 'ParamNames.AttributeName'. The following standard attributes may be available:
  • '.access': This attribute provides the access permissions of the corresponding parameter as a string. Possible values are 'ro' (read-only), 'wo' (write-only), 'rw' (read/write), 'na' (unavailable, perhaps due to insufficient access rights), and 'ni' (unavailable, not defined for this device or channel).
  • '.category': This attribute provides the category of the corresponding parameter as a string. 'I/O interface' for all pre-defined I/O interface parameters.
  • '.default': This attribute provides the default value of the corresponding parameter.
  • '.description': This attribute provides the description of the corresponding parameter as a string.
  • '.displayname': This attribute provides the displayname of the corresponding parameter as a string.
  • '.range': This attribute provides the minimum and maximum, (and the step width, if applicable) for the corresponding integer or float parameter as a tuple with 2 (or 3) elements.
  • '.representation': This attribute provides how the value of the parameter should be displayed in a GUI: 'ip address', 'hex', ...
  • '.tooltip': This attribute provides the tool-tip of the corresponding parameter as a string.
  • '.type': This attribute provides the HALCON value type (integer, real, or string) of the corresponding parameter as a string.
  • '.values': This attribute provides the valid value list for the corresponding parameter as a tuple.
  • '.visibility': This attribute provides the visibility of the corresponding parameter as a string. Possible values are 'common', 'extended', and 'dangerous'.
  • '.unit': This attribute provides the units of the corresponding parameter as a string. For example: 'ns', 'us' and 'ms', or 'mm', 'cm', 'dm' and 'm'.
Parameter Values Type Description
IOChannelHandle integer Handles of the opened I/O channels.
GenParamName string Parameter names.
     'io_channel_name' string Returns the name of the channel.
     'param_name' string Returns the possible parameter names.
GenParamValue integer, real, string Parameter values.

Operator read_io_channel

read_io_channel(::IOChannelHandle:Value, Status)
Read a value from the specified I/O channels.
Parameter Values Type Description
IOChannelHandle integer Handles of the opened I/O channels.
Value integer, real, string Read value.
Status integer Status of read value. A status of '0' indicates success, while any other value indicates an error condition.

Operator write_io_channel

write_io_channel(::IOChannelHandle, Value:Status)
Write a value to a specific io channel. If several handles are passed, the data of each handle will be written internally to the associated channel.
Parameter Values Type Description
IOChannelHandle integer Handles of the opened I/O channels.
Value integer, real, string Write values.
Status integer Status of written values. A status of '0' indicates success, while any other value indicates an error condition.

Operator close_io_channel

close_io_channel(::IOChannelHandle:)
Close I/O channels.
Parameter Type Description
IOChannelHandle integer Handles of the opened I/O channels.

Operator close_io_device

close_io_device(::IODeviceHandle:)
Close the specified I/O device.
Parameter Type Description
IODeviceHandle integer Handle of the opened I/O device.
Query the requested information from the specified I/O channels. The parameter 'ParameterNode' is not used by this interface.

HDevelop Examples

For this interface the following examples are available:
  • contec_digital_read.hdev - Example to show how to read several parameters and values.
  • contec_digital_write.hdev - Example to show how to write serveral parameters and values.

Release Notes

  • Revision 13.0.2 (Nov 28, 2017):
    • The technical dependency from the HALCON Library has been removed.
  • Revision 13.0.1 (Oct 28, 2016):
    • HALCON 13 version of the interface.
  • Revision 1.1 Addendum (Sep 9, 2015):
    • Bi-directional I/O channels are not supported. A note has been added to the 'Limitations' section.
    • The HDevelop examples contec_digital_read.hdev and contec_digital_write.hdev have been improved.
  • Revision 1.1 (Jan 1, 2015):
  • Revision 1.0 (May 26, 2014):
    • First official release.
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