Basler BCON Control Protocol Additional Information

This project provides additional information on the Basler BCON control protocol. Basler BCON cameras are configured via a standard I2C interface. The cameras are GenICam devices and use GenCP version 1.2, as their low level protocol.

Use Cases for interfacing Basler BCON via I2C

When interfacing Basler BCON cameras via I2C (control channel), we distinguish among three possible use cases:

1. Using a Linux x86 or Linux for ARM in combination with the Basler pylon Camera Software Suite for Linux x86 or Linux ARM

In this case the pylon BCON adapter library has to be built and integrated (as a dynamic library) into to user's application in order to control a Basler BCON camera.

This is the recommended and supported by Basler use case.

For more information on that refer to the "Programmer's Guide and API Reference for a BCON Adapter library used with pylon" part of the pylon for Linux camera software suite.

1. Using a Linux x86 or Linux for ARM in combination with a 3rd party GenICam based library, i.e. without using the Basler pylon Camera Software Suite

In this case the 3rd party library has to be compatible with GenCP version 1.2 and take note of the specifics described in the document "AW00140501000_Basler_BCON_Control_Protocol_Additional_Information".

This document is provided in the current project.

1. Using no operating system (bare-metal) and no Basler pylon Camera Software Suite or 3rd party GenICam based libraries

In this case the user has to make sure to implement the GenCP 1.2 protocol and consider the specifics described in the document "AW00140501000_Basler_BCON_Control_Protocol_Additional_Information", which is provided in this project.

Some tools have been added to the Files tab of this project:

1. "I2C_GenCP_XML"
   

This C++ source code shows how to download the GenICam XML file from a dart BCON for LVDS camera using the GenCP protocol on top of the low level I2C interface.

1. "GenICam Node Scanner XML"
   

This is a tool written in C# that will help you to figure out register addresses and values from a GenICam XML file.

1. "Configure BCON for LVDS camera for hardware trigger and start acquisition"
   

This document shows how to use the GenICam Node Scanner XML tool in order to find out the register addresses and values for hardware trigger and start of acquisition and how to build a GenCP write command frame with these register addresses and values.

1. "I2C_GenCP_Test"
   

This is the low level C++ source code for setting the trigger mode and start acquisition (see 3.).

Links

• Basler pylon Camera Software Suite for Linux x86:
  http://www.baslerweb.com/en/support/downloads/software-downloads?type=32&series=0&model=0
• Basler pylon Camera Software Suite for Linux ARM
  http://www.baslerweb.com/en/support/downloads/software-downloads?type=28&series=0&model=0 
• I2C-Bus Specification and User Manual:
  http://www.nxp.com/documents/user_manual/UM10204.pdf
• GenICam GenCP version 1.2:
  http://www.emva.org/wp-content/uploads/GenICam_GenCP_1.2.pdf