USB to PCI adapter?

[sam1275]

Hello everyone, I have a scientific camera which have a digital output. It seems should be used with an NI IMAQ Card to connect between camera and computer, but all those cards are PCI interface, how can I use the camera on a computer without a PCI slot? Thank you.

[mikeselectricstuff]

You can't.
If the interface is something standard like Camera Link you may be able to find a camera link to USB or GigE interface, but it won't be cheap.

[sam1275]

You can't.
If the interface is something standard like Camera Link you may be able to find a camera link to USB or GigE interface, but it won't be cheap.

The camera's interface is shown in the picture below, I don't know what the type is it.

Thank you.

[mikeselectricstuff]

That looks like a phono socket for standard composite video, though it could be at a nonstandard rate.
 Why do you think it's digital?

[sam1275]

That looks like a phono socket for standard composite video, though it could be at a nonstandard rate.
 Why do you think it's digital?

Sorry, I mean the "AUX I/O" port. By the way, that looks like a camera link...

[mikeselectricstuff]

That looks like a phono socket for standard composite video, though it could be at a nonstandard rate.
 Why do you think it's digital?

Sorry, I mean the "AUX I/O" port. By the way, that looks like a camera link...

Aux I/O is just that,  in/out signals for things other than the video signal, probably stuff like trigger,  exposure control etc.

[sam1275]

That looks like a phono socket for standard composite video, though it could be at a nonstandard rate.
 Why do you think it's digital?

Sorry, I mean the "AUX I/O" port. By the way, that looks like a camera link...

Aux I/O is just that,  in/out signals for things other than the video signal, probably stuff like trigger,  exposure control etc.

But it seems to have a video output according to a PDF:
http://www.flir.com/uploadedFiles/CVS/Markets/Legacy/Documents/Alpha%20NIR%20Indigo.pdf

[mikeselectricstuff]

You didn't mention it had another connector on the side...

[sam1275]

You didn't mention it had another connector on the side...

My camera doesn't have that connector on the side, maybe this PDF is not the right one for my camera, but I cannot find the right one.
So what's mine's AUX IO for? Is it equal to camera link? Or it's just a control without video out? How can I access the port then?

[Alex Eisenhut]

It's an MDR-26 connector. That's just the physical type of connector, they were used years ago for the first digital monitor connection standard (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FPD-Link) before DVI. (hello to any SGI1600SW users out there)

If you mean "camera cable" in MDR-26, it used screws, not hooks.

http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/14T26-SZLB-300-0LC/3M11923-ND/666177

Maybe your camera was the cheaper version without the side connector. The PDF says it was a 12 bit parallel digital interface.

The only thing I can think of is taking the cover off and checking to see if there's a place to put the connector.

I wouldn't take a camera like this apart in my living room, though.

Do you have a scope, or frequency counter? You can check each pin on the AUX IO connector for stuff coming out, you never know.

Or just email Indigo, have you tried that?

[sam1275]

It's an MDR-26 connector. That's just the physical type of connector, they were used years ago for the first digital monitor connection standard (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FPD-Link) before DVI. (hello to any SGI1600SW users out there)

If you mean "camera cable" in MDR-26, it used screws, not hooks.

http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/14T26-SZLB-300-0LC/3M11923-ND/666177

Maybe your camera was the cheaper version without the side connector. The PDF says it was a 12 bit parallel digital interface.

The only thing I can think of is taking the cover off and checking to see if there's a place to put the connector.

I wouldn't take a camera like this apart in my living room, though.

Do you have a scope, or frequency counter? You can check each pin on the AUX IO connector for stuff coming out, you never know.

Or just email Indigo, have you tried that?

Thank you for the information.
I can hardly tell if this is the right PDF, it's from another forum...
So you think it's not a camera link? Then how can I connect it to a computer?
I have a old oscilloscope with 20MHZ bandwidth, but I never tried to measure a digital circuit, how to determine the connector type by scope?
The original Indigo seems to be died and bought by FLIR, I cannot even know what's their website. I emailed a "Indigo" from google results and got no reply, maybe I can try FLIR later.

[Alex Eisenhut]

Thank you for the information.
I can hardly tell if this is the right PDF, it's from another forum...
So you think it's not a camera link? Then how can I connect it to a computer?
I have a old oscilloscope with 20MHZ bandwidth, but I never tried to measure a digital circuit, how to determine the connector type by scope?
The original Indigo seems to be died and bought by FLIR, I cannot even know what's their website. I emailed a "Indigo" from google results and got no reply, maybe I can try FLIR later.

Like Mike said, if the connector says "aux", that's all it is. Your datasheet says there is a RS-232 link in there somehow.

I suppose that back then they sold you a weird cable that went from the AUX connector to a DB-9 for the serial port, and whatever else you could control.

20MHz is not a lot, but I would just carefully probe each pin of the connector, look for life, who knows that's there? At least you'll start somewhere. Maybe look with a DMM, there might be some power pins there too.

Does the RCA output NTSC/PAL video? Then all you need is a video capture board. Probably won't get 12 bits out of it.

Sure, try FLIR, costs nothing, and most people will try to help.

[Stigaard]

I think one of our JAI cameras also use clips instead of threads for the camera link interface, so it is not entirely impossible, however the AUX I/O does point to it being highly unlikely. If you do determine it to be camera link, you could look at pleora technologies, I've previously used their camera link to ethernet converters and those was a pleasure to work with, they also have some for converting to USB 3, however I have no experience with their usb based products.
I'm afraid your scope is pushing it with regards to looking  for the clock as it is defined to go up to 85MHz, though my experience with how much beyond the bandwith specs you can push it on an analog scope is beyond my knowledge.
As stated earlier the easiest would probably to open up the camera and see if the connector has any kind of serializer chip as camera link requires a relatively high speed serial signal over differential pairs.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Have you looked at what comes out of the phono connector?

[jimon]

If you have PCI-E in your PC then just buy something like this http://cryptomining-blog.com/1153-checking-out-the-pci-express-x1-x16-usb-3-0-extenders/ and PCI-E to PCI adapter. If you have Thunderbolt port - there are PCI-E to Thunderbolt adapters. Probably same trick could be done with firewire, but I'm not sure.

[andy_silicon]

If you have PCI-E in your PC then just buy something like this http://cryptomining-blog.com/1153-checking-out-the-pci-express-x1-x16-usb-3-0-extenders/ and PCI-E to PCI adapter. If you have Thunderbolt port - there are PCI-E to Thunderbolt adapters. Probably same trick could be done with firewire, but I'm not sure.

Just a warning to avoid any confusion.
These "USB" to PCI-E devices do not perform protocol conversion.
They are using USB3 cabling purely to transfer the pci-e lvds signal electrically.
You cannot connect them to a USB host socket and expect anything other than failure.

[MrAl]

Hi,

Unfortunately the signals coming out of the socket could be very complex, both in signal type and in signal packet size and stuff like that.  It may also require complex handshaking, which would mean to test it properly you'd need to plug it into a card that is made for it not some dummy circuit.  You might then be able to decode the signals with a digital logic analyzer which would have more bandwidth.

But probably the best bet is to contact the manufacturer and see if they can supply data on this.  That would tell you right away if you want to be bothered with your own conversion setup or not, as it could get very complicated.

Small computers are not that expensive either these days, so maybe you could get a small one and use that with the right pci card and with the camera and then just transfer the files to the main computer.

[SArepairman]

[Bassman59]

That looks like a phono socket for standard composite video, though it could be at a nonstandard rate.
 Why do you think it's digital?

Sorry, I mean the "AUX I/O" port. By the way, that looks like a camera link...

It does look like Base Camera Link. That would have the serial pixel data, and it will also have the four Camera Control bits and the sideband UART. Buy a Matrox card and be done with it.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Why would it have analogue out as well as digital?

Pull the cover off and see what's inside - that will probably give plenty of clues as to what's on the IO connector - e.g. it will be obvious if there are diff pairs routed to the connector.

[sam1275]

Have you looked at what comes out of the phono connector?

Yes, video comes out from there.

[sam1275]

Theoretically, you can use a FPGA and a USB slave controller to make a USB to PCI bridge. AFAIK, windows supports custom PCI controllers by incorporating a concept called "bus enumerator driver". You can write a PCI bus enumerator that connects to the USB driver stack to do the trick.

However, doing this would require VERY VERY deep understanding of windows driver development, and as well as windows kernel. If I were you, I would do some researching on the camera's interface protocol, and use a USB FPGA development board to read it, and simply dumping data to a computer.

Even doing this, you are facing at least 1000 lines of code. This will never be an easy task, unless you get paid on doing this. 

Thank you, but I'm sure I cannot write the driver...

[sam1275]

If you have PCI-E in your PC then just buy something like this http://cryptomining-blog.com/1153-checking-out-the-pci-express-x1-x16-usb-3-0-extenders/ and PCI-E to PCI adapter. If you have Thunderbolt port - there are PCI-E to Thunderbolt adapters. Probably same trick could be done with firewire, but I'm not sure.

Thank you but I mean I want to use a USB port because I cannot put a big pci card on laptop.

[sam1275]

That looks like a phono socket for standard composite video, though it could be at a nonstandard rate.
 Why do you think it's digital?

Sorry, I mean the "AUX I/O" port. By the way, that looks like a camera link...

It does look like Base Camera Link. That would have the serial pixel data, and it will also have the four Camera Control bits and the sideband UART. Buy a Matrox card and be done with it.

How can I make sure it's camera link or not before buying cards? These cards are not cheap, by the way, I won't have to ask if I can use a PCI card. Thank you anyway.

[sam1275]

Why would it have analogue out as well as digital?

Pull the cover off and see what's inside - that will probably give plenty of clues as to what's on the IO connector - e.g. it will be obvious if there are diff pairs routed to the connector.

Some cameras do have both output, I just want to get the outside port to work, if a port it's not designed to be used and don't have a connector outside, it would be no help even if I take it apart.