Introducing The Claxon Platform

BitFlow has been shipping CoaXPress frame grabbers since 2012. The standard has not stood still and BitFlow has continued to advance its products. Our latest is the Claxon family, available as a single, dual or quad CXP-12 PCIe Gen 3 frame grabber. CXP -12 is the latest CoaXPress speed jump, now transmitting video at 12. 5 Gb/S. While the speed of data through the frame grabber has doubled, the overall architecture has remained the same as the previous generation Cyton, allowing users to easily migrate to the newer cameras without major software changes.

CoaXPress

CoaXPress (CXP) is the latest Machine Vision designed camera to frame grabber interconnect standard. CXP supports a high speed downlink for video data, a low speed uplink for camera control, and power, all over standard coaxial cables. Multiple CXP connections can be aggregated to even higher speed cameras.

CoaXPress Version 2.0

CXP 2.0 not only doubles the speed from the previous release (6.25 to 12.5 Gb/S) but also adds many new features directed at industrial Machine Vision. For example, the uplink is now running twice as fast, and the trigger packet has been simplified to support much higher camera trigger speeds. Support has been added for device to host event packet, supporting asynchronous messages from the camera. Also added was support for the micro BNC connector which is more robust and runs at higher speeds than the DIN 1.0/2.3. A heartbeat packet has also been added which supports time synchronization of multiple cameras.

The Claxon-CXP Features

• Half size x8 PCI Express Gen 3.0 frame grabber
• The Claxon-CXP1 is quarter size PCIe
• The Claxon-CXP1 is optionally available with a low profile bracket
• CoaXPress 1.0/1.1/2.0 compliant
• Supports one to four CXP-12 cameras
• Supports multi-link CXP-12 cameras (up to four CXP links)
• No firmware change needed to go from multi-link cameras to multiple cameras
• Supports CXP speeds from 3.25 to 12.50 Gb/S
• Low speed uplink supported on all links
• Uses micro BNC connectors
• Provides power for all cameras (up to 13 Watts per link)
• Provides Safe Power, full protection from all power line faults
• Cameras are Plug and Play with automatic link speed and camera parameter detection
• Cameras can be accurately synchronized, or can be completely independent
• Compatible with all PCIe x8/x16 slots Gen 1.0/2.0/3.0
• Separate I/O for each camera
• Highly deterministic, low latency uplink camera trigger
• Windows “sees” a separate virtual frame grabber for each camera
• StreamSync technology maximizes data through-put while minimizing image latency
• Acquire variable length frames from line scan cameras
• Triggers and encoders for external control of acquisition
• Drivers, utilities and examples for Windows and Linux
• Supported on both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms
• Drivers for most 3rd party processing environments (e.g. HALCON, LabView, VisionPro, MATLAB, etc.)
• Full GenICam support for camera control and capture
• Programmable signal generator for camera control (independent for each camera)
• Quadrature encoder support including sophisticated triggering schemes
• Encoder divider/multiplier
• RoHS compliant
• Supports BitFlow BitBox

The Claxon Family