ADC Micro Users Manual
Contents
1. Unimplemented Menu Control Pin Pin3 UP Unimplemented Menu Control Pin Pin4 DOWN Zoom live view to 1 1 Pin5 SHUTTER Picture taking line Ground to take a picture Pin6 SYNC GPS Sync event input pin Pin7 RS232TX Serial Output to a host controller for use in implementing an external serial port control interface as described in the Programmer s reference section Pin8 RS232RX GPS IN The camera serial port is configured 4800 8 N 1 the NMEA 0183 standard configuration The camera firmware is designed to listen for all NMEA sentences When a sentence is found it is interpreted and used to update the current GPS data set in the camera If itis a GPGGA or GPRMC sentence it is appended to the next images as metadata for extraction by application software The serial port can also be used to control the camera from an external serial interface using simple text commands described in the Programmers Reference section Pin9 REDLED BUSY The rising edge of this signal marks the exact beginning of integration in the sensor and in external control boxes lights the red LED Pin 10 GRNLED READY The rising edge of this signal marks the end of image storage to the memory and in external control boxes lights the green LED Pin 11 SPARE Unused input M ADC Micro Camera User s Guide Page 7 Pin 12 VIDEO NTSC or PAL Video signal out The Video format is controlled by the SETTINGS TXT file Video coax2. 75 mm x 59 mm x 33 mm lens included 3 53 oz 100 gr Page 26 ADC Micro Camera User s Guide Support Info Your camera comes with a one year warranty against defects or hardware failures Technical Support Tel 818 667 1731 8 A M to 4 P M Pacific Standard Time Email steve tetracam com Web www tetracam com ADC Micro Camera User s Guide Page 27 Appendix A How to Load Firmware into the ADC Micro Camera Overview The operational characteristics of the Tetracam ADC Micro camera are largely controlled by the firmware that is stored in the camera s Non volatile Random Access Memory NVRAM and run on the camera s main processor Periodically firmware updates will be released to camera owners in the form of a BIN file The firmware updates are intended to improve existing and add new functionality and to fix issues or bugs as they become apparent Employ the following procedural steps to update the firmware on the ADC Micro These instructions should be followed exactly Applying these steps improperly can disable the camera requiring it to be returned to the factory for service Unlike the procedures required for loading firmware updates to other Tetracam systems the file that is transferred to the ADC Micro may be either an earlier or a later version and does not need to be manually deleted from the SD card by the user after the transfer is completed Once loaded the firmware BIN file is automatically deleted from the S
3. 768 or better resolution e 1024 x 768 or higher display e Large hard disk drive with 100 GB or more free space The camera can be made to operate on less capable systems with penalties in speed and convenience Software Installation The software installation CD contains the PixelWrench2 PW2 installer and Microsoft NET Framework 3 5 pre requisite for PW2 The CD also contains a readme txt file that documents the software installation procedures Install the Microsoft NET Framework 3 5 by executing the file on the CD named dotnetfx35 exe Once complete navigate to the PW2 folder and run the PixelWrench2 installation by executing the setup exe file You may be prompted to restart your computer after the installation is complete When the camera is plugged into a PC USB port a removable disk will appear as a resource with the volume label TTCDISKU The folder TTCADC will be present Images are stored in this folder The file SETTINGS TXT will be present This file contains the camera configuration information that can be managed from PW2 and the user interface screens The file CURRENT LOG may be present if logging of picture taking activity and GPS messages is enabled Page 6 ADC Micro Camera User s Guide Camera Connections and Controls Camera Interconnection Pins The standard camera interconnection pins are labeled on the case opposite the 15 pin connector Pin1 VDC 5 Volt to 15 Volt input power pin Pin2 SELECT
4. USER INTERFACE ia 17 HOST SOFTWARE 4 1 cli alii aliis 20 PixelWrench2 paria aiar 20 USB Disk Operation ise etre t esce t ente ela 21 Managing and Processing ADC Images in PixelWrench2 21 Loading Images in PixelWrench2 sss 22 Converting Gray Scale Images to False Color Images in PixelWrench2 22 Performing Further Operations in PixelWrench2 22 MOUNTING THE UNEE 1 eoe uenis rina 23 CAPTURE DELAYS FOR AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY eene 23 PROGRAMMERS REFERENCE FILE FORMATS eese 24 TETRACAM RS232 SERIAL CONTROL COMMANDS esee 25 SPECIFICATIONS ngi iaia na 26 SUPPORT INFO ves ezesevasvecosesscencsesasages cechanssiegs revatencteaeleaos sehen hese aaa 27 APPENDIX AX sn eese em E ov eee yid revers 28 How TO LOAD FIRMWARE INTO THE ADC MICRO CAMERA 28 Page 2 ADC Micro Camera User s Guide About This Guide The ADC Micro User s Guide contains general information about the ADC product covering installation operation options and accessories warranties and technical support The ADC Micro is a single sensor digital camera designed and optimized for capture of visible light wavelengths longer than 520 nm and near infrared wavelengths up to 920 nm The primary designed use of this product is for the recording of vegetation canopy reflectance The resulting images are suitable for derivation of several vegeta
5. allows processing ADC Micro Images via PixelWrench2 Please refer to the Help system in the menu of PixelWrench2 for detailed information on each of its functions There are five ways to retrieve images captured by the ADC Micro These are 1 Remove the memory card from the camera and copy its contents to a folder on your computer 2 Connect the Camera to your computer via its USB interface and transfer images to the host computer using the Image Transfer and GPS Distiller Tool accessed by PixelWrench2 s Edit menu 3 Connect the Camera to your computer via its USB interface and copy DCM or RAW files directly to the computer then open these with PixelWrench2 4 n PixelWrench2 open the camera toolbar and click Open Camera The camera inventory screen will appear with thumbnails of all the images Select an image or images then click Load The image s will be extracted from the camera color processed using the matrix values entered and stored by the DLL and displayed on screen as an RGB bitmap 5 n PixelWrench2 click Save DCA on the Camera Toolbar A file save dialog will appear allowing designation of a filename and target location A single archive file will be created containing all the DCM files on the memory card The resulting DCA file can then be opened and individual images can be extracted from it using PixelWrench2 ADC Micro Camera User s Guide Page 21 Loading Images in PixelWrench2 In order to load an
6. camera is located on top of the housing as shown in the illustration For reliable USB 2 0 communications good quality USB 2 0 rated cables should be used that are less than 2 meters in length The camera uses too much initial power to be supplied directly from the USB cable It must have an external power supply attached prior to being plugged in for enumeration Host USB Connection Busy LED image into the camera s sensor During this time the camera is not able to capture another image When this LED is green the camera is not busy and another image may be captured Ped r Busy LED Wa ADC Micro Camera User s Guide Page 9 Micro SD Memory Card Micro SD Memory Card The unit is able to handle SD Memory cards up to 16 GB Since stored images are about 3 MB each a 512 MB card is the minimum recommended A 2 GB card is supplied with the unit Note The ADC can take pictures without a memory card installed The images are saved to on board NVRAM There is only 64MB of onboard memory so this practice is not recommended The unit will fill up after only a few pictures We recommend that the unit s power be turned off when the memory card is replaced Cards manufactured by SanDisk have proven most reliable in our testing of the unit Images may be transferred from the memory card to a host computer in one of two ways If a Memory reader is present on the host computer the card may be removed from the camera and plu
7. image into PixelWrench2 do the following 1 Launch the PixelWrench2 application 2 Click on Open under the File Menu to launch the Open pane 3 Specify the directory in which you have stored captured multispectral images in the field labeled Look in 4 Change the File Type to Raw or DCM files corresponding to the native format of your saved images Select the image in the directory that you wish to open By default the image will be displayed as gray scale monochrome image in PixelWrench2 Converting Gray Scale Images to False Color Images in PixelWrench2 By default when loaded into PixelWrench2 DCM and RAW files are gray scale monochrome images displaying raw pixel values ranging from zero black through shades of gray to either 255 white for an eight bit image or 1023 white for a ten bit image The DCM or RAW file must be color processed prior to further use False color images enable near infrared NIR red and green to all be visible in images even though NIR in a scene is invisible In order to do this false color images convert NIR radiation in the scene to red in the image green in the scene to blue in the image and red in the scene to green in the image Thus vegetation that reflects green and NIR radiation into the camera in the scene will appear magenta red blue in a false color image The healthier a plant the more it typically reflects NIR and so the redder the image will be in the are
8. is a powerful image editing program with several tools specific to multi spectral images and working with all Tetracam cameras Open the PW2 folder and run setup exe This will install PixelWrench2 See the PixelWrench2 online help for more information PW2 can open ADC proprietary DCM10 RAW10 and RAWS image files along with several standard image file types BMP JPEG TIF PNG etc SensorLink If you purchased the optional SensorL ink application you will find a folder by that name on the CDROM included with the camera SensorLink is a GPS waypoint triggering application enabling camera triggering at pre defined waypoints It uses the same NET 3 5 framework Simply run setup exe in the SensorLink folder to install it See the SensorLink online help for more information Page 20 ADC Micro Camera User s Guide USB Disk Operation The camera always operates as a USB Disk device when attached to a host The camera will be recognized when the Pixelwrench2 application is started by its volume ID Files can be dragged and dropped to and from the camera from any personal computer that has USB disk drivers Managing and Processing ADC Images in PixelWrench2 The ADC Micro system writes losslessly compressed image files or RAW files to the memory card These images carry the extension DCM or RAW PixelWrench2 offers all the tools needed for management of ADC images Note The following paragraphs provide basic operational information that
9. one of 6 values 4800 9600 19200 38400 and 115200 The camera can capture still images at reduced resolution which greatly speeds up the camera cycle time Choose 2048 X 1536 for full resolution shots and 2 second cycle time Choose 1024 X 768 for half resolution and 8 second cycle time The camera has a real time clock which can be set from the a user screen Normally it is better more accurate to allow the camera to set the clock from GPS messages but when no GPS is available or the GPS cannot be configured to emit the GGZDA string manual setting can be carried out as show in the example As with all setup screens enter navigates between fields and up down arror changes the value Pressing the shutter switch exit when the save button is selected makes the changes permanent The clock settings are standard except for the UTC offset field Here the user enters the difference in hours between local time and UTC Greenwich U K The default UTC value is pacific daylight time Chatsworth CA or 8 Selecting the Info Icon results in a display of camera status Available memory picture inventory and camera firmware revision F rswware Veresiom Picture Conant When not in user interface mode Memory tree pace pin TEESI the camera displays a live video feed of the current field of view The video is processed for rgb presentation which makes NIR blue Red and Green as originally assigned The bluer the sub
10. ADC Micro Camera User s Guide m E Tetracam Inc 21601 Devonshire Street Suite 310 ING Chatsworth CA 91311 USA Notices Documentation Copyright 2012 Tetracam Inc All rights reserved Camera software Copyright 2000 2012 Tetracam Inc Printed in the United States of America Specifications subject to change This software and documentation are copyrighted materials The making of unauthorized copies is prohibited by law No part of the software or documentation may be reproduced transmitted transcribed stored in a retrieval System or translated into any human or computer language without the prior written permission of Tetracam Inc Unless otherwise provided by written agreement with Tetracam Inc this publication is provided as is without warranty of any kind expressed or implied including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose Some states do not allow disclaimer of expressed or implied warranties in certain transactions so this statement may not apply to you While reasonable efforts have been made to assure the accuracy of this document in no event will Tetracam be liable for direct indirect special incidental or consequential damages resulting from any defect in this publication or the associated software Tetracam Inc reserves the right to change this document at any time without obligation to notify anyone Trademarks Windows is a register
11. D card by the camera s processor CAUTION Do not interrupt transfer of the firmware BIN File while its transfer is in progress Step by Step Firmware Updating Procedure To Load Firmware Updates to the ADC Micro perform the following steps 1 Power the camera off and remove the SD Card from the ADC Micro camera 2 Insert the SD Card into your computer s SD Card Reader or into the computer s USB interface via the SD to USB adapter that is shipped with the camera Copy the firmware BIN file provided by Tetracam Engineering to the root folder of the SD card 3 Making sure that the camera is powered off re insert the SD card with its new firmware BIN file into the camera 4 Re connect the camera to a reliable power source preferably the power supply that shipped with the camera While the camera is initializing the firmware BIN file will be transferred to the NVRAM inside the camera A message will be shown on the Video out display indicating that firmware loading is in progress Make sure the transfer process is not interrupted during the file transfer 5 Atthe conclusion of loading the firmware to the NVRAM the BIN file on the SD card will be automatically deleted When this process is completed Video out will change to the viewfinder display and the Busy LED will turn green Page 28 ADC Micro Camera User s Guide INDEX Accessory 5 Adobe 1 All 1 analysis 4 applications 20 cable 5 calculation 12 calibrat
12. DCM files are compressed using differential encoding and Huffman compression RAW files are the array of captured pixel values with header and trailer information The exact format of these file in 8 and 10 bit form is shown below 10 Bit Raw File Format The RAW file format contains both Header and trailer information For values greater than 255 two bytes are used in little endian Intel configuration for both header trailer and pixel values Byte 0 3 Size of raw image in bytes 32 bit value Byte 4 Bits per pixel 12 for ADC micro format bottom 2 bits are 0 Byte 5 Format tag 16 for RAW files Bytes 6 7 Pixel Columns 16 bit value This is pixels not bytes Bytes 8 9 Pixel Rows 16 bit values Bytes 10 image size 10 PIXEL DATA 16 bit values Bytes image size 10 EOF 28 GPS data GGA and RMC strings Last 28 Bytes ASCII exposure string formatted EXPOSURE 08ld uSeconds n 8 Bit Raw File Format Byte 0 3 Size of raw image in bytes 32 bit value Byte 4 Bits per pixel 8 for this format Byte 5 Format tag 16 for RAW files Bytes 6 7 Pixel Columns 16 bit value This is pixels not bytes Bytes 8 9 Pixel Rows 16 bit values Bytes 10 image size 10 PIXEL DATA 8 bit values Bytes image size 10 EOF 28 GPS data GGA and RMC strings Last 28 Bytes ASCII exposure string formatted EXPOSURE 08ld uSeconds n Page 24 ADC Micro Camera User s Guide 10 Bit DCM File F
13. In the illustration the NULL characters are hidden and additional line feeds are added for clarity Log files can accumulate on the camera s memory card If they are not erased from time to time the resources to capture large numbers of images may not be available The files can be deleted from the memory card using the conventions of the desktop PC ADC Micro Camera User s Guide Page 15 Every Record has a Ticks Field that shows the cameras internal clock count of 10 millisecond ticks The CLK record is added when the camera powers up It shows the camera date and time The count 104 means that the CLK record was written 1 040 seconds after power on CLK 000000104 Date Time 10 22 2009 15 15 01 GPS 000002006 00217 GPRMC 192254 00 A 2942 79012 N 08223 30667 W 000 0 000 0 221009 03 3 W A 0B GPS 000002064 00217 GPRMC 192254 00 A 2942 79012 N 08223 30667 W 000 0 000 0 221009 03 3 W A 0B GPGGA 192255 00 2942 79047 N 08223 30663 W 1 04 2 58 00040 M 031 M 5D IMG 000003049 00218 If a GPS is connected an entry 192302 00 4 2942 79461 N 08223 30899 W 000 0 000 0 221009 03 is made each time a GPS update string is received Different GPS messages are 29461 N 08223 30899 W 000 0 000 0 221009 03 concatenated as they come in The uADC has a spare input pin on the interface connector that can be used for signaling When the line pulses an EXT record will be written to the log file Since the time in a GPS rec
14. a of that vegetation In order to convert monochrome images to false color images using PixelWrench2 do the following 1 Launch Index Tools by Clicking on Index tools beneath the View Menu 2 Click on the Index Tab and insure that Process Raw Image ADC 32 Global is shown in the field as the task above the Execute Bar If not select this via the down arrow button 3 Click on the Execute Bar converting the image to a false color image Performing Further Operations in PixelWrench2 The Help Menu in PixelWrench2 functions as the application s User Manual Read through the Contents section under the Help Menu as an introduction to PW2 See Help topics for information on specific PW2 tools and capabilities Page 22 ADC Micro Camera User s Guide Mounting The Unit The camera should be mounted into an aircraft with the printing on its label oriented in the direction of the craft s flight as shown at right We recommend a shock absorbing material be used between the mounting points and the aircraft and also from the bracket to the 1 4 20 mounting threads All connections to the camera including power are available through the camera interface connector Capture Delays for Aerial Photography The simplest way to map large areas is to place the camera in Continuous Capture mode with a delay that will ensure adequate overlap of the images Since picture storage is cheap 30 to 5096 overlap is recommended In order to calcula
15. amera Arguments are shown as lt ARG16 gt or lt ARG32 gt depending on their magnitude 16 or 32 bits lt ESC gt E Erase all Image files stored in the camera s file system lt ESC gt T Take a picture and save the image to the memory card lt ESC gt X lt ARG16 gt This command controls the camera exposure for the next image with the value in the argument If the value is 0 the camera performs a light measurement operation and calculates a reasonable exposure itself Otherwise the exposure is set to the number of milliseconds given in the argument ADC Micro Camera User s Guide Page 25 Specifications 3 2 megapixel CMOS sensor 2048 x 1536 Sensor Image Array 6 59x4 9 mm Sensor pixel pitch 3 18 um Permanently mounted long pass filter in front of lens Image storage to micro SD cards in Tetracam RAW or DCM lossless format Miniature 8 3 mm fixed focus and aperture lens USB Disk interface Multi pin I O connector for use with Tetracam designed accessories Image Capture speed dependent on SD card features Capacity DCM10 Approx 2 3MB per image RAW10 6 15MB per image RAW8 3 07MB per image Rate DCM10 Capture to end of cycle 7 sec RAW10 Capture to ready 2 8 sec RAW 8 Capture to ready 3 sec Inputs 6 to12 VDC RS 232 For user controls and NMEA GPS sentences External Trigger USB 2 0 Data Connection Outputs NTSC or PAL video USB 2 0 Data Connection ADC Micro Dimensions 4 5 x 3 0 x 0 9 in
16. by the user The GPGGA and GPRMS sentences that are used as image metadata contain the following fields 1 Time UTC Latitude and Longitude Fix quality Horizontal dilution of position Altitude in meters MS Height above MSL The most recent GPGGA and GPRMC sentences sent to the camera will be appended to the image data file You can print or hide the GPGGA sentence on the image using Pixelwrench2 On the Pixelwrench2 Camera menu select Enable GPS Tagging to have the GPS data placed along the upper edge of the image The camera firmware also supports an event or position logging system that will exactly place the GPS locations versus the time pictures are taken with a resolution of 10 milliseconds 2 3 4 Number of satellites tracked 5 6 7 Tetracam s FirePoint 100 GPS is specifically designed for operation with this and all other Tetracam cameras For additional information on the FirePoint 100 GPS please contact your Tetracam or your Tetracam dealer The ADC Micro parses all NMEA sentences received into a GPS data structure which it maintains and uses this data as needed for camera operations The GPZDA sentence is used to set the camera internal clock to accurate time for example Page 14 ADC Micro Camera User s Guide Event Log File When LOG EVENTS is set to ON or FULL in the SETTINGS TXT file the camera will maintain a file with a record of key events and time stamps that can be used to accurately position the
17. d The picture taking Switch is used to complete the operation The only time that User Actions the changes made are saved is when the picture taking switch Exit is used and the SAVE button is selected When the Exit switch is pressed while viewing the icon screen live view is resumed The tool screen consists of four action buttons each labeled with the appropriate action In the screen below the capture icon has been selected which brings up the Capture setup text screen The values controlled here determine how the camera will take pictures on its mission File format selects Capture Settings whether the picture data will be compressed or File Format RAW 8 saved as it comes out of Continuous Cycle off the sensor RAW for Delay Per Picture 0 speed Exposure 0 Continuous capture mode Event Log off causes the camera to GPS Baud 4800 continue to take pictures Img Resolution 1024 X 768 after a single button press with a delay between m il them as controlled by Delay Per Picture Exposure allows the user to select a fixed exposure time for the mission so that the brightness of different shots will not change as the subject changes If a fixed exposure is not set the camera s automatic exposure feature will ETT Page 18 ADC Micro Camera User s Guide optimum exposure for each shot The Event Log discussed in an earlier section can be turned on and off in this setup screen The GPS baud can be
18. e 12 Calibration 12 Camera 1 5 6 CD 3 4 6 20 CDROM 5 CF 4 20 CF card 4 10 20 color 6 components 20 compression 12 configuration 6 Contents 2 convert 20 Copyright 1 DIB 20 display 20 DLL 20 Documentation 1 email 27 firmware 5 format 20 image 20 imported 13 index 13 Information 5 installation 3 4 5 6 20 interface 3 20 ADC Micro Camera User s Guide Loading firmware 28 manual 3 4 monitor 6 Multi sync 6 NIR 12 20 Notices 1 permission 1 PixelWrench 4 20 PixelWrench 4 Power 5 previews 4 Requirements 6 resolution 6 RGB 6 SDRAM 6 Software 1 6 20 Specifications 1 States 1 storage 12 System 6 Table 2 tag 12 technical support 3 Technical Support 27 Teflon 12 Unpacking 5 USB 5 6 User 3 vegetation 12 13 version 3 Version Warranty 5 Windows 1 3 Page 29 Notes Page 30 ADC Micro Camera User s Guide
19. ed trademark of Microsoft Corporation Photoshop is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems InstallShield is a registered trademark of InstallShield Software Corp IBMTM is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation Other brand or product names are trademarks of their respective holders Version 2 5 Last Modified Jan 11 2013 B is E Tetracam Inc 21601 Devonshire Street Suite 310 Chatsworth CA 91311 USA Table of Contents ADC MICRO CAMERA USER S GUIDE eere eene nennen 1 NOTICESS ERR 1 ERATE MARIS 25 teen tite edente oi 1 TABEEOE CONTENTS 22 1 ei a 2 ABOUT THIS CIUIDE 3 5 3 5 eoo iaia 3 QUICK START INSTRUCTIONS cri 4 UNPACKING THE BOX 1 45 9 lalla 5 GETTING STARTED ite id dari teorie ea 6 System Requirements iii 6 Software Installation iii 6 CAMERA CONNECTIONS AND CONTROLS vci 7 Camera Interconnection Pins iii 7 B sy LED ae 9 ADC Micro Optics and Filters essen 11 Spectral Response ia ala 11 Taking Pictures esse ii 12 Continuous Capture Mode iii 12 The Calibration Image sse 12 CHOOSING AN IMAGE FORMAT eene nennen nennen nnne nennen nnne 13 GPS OPTION INSTALLATION AND USE i 14 EVENT LOG FILE etc EEEE OE UE game 15 CAMERA CONFIGURATION 5 esee eao bts con eue iena 17 GRAPHICAL
20. ge access speed using Pixelwrench2 File Advantages Disadvantages Format RAW 8 Less storage per picture Less dynamic range no embedded bit faster than DCM previews RAW 10 Fastest cycle time with Big files no embedded previews bit full dynamic range DCM 10 Smallest file size with full Longest time between pictures up dynamic range to 5 seconds The table above shows the relative advantages and disadvantages of camera file formats These apply to all modes of operation ADC Micro Camera User s Guide Page 13 GPS Option Installation and Use Your Micro ADC will capture and append the most recent GPRMC and GPGGA data string to each image as it is taken Your GPS receiver must be configured to output the standard NMEA sentences The default output protocol for NMEA sentences is 4800 baud 8 data bits 1 stop bit no parity Your receiver should allow you to configure it for I O at 4800 8 1 N If your GPS receiver can be configured for a higher baud setting you should take advantage of the feature since it will make the GPS data more accurate as less time is lost transferring the messages The SETTINGS TXT file on the camera memory card has an entry for the GPS baud It can also be set from the user interface screen for configuring Capture The NMEA sentences are typically emitted once per second but can be configured in the GPS device for different intervals
21. gged directly into the host computer Ifa Memory reader is not present on the host computer images may be extracted via the USB host connector PixelWrench2 provides a utility to manage transfer of images from the camera to the computer The contents of the memory card requires a short period to enumerate when initially connected to a host computer through a USB interface or directly via a memory reader Ideally images should be transferred from the camera s memory card to a host computer at the end of each scheduled photographic mission both for reasons of data security and to minimize camera enumeration time The more images on the card the longer will be the memory card s enumeration time and the longer the camera start up time when power is first applied since it must make an inventory of the existing images in the system Memory Card Formatting Issues The unit can accept both FAT16 and FAT32 memory card formats Care must be taken to label the volume TTCDISKU during formatting on the PC The volume information is used by PixelWrench2 to identify the device as a Tetracam camera when it appears as a USB Disk Page 10 ADC Micro Camera User s Guide ADC Micro Optics and Filters ADE NES The ADC Micro is typically supplied with a Optics miniature 8 3 mm fixed focal length fixed aperture lens s visible from the underside of the camera Other miniature lenses may be available by request Permanently mounted in front of the lens is a
22. ject the more NIR The live view screen is active until a still image is saved It then pauses and resumes when the image has been completely stored If the is little or no time between pictures in continuous capture mode the unit will not display enough video between captures to be useful In RAW10 format the picture interval needs to be 4 seconds for there to be a useful amount of video info between shots ADC Micro Camera User s Guide Page 19 At the bottom for the live view screen the current GPS latitude longitude heading satellite count date time and image count are displayed Host Software The software supplied on the installation CD is made of several major components 21 Pics HEADING SATELLITES 1 Animage acquisition and manipulation application named Pixelwrench2 2 An optional GPS guided camera trigger application named SensorLink 3 Acamera interface DLL for extracting images from the camera or memory card and converting them to Windows bitmap format for display The goal of this software is to allow the user to extract the NIR Green Red images from the camera and convert the proprietary format into a Windows bitmap according to rules specified by the user The NIR band can be mapped to Green Red or Blue in the final image as can the two visible colors The host programs have built in help systems for further instructions not covered in this manual PixelWrench2 PixelWrench2 PW2
23. location at which the picture was taken FULL mode is used primarily for debugging since it allows messages with errors and other diagnostic messages to be placed in the file Generally a GPS receiver is connected to the camera serial port that sends GPGGA and GPRMC position strings to the camera The Log Events feature is used most often with aerial photography when the GPS points of interest will be directly below the camera so that the camera will capture images of subjects at those coordinates When the option is enabled the camera creates the file CURRENT LOG on the memory card in root folder If there is a pre existing CURRENT LOG file the file is moved to the image folder TTCADC in the case of the standard ADC and renamed according to the image numbers that were captured while the camera was last in operation Example If images 31 32 33 and 34 were captured there will be event log records for each of those captures in the file The file is scanned for image capture records and the smallest and largest image numbers found are used to compose a log file name In this case the file would be renamed to 00310034 L OG The first four characters of the new file name are the lowest image capture record in the file the second four letters are the highest image capture record in the file A typical Event Log file is shown on the next page Each line shown is one record in the file terminated by a newline character and NULL
24. ns to green indicating the camera is ready Test Picture Continuous Capture Button Continuous Capture Mode This mode of operation causes the camera to begin taking pictures when the TAKE PIC button is pressed and to continue taking pictures until the button is pressed again It is the simplest way to operate the camera on a remote aerial vehicle The rate of capture is controlled by the file format selected and the additional delay set between pictures Continuous capture mode can also be started and stopped from the SHUTTER control line after the unit is in flight Continuous capture mode and the associated delay are values in the SETTINGS TXT file on the camera memory card NOTE For fastest possible operation configure the camera for RAW10 image save format and LOG EVENTS OFF The Calibration Image An important part of the entire camera and software system is the need to calibrate the software supplied with the camera Calibration consists of taking an image of the Teflon calibration tag under the same lighting conditions as the images under study This image is used to teach the application software what the spectral balance of that day s sunlight is The ratio of red NIR or green NIR is then applied as an offset to the calculation of the various vegetation indices Calibration Target Page 12 ADC Micro Camera User s Guide If a calibration image is not taken within an hour or two of pictures in the field the vege
25. ntegration Cable Your camera comes with a one year warranty against defects The warrantee is a pdf file on the supplied CDROM You should print fill out and send in the warranty card to register the camera and qualify for additional software and firmware updates Flat items such as the CD and manual are stored behind the foam tin the top of the case Test Box and Cable DC Power Supply ADC micro Digital Still Camera International Power Adapters Storage and Transport Case Documentation Installation Software CD Teflon Calibration Plate Micro SD Memory Card Adapter USB Cable Unterminated System Cable 96 Figure 1 Contents of the Shipping Box ADC Micro Camera User s Guide Page 5 Getting Started System Requirements Any personal computer with a free USB serial port can be used to operate and configure the Camera PixelWrench2 the camera support application will only run on a computer that supports the Windows operating system The final output of the system is RGB color images that are each approximately 9 million bytes in size when the images are rendered on a computer screen You should select a computer with resources that can support manipulation of images that are this large Our recommendations for a minimum configuration are e 1 GHz or better processor Intel or AMD e Windows 7 Vista or XP operating system e 512megabytes of SDRAM e 24 bit color graphics adapter at 1024 x
26. ord is offset by the transmission time an accurate external tick pulse from the GPS can be recorded here to improve accuracy When a picture is taken a record is written showing the system ticks at the end of integration The camera can only do one thing at a time so there will always be a system ticks offset between capturing a picture and the GPS messages The actual position of the camera when the picture is captured can be approximated by interpolating between the two GPS EBENEN messages using the system ticks Page 16 ADC Micro Camera User s Guide Camera Configuration Camera features such as continuous capture and fixed exposure are controlled by the values in the SETTINGS TXT file in the root directory of the memory card A settings entry is a series of TAGs a space separator a value and a line feed A typical file looks like this TAG VALUE DESCRIPTION Not in File 256 5157 Camera Firmware Version 259 4800 Serial Port GPS Baud setting 263 1 Exposure F Stop offset 1 to 6 265 8 UTC Time offset hours difference to U K 269 5 Delay between shots in Continuous Capture 270 0 Final Image Size Full 0 half 1 or qtr 2 271 10 Continuous Capture 11 single shot 10 276 0 Zoom Live view in 1 our 0 277 0 Event Log off 0 on 1 debug 2 290 1 File Format DCM 1 RAW10 2 RAW8 3 500 Termination end of list tag The values shown are relevant to ADC Micro configuration Other values may ap
27. ormat Byte 0 3 Size of image data GPS data and various tags in bytes 32 bit value This value can be used to calculate a pointer to the JPG preview data Byte 4 Bits per pixel 10 for this format Byte 5 Format tag 16 for RAW files Bytes 6 7 Pixel Columns 16 bit value This is pixels not bytes Bytes 8 9 Pixel Rows 16 bit values Bytes 10 data size 10 DATA 8 bit values Bytes data size 10 EOF JPEG Preview image Looking backwards into the data encompassed by the size value in the header there are several fixed length fields given below with their sizes GPS data 1024 Bytes Tags for temperature and clock ticks 16 bytes We do not recommend trying to process the DCM files with your own code Contact Tetracam for assistance with sample C source files if reading the DCM file data is absolutely necessary Tetracam RS232 Serial Control Commands Camera serial port command strings consist of a lead in character ESC a command character A Z a z and a number of numeric arguments The numeric arguments are strings of Hex ASCII digits either 4 or 8 characters long depending on the magnitude of the value 16 bit or 32 bit Separators are not required between the argument values or between the command character and an argument Spaces can be used as separators if desired Below is a table of the command characters currently implemented and a description of the responses to be expected from the c
28. pear in the file but these are inactive and present only for compatibility with other Tetracam cameras and the host software When editing this file with a text editor keep in mind that all entries must be exactly 14 characters long including the newline character so if the baud setting goes from 4800 to 19200 one of the spaces in front of the original number 4800 must be deleted in order to keep the total record length at 14 The PW2 distiller performs these actions automatically and is a better way to change values Graphical User Interface The camera configuration values can also be managed from the graphical user interface The interface is accessed from the four buttons on the camera with feedback from the video display Enter Menu Up Arrow Down Arrow Picture Switch Switch Switch Taking Sw ADC Micro Camera User s Guide Page 17 Navigation begins when the enter key is pressed The first screen shows Icons for the setup screens that are available to the user The icons start small 1 2 size and get larger when one of them is selected with up and down arrow keys In the illustration below The tools setup icon has been chosen This screen is used to delete images and format memory cards These settings are preserved through power cycles Pressing enter activates the tools screen Inside the text screens the enter button is used to move from field to field and the up down arrow are used to change the value of a fiel
29. should be used for connecting video devices Pin 13 VIDGND This is the video ground reference and should not be used for power supply or RS232 grounds Pin 14 3VOUT 3 3 Volts accessory power supports up to 150 ma external load Pin 15 GND System Ground to be used for power and other electrical ground references except for video Standard Cables Two mating cables are supplied with the camera The first is provided for testing and setup purposes lt uses common power video and serial plugs for easy connection to a test system The plugs are mounted in a box that also parallels the onboard buttons The second is left unterminated so the user can integrate the camera into his system Optional Hirose Connection At the time of purchase a high reliability Hirose panel connector can be requested with the camera Item 3 Item 1 x15 Item 3 in the above photo is the mating connector for the ADC Micro The wires Item 1 are about 3 inches in length and carry the connections to the round Hirose Bulkhead connector Item 2 The pins on the ADC Micro connector map to the Hirose connector as shown in the following diagram rear view The mating cable for this connector is Hirose part number HR25 9TP 16P 74 When the bulkhead connector is requested a mating cable with unterminated leads is supplied with the unit for system integration Page 8 ADC Micro Camera User s Guide USB Connection The USB 2 0 connection for the
30. tation index calculations will be less accurate and the pictures may not be as useful As an alternative to using the Teflon calibration tag users may employ a white target located in the field under study Place the calibration target on the ground or hold it level to the ground and photograph it It should nearly fill the entire frame and it must not be overexposed Make sure to avoid a direct reflection of the sun The sample image above shows a properly exposed calibration target Later when the pictures are imported to the host computer the calibration picture on the camera memory card will be used to refine the vegetation index calculations using PixelWrench2 the supplied software application Choosing An Image Format The highest rate of capture is with the 10 Bit RAW file format at about one picture per every 2 to 3 seconds depending on the speed of the micro SD memory card For users who want more pictures on a card and do not need precision the 8 bit RAW format is the next fastest about 2 5 to 3 5 seconds per picture The RAW files are quite large 6 megabytes for the 10 bit format and 3 megabytes for the 8 bit format Compression DCM format cuts the size of the files in half and retains full precision but takes longer to capture We therefore think of DCM compressed continuous mode as low speed Besides the smaller file size another advantage of the DCM format is that the files contain previews which speed up the ima
31. te the delay the cruise speed of the aircraft and altitude above the ground must be known For example Aircraft forward speed 180 km hr or 50 m sec 2500 feet AGL 640 meters of ground coverage Using the standard 8 3 mm focal length lens at 2500 feet AGL the camera captures 1 2 meter per pixel or 1 28 kilometers along the long axis If approximately 3096 overlap is desired we would take pictures every 450 meters If the aircraft is traveling at 180 km hour or 50 m sec the time to cover 450 meters is nine seconds We would therefore set the Continuous Capture delay to nine seconds or less Increasing the altitude above the ground increases the delay needed while reducing the ground resolution of the images At 5000 feet AGL the camera resolution is approximately 1 pixel per meter which is good enough for many crop surveys At this altitude the required delay is doubled ADC Micro Camera User s Guide Page 23 The captured images may be easily assembled into a mosaic by stitching software such as Autopano Pro or EnsoMosaic Both of these packages pretty good job of building a mosaic from separate images We recommend that the images be processed first into the color space needed for analysis palletized NDVI or false color NIR for example PixelWrench2 can do this quickly using its built in batch function Programmers Reference File Formats The camera uses proprietary formats for lossless data storage
32. ter This program is needed to configure the camera and extract useful data from the NIR images the camera captures The camera operates and enumerates as a USB 2 0 disk and can be accessed from any personal computer by way of the computer s desktop file management tools No special USB device drivers are needed The camera cannot be powered directly from the USB port but must be powered up before it is connected The high camera power levels exceed many host USB specifications We recommend that when possible the memory card be extracted and read directly by the host computer This speeds up transfer times and provides better data reliability especially if the PC card reader is USB3 0 capable From PixelWrench2 you may open previews of the images on the memory card or in the camera and extract them for viewing and analysis Consult the online manual for PixelWrench2 and the camera for more detailed instructions When you are done with the camera disconnect it from the power source Page 4 ADC Micro Camera User s Guide Unpacking The Box This is what you should find in the box A Hardened Plastic Storage Case An ADC Micro Agricultural Digital Still Camera A CDROM with Installation Software and Documentation Product and Accessory Documentation A USB Interconnection Cable A Micro SD memory card A DC Power Supply with Int l Adapters A White Teflon Calibration Plate A Test and control box assembly An un terminated System I
33. tion indices The purpose of this document is 1 To guide the user through the installation of the product and its supporting software on its target host computer system 2 To describe the basic camera operating procedures To describe the interaction between the camera s interface software and the image editing and archiving software it may be used with This document assumes that the user is familiar with the operation of an IBM compatible personal computer running the Windows XP Windows Vista or Windows 7 operating system The user should be familiar with the use of near infrared images to evaluate the condition of plant life An electronic PDF version of this manual is supplied on the installation CD and is available at www tetracam com ADC Micro Camera User s Guide Page 3 Quick Start Instructions Connect the camera to a source of DC power greater than 6 Volts and less than 15 Volts The power input pins are available on the small inline connector on the top of the housing Pin assignments are shown on the camera label and documented later in this manual After power is connected the status LED will turn Green Pushing the picture taking button or grounding the external trigger line will cause a still picture to be captured and saved The status LED will turn red until storing of the image is complete Insert the CD and answer the installation questions Install PixelWrench2 before connecting the camera to the compu
34. yellow long pass filter Touching this filter should be avoided Clean using a soft clean cloth or lens tissue Spectral Response The Aptina CMOS sensor in the camera is screened with a Bayer RGB filter array in a checkerboard pattern The graph below shows the response of the sensor to different bands of light through the red green and blue filters A blue absorbing glass filter is used to eliminate the blue sensitivity and the blue pixels in the sensor are used to measure NIR Yellow Curve The image is then processed in Pixelwrench2 to subtract the measured NIR from the blue and red bands to produce the final Red Blue NIR image Camera spectral response for red and green blue is blocked for NIR Sensing Quantum Efficiency 40 4 PAM LZ s Red y 25 20 4 15 4 Quantum Efficienc 10 4 E 0 4 T T T T T T T T 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 Wavelength nm Wa ADC Micro Camera User s Guide Page 11 Taking Pictures A test picture may be taken by pressing the Take Picture Exit button above the camera Icon label This button also serves to start the continuous capture mode if the unit is not triggered in flight from an external source During capture the Busy LED will turn from green to red indicating that the camera is busy capturing and saving the image After a capture the camera completes the compression and storage of the image and the Busy LED retur
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