Precautions for Vision PC
When using multiple network adapters
Make sure to set each network adapter to different subnets.
All GigE cameras connected to each adapter should be assigned to the same subnet.
If a network card has multiple Ethernet ports, each network port should be considered as independent “multiple network adapter”.
Available network adapters
GigE cameras must be used with the network adapters which have Intel PRO 1000 series NIC (and which must be supporting Gigabit Ethernet (1000Mbps)). For details of available network adapters, refer to the following.
System Configuration
Recommended Network Configuration
GigE camera network and other Ethernet communications for Windows network should be separated. For example, configure the network between the Robot Controller and the Vision PC using the USB do that it does not disturb the communication between Vision PC and the GigE camera. It is also effective to install multiple network adapters to separate the informational network for Windows from the GigE camera network for the sake of system performance improvement.
KEY POINTS
Use the Gigabit Ethernet (1000Mbps) network adapter for the GigE camera. The 100Mbps network adapters cannot be used.
Peer-to-peer Network Architecture
For a network configuration, it is strongly recommended to employ “peer-to-peer connection” which connects cameras directly to each adapter. (See the figure below)
The main advantage of the peer-to-peer connection is that it can make full use of the network bandwidth for transferring captured images from each camera due to independent network. This allows you to get great performance of each camera and to design the system easily. The peer-to-peer connection is particularly effective when using multiple cameras in the external trigger mode.
However, it is recommended to employ the “network switch connection” described in the following when not using the external trigger or when connection a lot of cameras.
KEY POINTS
When using the peer-to-peer connection, each camera can occupy each network bandwidth. However, when installing multiple network adapters to the Vision PC, or when using the multiport network adapter, be careful of the bus baud rate.
For usual PCI bus, the baud rate is 133M bytes/ seconds. Since PCI bus transmission is shared with various inter-device communications within the CPU, it is unsuitable as a GigE camera adapter bus.
Network Switch Connection
For most robot systems, consider employing the “network switch connection”. Example of the network switch connection configuration is shown below.
KEY POINTS
You can use the product which supports Gigabit Ethernet (compliant with 1000BASE-T) for the network switch. When supplying power to the GigE camera via an Ethernet cable, use a product compliant with IEEE802.3af.
This network configuration is effective for systems where there are a lot of cameras or where GigE cameras are set away from the Vision PC. However, this configuration may not be able to improve the system performance because the imaging timings must not be overlapped.
KEY POINTS
Do not input triggers for several cameras at the same time when the network is configured by the “network switch connection”. If triggers are inputted at the same time, image data may be partially lost, or an error may occur. In such a case, the network must be configured by the “peer-to-peer connection”.