DSLR Camera - Basler

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DrvBaslerCameraUI.exe

Node

Select the node location of the camera.
Notice that a node and computation must be selected in order to capture images.

Camera Orientation

Enter the camera orientation, in degrees (0°..360°), relative to the vehicle's heading.
This information will be stored as EXIF metadata.

Camera Tilt

Enter the camera tilt angle, in degrees (-90°..+90°).
-90° means camera looking straight down, 0° means horizontal and +90° means camera looking straight up.

Camera Latency

Enter the latency in milliseconds. This is the time between the capture command send and the actual time of capture.
See Tips and Tricks below for more information about this.

Copyright

Enter your own free text. This copyright information will be stored as EXIF metadata.

Node Result

The current position of the selected node.
Displayed are the UTC time, Easting/Northing in Grid or Lat/Lon on WGS84 and the Height on Vertical datum. This information will be stored as EXIF metadata.

The indicator cycles when valid positions are received. Notice that without a valid position no images will be captured.

Image Destination

Define where the captured images should be stored automatically.
You may use the [ Browse... ] option to use another folder than the listed sub-folders from the current project.

Image Folder

Use the button to browse for another folder than a sub-folder from the current project.

Image Filename

The name of the captured images. Notice that the extension will automatically be jpg.
A suffix (counter) will be added automatically when the image already exists.
Usage:
Enter your own free text, plus you may use the following format specifiers:
#P=Project name, #S=Storage file, #L=Mainline, #F=Fix
%d=day, %m=month, %y=year, %j=Julian Date
%H=hours, %M=minutes, %S=seconds
Use #GRID or #GEO for position co-ordinates
Use #C for a unique incremented counter

Update EXIF (GPS, etc)

It is highly recommended to be enable this option.
Update the image with EXIF metadata, like GPS, copyright, etc..
This option is by default enabled.

Create Trajectory (QCT)

Enable to store a daily camera trajectory log file, in the project's Logfile folder.
QCT Format (comma separated):
'Time, Image Name, Easting, Northing, Height, Orientation, Roll, Pitch<CR><LF>'
This option is by default enabled.

Create Line Data (QGF)

Store position of each captured image as point objects to a Line data (*.QGF) file.
These point objects can be viewed using a Navigation Display, or with the Processing Manager.
This option is by default enabled.

This line data file is always located in the project's 'LineData' sub-folder and has the following name convention:
<driver's system name> <dd-mm-yyyy>.QGF, where driver's system name is the name of the system as entered in the Database template Setup.

This file may be selected in the Navigation Display (View Properties, Layers, Line Databases) in order to show the exact location of each captured image as point object.
Notice that this file is only updated to disk when the Capture Mode/When option is changed (e.g. to [On Hold]), or when a Manual Capture action is performed.
The radius of each point object reflects the SOG (speed over ground) in survey units/sec of the vehicle at time of capture.
A red colored point object indicates that the image was not captured for some reason.

Create Google Earth (KML)

Enabled to create a *.kml file with every captured image, in the same folder, with the same filename.
Kml files may be opened using the 'Google Earth' program.
This option is by default disabled.

Display Positions

The position results as displayed in Node Setup and Camera menu will be as Easting/Northing (Grid) or as Lat/Lon (Geo) on the WGS84 datum.
This option is by default set to Grid.

Show Tooltips

When hovering the mouse over the left column rows, you will get some more information. Disable if this becomes annoying.
This option is by default enabled.

Lock Settings

You may lock the user-interface settings, in order to prevent making changes by mistake.

Capture Mode

Select the capture mode for capturing images automatically:

• Manually
  No images will be captured automatically, they will only be captured when action Manual Capture is selected.
• On Time
  The camera is triggered to capture an image when a certain time period has elapsed.
  This time period depends on the selected Time interval.
• On Fix
  The camera is triggered to capture an image when the Controller generates a fix event.
  Fix eventing parameters are defined in the Controller's Session Setup.
• On Fix (Odd)
  The camera is triggered to capture an image when the Controller generates a fix event with an odd fix number.
  Fix eventing parameters are defined in the Controller's Session Setup.
• On Fix (Even)
  The camera is triggered to capture an image when the Controller generates a fix event with an even fix number.
  Fix eventing parameters are defined in the Controller's Session Setup.

Time Interval

Enter the capture time interval in seconds, when capture mode is On Time.
For example, if you want to capture an image every half a minute , leave this value to 30 (default).

Fix Interval

Enter the capture fix interval, when capture mode is on fix.
Fix events are generated by the Controller.
If you want to capture an image every fix event, then set this value to 1 (default).

When

• [On Hold]
  No image will be captured automatically.
  Notice that this setting is always selected when going on-line, in order to prevent capturing images immediately during start-up and initialization time.
• Always
  Images will be captured when the time interval has elapsed (mode On Time), or when a fix event has been generated (mode On Fix).
• Only When Recording
  Images will only be captured automatically when the Controller is recording.

Select Action

Notice that a selected action is only performed when using the Action button on the next row.
The following actions can be selected:

• [None]
  The action button on the next row will not be visible.
• Reset unique filename counter
  This action only has effect when using the #C format specifier in the image file name (see Options menu). It will set the counter back to 1, so the next captured image will have '001' in its filename.
• Manual Capture
  When the camera is not busy you can always take a picture using this manual capture action.

Action

The action that will be performed depends on the Select Action setting on the previous row. See explanation above.

Filename of the camera settings file which is automatically loaded during the startup phase of the driver. The selected camera settings file may be changed by using the button to select a different file.
The selected file must be of the file type 'Pylon Feature Stream' (*.pfs). These files may be created using the 'Save Features' option in the 'Camera' menu of the 'Pylon Viewer' program.

The 'Pylon Viewer' program is part of the software which may be downloaded from the Basler web site.

Image File

Filename of the last captured image. Use the button to view the image with your default viewer.

Information

UTC Time and file size of the last captured image.

Position

Position co-ordinates of the last captured image.
Easting/Northing in Grid or Lat/Lon on WGS84 and Height on Vertical datum.
This information is also stored as EXIF metadata.

Performance

Connect the camera with Power DC in, instead of running on batteries. This will normally also prevent the camera from going into sleep mode.

Performance

Use a solid state drive (SSD) as location for the image destination folder.

Troubleshooting

Always check that the camera, when connected via USB to your computer, is recognized by the Windows Operating system.
If Windows does not recognize the camera, then Qinsy won't either.
See Interfacing Notes for more details about this.

Troubleshooting

When the camera is disconnected or switched off while on-line, you must go off-line and on-line again in order to re-establish a connection.

Troubleshooting / Performance

Capturing interval is too short in order for Qinsy to store the images to disk and trigger the next photo which results in missing photos.

• This is probably caused by the fact that also the RAW image file is stored, or that the jpg image resolution is too high.
  Select action Get device settings information and increase the Compression Level and / or decrease the Image Size.
• Also make sure that RAW storage is disabled.
• Finally, try to capture without auto focus being enabled.

Calibrate Latency

• Auto focus must be disabled. Sometimes the auto focusing fails, then camera keeps on trying, and when it already receives the next trigger, it may stop.
• Please use a fixed focus lens e.g. f=20mm
• Focus it to infinity, set the camera focus to 'manual' and fix the focus ring on the lens by using a piece of tape (is very common in the photogrammetry).