Setup Motorized Zoom on Vision System

Zoom Vision System Guide (Non-Nexiv)

Machine Setup

There are multiple steps to setting up a Vision Machine with a Zoom Lens. These steps should be done when CMM-Manager is offline. The general image of the machine setup can be seen below and is referenced in the following subsections. Machine Setup can be found in the "System" ribbon bar and by pressing the "Machine Setup" button. This page can be found by selecting the "Video" tab at the top.

Offset Setup

There are two components to setting the offset for a vision system, the sensor offset and the focus offset. These two sections can be seen in the red rectangles above. The sensor offset is the vector from camera lens center to the center of the probe head (Nominal offset must be within a few mm of the actual offset for everything to work properly). The focus distance is the distance from the center of the lens to the focus plane. This can be measured by getting the camera in focus to the machine table and then measuring the distance from the lens to the machine table. Usually, this can also be found in the zoom lens specifications from the manufacturer. 

Zoom Lens Driver Setup

The zoom lens type can be selected in the "Zoom Lens" section which can be found in the green rectangle above. Currently only PMS Zoom Lenses are supported. Once the zoom lens is selected the driver can be configured by pressing the "Driver Configuration" button. The PMS zoom lens driver configuration screen can be seen below.
Select the COM port that corresponds to the PMS Zoom Lens and the Baud Rate (Usually 9600 works). 

Connecting to the zoom lens

The zoom lens can ONLY be connected to when connecting to the machine. If you are already connected to the machine, and not the zoom lens, you can disconnect from the machine and then reconnect in order to connect to both the machine and the zoom lens (after it has been configured using the steps above).

Lighting Setup (Optional)

The Lighting is optional and currently only supports the DEVA lighting. The configuration section can be seen in the Machine Setup screen above in the blue rectangle. To use DEVA lighting you should select the DEVA Lighting Controller from combo box. This will then allow you to control your lighting inside CMM-Manager using the Lighting Controls. (See Lighting Controls below)

Mapping File

The video tips are set by a mapping file that is installed with CMM-Manager. Currently this is only for the PMS Zoom Lenses as this is the only currently supported Zoom Lens. The file can be found at "C:\ProgramData\QxSoft\CMM-Manager xxxx\Driver\PMSMappingFile.txt" where "xxxx" is the respective version of CMM-Manager that is 2024 SP1 or newer. The file is structured in such a way that it is the name of the tip, the magnification, and then the pulse that is sent to the lens set to the magnification. Each line is a new tip and is associated with the pair. By default the mapping file is preset for PMS-Z65M 6.5X Series but it can be edited and used with other PMS Zoom Lenses as well. When changing the tip names make sure to maintain formatting of x00.0 for the name and change the numbers as needed. (ie .7 is x00.7, 1.5 is x01.5, 10.5 is x10.5). An example of the original PMS Mapping file and an altered one can be seen below.


The mapping file must be changed while CMM-Manager is not open. New/altered tips will be read into CMM-Manager when the zoom lens and the machine are connected to for the first time after changing the file. 

Calibration

There are a few steps to calibrate the vision system. These steps are listed in the recommended order that they should be followed. The image below shows where these calibration routines can be accessed in the ribbon bar.

If you cannot see all the options above load the "Default Layout" and edit your layout as needed. To load the default layout, look at the section labeled "Layout" below. Loading the vision layout can cause the calibration routine buttons to disappear.

Camera Calibration

This will calibrate the skew angle of the camera. It is recommended to perform the camera calibration using the highest magnification tip. It will also calibrate the pixel resolution of the tip that is used. It can be found in the "Vision" ribbon bar under the "Setup" section labeled as "Calibrate Camera". This only need to be done once.

Pixel Resolution Calibration

Pixel resolution is used to determine the distance along the camera X and Y axes represented by one pixel. Pixel resolution calibration must be done for every magnification of the zoom lens. The pixel resolution calibration can be found in the "Vision" ribbon bar inside the "Calibrate Video Tip" dropdown labeled "Calibrate Pixel Res.". Additionally the routine can be accessed from Tip Manager dialog in the Video page using the button labeled "Cal. Pixel Res.". There are two options that can be selected. One with 5 circles, that is best when lighting conditions are variable, and one that uses one circle, which is sufficient if lighting conditions are stable. Every tip/magnification that you want to use should be calibrated (All tips should be calibrated if you plan to calibrate patricentricity).

Parcentricity Calibration

Parcentricity is what calculates the X and Y offsets between different magnifications. This can be found in the "Vision" ribbon bar under the "Calibrate Video Tips" dropdown labeled as "Calibrate Parcentricity" or in the Video Tip List labeled as "Cal. Parcentricity". Additionally it accessed from the Tip Manager dialog in the Video page using the button labeled "Calc. Parcen.". To start, switch to the highest magnification and use a circle artifact that takes up a large portion of the visible area. Use the circle tool to measure the circle and then press "Run". The zoom lens will automatically cycle to lower magnifications and measure the circle and then calculate the X and Y offsets of each tip relative to the high magnification tip. Press "OK" after the run to save the offsets into the tips.

If you want to verify the validity of the results. Go into the same menu, perform the same steps as above, but this time press "Verify". At the end a menu will come up with difference values. These values are the difference between the current offsets the the calibration that was just performed. If the calibration is still good, these values should be relatively small. It is important to note that these values are displayed in microns.

Offset Calibration (Optional if not using tactile probe)

The offset calibration allows the use of both tactile and video tips in the same program and correlation of the measurement results. The offset calibration routine can only be accessed from the "Vision" ribbon bar under the "Calibrate Video Tips" dropdown labeled as "Calibrate Offset". "In a Zoom Lens system it will set the ref tip offset so that the tip is in the correct location relative to the high mag video tip. There are a few requirements before performing a offset calibration. These are 
  1. The high mag tip must have the pixel resolution calibrated
  2. The ref tip size must be calibrated using a calibration sphere (Should be yellow or green)
Once these requirements are met, the offset can be calibrated. Generally it is best practice to use a ring gauge or another circular artifact that has a flat top. The steps to an offset calibration are as follows
  1. Measure the circle artifact with the calibrated ref tip
  2. Measure a plane with the calibrated ref tip that is usually the top plane of the ring gauge or circle artifact (It is generally recommended to measure a plane the size of the highest mag focus plane)
  3. Measure the circle with the highest mag video tip (reference video tip)
    1. This may have to be done with multiple different measurements such as taking a couple points at a time and then moving the CMM to get to another point on the circle artifact and repeating until you have a sufficient number of points
  4. Measure the plane, in the same general area as the tactile plane measurement, by taking one point that is in focus using the high magnification tip
This will complete the ref tip calibration and allow the use of both tactile and video tips.

Layout

Since the system is not a Nexiv DO NOT LOAD THE VISION LAYOUT. This will cause issues with the buttons in the ribbon bar. Instead load the default layout and edit it as desired, then save it as your own custom vision layout that can be loaded as needed. The default layout can be loaded by selecting "Default Layout" in the "Load Layout" dialog and pressing "Load". The "Load Layout" dialog can be opened by selecting "Load" from the "Layout" dropdown that can be found in the top right of CMM-Manager.

Zoom Controls/Slider

The zoom slider can be used with zoom lenses. It can be brought onto the screen by selecting "Zoom Controls" options in the layout menu that can be found at the top right of the screen.

Lighting Controls

Lighting controls can be used with DEVA lights if they are configured and connected. The controls can be brought onto the screen by selecting "Lighting Controls" from the layout menu found in the top right of the screen. 

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