Introducing the I/O Toolbox

I/O Toolbox context block diagram

There is only one I/O Toolbox instance per Coaxlink card. It belongs to the GenTL Interface module.

The input-capable I/O lines (Input Lines) and a selected event sources (Input Events) are feeding the Input Tools the I/O Toolbox.

All the I/O Toolbox tools generate one (or more) event streams (I/O Toolbox Events).

The I/O Toolbox Events streams are distributed to various consumers on the card.

Any I/O Toolbox events can be used in any GenTL Device module of the card as:

●

The hardware Cycle Trigger source.

●

The hardware Start-of-scan Trigger source.

●

The hardware End-of-scan Trigger source.

Every I/O Toolbox event stream is associated with a 32-bit event counter.

The I/O Toolbox is a configurable array of tools that builds-up streams of event pulses from external signals applied to the input-capable I/O lines.

I/O Toolbox structure diagram

The I/O Toolbox input tools are fed by the input-capable GPIO lines and a selected set of hardware event sources from outside the I/O Toolbox.

They deliver one I/O Toolbox event stream.

There are four types of input tools:

1.

The Line Input Tools, for use with sensors and detectors using a single GPIO input line.

2.

The Quadrature Decoder Tools for use with quadrature motion encoders using two GPIO input lines.

3.

The User Actions Tool for use by the application software to generate user events

4.

The Event Input Tools for use in line-scan data-forwarding applications.

The GPIO Input Lines Interconnections Matrix allows any Line Tool to be fed by any GPIO input line.

The External Events Interconnections Matrix allows any Event Input Tool to be fed by the external event source.

Note: Currently, only the CoaXPress Host interface GPIO message receiver of connector A is available.

The I/O Toolbox event tools are fed by one (or more) I/O Toolbox event stream(s) and deliver one (or more) I/O Toolbox event stream(s).

There are three types of events tools:

5.

The Divider Tool generates an event stream by keeping 1 event out of D events of the input stream.

6.

The Multiplier/Divider Tool generates an event stream having M events every D events of the input stream.

7.

The Delay Tool delays the events of one (or two) streams, either by a configurable period of time or by a configurable number of motion encoder ticks.

The Internal Events Interconnection Matrix allows any Event Tool to be fed by any I/O Toolbox event stream.

Tools can be cascaded to form a tool chain:

A tool chain always begins with a Line Tool.

A (Line or Event) Tool may drive 0, 1 or several Event Tools.