Tau User’s Manual 5—Overview of the Electrical Interface
TAU-0035-00-10, version 100 April 2009 5-3
5.3 Analog Video Output
The Tau camera can be configured to provide either NTSC or PAL analog video output. These
analog output standards allow direct video connection to common video display or recording
devices such as TV monitors and VCRs. Typically, an analog monitor input signal is provided
over a coaxial cable and uses either an RCA (consumer based electronics) or BNC (generally
associated with professional or scientific equipment) style connector.
If you are creating a custom cable to carry the analog video signal from the Tau camera to your
monitoring or recording device, you should use 75 Ohm characteristic impedance coaxial cable
and terminate into a 75 Ohm monitor. These specifications represent standard video cabling
and I/O and will likely be the default for any generic video receiving hardware you purchase. Per
the pin function table, you will use the VIDEO_LO and VIDEO_HI pins for the analog video output
signal. Specific video characteristics are given in the table below.
Note
5.4 Command and Control Channel
Remote control of the Tau camera is provided via a RS-232 serial interface consisting of signals
named RX, TX and GND using 3.3 volt signal levels. Chapter 3 provides information regarding
remote control using the FLIR Camera Controller. Appendix B describes the serial
communications protocol in detail for the Tau camera.
5.5 Digital Data Channel
Tau provides a digital channel with real-time serialized digital video. The camera outputs either
8-bit or 14-bit data using the SD_CLK±, SD_FSYNC± and SD_DATA± signals. Conversion of the
digital data to a parallel format for data acquisition requires a serial-to-parallel converter
accessory or an Ethernet Module which is also an accessory. Information regarding the digital
data interface is provided in Chapter 4 and Appendix B.
Table 5-3: Video parameters
Parameter NTSC PAL
Monochrome equivalent RS-170A CCIR
Frame rate 29.97 Hz 25 Hz
Update rate 30 Hz/7.5 Hz 25 Hz/8.3 Hz
Active video lines 480 510
# displayed detector samples 320 (H) x 240 (V) 320 (H) x 256 (V)
Analog output is always NTSC/PAL compatible. Changes for reduced frame rate and reduced
size array do not effect analog video format.
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