What is the max cable length I can run between my CL frame grabber and my camera?

First, you need to know the clock speed of the camera, as different frequencies can affect the cable length.
With Camera Link Base, the max cable length is 10m, regardless of the clock speed.

For the other camera link modes, (Medium, Full, 80-bit), the max length at 85 Mhz is 5m, at 66 Mhz is 7m and at 40 Mhz is 10m.

Please note that the max. cable length may vary from cable to cable. BitFlow recommends cables purchased from the following companies

CEI, 3M, Hewtech, Intercon1

What are camera files and how do I identify them

BitFlow offers cameras files for almost all of the current Camera Link and CoaXPress cameras that are on the market. In addition to this, you can have camera files for various options that the cameras offer, things like triggers (HW and SW), free running, different ROI to what the sensor offers etc.  In the part we have offered camera files for Analog and Differential cameras.  These files are still available today.

The table here shows which camera files are associated with with frame grabbers

Frame grabbersTypeAssociated file extension
Cyton CXP
Aon CXP		CoaXPress.bfml
Axion CLCamera Link.bfml
Karbon CL
Neon CL		Camera Link.r64
Alta AN*Analog.anlg
Karbon CXP*CoaXPress.kcxp
Neon DIFDifferential.NDif
R2/R3*Differential.cam
R2/R3*Camera Link.rcl

When you download the SDK the camera files will be stored on your hard drive in the following folder
C:\BitFlow SDK 6.30\Config\FRAME GRABBER TYPE FILE\FILES
The naming convention is as follows
Manufacturer-Model-Resolution-BitTap-Mode.EXTENSION

Where:
Manufacturer – Camera maker
Model – Camera model
Resolution – Size of acquired image
BitTap – Bitdepth (E = 8 bits, T = 10 bits, W = 12 bits, F = 14 bits, S = 16 bits) and Number of taps (2 – 10)
Mode – Triggered and/or encoder mode

An example would be the following
Hitachi-KP-FM400WCL-E8-TTLTrigger.r64

Which version of your SDK is free?

The BitFlow Windows SDK comes in two flavors, drivers only (which is free) and the full development version, which is paid for.  There is also a Linux version of the SDK.

What is Camera Link?

Camera Link is Machine Vision camera to frame grabber digital interconnect standard. Camera link use a serializer/deserializer to use transmit high speed digital data over a very small number of wires. Camera Link comes in three versions: Base (up to 24 bits), Medium (up to 48 bits), Full (up to 64 bits) and 80-bit (up to 80 bits, duh). The maximum Camera Link data clock is 85 MHz. This means the maximum data rate of Camera Link (using 80 bit mode) is 850 MB/S.

BitFlow’s Neon and Axion families are Camera Link frame grabbers.

Camera Link is standard hosted by the Automate Imaging Association. For more information on the standard please visit https://www.visiononline.org/.

What is a Frame Grabber?

A Frame Grabber is an computer accessory that usually takes the form of an electronic circuit board that plugs into the motherboard of a Personal Computer. The purpose of a frame grabber is to capture images from a camera and put those images in the host memory of the PC. There are may different standards for transmitting images between a camera and a Frame Grabber. These standards include everything from analog low resolution RS-170 (basically TV from the beginning of the 20th century through very high speed digital serial standards transmitted over copper or fiber. The purpose of the Frame Grabber is the same, acquire images from the camera and make them available to programs running on the PC. Frame Grabbers can also control the cameras (depending on the interconnect standard) and interact electrically with the environment though various I/O signals.