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# FALCON/EAGLE user manual 4.62

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Multiple frame grabber support | Scroll Previous Top Next More

In the FALCON/EAGLE driver version 2.20 and higher (FALCONplus 3.00 and higher) the simultaneous use of several boards in a computer is completely integrated. The tests with up to 5 FALCON and/or EAGLE boards in connection with an AGP graphic board showed that this extreme case still functions tidily. During simultaneous transfer of all frame grabber boards, the images must be reduced and/or scaled correspondingly depending on colour depth. Otherwise, it comes to an overload of the PCI bus.

| For multiple board operation it is recommended to use the Software Package for FALCON/EAGLE (SDK).

Board ID

For the multiple board support of the FALCON/EAGLE driver it must be guaranteed, that a call with is_InitBoard() a specific frame grabber can be addressed. For this purpose every board has a clear identification number (BoardID) it can be identified through. The Board ID is set as default to 1. If several cards in a system are in use, at first clear Board IDs must be assigned to the cards. This assignment happens with the program IDSID.EXE. This program requires a fitting FALCON/EAGLE driver (falcon.dll and falcon.sys) with version 2.00 or higher (recommendation: Version 2.21, FALCONplus 3.00 and higher).

For placing the BoardIDs it is useful to write down the serial numbers of the boards. (i.e. from the right to the left). To every serial number, one notes a Board ID assigned not yet down in the field [1...254]. They can be assigned freely in the above-mentioned area. The Board IDs then become serial number with the program IDSID.EXE the corresponding ones assigned. You can choose a board within the field "Select board" and enter a corresponding Board ID in the input field "Board-ID" below.

With the FALCONquattro/FALCONquattro Express each of the 4 AD converters is regarded as individual frame grabbers. Therefore here the IDs 1, 2, 3 and 4 are preset. If now a further FALCONquattro/FALCONquattro Express is to be added to the system, the preset IDs have to be changed.

FALCONquattro | IDs
--- | ---
1 | 1,2,3,4
2 | 5,6,7,8
3 | 9,10,11,12
... |

Fig. 5: Set ID

Board select

•PCI-Slot:
Number of the PCI slot in which the appropriate FALCON/EAGLE card is embedded. Numbering of the PCI slots is dependent on the main board of your computer and does not begin always at 1. (A system with e.g. 4 PCI slots does not mostly have PCI slot numbers 1-4 but e.g. numbers 14-17!)

•Number of boards:
Number of FALCON/EAGLE boards in the PC.

•Select board:
Select one of the available FALCON/EAGLE boards. In the field "Board Info" below you can see the board's serial number and ID.

Board Info

•Serial-No.:
The serial number of the frame grabber board.

•Board-ID:
The identification number of the frame grabber board. This number identifies the specific board. Default value for BoardID is 1. Alphabetic characters or negative numbers are not allowed. Range of values of the Board-ID: [1...254]

IDS info

For the multiple board support of the FALCON/EAGLE driver a new version of the program IDSINFO is available from version 2.00 and hiher (FALCONplus 3.00). The IDSINFO program also requires a fitting FALCON/EAGLE driver (falcon.dll and falcon.sys) with this version or higher.

Fig. 6: IDS info

Board select

•PCI-Slot:
Specifies the number of the PCI slot in which the appropriate FALCON/EAGLE card is embedded. Numbering of the PCI slots is dependent on the main board and does not begin with 1. (A system with e.g. 4 PCI slots does not mostly have PCI slot numbers 1-4 but e.g. numbers 14-17!) For FALCONquattro/FALCONquattro Express the number of the internal slots are shown. These "internal" slots have the number 4 to 7.

•Intersrupt
Interrupts that are used by the selected board.

•Number of boards:
Number of available FALCON/EAGLE boards.

•Select board:
It selects one of the available FALCON and/or EAGLE cards. Its specifications are shown in the field Board info below.

Board info

•Serial-No.: Serial number of the frame grabber

•Manufacturer: Manufacturer of the board

•Board revision: Hardware revision of the board

•Date of QC: Date of quality check

•Board ID: Identification number of the card. The boards can be distinguished via this number and they can be addressed trough it. The ID can be determined by the customer itself (program IDSID.EXE). Default value for BoardID is 1.

•Board-Type: Type number of the board. The following values are assigned for the different cards:

o FALCON/FALCON Express: 1

o FALCONplus/FALCONplus Express: 7

o FALCONquattro/FALCONquattro Express: 9

o FALCON LP/FALCON LP EXPRESS: 13

o EAGLE: 2

Version info

(Because the drivers of FALCON and EAGLE are identical, the file names have not been changed for historical reasons.)

•falcon.dll: Version information of the API-DLL

•falcon.sys: Version information of the system driver

•falchook.dll: Version information of the Hook-DLL

The major (e.g.: 2.xx.xxxx) and minor (e.g.: X.1x.xxxx) part of the version number of the falcon.dll and falcon.sys (falcon.vxd) must agree. This means they must agree on the format V.Vx.xxxx (x = not important). If not, the error 55 appears initializing the card with is_InitBoard().

Fig. 7: Info - error message

© 2020 IDS Imaging Development Systems GmbH