DAHENG GALAXY VIEWER FOR PROGRAMMING OUR INDUSTRIAL CAMERAS

If you are looking to test and program your industrial camera, the Daheng Galaxy Viewer program is an essential tool for the job. The Galaxy Viewer software allows you to easily adjust camera parameters, store and capture images, and has multiple plugins for additional features like crosshair, grid, and LUT. In this article, we’ll walk you through the possibilities and how to use the Daheng Galaxy Viewer to get the most out of your industrial camera.

STEP 1: INSTALL THE DAHENG CAMERA MACHINE VISION SDK

Before connecting your machine vision camera, you will need to download and install the latest version of the Daheng Camera Machine Vision SDK. Please not that it is essential to complete the installation process before connecting the camera. Once you have installed the SDK, the Galaxy Viewer software will also be installed. Additionally, you will have access to all camera documentation in the C:\Program Files\Daheng Imaging\GalaxySDK\Doc folder, and programming examples in the C:\Program Files\Daheng Imaging\GalaxySDK\Samples folder.

STEP 2: OPENING THE GALAXY VIEWER

To open the Galaxy Viewer, navigate to the installation location of the demo software, which can be found at C:\ProgramFiles\DahengImaging\GalaxySDK\Demo\Win64\GalaxyView.exe. The easiest way to open the program is by typing “galaxy” in your Windows search bar You will be able to see the Daheng connection tree for
Easiest way to start the Galaxy Viewer is by typing galaxy in your windows search bar:

 

Once you have opened the program, it will automatically scan for connected cameras in the network and USB ports

 

You will be able to see the Daheng connection tree for
GigE/USB2.0/USB3.0 industrial cameras on the left side. You can also see which network cameras are connected to which network adapter.


 
If the cameras are connected correctly, they will be automatically added to the tree at startup of the program or after the program refreshes the view. If needed, you can manually scan for devices and update the device list using the icon on the left.
 

STEP 3: CONNECTING TO THE CAMERA

The Galaxy Viewer will display a list of connected cameras in the network and USB ports. To connect to a specific camera, simply select the name and either double-click it or press the “Open device” icon. It is possible to open multiple cameras.

The screenshot below shows that a MER-630 Ethernet camera is found, and a MER2-2000 USB3 camera.

 

STEP 4: CONTROLLING THE CAMERA

Once you have connected to the camera, the camera sends an XML file to the Galaxy Viewer to inform it of the camera’s feature set. These features and camera parameters are displayed in the right-hand window, giving you complete control to adjust camera settings. Press the “Start acquisition” button to capture images and view the live feed from the camera. Typical parameters to adjust include:

When connected to the camera, the camera sends a XML file to our GalaxyViewer to tell the GalaxyViewer its feature set. These features / camera parameters are displayed on the righthand window. Here you have control to change the parameters of the camera.

 

Press the “Start acquisition” button to capture images and view the live feed from the camera.

 

The camera will show live view with its default settings. Typical parameters to adjust include:

Under “Remote Device/AcquisitionControl"
•    ExposureAuto: set to once or continuous  
•    ExposureTime: manually set the exposure value (only works if ExposureAuto is set to OFF)

 

Under “Remote Device/AnalogControl"
•    BalanceWhiteAuto: only for color cameras, to set the white balance
 


Under “Remote Device/ImageFormatControl"
•    ROI: sets a Region of interest , ONLY works when acquisition: STOP
See How to set a Region of Interest (R.O.I.) inside an industrial camera in 3 steps (get-cameras.com)

Under “Remote Device/UserSetControl”
•    UserSetControl: to save your above parameter changes to UserSet0
See How to save the camera parameters in 3 steps (get-cameras.com)
 


When using specific parameters regularly, you can add them to your favorites for quick and easy access. Simply right-click on each option and select “Add to favorites.” Those lines will be added at the very top of the option list for quick use.

Result of setting parameters:

Example A: live view with default camera parameters.

 Example B: Live view after optimizing the camera settings.
A:            

B:   

STEP 5: USING THE GALAXY VIEWER OPTIONS:

In this section of the article, we show multiple features of the galaxy viewer software. We first show how to use the blue icons that have not been used in step 1 to 4 yet. Then we will walk past every tab in the top bar and explain what you could use it for.

Opening images

It is possible to review images in the Galaxy Viewer. You might want to do this to check the RGB value of a certain part of an image.

 

Saving images

You can click on the save image icon to save the current image. You can select the format you want to save the image in and the filename. We recommend to save images as .PNG to reduce image size without losing image quality.



 

Tile view

If you have multiple cameras connected, it is possible to split the screen with the tile tool and see both cameras in the same window.

 

Cascade view

You can also view multiple cameras with Cascade view. This opens multiple windows as displayed on the image below.
 

Histogram

Show/Hide image histogram (current overall image values).
 

Crosshair

Clicking the Crosshair-button will display a crosshair in the middle of your image. If you want to set the crosshair to a different part of the image, you go to the tab ‘settings’.

 
 
You can enter your own values for line width and offset at the window below. Note: Offset [0,0] is the center of the image. To go left or up, use a value lower than zero. For example: [-200,-50]


 How to get to the customization of the crosshair

Grid

The Galaxy Viewer software has a grid function. Click the icon to toggle this grid.
 


To customize this grid, go to Settings > View options and switch from crosshair to grid. You can now choose between High, Default and Low. A high grid is made up of more lines than a low grid.
 

 

Digital zoom

You can zoom in or out of your image by clicking on the + or – icon or filling in a percentage. When you want to see the full image on your screen, you can click on “Fit size”. The Galaxy Viewer will determine the zoom percentage to make your full image fit on the screen.

 

To zoom in, you can change the zoom percentage. You can click on 100 to make every pixel of the camera 1 pixel on your screen. This is useful for when you want to calibrate your lens to get a very sharp image.
 

TIP: do you have a project with different height objects? Put the tallest and shortest object next to each other while focusing the lens. To get more depth of field, you can close the iris. We recommend starting with F4.0. If the depth of field is not large enough, close the iris further.

STEP 6: USING THE TOOLBAR

The Galaxy Viewer software has more options available in the toolbar. This part of the article explains every tab and how to use the tools.

File

There are a few different options available under the file tab.

You can load an image you have saved and then, for example, you can check the RGB value in a part of that image.

While acquisition is running, you can save images.

Import/Export device Settings is used to save or restore settings for a specific camera model, serves as backup or is quick way to configure multiple cameras.

Save device XML enables you to save the current camera configuration file with information such as firmware version and the serial number.
 

Device

The ‘Device’ tab has the same options as the toolbar, besides “Device Default Open Mode”. In this tab you can choose the level of user rights, which is set to default upon opening the program.

View

Toolbar/Devices/Features/Feature Document -> Toggle display of menus ON/OFF
Toolbar/Devices/Features/Image tools -> View the grid or crosshair, and the live image  zoom/fit/100% fit

 

Plugin

Plugin manager: The Plugin manager shows you which plugins are active. You can enable and disable these plugins by checking/unchecking the box in front of the plugin. You can also increase of decrease the position of this plugin.

Flat Field Correction plugin (usage): Due to a lens or lighting that is used, the outer portion of the image can be darker than the middle, you can add extra gain to those parts. To do this:

• Make the scene white (use a white object that covers the complete field of view).
• Use a fixed exposure time and increase exposure until the center of the image has the value 255.
• Click on acquisition of brightfield images and then on execute FFC.

The plugin will now brighten up the darker parts of the image.

Image processing plugin: This lets you modify gamma color parameters

LUT create Tool plugin: Look up table. You can change intensity/gamma of pixels using a lookup table.

The multiImage Save Plugin: This enables you to save multiple images. You can use the MultiImage Save Plugin to time images and save them automatically.

 

Window

There are two settings under Window. These settings rearrange the live view when using multiple cameras. Split the screen by clicking on tile, or use the Cascade function (see full explanation under step 5).
 

Settings

 

Language: Select the program language

Set valid bits for display: If you capture images in a 12-bit setting, you can select which of the 12-bit images should be displayed on your monitor. Your monitor is most only capable of 8-10 bit.

 

Set Acquisition buffer number: Set how many frames are kept in the camera buffer before being sent out. More frames give stable framerate at the cost of acquisition speed.

Auto network package size: Auto-negotiate the best network package size and display.
TIP: this overwrites the GevSCPSPacketSize and GevSCPD values!
See step 3: Connecting multiple GigE cameras to one ethernet port (get-cameras.com)

Auto update device list: Automatically scans for new cameras periodically

Show incomplete frame: Shows incomplete frames in live view

Show image: Turn Live view ON or OFF

Show Raw Image Grey Value: Displays the value on the bottom of the screen

 

Start polling attribute: Every x seconds the attribute values are checked to see if these are changed. For example, put the camera on ‘auto exposure’ and have “polling attribute active”. When an object is placed in front of the lens, the image gets dark and the exposure time is increased.

You can see the value of the exposure time increasing.

When polling attribute is inactive you will not see the value of the attribute exposure time changing. You will now see in live view that the camera is adapting to the exposure time.

View Options: Options about the grid/crosshair look.

Help

Show the current version of the Galaxy view.



If you have any questions about the Galaxy Viewer, make sure to contact our customer support department.