Gardasoft has extended its capability for industrial lens control with an embedded addition to the range. The Embedded Lens Controller is available as a compact PCB lens controller which is supplied as completed, tested, enclosure-free, miniature hardware that can be fitted into the user’s equipment. A design module that can be cut and pasted into the user’s PCB design files is also available. Please contact us to discuss how Gardasoft can contribute towards your project.

A new white paper discusses the embedded implementation of lens control for motorised lenses and liquid lenses: Embedded Lens Control White Paper.

The Embedded Lens Controller includes constant current Lens drive and Lens EEPROM data communications that are compatible with lenses that have calibration data in their internal EEPROMs such as the Optotune EL-10-30-Ci and EL-16-40-TC. Where a tunable lens does not have an internal EEPROM, such as the Optotune EL-3-10, the Embedded Lens Controller can hold lens calibration data.

With a fast focus change (under 10ms), the Embedded Lens Controller offers dynamic lens control in Machine Vision applications which deal with varying height objects – Postal identification for example.

Microscopy and Life Sciences are other key market sectors for tunable lens control, addressing applications such as Z slices, Light sheet imaging, In vivo (live tissue) imaging, and many types of automated imaging.

The Embedded Lens Controller can be communicated with using I2C, UART or USB and so cover the most commonly used interface protocols for embedded equipment. This communication can be used for:

• Changing the configuration of the lens

• Setting the optical power

• Checking the status of the lens

• Detecting errors, such as a disconnected lens

For additional ease of use, it is not necessary for the user to configure the Controller as Gardasoft is able to pre-configure it to the user’s requirements prior to shipping. Also, the Controller has a non-volatile memory and so configuration and calibration retention during power outages is automatic.

The Embedded Lens Controller is designed specifically for high-volume, OEM applications. For lower volume applications please refer to the CL180 Industrial Lens Controller.

Compatible with Optotune focus tunable lenses

Optotune Lenses

Optotune’s focus tunable lenses provide a versatile and compact solution to adjust the focus within milliseconds. As no translational mechanics are involved such systems are robust and achieve billions of cycles.

The technology of Optotune’s shape-changing lenses is based on a combination of optical fluids and a polymer membrane. To tune the lens, fluid is pressed into the center of the lens by a current controlled voice coil thus changing the curvature of the membrane and with that the focal length of the lens.

The waveform can be continuously output or can be output once for each application of an external trigger signal. The repetition period of the sequence can be set from 5ms (200Hz) to 30 seconds. For other focus profiles, the lens optical power can also be controlled by an analog input voltage. The user can configure the mapping of analog voltage conversion to optical power store it in onboard memory. Again, Gardasoft can install this configuration prior to shipping the unit.

Applications

In many applications, the tunable lens will be required to cycle through a repetitive focus profile. The Embedded Lens Controller can accommodate this by featuring built-in focus sequences as follows:

• Square wave
• Sawtooth
• Sine
• Staircase
• Triangle
• User configurable