When you think about it, the cables that you use to connect your machine vision camera to your PC are pretty darned important. You rely on them to transport your data bits quickly and without error, and to do so for many years without complaint.
That’s why I recommend you read “Clean Connections” by Andy Wilson, published in the September Vision Systems Design. It’s not the sexiest topic, to be sure, but Andy does a great job of explaining what can go wrong, how cables are tested, and why you should care.
I’m not going to repeat what he has to say, but I would like to add a few cable hints of my own:
- Keep the camera still. If your system is designed so that the camera has to be moved you’ve added a potential failure mode, so try very hard to avoid camera motion.
- Use screw connectors. Even if nothing moves in your system, there will be some vibration that could cause push fit connectors to work loose.
- Keep cable runs as short as possible.
- Watch out for sources of electromagnetic interference. Welding is perhaps the most obvious but there can be others.
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