Northern Eclipse Help Reference

MicroImager II, and Retiga Installation


 

Qimaging MicroImager II or Retiga Camera support

 

Your computer may have come pre-equipped with FireWire ports (also known as IEEE-1394). If your computer does not have a pre-configured FireWire connection, you will need to install a FireWire card now before proceeding (see FireWire). Once FireWire is setup properly, connect the Digital CCD camera to the port with the included FireWire cable, and turn the camera on. Windows should build a driver database, and ask for a driver CD. Drivers for all the cameras supported by Northern Eclipse are located on the Northern Eclipse CD. The driver we need for this camera is located at D:\drivers\QImaging\All Firewire Cameras. When prompted, enter this path and Device Manager will then install the driver. Device Manager will install the appropriate drivers.

 

 

 

If the MicroImager II Imaging Device appears, the next step is to Install Northern Eclipse and then MicroImager II support.

 

Installing Northern Eclipse and the appropriate Northern Eclipse digital camera driver.

 

1/ Insert the Northern Eclipse CD. It should auto load on most computers, but if it does not double click on the file ECDGUIDE.EXE in the root directory of the CD

2/ Click on the first Icon “Install Northern Eclipse 6.0”. Once Northern Eclipse begins to install, click on “Next” then, at the Setup Type window, leave the bullet choice at Typical and click “Next”. At this point all of the files will be loaded into c:\eclipse.  Click on Finish to complete the installation. Northern Eclipse is now ready to run, but it will only run as offline software (i.e. without camera control). Offline use installation is finished except for some possible personal configurations within Northern Eclipse.

3/ Install the software protection key. A software protection key or software protection card is included with each new purchase, and is required for Northern Eclipse to run. The key comes in one of three forms: an ISA card, a parallel port key or a USB key.  Your computer should be able to accommodate at least one of these and if we supply the computer we provide you with the appropriate key.  The ISA card must be installed in an 8-bit ISA computer slot. We suggest installing the software protection card in a slot that does not have access to the back plane of the computer case in order to leave more slots available for other uses (i.e. A hidden slot if available, or the ISA slot beside the middle PCI slot!). At the present time, most new computers do not have ISA slots so unless otherwise requested we will ship the software protection parallel port keys or USB keys. The parallel port software protection key plugs into a printer port on your computer. A printer can then be attached to the key, and it should not interfere with printing.  The USB key attaches to any available USB port on your computer.   

Once the key is connected you may need to also install a key driver.  If you are running Windows NT/2000/XP you will get the Hardware Protection Key not Found message and Northern Eclipse will not run until you also install the key driver. Windows 95/98/Me does not require a driver to be loaded.

The driver is located on the installation CD and can be installed by selecting “Install Hardlock Driver for NT/2000/XP

4/ Once Northern Eclipse has been installed, click on “Add MicroImager II support” to install either a MicroImager II or a Retiga camera.

 

 

5/ Once camera support has been added, run Northern Eclipse and then click Acquire, Camera Options, and then Configure, insuring that the Northern Eclipse QImaging MicroImager II Driver is highlighted to configure your camera appropriately.

 

 

From the options page, the Region of Interest, Exposure time, Binning size, Bit depth, and or color method (if the camera is a color camera) can be set. After choosing the appropriate acquisitions camera settings, click on “Save” and then test the camera using Snap.

 

 

If the camera does not work at this point, verify that the IEEE 1394 in the Windows system is working properly (see FireWire), check that the camera is receiving power and that it is turned on (Note: With a laptop, a separate power supply is required!) and verify that the camera is supported on your operating system.

 


See Also

Meteor RGB & Sony DXC 950
Meteor RGB & Sony XC-75
Older Camera Migration
Mutech MV-1500
Meteor RGB & Sony 390
FireWire Installation

References

Table of Contents
Configuration & Installation Reference