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What is the NI BNC-2178 VideoMUX and How Do I Install It?

Hardware: Modular Instruments>>High-Speed Digitizers (Scopes)>>NI VideoMASTER for Analog Video Analysis-PXI

Problem:
What is the NI BNC-2178 VideoMUX and how do I install it?

Solution:
Overview

The NI BNC-2178 VideoMUX is a hardware accessory used with the NI 5122 or NI 5124 along with the NI VideoMASTER software, to enable the acquisition and analysis of a broad variety of composite, s-video, component and VGA video signals.

The VideoMUX consists of two distinct internal devices.
  • There are two 9 channel multiplexers that are stacked behind the connectors on the front panel of the device.
  • The other part of the VideoMUX is the VideoSynch Extractor, which generates trigger pulses for the NI 5122 or 5124 digitizer when the trigger signals are read separately from the video signals.
Figure 1 shows a functional block diagram of the VideoMUX and it's components.



Figure 1: Functional Block Diagram of BNC-2178 VideoMUX.

The 9 channels of the multiplexers in the VideoMUX include the H and V inputs, which are specifically used for certain component video formats. A specific example of this is the component format of RGBHV, which sends the red, green, blue and horizontal and vertical sync signals on separate lines. The Sync 1 and Sync 2 inputs are used for specific component formats that have the sync signal separated from the luminance and chrominance signals. More information about specific video signals can be found in the Component section of the VideoMASTER Help file that will be installed to the start menu.

Physical Connections

Figure 2 shows the actual layout of the connector block of the VideoMUX.



Figure 2: External BNC Connections on the VideoMUX.

The impedance of the VideoMUX inputs is 75Ω. There are also 3 outputs from the VideoMUX that are connected to the 3 inputs of the NI 5122 or NI 5124 digitizer. These outputs connections have a 50Ω impedance. The input impedance of the NI 5122 and NI 5124 is set to 1MΩ (non-configurable), so if you are not passing your signal through the VideoMUX you will see slightly incorrect amplitudes of your acquired video signal. The outputs shown in Figure 2 (also visible in Figure 1) are Channel 0, Channel 1 and the Trigger Out signal. These three signals are generally always left connected to the digitizer when using the VideoMUX.

Installation
The VideoMUX software must be installed before the hardware is actually connected and installed.

  1. There are two .inf files that are installed to the system for VideoMUX when VideoMASTER is installed. There is one .inf file that associated with the two multiplexers in the VideoMUX as well as another .inf file that is associated with the VideoSynchExtractor.
    • These two files are named MxVideoMUX.inf and MxVideoSynchExtractor.inf. It is important to know where these two .inf files are installed because they will be needed when plugging in the hardware.
  2. The VideoMUX is delivered with an external power supply that should be connected to the VideoMUX before the USB connection is made.
  3. Once the driver has been installed, the USB connection can be made.
  4. Windows will show the device in the Device Manager as having a yellow exclamation mark next to it meaning that it does not have a driver associated with it.
    1. The Hardware Installation Wizard should come up when you plug in the USB cable and you will need to point the wizard to the location of the MxVideoMUX.inf and MxVideoSynchExtractor.inf files.
    2. The installation will have to run twice, once for the VideoMUX and once for the VideoSynchExtractor. Each of these devices internal to the VideoMUX, has a separate driver associated with it.


Related Links:
NI VideoMASTER for Analog Video Analysis

Attachments:
Support Materials.zip

Report Date: 04/01/2009
Last Updated: 01/20/2010
Document ID: 4W0BM30O

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