### Probe Toolbox: Illumination tab

Probe Toolbox—Illumination tab

The Illumination tab allows you to select which lamps are turned on or off. It also indicates the lamps current light intensity by changing illumination values. The type and number of lamps displayed depends on the machine.

A Top Light is an on axis lamp that is directed through the optical path. It can provide better edge and feature visibility on some parts than other light sources that illuminate from above because the light source isn't as diffused. Since it shines parallel to the optics, it's also easier to see into holes.

A Bottom Light is a lamp that shines from under the stage. It creates a silhouette of the part to be viewed.

A Ring Light is a multi-bulb lamp that illuminates from above. This lamp is normally composed of an array of LED lights arranged in concentric rings or circles. You can usually program the ring light to illuminate a segment or 'pie wedge' of bulbs from one direction. You can control the direction and angle of illumination by illuminating just one of the rings of LEDs, a segment of one of the rings, or individual bulbs.

This tab also allows you to create and store these illumination values in sets termed Quick Sets. Once you create a Quick Set you can quickly and easily recall it to set the lamps on a machine to a specific state (for example, bottom light only, top light only and so forth). Quick Sets can be recalled at any time by selecting the set name from the Quick Set list.

You can easily save your own Quick Sets by pressing the Save button, or delete them by clicking the Delete button.

Important: In order for lamps to show up on the Illumination tab, make sure you have the lamps selected and properly setup within the Machine Interface Setup dialog box on the Illumination Tab. See "Machine Options: Illumination tab".

You can perform the following procedures using this Illumination tab:

- Selecting a Pre-Defined Illumination Quick Set

- Saving an Illumination Quick Set

- Deleting an Illumination Quick Set

- Changing Illumination Values

- Illumination Calibration Override

A Note on Lamps and Contact Probes

By default, if you switch from a vision probe to a contact probe, the lamps will remain turned on. You can control this default behavior by using the IlluminationOffForContactProbe registry entry in the VisionParameters section of the PC-DMIS Settings Editor. Setting this entry to TRUE will turn off the lamps whenever the program switches from a vision probe to a contact probe. The illumination will be restored when switching back to a vision probe.