The rear panel of the Vicon Lock contains all the connectivity to third-party peripherals, PoE, and for synchronizing to other Lock and MX Giganet units.

The following illustration shows the Lock+ rear panel connectors.

In Vicon Vantage documentation, the terms socket and plug are used for female and male connectors respectively.

For details of the connectors for Lock, Lock+, Lock Studio, and Lock Lab, see the Quick Start Guide that was supplied with your connectivity unit and is available for download. 

Lock rear panel connectors

For information on all interfacing cables, see Vicon Vantage system cables. 

PoE Gigabit connector

The Gigabit Ethernet Port 8-pin RJ-45 socket ? connects to an appropriate Vicon-supplied PoE(Power over Ethernet) or PoE+ switch that is also connected to Vicon Vantage/Vero/Bonita cameras and the Vicon Host PC directly, or through further switches. For more information, see Example Vicon Vantage systems.

As well as carrying all the communications to the appropriate Vicon software, the Lock unit also receives its power over the same connections. Additionally, this port also transmits synchronization and time-stamping through special Ethernet packets to all other connected Vicon peripherals.

Analog input connectors

Vicon Lock provides 64 channels of analog signal capture ?, made up from eight separate connectors, each carrying eight signals. (The older model, Vicon Lock, provides 32 channels, made up from four connectors.) Each connector can be portioned to connect to individual force plates. Each connector contains 16 individual connections, eight signal and their eight respective grounds.

Data from third-party devices such as force plates, electromyography (EMG) equipment, potentiometers, and accelerometers can be captured and synchronized to the video capture data. The connectors supplied are used to interface to these third-party devices. Pre-configured cables can also be supplied separately for the more common force plate interfaces (for more information on suitable cables, see Vicon Vantage system cables.

For more information on including analog capture devices in your Vicon Vantage system, see Add analog capture devices to a Vantage system. For information on configuring your system for analog data capture, see the documentation for your Vicon software.

Sync output connectors

Eight RCA sockets ? provide sync outputs to external third-party devices for synchronizing to the Vicon Vantage system.

Each sync output consists of a configurable TTL-type drive signal which is set up through the appropriate Vicon application software. Each output can be configured individually.

There are two signal types, one for repetitive signals and one for the duration of capture. A typical signal configuration for a repetitive signal allows for a signal at frame rate or multiples and sub-multiples of the Vantage system capture frame rate to be set up. A duration event allows the signal to be active during the capture period. Both signal type setups allow for a delay of up to one frame to be programmed and the setting of the polarity of the signal. The mark space ratio can be set with the former type. For more information, see Add synchronized output devices to a Vantage system.

Remote start/stop connectors

To trigger capture by the Vicon Vantage system from a remote control device, you must configure your Vicon Vantage software to use the device connected to the Remote Start and Stop sockets; for details on doing this, see the documentation for your Vicon software. For details on enabling third-party remote devices to trigger your Vicon system, see Add remote triggering devices to a Vantage system.

• Remote start This RCA socket ? provides the external input for the start of capture, which can be activated by momentarily connecting this input to ground through either a mechanical or electronic switch. Capture is started on the first frame boundary after this event is detected.
• Remote stop This RCA socket ? provides the external input for stopping capture, which can be activated by momentarily connecting this input to ground through either a mechanical or electronic switch. Capture is stopped on the first frame boundary after this event is detected.

Genlock and timecode connectors

For details on using external Genlock and Timecode devices to synchronize your Vicon Vantage system to an external video system, see Add genlock/timecode devices to a Vantage system.

• Ref Loop (Composite Video) Two BNC sockets ? provide loop-through connection to an external composite video signal, which may carry VITC (Vertical Interval Timecode) thus allowing genlocking. This video source is usually referred to as the house reference or the master video source. This connection allows Lock to synchronize to analog SD (standard definition) bi-level and analog HD (high definition) tri-sync video sources. Note that VITC is only supported by the former.

  Important

  If the Vicon Lock is the only device, or the last device in the chain, the Ref Loop connection that is not being used for signal output must be terminated using a 75 Ω (ohm) terminator.

• LTC In The XLR socket ? provides the balanced input for LTC (Longitudinal Time Code) to the Lock.
  The timecode is only valid when it is correctly frame-aligned to the accompanying analog SD or HD composite video signal.

• VESA Stereo In The 3-way, mini-DIN socket ? provides the input to the VESA Stereo In signal. When selected as the genlock source by the appropriate Vicon software, the Lock unit locks to this signal.
• VESA Stereo Out Reserved for future use ?. The BNC VESA Stereo Out socket provides a TTL 50:50 duty cycle signal that allows external video systems to lock to the Vicon Vantage system.
  For details on using external VESA Stereo signal to synchronize your Vicon Vantage system to an external video system, see Add VESA stereo to a Vantage system.

Link Input/Output (IO) connectors

Vicon System Connector - Link The Link socket ? provides a dedicated output signal to synchronize MX T-Series–Giganet systems to a Lock. Alternatively, as well as being able to be made an output it can also be made to be an input under software control. Configured this way, it then enables another Lock to be connected to it, thus creating further functionality:

• When connecting to an MX T-Series–Giganet system, the appropriate Vicon software will make the Lock unit the master for the combined system. Any legacy reference video input signal should be transferred to the Lock unit. The master sends the Vicon Ethernet sync and timestamp packet once per frame to all Vicon peripherals attached to that network.
• When expanding a Lock system with a further Lock unit, the Lock with a reference video signal or VESA input signal will be made the sync master by the appropriate Vicon software. In this case the software will control which unit is master and which one is secondary. The secondary unit does not transmit the Vicon Ethernet sync and timestamp packet when acting in this mode.