Vicon connectivity units are smart boxes that can be combined to create a distributed architecture, enabling you to customize the number of Vicon cameras and supported third-party devices in your Vicon system.

As part of setting up your Vicon system, you configure your Vicon connectivity unit(s) for system communications and any GPO or remote triggering.

The Vicon Connectivity node is displayed under the Local Vicon System node when Vicon Nexus is connected to the Vicon system and is in Live mode. It is displayed under the Vicon Data node when Nexus is in Offline mode. It lists each connectivity unit connected to your Vicon system.

Depending on the type of Vicon system you are running, your Vicon system architecture will contain one or more of the following Vicon connectivity units:

• Vicon Lock unit: Facilitates the integration of synchronous third-party equipment with Vicon Valkyrie, Vicon Vantage, and Vicon Vero cameras by providing or receiving synchronization and/or timecode. Also provides connectivity for third-party analog capture sources, such as force plates and EMG equipment. Connects to a UPoE or PoE+ switch to which Vicon cameras and the host PC are connected.

  

• If your Vicon system includes UPoE or PoE+ switches, note that although they do not appear as connectivity nodes in the System Resources tree, the cameras that are connected to them are displayed.

Set up Vicon connectivity units

The Vicon Connectivity node lists each Vicon Lock unit connected to your Vicon system. For each unit, the node name includes the device position number, any display name specified in the Identification property, and the device type listed in parentheses, for example #1 Name (Lock Lab). For Lock Lab, the sample rates are displayed in brackets, and an Analog Card (Slot 1) sub node is displayed as appropriate. If no analog source is selected, [No Source] is displayed after the device name.

The Lock node enables you to manage the identification and configuration settings for each connectivity unit included in your Vicon system architecture. The node is displayed under the Vicon Connectivity node in the System Resources pane when Vicon Nexus is connected to a Vicon system with at least one Lock unit and is in Live mode (click the Go Live button).

To configure connectivity units for analog data acquisition:

1. In the System Resources pane, click the Go Live button.
2. In the System Resources tree, select the node whose properties you want to configure:
   
   • Vicon Connectivity node for all Vicon connectivity units

   • A sub node for a specific connectivity unit – the sub nodes in the System Resources tree correspond to the IDs assigned by Nexus. If a connectivity unit has automatically been designated as the source of synchronization for the Vicon system, its node name is displayed in bold. The colored icon beside a connectivity node identifies the status of the device:

     Green play button: Component OK (active). If an analog device is connected, this status does not reflect the analog device's status.
     Yellow pause button: Component is not fully set up or device has been disabled in Status section of Properties.

     Gray play button: Component connected but not contributing any data.
     Red stop button: Component down (unavailable or disconnected).

   In the Properties section at the bottom of the System Resources pane, view or change settings for the desired properties.
   When you first set up your Vicon system, you must configure at least:
   
   • Name A name you supply, to enable you to identify this unit easily
   • Sync Out (if you are using synchronization functionality) The general purpose output driver (*.gpo file) you specify here determines the output frequency of the synchronization pulse. You can select a driver for each of the sync outputs. For further details, see the Vicon Systems Setup Guide.)
   In subsequent sessions, you may wish to configure additional properties to suit the needs of your motion capture application. For details about all the properties for Vicon connectivity units, see Vicon Lock properties in the Vicon Nexus Reference Guide.
3. In the System Resources pane, click the Save button to save your system configuration settings to a .system file in the Systems configurations folder (see Manage configurations in Vicon Nexus).