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Doubling of the digitization frequency (and thus doubling of the maximum FPS) is achieved by firmware modification only. No hardware changes are necessary, so every C1 camera sold can be updated to faster speed.

Of course, only USB3 offers enough bandwidth to allow CMOS based cameras to fully unleash their potential, once considered super-fast 480 Mbps of the USB2 connection is not sufficient to achieve even the original 60 FPS of the C1-1500 camera.

Nothing is free and very high FPS of CMOS sensors brings a disadvantage in the form of high amount of generated heat. In fact, every CMOS sensor is a fast running digital circuit and anybody familiar with large heat sinks and fans, intended to cool down modern processors and graphics cards, understands that such circuits generate heat. So, when cooled with the same cooling power like a CCD sensor, CMOS sensors operate at significantly higher temperature with all the disadvantages of higher dark current etc.

This is why the new Cx camera firmware offers the user to choose the fast and slow read mode (both 8-bit and 12-bit read modes are offered in slow and fast variants). Cx camera CMOS sensor generate less heat when operated in slow mode. So, when the download speed is not that important, for instance after minutes long exposure, slow mode is recommended (who cares whether full 12 MPx image is downloaded in 0.12 s or 0.06 s). On the other side, when recording video of a planet, fast mode can be useful.

Cx camera firmware update utility

The firmware update in all Cx cameras is handled by the “CxFirmware.exe� utility. While this utility installation package is included in the “\Tools\CxFirmware\� folder on the USB Flash Drives shipped recently with all Cx and Gx cameras, it is always recommended to visit our Download page to get the latest version of the utility installation package.

The CxFirmware tool checks whether some Cx camera is connected to the host PC and if yes, it connects to it. The “Connected Camera� box shows the camera name and the “Connect� button remains disabled (camera is already connected). If the camera is attached to the PC only after the CxFirmware tool is launched, it is necessary to explicitly connect to it using the “Connect� button.

The “Camera Firmware� box shows the firmware version in the currently connected camera. The second box labeled “Current Firmware� shows the latest released firmware version for the particular camera.

There are two ways how to update camera firmware:

1. Fully automatic update. The tool downloads the latest firmware and writes the camera Flash memory. No other action than clicking the “Update Automatically� button is required from the user.

   If the camera firmware and the current firmware versions are the same, the “Update Automatically� button remains disabled as no update is necessary.

   Remark:

   This method requires active Internet connection.

2. Manual update. This method requires the desired ‘*.cfx’ file with respective camera firmware is already downloaded from our Firmware Download page. Clicking the “Update from Fileâ€� button opens a file-choosing dialog box. The selected file is then written to the camera Flash memory. The CxFirmware tool performs extensive check to ensure only a file compatible with connected camera is written. Also, any file corruption is detected.

The update process is performed in two phases. Do not unplug the camera while the firmware update is in progress!