Vision Lighting Compatibility with Cognex Cameras
Cognex In-Sight and DataMan cameras drive their trigger and strobe signals through software-configurable, opto-isolated digital I/O. Click a camera series below to see its I/O type, voltage, and exactly how to wire it to our lighting.
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Hover or click a camera series to see its I/O type and how to wire it to the light.
Synchronizing Trigger and Exposure
On every Cognex camera, each digital output can be individually assigned in In-Sight Explorer (or the DataMan Setup Tool) to a specific signal — Acquisition Trigger, Strobe, Pass/Fail, Good Read, and more — and each output's polarity can be set independently to Active High (PNP/sourcing) or Active Low (NPN/sinking).
The most common integration mistake isn't a wiring error at all: it's reusing an output that's already assigned to Pass/Fail or Good Read signaling to also drive the light. Whenever another event toggles that output, the light fires an unplanned strobe — wasting LED lifetime and, on fast lines, washing out the very frame the camera is trying to capture. Always dedicate a single output exclusively to the strobe signal.
Cable routing warning
Keep the trigger/strobe cable short and shielded, especially when it runs alongside VFD or servo drive cabling. A long, unshielded run between the camera's output and the light's Pin 4 picks up electrical noise that can cause false triggers or jitter in the strobe timing — tie the cable shield to Pin 5 (FE) at the lighting end, not to the camera's signal ground.
Configuring Strobe / Overdrive Outputs Under VisionPro
Cognex VisionPro deployments drive strobe and overdrive outputs through the same opto-isolated digital I/O described above, but the assignment happens in the VisionPro QuickBuild or .NET tool instead of In-Sight Explorer: map the digital output wired to the light's Pin 4 to the trigger/strobe event in your CogIOControllerBoard configuration, keep the output polarity (PNP/NPN) consistent with the M12 5-pin wiring used on In-Sight cameras, and raise the overdrive pulse width only within the duty cycle your light's datasheet allows — overdriving beyond spec shortens LED lifetime.
Ask Our Wiring Team
Tell us about your camera, controller or trigger setup and one of our engineers will help you wire it correctly.