In order to communicate with the scanner the driver must make a network connection first.

Each time you go online you must make this connection manually. To establish a connection automatically, please follow the guidelines as described in the Network paragraph under System Interfacing.

• No
  Select No to disconnect. This will also stop scanning if the laser was still scanning.
  Note that the driver will automatically disconnect when going offline, but you may also do this manually prior to quitting.
• Yes
  Select Yes to connect.
  Under normal circumstances a successful connection will be established within a second.
  There will be a long timeout when no network connection can be made: it may take up to 10 seconds before you can continue. This may happen for example when the laser unit is still switched off or when the used IP address is not correct. After this timeout you will be informed in the Events list with a possible reason.
• [ View Log File ]
  This will open the laser log file using the standard Windows text editor, e.g. Notepad.
  More information about the laser log file can be found in the Additional Info pane of this document under section Troubleshooting.
• [ Open Log File folder ]
  This will open the current project's LogFiles folder using Windows Explorer. This folder contains the daily laser log file.
  More information about the laser log file can be found in the Additional Info pane of this document under section Troubleshooting.
• [ Request System Information ]
  Select this option to get some relevant system information from the laser unit:
  Polaris model and serial number, software and firmware versions, disk capacity information, power source and a list with external camera configuration files.
  This can be useful for the manufacturer e.g. in case of trouble shooting. All information is stored in the daily laser log file.
  Note that you need to be connected in order to retrieve this information.

This is a very important setting and it informs the driver how the scanner is physically mounted on the vehicle, with respect to its heading.

This setting is used in combination with the mounting alignment corrections (roll, pitch and heading offset) from your database system setup.
It means that when the selected scanner mounting is correct, your alignment corrections will be around zero.

• Normal, Cable Backward
  Select this when the scanner is mounted horizontally with the cable connector panel pointing backwards.
• Normal, Cable Forward
  Select this when the scanner is mounted horizontally with the cable connector panel pointing forward.
• Normal, Cable Starboard
  Select this when the scanner is mounted horizontally with the cable connector panel pointing to starboard side
• Normal, Cable Portside
  Select this when the scanner is mounted horizontally with the cable connector panel pointing to port side.

You can only change this setting when not connected.

Selected action will be send to the laser unit, immediately after hitting the Apply or OK button. You must have initialized the connection first in order to select any action.

Note that any selection will always revert back to [None], after each selected action.

Always wait a few moments after each action, until the status in the Event list is updated with a message. It takes some time before the unit handles the requested command (action) and reverts back.

• [ None ]
  This will be the selection after each action. Nothing will happen when hitting the Apply or OK button.
• Start 
  Select this action in order to start scanning in the selected scan mode.
  Note that it may take quite some time before the first data is received.
  Normal response time of the scanner after the Start action will be between 5 and 10 seconds: the scanner will always turn around to its null reference position and then turns to the selected horizontal direction.
  In the meantime you can not change any other setting, so be patient until the scanner starts scanning...
  If scanning could not be started for some reason, check the message in the Event list for a possible solution.
• Stop
  Select this action in order to stop scanning. Scanning will be stopped immediately after hitting the Apply or OK button.
  Note that it takes some seconds before the scanner will acknowledge that all has been stopped. Until then you can not change any other setting.
  On the rare occasion that the scanner does not respond to any command and keeps on spinning, you can go offline by closing the Controller. This will take a little longer than normal, but it will stop the scanner in the end. If this doesn't work, you should stop the scanner using the power on/off button on the scanner itself.

• 50 kHz
  This laser repetition rate is only supported by Polaris model LR

• 200 kHz
  This laser repetition rate is only supported by Polaris model ER and LR

• 500 kHz
  This laser repetition rate is supported by all three Polaris models: HD, ER and LR

When the selected Scan Rate is not supported by the connected Polaris model, you will be informed in the Events list panel.

The vertical resolution (distance between two consecutive laser hits) depends on a combination of the selected scan rate, the vertical area selection (FOV), an average reference range and a so-called galvo-speed value which will be send to the scanner: a lower galvo-speed value means a decreasing vertical resolution (more density), a higher galvo-speed value means an increasing vertical resolution (less density).
Due to the scanner physical limitations and dependencies on those aforementioned settings not all galvo-speed values are allowed.

So therefore the driver calculates for each combination a minimum and maximum galvo-speed value and the Scan Resolution selection here is actually a percentage (0% - 100%) of that dynamically calculated galvo-speed range:

• Low
• Medium
• Normal
• High
• Highest

For example when you select Low then the maximum allowed galvo-speed value will be send.
If you select Highest then the minimum allowed galvo-speed value will be used and if you select Normal then a value halfway between the minimum and maximum allowed galvo-speed is send to the scanner.

As mentioned before the vertical resolution depends also on the selected scan rate and the vertical area selection:

Note that for the calculations an average reference range of 250 meter is used.

The actual used galvo-speed value send to the scanner is logged in the daily laser log file for analyzing purposes.

Leave to 1 (default) to accept all incoming scans.

To use every n-th scan only, use a value greater than 1, which results in less points per seconds being recorded by Qinsy.

Note that excluded data due to this setting will not be recorded!

Set the line scan direction in degrees with respect to the vehicle heading. Valid Values are between 0 and 360 degrees. This setting is used in combination with the Scanner Mounting setting:

0 degree means scanning in forward direction, 90 degrees means scanning to starboard, 180 means scanning backwards and 270 means scanning to port side.

This option is only available when Scan Mode is set to Line (2D)

Select one of the predefined horizontal scan areas. The scanner will turn continuously clockwise, counter-clockwise, clockwise, etc.

The selected area is used in combination with the Scanner Mounting setting.

• Panorama
  The horizontal scan area goes from 0 to 360 degrees
• Forward
  The horizontal scan area goes from -90 to +90 degrees
• Wide Forward
  The horizontal scan area goes from -60 to +60 degrees
• Narrow Forward
  The horizontal scan area goes from -20 to +20 degrees
• Backward
  The horizontal scan area goes from +90 to +270 degrees
• Wide Backward
  The horizontal scan area goes from +120 to +240 degrees
• Narrow Backward
  The horizontal scan area goes from +160 to +200 degrees
• Starboard
  The horizontal scan area goes from 0 to +180 degrees
• Wide Starboard
  The horizontal scan area goes from +30 to +150 degrees
• Narrow Starboard
  The horizontal scan area goes from +70 to +110 degrees
• Portside
  The horizontal scan area goes from +180 to +360 degrees
• Wide Portside
  The horizontal scan area goes from +210 to +330 degrees
• Narrow Portside
  The horizontal scan area goes from +250 to +290 degrees

So in these predefined schemes Wide means ± 60 degrees and Narrow means ± 20 degrees.

This option is only available when Scan Mode is set to Radar (3D)

When enabled (default Yes) the scanner will start endless scanning after Start, until the Stop command is received.

• Yes (default)
  The scanner will turn continuously clockwise, counter-clockwise, clockwise, etc, until the Stop command is received.
• No
  The scanner will do a single scan only after the Start command. It stops automatically when the selected horizontal area has been scanned.
  After each single scan you can find a so-called PGM image file in the current projects Graphics sub-folder showing a preview of what has been scanned. Note that in order to view it you'll need a Image Viewer utility that supports the PGM file format.

This option is only available when Scan Mode is set to Radar (3D).

In Line (2D) mode the scanner will always scan continuously.

This option may not be available in your setup. In that case the scanner will always scan continuously until the Stop command is received.

Set the required horizontal rotation speed in degrees per second. Valid values must be between 1 (slow) and 90 (very fast) degrees per second.

This option is only available when Scan Mode is set to Radar (3D)

Set the minimum required range in meters. Valid Values: 1.5 m to 250 m (Polaris HD), 1.5 m to 750 m (ER) or 1.5 m to 2000 m (LR).

Using this setting is recommended, but be careful: Blocked data due to this setting (i.e. all pixels less than this range) will not be recorded!

Set the maximum required range in meters. Valid Values: 1.5 m to 250 m (Polaris HD), 1.5 m to 750 m (ER) or 1.5 m to 2000 m (LR).

Using this setting is recommended, but be careful: Blocked data due to this setting (i.e. all pixels more than this range) will not be recorded!

Set the minimum allowed intensity. Valid values are: 0 to 255.

Note that blocked data due to this setting (i.e. all returns with an intensity lower than this) will not be recorded!

Set the maximum allowed intensity. Valid values are: 0 to 255.

Note that blocked data due to this setting (i.e. all returns with an intensity higher than this intensity) will not be recorded!

An emitted laser pulse may hit one or several targets, causing one or several laser returns.
For example the first return is from a tree-leaf, a second return comes from another leaf, and a possible last return is because of hitting the wall.

Select here which return you want to decode.

• First
• Last
• All returns accepted

Notice that blocked data due to this setting will not be recorded

• Yes
  This will tell the scanner to use the PPS pulse/time message from the external GNSS to time stamp the laser data.
  Mandatory when scanning on a moving platform in order to compensate for heading and motion of the vehicle.
  Important is to check the Status Flag in a Generic Display: a value of 2 means that accurate timing is okay.
• No
  The driver will time stamp the laser data using the computer time when received at the network port. 
  Only select this
  - when scanning statically from a non-moving platform (Scan mode Radar 3D) or
  - when testing your setup in case the external GNSS is not available (yet). E.g. during mobilization time.
  The Status Flag value in a Generic Display will always be 0 (zero).

See for more information about the use of accurate timing the following sections in this document:
- System Interfacing, Timing
- Qinsy Online, Displays, Generic Display
- Trouble Shooting, Timing.

• No
  No additional pixel will be added to the resulting point cloud.
• Yes (Default)
  Every line scan an additional pixel with zero xyz co-ordinates will be added, in order to indicate the exact laser scanner location in the resulting point cloud.
  This extra pixel will always have beam number 1, and its intensity/quality value will be zero

• No (Default)
  Notice that during scanning the scanner will always store temporarily all data locally on its SSD drive. After the Stop command this data will be cleaned (deleted).
• Yes
  The scanned data will also be stored on the Polaris internal SSD drive using Teledyne Optechs own file format. Although this data is of no use for Qinsy it can be used e.g. by third-party applications.
  To view and download after the survey: use the on-board display and select Start, Surveys. The listed surveys will have the following name convention:
  Qinsy_date_utctime_additionaltext, where additional text is coming from the used Session Storage Format Specifier.
  
  It is the users responsibility to ensure that the scanners hard disk has enough capacity.
  Tip: use [ Request System Information ] to get the current disk capacity.

First, this setting has nothing to do with the internal camera onboard the laser scanner: the driver does not use or control this device.

But you can connect an external DSLR camera (currently only model Nikon D5500 or D5600) to the laser scanner using the 3.5 mm TRS headphone jack.

• No (Default)
  Select this when no external camera is connected at all or when no automatic capturing needs to be done.
• Camera Config 1
• ...
• Camera Config 5
  Use [ Request System Information ] to get a list with all available external camera configuration xml files.

In the unlikely situation that your scanner has more then five configuration xml files loaded and you need to select one of these, please contact QPS support for additional instructions.

If you've connected an external DSLR camera (currently only model Nikon D5500 or D5600) to the laser scanner (via the 3.5 mm TRS headphone jack) then you can set the trigger interval (in seconds) for capturing images automatically.

This option is only available when a Camera Configuration file has been selected

Triggering the camera is currently one-way only; there is no feedback from the camera to Polaris. This means images are all saved on the camera’s SD card, so it’s better to start with an empty SD card.

Please note that in case you need more image control with your external camera it can be an option to use our dedicated camera driver "DSLR Camera - WIA Compatible" instead.
It has many more advantages: extended triggering capabilities, JPG images will be geo-referenced, storage of these images immediately in the current project folder, images can be viewed instantly in the Navigation Display, etc.
Note that the driver works with most Nikon cameras and for more information please consult our Drivers description.