Pinouts (M12 Power & I/O)

OV Spark carries all power, digital I/O, and the reset signal on a single M12 12-pin connector on the bottom of the housing. Tick what you are connecting and you get every core to land.

What are you connecting?

Tick what is on your line. The table lists every core to land on the flying-leads cable.

NPN part sensor as the triggerPhoto-eye or proximity sensor that fires as each part arrivesA digital inputA status signal from the line into DI0 or DI1Reject valve, relay or stack lightAnything the camera switches on a pass or failExternal light on the strobe outputBacklight or ring light the built-in LEDs cannot replace

Connections

Pin	Camera core	Signal	Connect to
7	Black	Vin+	+24 V supply
8	Gray	GND	0 V supply
10	Violet	Trigger	Sensor signal output
9	Red	DIO GND	Sensor 0 V, and the supply 0 V
11	Orange	DO0	Load negative. Load positive goes to +24 V

Black is positive on this cableBlack is Vin+ and Gray is ground, the reverse of what most people expect. Check it against this table before you apply power.

NPN part sensor as the triggerPower the sensor itself from the same 24 V supply as the camera, so they share a 0 V reference.

Reject valve, relay or stack lightThe output switches the load to ground. Above 30 V or 0.2 A, drive a relay instead of the load itself.

Wiring a specific sensor model or PLC? The IO Helper builds a full diagram for OV Spark, with the other device's own wire colours.

In short

• Same connector, pinout and cable colours as the OV80i
• Black is Vin+ and Gray is ground on this cable, the reverse of what most people expect
• Power on pins 7 and 8, trigger on pin 10, digital output on pin 11, strobe or second output on pin 12
• The same connector takes the Overview PoE adapter

Connector face

Pin assignment

Pin	Signal	Function
1	Digital Input 1	Opto-isolated input
2	Reserved	Not connected
3	Reserved	Not connected
4	Reset System	Pull to reset the camera
5	Digital Input 0	Opto-isolated input
6	Digital Input Common	Supply rail for the input opto-isolators (10–30 V)
7	Vin+	System power in, +24 V
8	Vin−	System power in, ground
9	Digital GND	Reference for digital I/O
10	Trigger Input	Hardware trigger, pull to Digital GND
11	Digital Output 0	Sinking output
12	Digital Output 1 / Strobe Out	Shared output, selectable function

Identical to the OV80i, with one difference

OV Spark uses the same M12 A-coded 12-pin Power & I/O pinout as the OV80i, pin for pin. Wiring, breakout boxes and cable assemblies are interchangeable between the two.

The one difference is pin 12: on the OV80i it is Digital Output 1, while on OV Spark the same pin is a shared Digital Output 1 / Strobe Out with a selectable function.

The OV10i and OV20i use a 17-pin connector with a completely different layout. Do not carry wiring across from those.

Wire colour reference

The flying-leads Power & I/O cable uses the same colour code as the OV80i, since it is the same connector.

Pin	Signal	Wire colour	Notes
1	DI1	Brown (BN)	NPN, active low
4	Reset	Green (GN)	NPN, active low
5	DI0	Pink (PK)	NPN, active low
7	Vin+	Black (BK)	19 V to 24 V
8	GND	Gray (GY)	Power ground
9	DIO GND	Red (RD)	Digital I/O ground
10	Trigger	Violet (VT)	NPN, active low
11	DO0	Orange (OG)	NPN, sinking
12	DO1	Light Green (LTGN)	NPN, sinking. Shared with Strobe Out on OV Spark

Pins 2, 3 and 6 are not brought out on the flying-leads cable.

Black is positive here, not ground

On this cable Black (BK) is Vin+ and Gray (GY) is power ground. That is the opposite of the convention most people carry in from general electrical work, and it is the single easiest way to destroy a camera on a bench.

Check the colour against this table before you apply power, every time.

This connector also carries PoE

The Overview PoE adapter CB-POE25-RJ45F-M12A12F-1 mates with this same 12-pin connector and feeds the camera from an 802.3af or 802.3at source. See Power over Ethernet.

Two grounds, two jobs

Pin 8 (Vin−) is the power return. Pin 9 (Digital GND) is the reference for the trigger and the outputs. Keep them straight: sensors and loads reference pin 9, the power supply references pin 8.

Pin 10 is the trigger, even where the platform table calls it reserved

Some platform documentation lists pin 10 under "reserve". On OV Spark it is the hardware trigger input, with a pulse duration of 0–8192 µs. Wire your trigger sensor to pin 10 and Digital GND (pin 9).

Powering the camera

Connect pin 7 to +24 V and pin 8 to 0 V from a regulated 19–24 VDC supply. The camera draws 12 W typically and 17 W peak, so a supply rated for at least 24 W gives comfortable headroom.

Trigger input

Pulling pin 10 down to Digital GND (pin 9) generates a trigger event. Leaving it floating holds the line high, so no capture occurs.

Parameter	Specification
Pulse duration	0–8192 µs
Software interrupt	No

Digital inputs

The two digital inputs (pins 5 and 1) are opto-isolated and share a common supply rail on pin 6. Connect pin 6 to your 10–30 V control voltage, then switch the input pin to ground to activate it.

Parameter	Specification
Input voltage	High: 10–30 VDC, Low: 0–3 VDC
Input current	Max 10 mA
Frequency	Max 60 Hz
Response time	Max 18.8 µs
Software interrupt	Yes

Digital output

Pin 11 is a sinking output. When active it pulls the line to Digital GND; when inactive it floats, so the voltage sits wherever your load's pull-up puts it.

Parameter	Specification
Sink voltage	Up to 30 V
Sink current	Typical 0.2 A
Frequency	Max 60 Hz
Response time	Max 8 µs

Outputs sink, they do not source

Like every Overview camera, the digital outputs pull to ground when active and cannot supply +24 V. Wire the load between +24 V and the output pin. Anything above 30 V or 0.2 A needs a relay.

Strobe output

Pin 12 doubles as a second digital output and as a strobe output for an external light. Its faster response time suits strobe timing.

Parameter	Specification
Sink voltage	Up to 30 V
Sink current	Typical 0.2 A
Frequency	Max 60 Hz
Response time	Max 4.5 µs

The built-in lights come first

OV Spark has 8 programmable white LEDs on board. Reach for the strobe output only when you need an external light the built-in ring cannot cover, such as backlighting or a very large field of view.

Back to the getting-started pathInstall the camera

Step 1 of 13. Mount it, wire power and I/O, and confirm the status LEDs.