04-20-2012 03:35 AM
Quick question....
I am looking for a firewire card for connecting 2 cameras. Will I be able to use a standard PCI-E card or will I need to look for one with one controller per port.... Most share a single controller voer multiple ports. I've had problems int eh past with multiple ports on one card, but this may have been a PCI card with limited system bandwidth.....
Ideas anyone?
The cameras will be most likely 1280x1024 RGB cameras with 60FPS.
Cheers for any help forthcoming.
Shane
04-20-2012 06:00 PM
Nobody, no?
The cameras are actually monochrome, 8-bit not RGB (24-bit) and only go up to 30Hz.....
I mean theoretically a FW400 card should handle a 1024pixel x 1280pixel x 8bit x 30Hz (314 Mbit/s without overhead) picture no problem but adding a second camera will more than saturate the bus.....
Anyone know of a decent PCI-E FW card which has two ports with a seperate controller for each? Please?
Shane
04-20-2012 06:58 PM
I don't know any firewire cards that meet your specs, but it might work to get a firewire B card, then use cables that convert from firewire B to A. A single firewire B controller should be able to handle both cameras easily, but I am not a hardware expert so I can't guarantee it.
Bruce
04-21-2012 02:18 AM
Thanks Bruce,
That's somethinge I can give a try.
Kudos.
Shane.
04-21-2012 03:55 PM
The Bandwidth Calculator here might help.
04-24-2012 04:50 AM
I strongly advise you to deploy a professional IEEE 1394a board for your imaging application.
National Instruments offers suchs interfaces for PCI, PCIe and PXI standards.
http://sine.ni.com/np/app/main/p/bot/no/ap/vision/lang/en/pg/1/sn/n17:vision,n21:11600,n28:1394/
04-25-2012 03:54 AM
Hi Shane.
I once used this (when using two cards was no option due to a missing free slot in the PC).
04-25-2012 06:42 AM
Doe these "professional" IEEE cards have full 400MBit per port, or is the bandwidth shared over all ports....
If shared, I fail to see the huge advantage over a "nonprofessional" card.
Shane.
04-25-2012 07:24 AM
The card has 2 buses. You have 2 cameras. Thus, you will get maximum performance for each camera as long as you connect each camera to a port that uses one bus exclusively.
04-26-2012 04:42 AM
Thanks Guenter,
The Q was meant more for the "Official" NI response, but that's cool info too.
Any idea where I get pricing for one of those cards? The website doesn't offer any pricing info.
Shane.