Machine Vision

cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Synchronizing a Strobe Light with Camera through LabVIEW

I am currently using a LabVIEW vi to acquire images using a Manta G-419B camera. In addition, I am trying to use an output from the camera to sync a strobe light to it. When I run the vi, the camera takes pictures, but the strobe never lights up. However, when I use grab in MAX, the strobe works fine. How do I fix this? Any help would be appreciated. 

 

Thanks.

0 Kudos
Message 1 of 4
(2,755 Views)

Hi Nick2017,

 

Could you post your code?  It might make it easier for us to see what you are doing.

 

Also, have you tried this in NI Vision Assistant to see if the same problem exists?  If it doesn't, you can export your NI Vision Assistant script to LabVIEW and compare that to your LabVIEW code to see what is missing.

 

Regards,

 

George B.

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

0 Kudos
Message 2 of 4
(2,702 Views)

George,

 

I have attached my code.

 

I have since been able to get the strobe to light up when the camera captures images in my code. However, my issue now is that even when the camera is not capturing images (when the case statement is false or the code isn't running) the strobe still flashes.

 

Any help with this would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

0 Kudos
Message 3 of 4
(2,691 Views)

Hi Nick2017,

 

I'm not sure what the root cause is - but I can say that looks like you cobbled the settings together manually.

 

It may be a lot easier to use the NI Vision Assistant to set things up.  It's a GUI tool that really simplifies setting up and testing vision acquisition & post processing acquired images.  After you get the project working the way you want, you can export the code to LabVIEW.

 

In this case, it may be easier to set up the acquisition using that tool, export the code to LabVIEW and look at how the strobe light is implemented.

 

Another way to test the strobe settings is to use NI MAX.  You can edit the camera file through NI MAX and test within NI MAX.  Once those settings are correct, you won't have to use the property nodes to set the attributes in LabVIEW. 

 

As far as what the specific settings should be, I would think you might have better luck if you give the camera manufacturer a call to discuss what the ideal settings are for your desired behavior.  Once you have that, it is going to be less shooting in the dark when trying to set up the camera.

 

Regards,

 

George B.

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

0 Kudos
Message 4 of 4
(2,657 Views)