GigE camera image acquisition

[whbit]

Hello,

   This seems like it should be the most basic of problems with a very easy solution, but I have had no luck looking through the available manuals and help menus.

I have been trying to install the NI-IMAQ Vision Acquisition Software. I have followed and re-followed the installation instructions to no avail. When I reach the point of having the "measurement and automation" (ie. MAX) application open with my Intel Pro 1000 quad port card installed, and my GigE Vision camera connected, the instructions tell me to expand the "devices and interfaces" section in the configuration tree of the MAX program. This is supposed to bring up all the IMAQ and IMAQdx devices, from which i can select a camera file to begin acquiring images. However, in the "devices and interfaces" section, there is only "PXI system (unidentified)" and "serial and parallel"...this means NO "NI-IMAQ devices" section, which in turn means I cannot see my camera. Also, within the MAX configuration tree, the "My System" section only contains "Devices and Interfaces" and "Software" unlike all the screen shots in the NI support that show "Data Neighborhood", "Scales", and "IVI drivers" as well.

    Am I missing a piece of Hardware/Software? Am I forgetting a step of some kind?

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks.

[michaeld]

Greetings,

Thank you for using the National Instruments forums. The "Data Neighborhood", "Scales", and "IVI drivers" subsections likely don't appear because you don't have the DAQmx drivers installed, which these subsections are associated with, so that shouldn't cause any kind of concern. The "IMAQ" and "IMAQdx" subsection only appears if MAX has detected a camera that works with their respective drivers. What model camera are you using, and is it GigE compliant? The IMAQdx drivers will not be able to detect it if it is not compliant. Also, how are you connecting your camera to your development machine? Are you going through a crossover cable or through the network? Do you have any firewalls turned on that could potentially be blocking the port the camera is using?

In the mean time, I might suggest you take a look at this Developer Zone article which lists some very helpful tips for troubleshooting problems with GigE cameras.

[whbit]

Thanks....that helped a lot. I found a GigE Firmware Updater on the Jai/Pulnix website. Apparently "With the adoption of the GigE standard it is necessary to update the firmware inside some JAI, Inc. Gigabit Ethernet cameras to be GigE Vision compliant. This upgrade brings the cameras into compliance with the standard and allows proper access to GigE Vision control software." So as far as I can tell this is the solution I have been looking for. However, I am still running into problems *sigh*.

The Updater requires that you uninstall Cam2net (the camera software), but before doing so you have to make several changes to the settings of the NIC. However, I am having issues seeing the Intel Pro 1000 NIC in the Cam2net interface. Although it works fine as an ethernet port (appears as "wokring normally" and provides me with internet) the Cam2net software has it listed as "uninstalled". This means I can't change any of the settings and thus cannot proceed to update the firmware of the camera.

Is there any chance that anyone here has used the Jai Cam2net program and knows what might be causing this issue. I'm so close to sorting this out I can taste it....

Thanks

W

[michaeld]

W,

I'm not entirely familiar with the Cam2Net software, but I was looking through it's manual and it suggests that you remove any connected cameras. You mentioned that it's providing internet access to you just fine. Are you keeping an ethernet port active for internet use while you are trying to change some of its settings? If so, you might try disconnecting anything from the card and trying again.