Horizontal lines appear in grab acquision after a while

[sppelletier]

Hello everyone, My system is using 4 cameras. this system worked for about 3 years and never had a problem with this. But now, When I start my process for less than an hour, I start to see horizontal lines in my acquisition image. Even when I close all my VI, this also happen in MAX. For the Xmas holiday's, I've turn all the system off. When I started everything back, My PXI chassis wasn't in MAX. So I've finally figured out that I had to open the PXI chassis before opening the computer. But, by doing that, I've lost some seting that I've manage to recover from backups. Is there a seting in MAX that could do this? A seting that could have a link with the image buffer? I'm also getting errors about the IMAQ acquisition that I never had before like "IMG_ERR_TIM0" Thank you for your help.

[sppelletier]

Sorry, I've forgot to add my hardware list. I'm using a PXI-1000B chassis with a PXI-1409 acquisition card. I'm using Labview 6.1. Thank you,

[iRish]

Coolaid,

I am a little bit confused, but if you can clarify my comments below, I will do my best to help you.

What I understand is that you have a PXI 1000b, and a 1409 in it.  You have 4 cameras connected to it and it was working fine for quite some time.  Now you see horizontal lines in the acquistion image if your application is running less than an hour?  You powered down the PXI Chassis over the Xmas break, and your settings were lost.

To start with, your PXI device has to be powered on before you turn on your computer as it sends signals to your PC, which is what allows it to be seen in Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX).  Your settings should be saved when you power down the device, so I am surprised that you lost some of them.  Did you perhaps make some changes to the device settings and not remember to save them before powering down?

Also, which versions of LabVIEW and NI-IMAQ are you using?  Which Cameras do you have?  What operating system?

You mention that you see a horizontal line across your acquisition image in MAX and LabVIEW.  Does this only show up in the active capture window or also in the images you save to your hard drive.  Do the lines go away after your system is running for more than 1 hour?

[sppelletier]

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@iRish wrote:
Coolaid,

I am a little bit confused, but if you can clarify my comments below, I will do my best to help you.

What I understand is that you have a PXI 1000b, and a 1409 in it.  You have 4 cameras connected to it and it was working fine for quite some time.  Now you see horizontal lines in the acquistion image if your application is running less than an hour?  You powered down the PXI Chassis over the Xmas break, and your settings were lost.

To start with, your PXI device has to be powered on before you turn on your computer as it sends signals to your PC, which is what allows it to be seen in Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX).  Your settings should be saved when you power down the device, so I am surprised that you lost some of them.  Did you perhaps make some changes to the device settings and not remember to save them before powering down?

Also, which versions of LabVIEW and NI-IMAQ are you using?  Which Cameras do you have?  What operating system?

You mention that you see a horizontal line across your acquisition image in MAX and LabVIEW.  Does this only show up in the active capture window or also in the images you save to your hard drive.  Do the lines go away after your system is running for more than 1 hour?

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Hello, Sorry for the confusion. Here's my configuration. Labview 6.1 Windows 2000 NI-IMAQ 2.5.1 4 cameras JAI CV-A60 You are right, my PXi-1409 is in my PXI 1000b. When I've started everything and noticed that MAX didn't saw my PXI-1000b, I've search in this forum and found the same solution that you gave me. It worked but my motion settings wasn't the good one. I've finally manage to found the right setting. I didn't touch the setting of the cameras because it was working right when I've tried in MAX. Just to let you in the context, the cameras are used to do fiber optic inspection. I've got 5 points in my process that I do the inspection of the fiber. There's 3 places in my process that I acquire (grab) the image process it live. I beleive that in that case, the images are store in a buffer. The other inspections only take pictures (snap) and analyse it. It seams that my problems only occure when I acquire the image. I can then see this in MAX. When I take a picture by "snap" the picture is ok. But I take pictures by "grab" I can see the horizontal bars. It's like if I have a TV that the horizontal sync need adjustment. My VI's cannot analyse thoses images so I restart the computer then. It happen about 30-45min after I've start my vi to produce. I should be able to send you a picture of what's happening today. Hope that it will help you to help me :). Do you have a book that you suggest to me that could help me have a better understanding of camera acquisition? Thank you for your time. Coolaid

[iRish]

Coolaid,

If I understand correctly, you are not seeing the horizontal lines when your Snap in MAX, but you do see it when you Grab in MAX.
The same thing happens when you use LabVIEW and run a grab for 30-45 minutes?

Is the AVI you save using your grab display this line as well, or is it only showing up on the active display?  This will help us see that it is an acquistion issue vs. your video card.

[sppelletier]

Hello, I'm not saving the avi. I'm only grabbing the picture while the fiber is moving up and I'm processing the image live (clamp). I must tell you that I've unplugged everything that's plug to the PXI-1000b and clean it. I've gently pass the air in it. I did this Wednesday afternoon and never saw the problem since then. Is it possible that my problem was that I had too much dust in it and that the card was heating more that the usual and that cause me this problem? Thank you for your support.

[iRish]

Hi coolaid,

My next suggestion was going to be for your to check your hardware.  When you are doing a continuous grab your camera will heat up and under repeated stress could start showing weird behaviour such as horizontal lines

Glad to hear your issue is resolved!

[sppelletier]

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iRish wrote: Hi coolaid, My next suggestion was going to be for your to check your hardware.  When you are doing a continuous grab your camera will heat up and under repeated stress could start showing weird behaviour such as horizontal lines Glad to hear your issue is resolved!

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Hello again, I tought that my clean up and to unplug and plug everything had solve the problem. But this morning, the problem showed up again. We were able to produce all friday without any problems. I've add some screenshots of what look like the problem. On the first picture, you can see what the picture look like when I take a snap. The other two pictures is when I grab. As for your suggestion of heating, When I reset the computer it wouldn't change anything I think? Is there any way to diagnostic the acquisition card?

[yaHeard]

Hello coolaid,

Could you try reposting the images?  They didn't make your last post.  How old is the 1409?  It would be rare, but a hardware problem could be the cause of the issue but since apparently some changes where made in MAX around the same time the issue came up we need to test out the software side, too.  What camera file are you using with the 1409?  You might also check your field/frame settings in MAX in the Acquisition Parameters tab.  You can run a self-test on the board in MAX by right-clicking the 1409 and selecting "self-test."

[sppelletier]

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@Carlton H wrote:

Hello coolaid,

Could you try reposting the images?à   They didn't make your last post.à   How old is the 1409?à   It would be rare, but a hardware problem could be the cause of the issue but since apparently some changes where made in MAX around the same time the issue came up we need to test out the software side, too.à   What camera file are you using with the 1409?à   You might also check your field/frame settings in MAX in the Acquisition Parameters tab.à   You can run a self-test on the board in MAX by right-clicking the 1409 and selecting "self-test."

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Hello, I've had the images to this post, if it doesn't work, I could send it to you by email.

I think that my 1409 is about 5-6 years old. I'm using MAX 3.0.2. I don't find the Field/frame settings that you are talking about.

Thank you,