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How can I get 120 fps from my Basler firewire (IEEE 1394b) camera?

We have a Basler camera and I am having trouble getting it to grab frames at its max frame rate (120 fps).  I can do 60 fps, but not 120.  Here is my setup:

  • Camera = Basler scA640-120fc ... which is IEEE 1394b
  • Frame Grabber:  Got it from Basler with the camera.  Looks like its some kind of generic card.  Device Manager show "Basler Pylon 1396 Bus OHCI Agere"
  • Cameras are configed in MAX to use "NI-IMAQdx IIDC Digital Camera" driver
  • I am using WinXP SP3, NI-IMAQdx 3.7, MAX 4.7, LV 2010 ... and I have also installed the Basler Pylon SDK 2.3.3.2309.

 

I can grab (using MAX) at 60 fps using this mode:  "640x480 YUV 422 Packed 60 fps".  But if I try to increase the fps to 120 I get the typical "0xBFF69018 Insufficient Transfer Engine Resources".

 

I am strongly considering replacing the frame grabber with a NI PCIe-8253 board, but I am not convinced that will solve my problem.  

 

Any ideas?  I really want to make use of the max frame rate for this camera.

http://www.medicollector.com
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what firewire are you using A or B.  What OS, if it was XP you will need the firewire patch to access the 800Mb/s rates to get the full transfer.  What transfer rate did you select?

Paul Falkenstein
Coleman Technologies Inc.
CLA, CPI, AIA-Vision
Labview 4.0- 2013, RT, Vision, FPGA
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Its 1394b running on WinXP SP3.  I am pretty sure the transfer rate is maxed out, but I'll double-check.

 

Can you send a link to that patch?

http://www.medicollector.com
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XP sp2 needs the patch- probably sp3 as well.

Do you see 800mb option for speed or just 100, 200.

 

I havent done this in a while since I have phased XP out but try this link from MS:

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885222

Paul Falkenstein
Coleman Technologies Inc.
CLA, CPI, AIA-Vision
Labview 4.0- 2013, RT, Vision, FPGA
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Did the patch work, just curious if MS fixed this bug in SP3

Paul Falkenstein
Coleman Technologies Inc.
CLA, CPI, AIA-Vision
Labview 4.0- 2013, RT, Vision, FPGA
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Just ran over to try out that patch.  But it won't let me install it.  The patch tells me that my SP is higher than the current patch, and there is no need to install it.

 

Also checked my transfer rate and it is 800 MBps.  Here are all my settings in MAX.  If I change the "video mode" to 120 fps I get the infamous error.

 

Camera_attribs.JPG

http://www.medicollector.com
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I have only used the patch on SP2.  The patch allowed for 800 transfer speed (was not even in list before patch).  Is the card a pci or pci express card.  I also had an issue with firewire card and motion on the same shared pci bus limiting the camera throughput.  Offhand I cant think of anything else.  You could try using the legacy driver but this is a longshot.  Sorry the patch was not helpful.

Paul Falkenstein
Coleman Technologies Inc.
CLA, CPI, AIA-Vision
Labview 4.0- 2013, RT, Vision, FPGA
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Thanks for the tips.  Still stuck, though.

 

I tried the AVT driver located here:  http://www.alliedvisiontec.com/us/products/software/windows/avt-1394-busdriverpackage.html

 

I tried the default Microsoft driver.

 

I tried Basler's driver.

 

I tried MS KB 955408 :  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955408

 

Time to give up.  I am wasting my time.  I am ordering two NI PCIe-8253 cards today and chucking the one I got from Basler, which appears to be some kind of cheap re-branded Unibrain card from China. 

http://www.medicollector.com
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Arg!

 

I just bought two brand new IEEE 1394b frame grabbers from NI, and STILL can't get 120 fps!!  I even migrated everything to a fresh new Win7 x64 machine, and I am still getting the infamous "insufficient transfer engine resourses" error.

 

I have a sneaking suspicion that this problem has nothing to do with hardware or drivers or patches, but is actually to do with the manner in which I am grabbing frames. Do I need to use the "Format 7" mode to get the max frame rate?  Can anyone provide quick tips on when to use "Format 7"?

http://www.medicollector.com
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Hello josborne,

 

i feel for you as a year ago i was undergoing the same problem. I was using Basler cameras for bar code reading and i was using two of them at a time. i was getting the same error. In my case the issue was resolved after much pain. i changed the PCI cards, switched between a lot of softwares and hardwares to get the required results. In the end my issue came down to the Fire wire cable. I was using a very cheap cable. Perhaps this is the only thing i can add that you might be using some non+standard fire wire cable.

 

perhaps you can try replacing it and then see the results. 

Regards
Asad Tirmizi
Design Engineer
Institute of Avionics and Aeronautics

" Its never too late to be, what u want to be"
Using LabVIEW 8.2
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