How do you communicate with a USB RAW camera

[kd12]

I have a USB camera which I am trying to control using LabView. I have followed the tutorial, Using NI-VISA 3.0 to Control Your USB Device, and the device is now recognized by MAX. The device came with demo software allowing me to control it through the PC, i.e. change exposure controls, white balance controls, tell it to stream video and when to capture a still image. All I really need to do with LabView is load initial settings to the camera, tell it when to begin streaming video, tell it when to take a still image, and tell it when to stop streaming video, but I have no idea how to talk to the camera from here. For example, I am not sure if my device uses Bulk, control, or an interrupt pipe, and I am not sure how I can read and write from my device even if I knew the appropriate pipe or endpoint. I also noticed that the "VISA USB RAW Control" VI has fields such as "request", "request type", "index", etc. I read some notes trying to figure out what these meant, but I couldn't find anything. With all that said can anybody name any tutorial/article(s) I should read that will help point me in the right direction?  Any help will be appreciated.

[Dennis_Knutson]

I think you might want to undo everything the tutorial told you to do and try this instead. Using VISA should be considered a last, desperate option, imho, and I'm not sure how you would would have been directed to that. Search the forums and the NI site for 'USB camera' and you will find a lot of links.

[kd12]

I actually started at that link a couple days ago but after I tried installing it I got an installation error- you must have vision 7.1 or higher with LabView 7.0 or higher or you must have Vision Assistant 7.1 or higher installed to use this add-on. I have LabView 8.5, i'm not positive but I'm pretty sure I have vision 7.1 or higher and I know I do not have Vision Assistant. Assuming that I do have vision 7.1 or higher is there something I can do to get this add-on to install correctly?

[Dennis_Knutson]

There's a comment at the bottom of the link that mentions a fix to get it to install for 8.5. I haven't tried it myself.

[kd12]

Yeah...I tried that and still got the same error. This may be a stupid question but does vision 7.1(or whatever version it is up to) come with the LabView developer suite core package? or is it an add on for an additional cost? I notice I have NI-IMAQ VI's listed under the Vision and Motion palette but I don't know if that's a part of vision 7.1 or not. Thanks for your help.

[Dennis_Knutson]

There are so many different options with the developer suite that I don't know what comes with what. I don't currently have a license for any of the vision stuff so I'm not sure how to check if you have what you need. Sorry. Hopefully someone else can answer.

[McCarty]

Hello kd,

Dennis pointed you to the correct link.  You will need the NI-IMAQ for USB Cameras driver to acquire images from a DirectShow USB camera into LabVIEW.  As you can see from the attached table image, you will need the NI Vision Development Module 8.5 for LabVIEW 8.5.  You can determine which version of the NI Vision Development Module that you have installed by opening the NI Measurement and Automation Explorer, expanding the Software section under My System, and looking for an item called "NI Vision."  By single-clicking on the NI Vision item, you will bring up information, including the version number, in the Attributes tab off to the right. 

Best Regards,
T. McCarty