Autodetect usb or firewire camera

[mkniller]

I wrote an application that uses an IEEE 1394 Firewire camea.  The application was only supposed to be used by our group and Firewire cameras were what we had laying around.  All of a sudden a company that we develop products for saw our setup and wanted to duplicate it.  However, their idea of duplicating it is by using a USB camera and expecting my application to work with it.  I don't mean to go on a rant about it but wanted to give some background informaiton.

I was hoping that there is a way to create an autodetection sequence to determine which type of camera is being used.  This way my application will work with any an all cameras.  Does anybody have any suggestions?

Thank you in advance for any help you may be able to provide.

Matt Kniller
Nova Research INC.


I am using LV 8 with Vision 8, I have IMAQ for USB installed as well.  The firewire camera we are using currently is a Sony XCD-SX9000.  The type of USB camera that will be used is unknown at this time, the customer has not picked one out yet.

Message Edited by mkniller on 05-05-2006 08:36 AM

[Savageaggie]

Matt,

Thanks for the post.  Getting an application written for a 1394 camera to work with a USB camera will be a bit trickey.  You will have to use seperate VIs (either 1394 or USB) acquisition methods depending on what camera you would like to use.  There are a few methods that check for 1394 camera availability and that fire events if the camera is removed.  The following documents on our website document these:

KnowledgeBase 3WAC7UD3: Handling Attached and Detached 1394 Cameras

KnowledgeBase 3WAC7UD3: Finding Attached IEEE-1394 Cameras Programmatically

The following Developer Zone article shows some example code that may help as well:

Developer Zone: Waiting for an IEEE 1394 Camera to be Attached

NI IMAQ for USB is not as well developed as IMAQ for 1394, as it is still a free add-on.  It would probably be best to check to see if a 1394 camera is present and make a decision based on that.

Thanks,

Scott Savage

National Instruments

Applications Engineering

www.ni.com/support

Message Edited by Savageaggie on 05-08-2006 11:00 AM