Camera File Generator Timeout -- Drivers?

[ferg55]

Hello all,

I am having trouble getting a camera to work with the CFG, I am getting the timeout error.

-- It is working fine with another camera, so I know the framegrabber is set up and everything is plugged in etc.

-- I have tried every combination of tap settings, and have been asking for just 50x50 pixels, so neither of those things are the issue.

What could be the problem? Do I need the right drivers for my camera even to obtain a single image from the CFG? The problem camera is the 25CL+ from Mikrotron (there is no support/ camera files available). I have tested with the 3CL from Mikrotron. I believe I have installed all the drivers available from NI.

Thanks for any comments/ help.

Fergus

[kensign · Accepted solution]

Hi Fergus,

If you're able to acquire from a different Camera Link camera, you have the right drivers.

• Does the camera have power?
  • If there's some LED on the camera to confirm it's powered, that would rule out problems in this category.
  • If you're using external power you should be fine, otherwise read on...
  • By default when creating a camera file in the CFG, Power over Camera Link will be disabled. If the camera supports it (which it says it does), you'll have to enable that in the file yourself by manually editing it if you want to use it.
  • It's also worth noting that the current Camera Link frame grabbers were released prior to the Camera Link 2.0 standard adding support for dual-powered PoCL. If the camera requires PoCL from both ports, no current NI frame grabber will do this.
• Did you try different bit depths as well as tap configurations?
  • I found the data sheet, but it doesn't provide many details about what the default configuration could possibly be but it does mention it supports a bit depth of 8 or 10. If you have a contact at Mikrotron, they should be able to tell you what the default settings are on this camera. I would have guessed it would default to 10 tap, 8 bit, but it seems like you already tried that.

I noticed this is the first of their cameras with GenICam support. Since IMAQ doesn't currently support GenICam for CameraLink, we require that the camera starts streaming by default when it turns on. It is possible that when Mikrotron rolled out this support they made it such that a camera will not start streaming until you hit a register to tell it to start. If this is the case, we would not be able to use it out of the box with IMAQ. The key things we need to know are whether this camera should start streaming by default when powered on, and what the default bit depth and tap configuration is. Since these things are not outlined in the data sheet, Mikrotron would need to provide that information.

Hope this helps,

Katie

[ferg55]

Hi Katie,

Thanks a lot for your help.

I spoke with mikrotron, and your second suggestion is bang on the money: it is a problem with the genicam standard, and the fact that the camera is not in acquisition mode when you first turn it on.

In order to communicate over the GenICam standard, I have had success using this tool (avaliable from JAI). Using that, I can start the acquisition.

Once the acquisition is started, I can grab a frame. Success!

Unfortunately I have a camera that I can only communicate with using third party software. But at least it is a step in the right direction. Now I am going to see if it is possible to communicate with the camera using custom-made .dlls with the help of the JAI software... wish me luck!

Thanks again,

Fergus

P.S. Also for clarifications: it is indeed 8-bit, but the fact that it is 10-tap was much harder to establish. (In fact I first worked out that it must be 10-tap but multiplying the claimed framerate, bit depth and number of pixels together.) Thankfully all this information is in the XML file on the camera, so once you have access to that you have access to everything.