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Cannot see Spyder 2 GigE camera in MAX

I am having problems interfacing to a Dalsa Spyder 2 GigE camera. I have installed Vision Acquisition Software 8.2.2 and Vision Builder AI 3.0. It is my understanding that I can just plug the camera into my Intel Pro 1000x NIC. Following the instructions in the NI-IMAQdx release notes, I enable jumbo frames for NIC, but I still cannot see the camera. Since it is an Ethernet connection, should the camera come up under Remote Systems or Devices and interfaces? I have also tried installing the NI Advanced driver for NIC, but Windows says it's not compatible. Any help would be really appreciated.
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Hello Kaveh,

Thank you for using National Instruments discussion forums.  When you said you followed the IMAQdx release notes did you actually go into Device Manager and switch the driver the Intel Pro 1000 uses by default to the IMAQdx driver?  This needs to be done to get the highest performance out of the NIC.  Once the driver is successfully switched to the NI IMAQdx (GigE) driver you can connect the camera to the Intel Pro 1000 and open up Measurement and Automation Explorer.  It can take up to 60 seconds or more sometimes to detect a GigE camera.  When the camera is recognized it will show up under "Devices and Interfaces" not "Remote Systems" and then under "IMAQdx Devices".  Also make sure you have manually disabled this port for any firewalls you have running on that machine.  If you are unsure how to do this and do not know if this is causing the issue then you can disable your entire firewall and see if it is then detected.  Remember though it can sometimes take more than a minute for the camera to be detected once it is powered on and plugged in.  I hope this information helps.  Thanks and have a great day.

Regards,
Mark T
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
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Dear Mark,

Thanks for your reply. If I try and use the NI GigE Vision Adaptor driver for my NIC, Windows says it's not compatible. I continued anyway, but no luck. From what I have read, you don't necessarily need this driver to simply see the camera in MAX, so this is not a primary concern I imagine. I have enabled jumbo frames as well, but still cannot see anything in MAX. The camera is definitely connected fine as I can communicate with it using its own Dalsa software, but for some reason I cannot see it in MAX. Is there anything I should do in terms of camera files? I also wanted to run the compatibility testing program
for GigE Cameras with NI-IMAQdx but apparently you need to able to view the camera in MAX first before you run the program!

Your help would be much appreciated.

Kind regards,

Kaveh.
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Hello Kaveh,

You are right in saying that you do not have to set the Intel Pro 1000 to use the IMAQdx driver but it is strongly recommended and will give you the best performance.  The Windows compatibility pop up is expected and the card will work fine so make sure you do click yes when you receive this message.  Do you have any firewalls setup for the computer you are using including the windows firewall?  If so then try disabling the firewalls and see if the camera then shows up in MAX. Let me know if this helps.

Regards,
Mark T
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
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Dear Mark,

Well, after 2 months I'm right back where I started. I sent my camera (SG-10-01K40) to Dalsa for them to apply a firmware upgrade to make my camera GigE compliant. I still cannot see it in MAX. It's actually as if none of the IMAQ software is installed, even though I have installed Vision Aquisition Software 8.2.2, because there is no IMAQ under Devices and Interfaces. Maybe that subtree only occurs if it actually picks up a device.
When I right click on Devices and Interfaces and click Create New, there is no IMAQ/dx device listed.

I have tried using the NI High Performance Ethernet driver, using the normal Intel Pro/1000 driver with Jumbo Frames (which apparently applies a universal GigE driver), tried both straight and crossover ethernet cables and disabled my Windows firewall. Both the camera and the computer are on the 169.254.x.x subnet aswell. The camera works fine with Dalsa software.

These are desperate times - any help would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,

Kaveh.
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Hi Kaveh,
 
Sorry to hear you're still having problems after the firmware update. Assuming the firmware you have now is actually GigE compliant, it sounds like you still have a camera discovery problem. One main cause for this could be an IP address configuration mismatch, but you mentioned that you have the camera and PC both in the link-local address space. How did you confirm the camera's IP setting if you can't see it in MAX? If you used Dalsa's software to assign it an address, is it just temporary as long as their software is used, or is it programmed in as a persistent IP address on camera bootup?
 
At this point the easiest thing I can recommend from a troubleshooting perspective would be to download a copy of Ethereal or Wireshark and start a capture on the network card the camera is connected to. While you have this running, open MAX and expand the Devices and Interfaces tree. You should see UDP broadcasts to port 3956 (GigE Vision control port). There should also be replies to that by the camera. If you do not see replies then it is a problem with the camera's support for GigE Vision. If you like, you can attach your capture here and I can take a look myself.
 
-Eric G
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Dear Mark,

Thanks for your reply. I have attached the capture file which recorded through Ethereal. My computer is definitely broadcasting packets to port 3956, but I'm not sure about the reply - hopefully you will be able to tell from the file.

Yes, I have to startup the Dalsa software (QuickCam) for the camera to be given a IP. I'm not sure if it keeps that IP when I close the program, so I just keep it open to be safe.

I am currently doing all of this without the GigE Vision Adaptor driver for my NIC. I have just enabled jumbo packets which, according to the Vision Aquisition Release Notes for IMAQdx, enables a universal GigE Vision driver. When I try and install the GigE driver for my NIC, Windows completes the install but then says the installation failed and 'this device cannot start', and I can't even see a LAN connection anymore in Network Connections. I'm running Win XP, SP 1, nothing out of the ordinary. I used to be able to the see the GigE driver in the driver list, but can't anymore so I have to point it to C:\Program Files\National Instruments\NI-IMAQdx\Staging\GigE Vision\nigevk.inf. Can you please verify that this is the right .inf file?

Thanks in advance,

Kaveh.
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Hi Kaveh,
 
I hate to force you to go through Dalsa again, but it definitely appears that your camera either does not support GigE Vision or is not properly configured to use it. You can see our discovery packets (see packet 132-136, for instance) going out with no replies. The network connectivity is obviously working well because the proprietary discovery protocol (non-GigE-Vision)  used via your Dalsa software is sending queries and receiving responses. Perhaps it is possible that the GigE Vision protocol support is disabled when you are accessing it via the Dalsa software? When we tested a Dalsa Spyder with proper GigE Vision firmware it was working right out of the box without any configuration. My guess is either Dalsa still did not install firmware capable of GigE Vision or else there is something configuration-wise that is preventing it from working.
 
With regards to your other problems with our High-Performance Driver, are you using a PCI-based Pro/1000 MT model? Does the device work correctly after a reboot? If you continue having problems loading the High-Performance driver I can probably point you to a patch that should fix it. That INF you pointed to is the correct one.
 
Hope this helps,
Eric G
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Hi Eric,

What do you suggest to be the best way of giving the camera an IP without using the Dalsa software? I will do this in case GigE is disabled when the Dalsa software is running.

According to this post (which you've posted in) http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=200&message.id=9650&view=by_date_ascending&page=2 when the user got his camera running he said you must use the NI GigE driver for the NIC. As I mentioned earlier, my LAN connection dissapears/fails when I implement this driver, even after a reboot, so if you could point me to that patch, that would be great.

Many thanks,

Kaveh.

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Hi Kaveh,
 
We have a function provided by our API that uses the GigE Vision protocol to "force" a temporary address to the camera. This is generally only used in a recovery-type situation where a user programmed an incorrect persistent IP address (one that comes up each time the camera boots) and prevents themselves from communicating with the camera. Under LabVIEW there should be a VI called "IMAQdx Reset Ethernet Camera Address.vi." Under our other environments (C, VB,. .NET) it should be some variant of ResetEthernetCameraAddress(). I'm still doubtful this will fix it, as it doesn't seem likely that the camera would just not respond to GigE Vision discoveries, but its worth a shot.
 
Using the NI High-Performance GigE Vision driver will not affect your ability to see and control the camera. The only place it will make a difference is when you start trying to stream images from the camera. It would be beneficial to you to use it if you have the right hardware, but it will not affect the problem you are having. There is currently no patch publicly posted for the initialization problem you are seeing with your Pro/1000 MT model, but I will try to get something posted soon since it is causing you some problems.
 
-Eric
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