FireWire Camera CHIP ID-Lo setting

[K_seeker]

I received four  FireWire Cameras two of which has the same serial numbers which confuses MAX. The way I understand the cameras need to have unique serial numbers for MAX to assign a camX (camera number) to it. I am talking to Vendor to correct the problem, mean time I am curious if any one of you out their have a utility that can rewrite the Serial number to Firewire devices.

Thanks.

[Jack J.]

Unfortunately, there is typically no way to change the serial number of a camera. That information is hardcoded into the camera by the manufacturer. And since NI's driver uses the serial number to identify the camera, there would be no way for you to use two cameras with the same serial number. I'm afraid the manufacturer is the only one who can fix the problem.

Regards,

Jack J.
Product Support Engineer
National Instruments

[JohannS]

Weird! I have never heard of a duplicated serial number. What is the duplicate serial number (as listed on the MAX general tab)?

Regards

Johann

[K_seeker]

Same here. It was first time for me too. The camera Manufacturer was also stunned and he admitted that some thing went wrong on their side. So I am in process of returning it to the vendor who will replace it with a different one. I hope it was only a one time deal and the vendor didn't get the whole batch with the same Serial #. The serial number was as follows

0x8004602000ADDDD.

You can read these values from the firewire devices using low level vis in IMAQ 1394 pallete. When I googled for CHIP ID-Lo I came across a Firewire hard drive manuafacturer/retailer (from UK I think) who had a java utility for rewritting these numbers. (Note CHIP ID-Lo is the lower 32 bits of a 64 bit  registers used for assigning the device serial numbers.)

Thanks