How can I know if the PCIe-1433 sees a Frame Valid?

[sdmadman]

Hi everybody

I'm developing a camera, starting with a vendor's evaluation board. The eval system came with a PCIe-1433 and a LabView based app for capturing and displaying images. That all works well - I double-check periodically to make sure the eval board didn't break.

The vendor set the board up as a 4x12 Camera Link Medium. I'm trying to run it as an 8x8 CL Full, and that's where the trouble starts. I've redesigned the FPGA on the eval board to push out 8x8 data, and it looks like it does, but the VI times out waiting for the data.  Now, most likely the problem is in my camera's FPGA code, but troubleshooting has been tough.  I suspect a) not sending any data at all or b) Frame, Line, and Data Valids are in the wrong bit positions (some confusion there, but I'll put that on a separate post).

Is there a way to get the 1433 to tell me that it got a Frame Valid, or Line Valid, or some data (and maybe how many pixels)? Ideally, I'd like to route signals to the Trigger SMB connector so I can watch them on a scope and see if they line up with signals in the FPGA.

Thanks!

MADman

[sdmadman]

Almost forgot:

Lenovo Think , Windows 7 Pro 64-bit

LabVIEW 2010 SP1

VAS 2013 08

NI-MAX 5.5.0f0

[BlueCheese]

Maybe someone has some better ideas, but that kind of general purpose debug capability isn't really baked into the logic of the 1433 (as far as I know). The 1473R might be a better choice since it gives you full control of the FPGA to do whatever you want with any signals.

[sdmadman]

It's a little late for new hardware on this project, but I'll keep the 1473R in mind for future development.

Meanwhile, check out natmojo's suggestion on another thread:

http://forums.ni.com/t5/Machine-Vision/Camera-Link-Frame-Line-Data-Valid-bit-locations/td-p/3176996

I moved the 1433 into my office PC to try this utility out.

Cheers!

MADman

[BlueCheese]

Neat! I didn't know that this feature was released!