How to build an application in LabVIEW 10 including FLIR Thermovision Toolkit 3.3

[sergiulica]

Hi Everybody,

Need some help as I'm doing a IR testing program using LabVIEW and Thermovision Toolkit. The .vi is working fine, but when I'm building the app.exe the part of the program involving IR camera is not working. I guess there must be included some Thermovision library, but I don't know which and how to do it. The FLIR support completely sucks (sorry for language but there is no other word), I already sent them few emails and didn't get any answer. I hope somebody at NI did this before. I attached I little part of the program, the part which doesn't work when compiled. Thanks for help. Regards.

[Kimberly_Wenger_Austin]

Hi serendre,

In order for your app.exe to work on a deployment machine (one without LabVIEW) with LabVIEW and the Vision Development Module, you will have to have the LabVIEW Run Time Engine and the Vision Development Module Run Time Engine.  You can either download this onto your deployment machine from our website or create an installer on the development machine that includes both of these items.  If you would like to create an installer, here is a great tutorial to get your started.  That tutorial is for a DAQmx application, so instead of choosing the DAQmx driver under Additional Installers, you will want to have the LabVIEW Run Time Engine (usually already selected) and the NI Vision Run Time Engine selected.  As a note, one license of the Vision Run Time Engine comes with the purchase of the Vision Development Module.  If you have more than one computer that you would like to deploy this application to, you will have to purchase additional licenses.  I hope this helps!

Kim W.

[sergiulica]

Hi VTKim,

Thanks for the help. I knew about RTs but I'm not there yet. The problem is that even in my machine (my programming PC) the compiled exe is not doing anything. I think is missing something and the program just waits for some data. Here is the error I'm getting for the executable:

-see attached

Maybe you could figure out something, I sure can't. Thanks again for the help. Regards.

PS : Still nothing from FLIR, zero support from that side.

[Kimberly_Wenger_Austin]

Hi serendre,

You may need to include the Thermovision library into your project and into your executable.  This should be in the vi.lib folder (C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW XXXX\vi.lib).  In your project, right click on My Computer and go to Add>>Folder.  Find the folder and add them to the project.  Then, when you go to create your executable, add the Thermovision folder and any subVIs you have to the Always Included folder under Source Files.

Kim W.

[sergiulica]

Hi Kim,

Thanks for your help. Yes, I know, actually I need to add a .vit to the sources, I figure out from the Thermovision manual which FLIR didn't bother to update since LabVIEW 7.1. I think I traced the problem here: when you start any application, Thermovision creates a temporary VI in Documents and Settings folder, but in Windows 7 this folder is locked by default so is necessary first to take ownership and unlock this folder (Thermovision will create an user called "unilsson"). I am checking today about this and I'll let you know about the outcome. Regards.

[sergiulica]

Hi Kim,

I managed finally to compile and run the .exe program. Looks like I was right. A little problem I still have to solve. Seems like the compiled software is slower than the .vi for some reasons I can't see. And this is not acceptable for me, the cycle time and the whole program has to match some parameters I have as inputs.

I know this is not anymore a Machine Vision problem, but maybe you have an idea. The slowing down occurs in my "chit-chat" with a programmable power supply (Xantrex XFR 100-12). I'm powering and maintaning a constant power (by reading continous the voltage and the current and adjusting the voltage to maintain a certain preset power) for 5 seconds. In the compiled program this 5 seconds become almost 10, is like a slow motion movie. The vi runs well, according to my settings.

Thanks for your support.

[Kimberly_Wenger_Austin]

Hi serendre,

Interesting!  First off, we do not have the Thermovision module here--did you get the toolkit from FLIR specifically?  Is it available somewhere online?  I tried searching, but couldn't find anything.

Next, do you have debugging enabled in your executable?  This is located in the Build Specifications>>Advanced>>Enable debugging.  Is this value checked?  If it is, then this could be a cause of the slow down.  If it is not, then you can try and check in and highlight execution in your executable to see where the issue may lie. If you do add debugging to your executable, then please also check the Wait for Debugger to Launch.  Thanks!

Kim W.

[sergiulica]

Hi Kim,

Yes,  I bought Themovision from FLIR, is a Toolkit with LabVIEW drivers and some examples for FLIR cameras and I think not only, for IR cameras in general. Is not bad, just is a little outdated and has only basic applications. For my project I need more and I just started to understand how this vision systems work, not mentioning IR on top of all, another big issue. I think FLIR has to work a little at these drivers and try to simplify them. Before trying to do wih Thermovision I justused the plain webcam and IMAQ and everything worked like a charm. When tried the same thing in IR, all was super-complicated. Now that I managed to do it, is not so bad, but I'm not done, there are still things to add to my project, so  might need more help. The first I need to do is a  temperatre mapping (you cannot help me without Thermovision) and then is a sort of registration for he parts (something using shift or rotation invariant) and here I might need some help.

However, thanks for you support.

[Kimberly_Wenger_Austin]

Hi serendre,

Please let me know how I can help.  I was asking where you got the toolkit to see if I would be able to get it as well, but it seems that I will not be able to do that, so my help may be limited.  As you are adding things to your project, if you come across problems, please post them here and I would be happy to help you as much as I can from the LabVIEW perspective.  Were you able to check to see if you had debugging selected in your build?  Thanks!

Kim W.

[UlfN]

Hi,

I accidently stumbled into this thread by accident I and saw that you are using LabVIEW ThermoVision Toolkit from FLIR. I wrote the toolkit for FLIR for more than 10 years ago(?), on consultant basis. Can't remember which LabVIEW version I used. I think it was just before LabVIEW got the new "modern" controls... The toolkit is actually a LabVIEW wrapper around an ActiveX control, which makes it a little bit difficult to create more than one instance of it. The only way I got it to work was to by using a VI Template(VIT). Don't know why I saved the template to disk? I had probably a good reason. The drawback of using a VIT is when you are building an application. You have to manually add it to the application builder. I think I added an example(and a document) of how to build an application under National Instrument LabVIEW examples.

ThermoVision toolkit was originally made for controlling and grabbing temperature true IR-images from FLIR IR-cameras. I guess, that you nowdays can grab IR images without the toolkit, by using NI-IMAQ Vision drivers, GigE and others.

Best regards

Ulf