IMAQ 1394 Format 7 mode 0 problem

[kbaker]

I am using a Sony DFW-700 1394 camera.  I am using a triggered grab with a "Wait on Occurance" VI.  I was using the 1024x768 YUV(4:2:2) 15fps Video mode, and everything seemed to work fine.  It is my understanding that this mode is just for testing so I switched it to Format 7, Mode 0, 1024x768.  The packet size is 3072 the maximum it goes.  For some reason when I try in this mode their is a timeout sometimes on the Wait on Occurance VI?  It has to wait until the timeout before it will continue?  Can someone tell me why switching the video mode would cause this problem?  Thank you.

Kevin Baker

[s_a_s]

Kevin,

The 1024x768 YUV(4:2:2) mode is not necessarily only for testing.  It is simply a standard mode that has been provided by the camera manufacturer.  Format 7, Mode 0 is generally used in the case when you only want to acquire a portion of the image or use a non standard acquisition rate.  This may not be necessary for your application.  If the first mode is working for you then I would recommend using it.

As for why the Wait on Occurance VI is timing out I think it would have to do with the settings of the packet size or the timeout.  It is possible that the camera is taking longer than the timeout for the Wait on Occurance before it completes the snap.  Here is a document that has some useful information on setting up Format 7.

http://zone.ni.com/devzone/conceptd.nsf/webmain/A533E1E5A109CBCE86256D8E00768814?opendocument&node=201714_US#5

[viksiv]

In the past I had similar problem trying to run SONY XCD-X700 camera in Format 7. Under NI IMAQ1394 v1.5 Camera worked fine in Mono8 1024x768 mode by using both Grab and Snap functions. Once I changed mode to Format 7 both Grab and Snap stopped working and generated Timeout error. I finally gave up with Format 7 for this camera.

Some cameras may not work in Format 7 under NI IMAQ1394. To see if this is the case launch NI MAX (explorer), than switch to Format 7 and try to get images from your camera using grab (no triggering).