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IMAQ 1394 timeout problem

I am having a problem with acquiring images with my 1394 camera.  The camera shows up in MAX and I am able to use the IMAQ1394 Get Interface Files.vi to verify the camera is attached, but when I try to acquire images (snap or grab) I usually get a timeout error.  The "Get Interface Files" VI will still show the camera connected if checked again.  This happens in both MAX and while running an application in LabVIEW.  I usually have to reconnect the cable to the camera a few times to get it working again, but it will stop working again.  I have this same problem with two different computers and have tried using different cables. It seems that there is something configured wrong, but I don't know where to start.  Help!

Here is my system setup:

Basler A312f camera (set to 640 x 480 Y Mono8 30.0fps using MAX)
Adaptec AFW-4300 firewire adapter (NI PCI-8252 on 2nd computer)
Windows XP Pro SP2
LabVIEW 8.0
NI Vision 8.0.0
NI-IMAQ for 1394 2.0.2
MAX 4.0.0.3010

Thanks in advance for any help anyone might be.

Jeff Jarvis
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Hi Jeff,

Here's a couple of questions I thought of:
  • How long does it run fine before it starts timing out again?  What is the timeout set up as in MAX?
  • Did it ever work or is this a new camera or system?  Do any other cameras work?
  • Is the camera set up for any kind of triggering mode?
  • What video mode is it?
  • What are the attributes that are set up in MAX (that might cause you to not acquire correctly)?
  • Where did you get the 1394 driver? Have you tried repairing or reinstalling it?
Thanks,
Irene Chow
National Instruments
Applications Engineer

P.S.  Thank you for providing the very detailed additional information about your system.  It really helps me get to the bottom of this faster!
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Thanks for replying Irene, I will try to answer your questions.

Today my timeout problem seems to be happening all of the time.  I am having a hard time acquiring any images at all.  I can't even get it to work in MAX.  Before this it had been fairly random.

This is a new system.  I only have one camera right now.  This system will have a total of 4 cameras when I am done, but I didn't want to order them until I had my program complete.

I am not using any triggering.  I am just snapping images as I need them.  Timing is not critical for my project.

The video mode is set at 640x480 Y (Mono 😎 30.00fps (within MAX)

Here are the attributes I have setup in MAX:
    Timeout: 5000ms
    Ignore first frame: unchecked
    Speed: 400Mb
    Packet size: 1280bytes
    Region of interest: Left 0, Top 0, Width 640, Height 480
    Brightness: 16 (scale is 0 to 255)
    Gain: 300 (scale is 192 to 768)
    Shutterspeed: 580 (scale is 1 to 1661)

The 1394 driver was installed with the NI software.  Windows lists the device as "Generic 1394 Desktop Camera"  It is driver version 2.0.0.0 from NI.  Clicking on driver details shows the file being used as nipalfw.sys (file version 1.10.0f0)  I uninstalled and reinstalled all of the software and had no improvement.

I did get the camera to acquire images once this morning in MAX, and got some strange results.  There were some horizontal lines on the image.  They almost looked like noise.  I did also notice while in the "grab" mode the image partially "flipped".  What should have been the top of the image was at the the bottom.  Almost like a TV with a vertical hold problem.  I was able to get some samples of these and have attached them.  test1.jpg shows the image partially flipped.  test2.jpg shows just the noise.  The images also look very grainy.  They are usually much clearer than this.

Beacuse of this last part I think there may be a problem with the camera.   I will have to contact the manufacturer and see what they have to say

   
   
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Hello Jeff,
I did notice that you have not selected the "Ignore First Frame" option for your camera.  It is not usually the case with Basler cameras, but many 1394 cameras do not fully expose the sensor at first and this causes your first image to be incorrect.  Although, it does seem that you may be having some other trouble with the camera, see if selecting the "Ignore First Frame" option will help.
 
Regards,
Angela
Applications Engineer
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 Hello,

I have the same problem - I have a basler a312f camera, connected with a 1394 firewire card, and every few minutes it is stuck, both when using the camera's original program (Pylon) and when using NiMAX. I read the previous answers but cannot find the option of choosing "ignore first picture". How do I get to it? Is there any other solution to the problem?

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