IMAQdx Open Camera does not set Video mode which should be read from MAY configuration

[ppoesel]

My Camera USB2.0 1.3M WebCam is listed in MAX under NI-IMAQdx devices. I configured Video Mode to 352x288 I420 30.00fps.

When I use Grab.vi from examples I get a picture 1280*1024 32Bit RGB. Evidently the IMAQdx Open Camera.vi has not set the default Video Mode from MAX.

When I use Grab and Select Mode.vi (from examples) I can adjust Video Mode to  352x288 I420 30.00fps, and others. This is done via property node and works.

Using Grab and Basic Attributes.vi  with other attributes I found out, that the IMAQdx Open Camera.vi does not read the config file at all.

I checked the config file USB2.0 1.3M WebCam  (#FB3275960398FBA7).icd, which was stored in C:\Users\Public\Documents\National Instruments\NI-IMAQdx\Data. It looked OK and showed the values, which I configured in MAX.

From this it looked to me, that thanks to VISTAs obscure directory strategy, the Open-function does not find the config file.

But then I tried to read a config file with the IMAQdx Read Attributes.vi, which did not work.

For the time being the only method to set attributes is by using property node.

My System:

WINDOWS VISTA 32 bit

LabVIEW 8.6 (almost a complete installation)

NI Vision 9.0

NI-IMAQdx 3.4

Kind regards Peter POESEL

[BlueCheese]

Peter,

That is not expected behavior. We fully support XP, Vista, and Windows 7 without relying on any directory virtualization by the OS. I suspect somehow your IMAQdx directory got virtualized somehow, or something else odd is going on. Did you happen to have previously installed a version of IMAQdx that did *not* fully support Vista? Also, by any chance did you do an OS upgrade on the system from XP to Vista while IMAQdx was installed?

Eric

[ppoesel]

Hello ERIC,

thanks for your fast reply.

Since IMAQdx Read Attributes.vi with a fully specified filepath does not work, I no longer believe that directory virtualization is the cause.

In reply to your question about sequence of installation: I recently installed NI Vision 9.0, NI-IMAQ 4.3 and NI-IMAQdx 3.4 (this driver for the first time).

I had installed NI Vision 8.6 and NI-IMAQ 4.1, but almost did not use. VISTA was installed on my laptop before I started to install any NI-SW.

The question simply is: Why do file reading operations not work while property node works.

Kind regards Peter

[Christian Mergl]

Hi Peter,

I can reproduce this behaviour using VISTA32, LV 8.6.1 and IMAQdx 3.5, but it works as expected on the same machine just with LabVIEW 2009.

Since Eric (bluecheese) is from Vision R&D we should wait for his answer on this.

Christian

[ppoesel]

Hello ERIC and CHRISTIAN

HEUREKA!  (Greek, I found it!)

The reason for not working is the localized decimal point (in GERMAN set to “0,00”)

MAX writes the icd-File with US-decimal point (“0.00”) and the various file-read functions (like IMAQdx Open Camera.vi or IMAQdx Read Attributes.vi) expect localized separator.

First I manually checked this by editing the files, and then I used the control panel, to set my computer to US-format. In both cases everything worked well.

We had this problem before with Simulation Interface Toolkit. MATLAB needs US-comma and the toolkit wrote commands with localized comma. I am not sure, whether this has been repaired in recent versions, because I still use an older version, which I repaired myself. (I changed the comma in format into string functions whereas newer versions use dll’s).

To repair the misbehaviour it is not enough, to deselect “use localized decimal point” in the front panel options. The whole computer has to be set to US-format. This would corrupt a lot of other programs in our case and is therefore not acceptable on a permanent basis.

I ask NI to correct this misbehaviour.

Kind regards

Peter

[BlueCheese]

Hi Peter,

Thank you for digging into this to find the cause of the issue. IMAQdx does attempt to switch to a neutral locale when reading and writing the camera files to avoid issues like this. It should always be using decimal places in those files. There are lots of parameters that interact with the locale (OS localization version, OS language settings, localized LabVIEW versions, current LabVIEW settings, etc) so we evidently have an issue with things not cooperating right in some cases.

I'd like to gather more information from you regarding the various versions (localized or not) of the OS and software you have installed so that we can get a better idea of what situations this reproduces under. If you could tell me anything you can regarding the information above that would be very helpful.

I have opened up a CAR for this issue under number 199401 for tracking its status.

Thanks, 

Eric