PCIe 8235 and multiple cameras

[RTA]

I just connected a second Basler camera (sc640-70gc) to a PCIe 8235.  The problem is that NIMAX sees only one of them, either the original one or the newer one.  I tried different ports and cables; doesn't make a difference.  Any suggestions?

[BlueCheese · Accepted solution]

Hi RTA,

If you are under Windows 2000 or XP and you are using link-local-addressing (the automatic IP addresses in the 169.254.x.x range) this is an artifact of a deficiency in the network stack because it does not properly filter broadcast traffic by network interface when multiple devices have identical subnet information configured (long technical explanation omitted...)

The good news is that there are many solutions for this problem:

-Since you are using the PCIe-8235 you can use our GigE Vision High-Performance driver. When this is installed you can then bridge all 4 ports of the network card together into one virtual device and this solves the problem because you then only have one link-local IP address configured. All 4 ports act like they are part of a switch and cameras can be moved between them easilly. I believe the manual or Getting Started guide for the 8235 includes some documentation on how to do this. All you have to do is go to the Network Connections page, select all 4 network ports, right-click and select "Bridge Connections".

-Another option is to assign manual IP addresses in different subnets to each port and device. One port could be 192.168.0.1 with a corresponding subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, and its camera would be 192.168.0.2. The next port would be 192.168.1.1, and so forth. You can use Basler's IP configuration utility to assign these IP addresses to the cameras. However, this becomes a bit of a maintenence issue as you have to ensure the right camera stays tied to the right port.

-The last option is to upgrade to Windows Vista or later, which fixes the network stack such that multiple interfaces can use link-local addressing perfectly.

Hope this helps, 

Eric 

[RTA]

Wonderful!  I used Bridge Connections.  Thanks a lot.