PixeLink PL-A742

[JasonJurchuk]

Im using the NI-IMAQ vision assitant V 7.1 software.

When i capture a picture it does not show up in color, however when i change the drive from the NI IEEE 1394 IIDC digital camera driver to the PixeLink FireWire Camera release 4 driver and use PixeLinks Software i get color pictures.

How do i get the vision assitant to capture color pictures?

Thanks in advance

J

[McCarty]

Hello Jason,

Check to see whether or not your camera is using Bayer encoding for color images.  The two primary reasons why you may not be seeing color images in Vision Assistant 7.1 are documented in the KnowledgeBase article entitled Color Camera Not Capturing Color Images.  You can find more information on Bayer encoding in the Developer Zone tutorial entitled Bayer Encoding for Color Images.

Best Regards,
Travis M.

[JasonJurchuk]

Hi Travis

I did read the articles and it does make sense, however the entire bayer color options menu is unavilable. You can see it but you cannot select anything from it. I did try playing around with the software (MAX) and looking through both the help file and the Knowledge Base but again I came up with nothing. Any other suggestions?

Thanks again

Jason

[McCarty]

Hello Jason,

You can find the IMAQ Bayer Color Decode.vi and the IMAQ Create Bayer LUT.vi in the following library:
C:\Program Files\National Instruments\<LabVIEW Directory>\vi.lib\vision\driver\imaqll.llb

If your camera uses Bayer encoding and you want to use the NI Vision Assistant, you will first need to use these VIs in LabVIEW to save your image with a conventional RGB representation.  You could then open the saved image in the NI Vision Assistant and proceed to process it as desired.  Of course, you would only want to do this with a sample image.  After prototyping your application in the NI Vision Assistant, you would then convert the script to LabVIEW code.  Finally, you would alter the beginning of the LabVIEW algorithm so that you are no longer opening a previously saved file, but rather acquiring new images, converting them using the two aforementioned Bayer VIs, and then processing them with the rest of the code that you generated from the NI Vision Assistant.

Best Regards,
Travis M.

[McCarty]

Hello Jason,

You may also want to experiment with different video modes in the Measurement and Automation Explorer.  Your camera may have multiple video modes, some of which may be YUV (true color, not RGB) and others of which may be monochrome (grayscale).  You may be able to find a video mode that works with Bayer encoding and activates the controls on the Bayer Color tab.  Once you have your camera configured as desired in MAX, save the current settings to file and then try to directly acquire color images in the NI Vision Assistant.

Best Regards,
Travis M. 

[McCarty]

Hello Jason,

Here is a good KnowledgeBase article you may want to peruse.

Using Bayer-encoded images in Vision Builder for Automated Inspection and Vision Assistant

Best Regards,
Travis M.