Saving images sequentially to hard disk with imaq-1428 card

[raja_jncasr]

Hello .. I have an NI-IMAQ pci-1428 card and a redlake megaplus II ES2093 camera connected to it. I also have Labview 6.1 base version. I would like to save images from the camera sequentially to the hard disk and also have control over acquisition with triggering. Most of the vi's do not seem to support these features without Vision. Is it necessary to get NI-Vision for the above mentioned needs. If the above functions can be performed without Vision can you please help me with the appropriate vi's ..  thank you.

rajapandiyan asaithambi
student, engg mechanics unit, jncasr

[Lorne H.]

Rajapandiyan,

You can do everything you mentioned with the IMAQ driver and without IMAQ Vision (saving to a file, acquiring multiple images, and triggering).

The shipping example "LL Triggered Ring" is a good place to start.  The VI says it needs Vision to run, but you can remove the WinDraw VIs and replace them with an IMAQ ImagetoArray and feed the 2-D array into an intensity plot to see the image.  Everything else in the example will run without IMAQ Vision.

triggering is handled by the "IMAQ Configure Trigger" VI
you can save to a file using the "IMAQ Write File" VI

I hope this helps,

Lorne Hengst
Application Engineer
National Instruments

[yangb182]

Hi,

I nearly have the same project.
I have an NI-IMAQ pci-1405 card, and I use measurement and exploration to save make acquisitions and save them to my hard disk. Bu I was doing this manually.

I'd like to do it automatically.
I'm using Labview 5.0

I can't find the shipping example "LL Triggered Ring".
I heard of the example "HL Triggeredd Snap.vi" but I can't find it either.

Can anybody tell me if it's possible to do it?

[Lorne H.]

yangb182,

Try doing the same thing mentioned above...  using an intensity plot instead of a picture control, but use it with the example VI found through the link below.

High-level Snap in Picture Control (LV)

In case you can't open this VI from LV 5.0 I am attaching a screenshot of the block diagram.

I would just send you a LV 5.0 version, but I do not have that version installed on my machine (LV5 is a bit outdated).

I hope this helps,

Lorne Hengst

Application Engineer

National Instruments

[yangb182]

thanks for your reply.
the link to the example doesn't work
But I have the screenshot.

finally, I have Labview 7 Express. I 'm a beginner with this software. I'm just wondering how I can create the communication between my acquisition card and Labview. I mean, how do I specify that the program has to loo at the acquistion card whether it receives a signal into the trigger input?
That must be a newbie question, but I haven't had a lot of times to discover Labview.

[Lorne H.]

yangb182,

I am a bit confused.  Before you said you were using LabVIEW 5.0, but now you are using LabVIEW 7?

Can you clarify somethings for me?

1.  Which version of LabVIEW are you using?

2.  Which version of the IMAQ driver are you using? (you can find out which version you have by looking in the software folder inside Measurement and Automation Explorer (MAX)).

3.  Can you describe in more detail what you would like to do with your hardware?  It sounds like you are trying to continuously trigger a frame grab from your NI frame grabber card, is this the case?

If you are using LabVIEW 7 and you have the compatible IMAQ driver, you should have quite a few examples you can use as a reference to create your VI.

The examples can be found by opening LabVIEW, going to the help menu and selected "Find Examples".  Once in the example finder, select Hardware Input and Output->IMAQ.

Once you give me some more information I know I can help you out.

Lorne Hengst

Application Engineer

National Instruments

[yangb182]

Sorry if I wasn't clear.

I have Labview 7.1

I'm using measurement and automation version 3.1 to acquire images and save then manually.

My acquisition card is an IMAQ 1405.
This card is connected to a screen, and it acquires images from this screen (let's say every 1 minute).
In measurement and automation, I clicked on SNAP so that I don't have to click on a button when I want to acquire the image.
Otherwise, I have to click on GRAB every minutes to acquire the image.
And I save images manually.

The IMAQ 1405 has a trigger external input, and I'd like to use it so that I can save images automatically and sequentially.

When a signal comes into the trigger input, there wille be a little delay, then the image will be saved.
That's what I want to do.

But I don't really know how I can use Labview to do that.

Can you help me?

Thanks

[Lorne H.]

yangb182,

If everything is installed correctly on your machine, you should already have a great example VI to start with.

LL Triggered Ring.vi either does exactly what you want (triggering off of the 1405 trigger line) for each frame grabbed.

This example is found by opening LabVIEW, going to the help pulldown menu and selecting find examples.

In the middle of the example finder is a column of folders.  Goto...

Hardware Input and Output->IMAQ->Low Level

If this example is not present on your computer.  I recommend reinstalling your IMAQ driver and make sure that you select the option to install the examples (which should be selected by default.).

Lorne Hengst
Application Engineer
National Instruments

[yangb182]

thank you.

I found the example in signals input&output but it souhld be the same.

I'm lookint at it.

If I understood it, it detects a signal which goes into the trigger input and then acquire an image.

But il seems that it doesn't save the image.

I found an example "SaveImage.vi".

Is it possible to link the both examples so that I can save the image acquired?

Sincerely

[yangb182]

Hello,

I realized that I forgot to mention others details.
I'm a student and a beginner.
i'm trying right now to understand the examples.

I'll try to tell what my project is:

I'd like to acquire around 100 images or more if possible.
I will acquire a image every 30 secondes, or every 1 minute. I doesn't have to be fast.
When a image is saved, i'd like to save it automatically as "0.png", then "1.png" and so on...


to sum it up:
a signal will go into the trigger input every 1 minute.

a signal comes into the trigger input, there is a 10 seconde waiting.
then the image is aquired.
then it is saved as 0.png.

a signal comes into the trigger input, there is a 10 seconde waiting.
then the image is aquired.
then it is saved as 1.png.

a signal comes into the trigger input, there is a 10 seconde waiting.
then the image is aquired.
then it is saved as 2.png.

and so on until 100.png

and that's automatic, i'm not doing anything, I'm just looking at the screen....

So, can I link the 2 examples to carry out this projects?

thanks a lot for your help.