Using NI Vision to indicate PCB component location

[Ron_in_SD]

Hi,

I am looking to come up with an application that will highlight Printed Circuit Board component locations on a picture (i.e. JPEG) of the PCB.  This application/widget would be used as a tool in a test system based on TestStand and LabWindowsCVI.  The basic operation of this tool is fairly simple, and I think NI Vision is probably overkill for the application I have, but I am hoping the interoperability between NI Vision and our test program development tools will make this the right approach.  The image display tool would be used in conjuction with troubleshooting or component repair instructions built into the test programs.  The very simple operational concept is for the tool to take a supplied JPEG image of the circuit card under test and an X-Y coordinate position on the image.  The image display tool would display the JPEG with a highlighted box and/or arrow surrounding/pointing to the X-Y position supplied.  We may also want to add a little annotating text (e.g "U238" or "Pin1 location").   We want this tool to start or otherwise called from a CVI program and/or TestStand sequence.  As a stretch goal, we may want to embed (imbed?) the image tool within our TestStand executive interface.

Does NI Image sound like a viable option for this application?

Thanks for your input.

Ron in SD

[OliviaC]

Hi Ron in SD,

You can certainly use NI-Vision to do exactly what you are asking for. We have a set of functions what will allow you find specific components on a PCB board and it will also allow you to put a box around the component and you can add a label. This can all be done in CVI and you can do this as well in Teststand but will a little bit more work. 

However, I might recommend that you use Vision Builder for Automated Inspection for your purposes. It takes images (either from file or from a camera) and put it through some steps to identify, measure, label or classify objects. It even includes an example of how to do exactly what you are looking to do. And finally, you can run it from TestStand. The following are some links to give you some more information:

https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA00Z000000PAZgSAO&l=en-US

https://www.ni.com/en-us/shop/product/vision-builder-for-automated-inspection.html

[wbadry]

Hello Ron,

Olivia's advice is very correct when it comes to people who wants to write no code. If you are a .NET developer (C#,VB), then you may use Vision Development Module to achieve your goal and gain the integration advantage with Microsoft Technology.