snap times out on IMAQ PCI-1428 board

[Vidi]

Using the image-snap function in the Measurement & Automation Explorer always results in the error "wait timed out - acquisition not complete." However, the grab function consistently works. The time-out value for the IMAQ PCI-1428 board is set to 2000 ms. The error occurs even with a 20000-ms time out.

The camera providing input to the board is an in-house design. The same camera successfully snaps and grabs when connected to a similar IMAQ board in another PC running an older version of IMAQ software under Windows ME. The same camera-configuration file is used on both PCs and the time-out values for both boards are 2000 ms. I have tried uninstalling the hardware in Windows and rebooting, to no avail.

Specs for the system e
xhibiting the problem are:
System Information:
Operating System(OS): Microsoft Windows 2000
OS Version: 5.00.2195
OS Info: Service Pack 4
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1.70GHz / x86 Family 15 Model 1 Stepping 2 / GenuineIntel / 1699 MHz
Number of Processors: 1
Physical Memory: 253,424 KB RAM
Drive C:\ 34,243,776 of 39,062,012 KB free

NI Software Information:
LabVIEW Run-Time 7.0
Measurement & Automation Explorer 3.0.2.3005
Measurement Studio 6.0
For Visual Basic
ActiveX 3D Graph 6.0.3.601
ActiveX DataSocket 4.0.3.367
ActiveX User Interface 7.0.0.341
NI-IMAQ Software 2.61.0
NI-PAL Software 1.6.3f0

[JedRetherford]

Vidi,

This sounds like a very frustrating problem. I am not positive why you might be having trouble with the snap function with the newer board, newer drivers, and newer operating system, but it seems very strange.

To start off, I would try to eliminate any differences between the two systems. The first thing I would try, would be to pull the card that is working out of the Windows ME machine, and place it in the the Windows 2000 machine. This should determine whether it is the card or the machine that it is at fault. If this card works, I would say that you probably have a problem with your card, and you should call in and discuss the possibility of RMAing your card. If this card also does not work, you may want to try uninstalling your NI-IMAQ driver and
installing the same version that you are using on the machine that currently works.

If you have any additional questions, please make another post so that this forum can help you resolve your problem.

Regards,
Jed R.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[Vidi]

Jed,

Thank you for your helpful answer. As you suggested, I tried the card from the functioning Windows ME system in the Windows 2000 PC, but the problem remained. Then I removed the version-2.6.1 IMAQ driver and the related software, and replaced it with the ME system's 2.5.1 driver and its software. Both snap and grab then worked. Next, I tried using other versions of the IMAQ driver on the Windows 2000 machine. Version 3.0 worked for grab but not for snap; its performance was worse than 2.5.1's because the shading on the image was incorrect, as if the grayscale data was misinterpreted. The update of 2.5.1, 2.5.5, worked as well as 2.5.1.

I wonder if the camera-configuration files are fully compatible between the older and newer versions of the IMAQ
hardware. The camera I am using is a custom design so there is no configuration file provided by National Instruments. I do not know how our custom configuration file was generated or if it needs to be modified for use with the newer driver software. The documention for the 3.0 driver implies that National Instruments provides the files. I examined a camera-configuration file but could not decipher all the fields.

[JedRetherford]

Vidi,

Camera files frequently do not include all the parameters that could be included in such a file. When this occurs, the IMAQ driver sets all the unnamed parameters to the default values for the driver. Newer versions of NI-IMAQ sometimes include changes to default values that could cause issues with camera files that were not setting certain values explicitly, so that could be the problem.

I would suggest that your best bet would probably be to contact NI technical support directly (phone or email) for your inquiry:

www.ni.com/ask

Regards,
Jed R.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments