trouble getting MAX to recognize firewire camera

[colman77]

Hi,

I can't seem to get MAX (and therefore Labview) to play nice with my Firewire camera.  It was manufactured by Santa Barbara Focalplane, model SBF-135.

If I try to use the IMAQdx IIDC Digital Camera drivers, I get error 0xBFF69002, "Invalid Parameter" as soon as I click on the camera in MAX.  If I go for the "Legacy NI-IMAQ IEEE-1934 IIDC Camera" drivers, I get a little farther - the window comes up with a grey screen and the name, vendor, model #, and serial #.  When I click on "Aquisition Parameters," the only video mode listed is Format 7, Mode 0.  If I try to snap/grab/change settings, I get the error 0xBFF68032, "For Format 7, combination of speed, image position, image size, and color coding is incorrect."

The camera outputs 256x256 pixels of 12-bit data in a 16-bit package.  I am unsure of the packet size or speed.

If I load the camera's original drivers, it works fine along with the supplied program, which uses DirectShow.

Any ideas on getting this thing to work?

[colman77]

Clarification - under video mode, it says Format 7, Mode 0, 62400 x 11264.  Not even close to the image size (256 x 256).  Also, the packet size is listed at 11328 bytes, no matter what speed I choose.  Obviously, this is a bit (haha) too long.

Thanks in advance

Colin

[JohannS]

Colin,

I have never heard of this camera. Needless to say I cannot vouch for its interoperability with the National Instruments driver. I don't think you are doing anything wrong. It sounds like there might be something amiss on the camera. The best course of action would be to get the camera in house at National Instruments and debug it some more. Would you be willing to send the camera to me?

Regards,

JohannS

[colman77]

Shipping the camera is the last resort.  The camera (despite its current software implementation) is crucial to our QA operations and could not be MIA for a large chunk of time (more than, say, a week).  We've also had some bad experiences recently with shipping our stuff places, so that option is on the very bottom of our list.

I am new to labview and not familiar with Windows' implementation of firewire devices.  Assuming that the camera is incompatible with MAX, what other options do I have as far as interfacing with the camera in Labview?  I currently have the ability to install the drivers supplied by the manufacturer, those supplied by NI-IMAQ, and the "windows generic firewire camera" driver.

[BruceAmmons]

You said the camera works with DirectShow.  If I remember correctly, that format works with the free USB camera drivers from NI.  I would suggest trying them out.

Bruce

[colman77]

JohannS,

The camera works fine when used with the software supplied by the camera's manufacturer, so I don't believe it's malfunctioning... 

I am trying to work with the manufacturer, Santa Barbara Focalplane, but they are incredibly difficult.  I have called and emailed multiple times and have gotten no response at all so far.

Besides MAX, what other options do I have for interfacing with the camera through labview?  Calling functions from the driver dll's?  Anything else?

[Brian_K.]

Hi colman,

MAX and LabVIEW both use the IMAQdx driver to talk to your firewire camera.  That is why you typically setup and test your computer in MAX, and then once your camera is working you migrate over to LabVIEW.   I would keep pressing Santa Barbara Focalplane for help. 

After looking at their website, I would ask them if the camera is IIDC or DV.  Here is an article that talks about the two formats:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IIDC#DV

[Farhat]

We are experiencing the same or similar problem with a  baslar camera. but we do have a work around. if we set the format mode to something low i.e. 1.8 fps set grad and then reset the mode the camera operates fine till next time

Reported Error

---------------------------
IMAQ Error
---------------------------
Error 0xBFF69022

For format 7: The combination of speed, image position, image size, and color coding is incorrect.
---------------------------
OK  
---------------------------

[colman77]

It's definitely not dv.

According to SBF, the manufacturer/designer of the camera and electronics:

"it should be possible to use IMAQ to acquire 14-bit
data using the firewire camera because it is a DirectShow imaging
device.  As far as I know no one has tried it before.  It also uses the
IIDC communications format, although it relies on Advanced Features CSRs
for some things that are not usually part of a visible-wavelength video
camera."

He is talking about custom framerate, integration time,  FPA temperature readout, etc.

"I am not familiar with setting up IMAQ, but I think that all you need in
order to connect with our camera is the output format.  We have defined
the format SBF14 as a subtype of MEDIATTYPE_Video.  DirectShow
identifies it by means of its GUID.

> // {17D3EB68-DEDE-413c-8090-2BC72029FA9C}
> extern const GUID MEDIASUBTYPE_SBF14 =
> {0x17d3eb68, 0xdede, 0x413c,
> {0x80, 0x90, 0x2b, 0xc7, 0x20, 0x29, 0xfa, 0x9c}}"

Does this shed any light on the issue?

I am going to try and integrate the camera with the directshow implementation, but I'm not too sure where to start...

Thanks in advance for any help.

[colman77]

Farhat,

Can you explain in a little more detail what steps you take to get around this problem?