How to detect a signal from camera

[Jacobier]

Hi

Is there any way to track whether a camera receive a trigger signal?

I am trying to implement the following routine:

The camera starts with "trigger off" mode and is taking images through a grab loop. When an external device send the trigger signal to the camera, the camera switches to "trigger on" mode and then starts to run with the external device simultaneously. 

[rolfk]

What camera is it? What is the "trigger" signal? A digital signal? A message? A hoot?

What do you mean with simultanous operation? Every time your device decides to hoot, your camera should take an image? Or should the camera rather just keep streaming data until the trigger signal goes away? What is the difference between grab mode and the simultanous mode in terms of the software?

[Jacobier]

Sorry for missing the details.

The camera is a digital area scan camera. I have a motor. When it runs, it sends a 24 V analog signal to trigger the camera and the camera start to track some object move with the motor with my tracking code. I want the camera to be on "trigger off" mode to stream ( with grab loop as shown in the LabView example) before I turn on the motor so that I can adjust the focus, placing the sample, etc. After that, I will turn on the motor and the motor will trigger the tracking code in LabView. 

I was wondering whether I can directly read some digital signals from the camera if it receives the trigger signal from the motor. If so the aforementioned function should be able to implement.

[Jacobier]

I found some information about eventhandler. An "exposure end" event may solve my problem. But I could not find any example to begin with.I found a link below:

https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA00Z000000P9TwSAK&OpenDocument=&l=en-US

It says that I can call function IMAQdxEnumerateAttributes2 and IMAQdxEnumerateAttributeValues to check the available setting for the camera. But I do not know how to call a function in Labview.

[rolfk]

That documentation is for the C API of IMAQdx. In your IMAQdx function palette you have a VI IMAQdx Eumerate Attributes.vi which returns you a list of all available attributes for a camera session. It calls the LabVIEW version of the function mentioned in that article for you.

[Bob_Schor]

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@Jacobier wrote:

It says that I can call function IMAQdxEnumerateAttributes2 and IMAQdxEnumerateAttributeValues to check the available setting for the camera. But I do not know how to call a function in Labview.

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I've done a fair amount of IMAQdx programming, fortunately most of it with a "well-behaved" Ethernet camera.  I recently struggled to get a not-so-well-behaved camera to work with IMAQdx.  I did do the "deep dive" into the very low level implementation of (some of) the GenICam standards.  It wasn't easy, and didn't ultimately prove to be successful.

Vision is a particularly arcane aspect of LabVIEW.  You might do well to "hire an expert" ...

Bob Schor

[Jacobier]

I have check all the events and attributes. There is no property on the receiving a trigger. The only solution is to buy another NI DAQ system to receive the trigger signal, which is not in my plan. Thank you all anyway.