LabVIEW
Labview can't find my webcam
Hi edc,
@edc777 wrote:
I have been exposed to USB cameras. As long as I plug the USB camera into the computer, NImax and labview can call it.
I plug the webcam into the router through the network cable, and connect the PC to the same router through the network cable.
How can you connect to an USB camera using some network cables?
Does the camera and your PC share the same IP (sub)net address? Can you contact/use the camera using other tools than LabVIEW/MAX?
IP cameras use all kinds of protocols, especially for streaming support, with various (patent encumbered) compression schemes. Even when addressed as a still image source through an HTTP(S) URL is the actual endpoint (URL address after the IP address part) very vendor specific.
The NI IMAQdx driver only can directly recognize IP cameras that fully implement the GeniCam standard. Only very few professional cameras like from Basler are tested and guaranteed to work. Another option that IMAQdx can do is to access your DirectX compatible camera. This requires a DirectX driver for your camera. Most USB Webcams are integrated into Windows through such a driver, usually vendor specific for every camera.
If your camera comes with a DirectX compatible driver you can install that and then should be able to access your camera from IMAQdx like a USB Webcam. If the camera manufacturer doesn't provide DirectX compatible drivers but only has his own proprietary drivers for his own application software (quite a lot do that) then things get more complicated. There are some more generic DirectX compatible IP camera drivers. But almost none of them for free and most of them have long ago ceased to be updated and maintained. The market for this technology is simply not very friendly. Most users expect such a driver to be free and work out of the box. The reality is that developing and maintaining such a driver is however a lot of work and there is always some camera specific configuration necessary such as the URL path for the JPEG stream, or the exact compression scheme used, etc, etc. The result is that most developers stopped to update and even provide their driver, since they usually have bills to pay too, and move to more profitable endeviours than providing a driver for free that many users will complain about because it doesn't work perfectly for their specific cheap no-name camera.
Basically if your camera is not connected through a NI framegrabber interface or not fully GeniCam compliant, and cheap IP cameras never are, you need a DirectX driver for your camera. If your camera manufacturer doesn't care to provide such a driver, you are on your own.
