firewire camera disappear after reboot

[Jorge_Amaral]

Hello all,

I've the following system configuration:

 - 4 AVT guppy 033B firewire cameras (speed: 200 Mbps; Shutter: 250; trigger: mode0)

 - Adlink SBC 852

 - 1GB Ram

 - CPU DUAL CORE E2200 socket 77

 - firewire cable: 10 m

 - firewire board: PCI dual ohci 1.1 IEEE-1394

 - Windows SP2

Sequence of events:

1 - Fresh windows XP home edition installation

2 - Computer drivers

3 - Firewire cameras installation

4 - Our  application installation

5 - testing. check if it's all ok

6 - Power off and wait some minutes

7 - turn on and test again

This steps where made in one day - all ok ..... In the next day:

8 - Turn on the system and check. And fine check of the system results.

9 - At 12:00 all seems to be ok and for delivering the system i decided to do one more test, rebooting the system.

10 - Error - cameras doesn't appear on MAX and had a controller exclamation mark on the device manager.

Solution:

11 - Update controller on device manager

12 - Open max and select again Imaqdx driver on the 4 cameras

So... I've a situation that after reboot may cause the cameras to disappear!

Any ideas?

[MaximeR]

Hello Jorge,

I suggest you to re-install or Update to NI-IMAQ for IEEE 1394 Cameras Version 1.5.2 or Later. If you are using NI-IMAQ for 1394  Cameras version 1.5.1 or earlier, you may need to install a patch to update the NI-IMAQ for IEEE 1394 Cameras driver to version 1.5.3.

http://digital.ni.com/softlib.nsf/webcategories/85256410006C055586256BBB002C0D10?opendocument&node=132070_US 

If it doesn't solved the problem, try to update Windows XP to Service Pack 3 and upgrade to the Manufactuer's Latest 1394 Driver.

Best regards.

[Jorge_Amaral]

Hello Maxime,

Thanks for the support!

So let me comment your points!

I suggest you to re-install or Update to NI-IMAQ for IEEE 1394 Cameras Version 1.5.2 or Later

I'm using IMAQDX 3.1.2 so I don't think that this suggestion applies to this case.

Windows XP to Service Pack 3

It's a good thing to do. And I'll do that next time that I visit the machine.

upgrade to the Manufactuer's Latest 1394 Driver

This I don't undestand. Cause, if I'm using IMAQDX, do I need to install the manufacturer driver? This one thing that we never do, in all the machine that uses firewire cameras. And some are working well and other don't!

Best regards,

Jorge Amaral

[MaximeR]

Hi,

Sorry for the mistake. I didn't read that you are using IMAQdx. Have you installed the latest version of IMAQdx? The highest is 3.2.

For the manufacturer's driver, I was speaking about the IEEE card not the camera, sorry it was not clear.

If it doesn't fix your problem, can you give me the  configuration that works.

Best regards.

[Rick_vd_Z]

I'm working on a camera set-up in which I use 2 FireWire B camera's (AVT Pike's) en 4 Firewire A camera's (AVT Guppy). I'm using NI-IMAQdx 3.2.0, Labview 8.6, NI vision 8.6

I'm using the latest hardware driver for the quad OHCI card for the Guppy's, Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller 5.1.2535.0 and I use a PCI-expres FireWire B card for the Pike's.

The issue I'm having is that sometimes (once of twice a day) an error occurs in the software. One of the AVT Guppy camera returns an error when I try to get an image. It return a "IMAQdx Getimage.vi" error. But it's not always the same camera, I've  replaced the camera's for new ones, but this did not solve the problem. I have also replaced the PCI firewire card, replaced the cables, made sure the 230V was stable, exchanged the keyboard and mouse, switched off the virusscanner but this also did not solve it.

When I check the device manager of windows XP, camera is gone. It's also gone in the NI MAX. I use service pack 3 in XP.

But when I unplug the cable from this camera, and replug it. De camera appears again. A reboot of the computer works too. I can than work again with the machine, but a few hours later in occurs again.

NB: I can create a more or less similar error when I open the camera in the MAX, when my software is grabbing images. The camera's return the IMAQdx getImage.vi error, but they do not disappear from the device manager.

In this thread more or less exact same issue is reported, with an incorrect reaction. Was a solution found in this case?

Does any of you recognise this problem and can anyone help me finding a solution quickly?

[ScottSmith]

Hi Jorge,

While one 1394a Guppy is ok at 10m cable length, with two or more cameras (without using repeaters) the recommended maximum cable length drops to 4.5m

I suspect this might be at the root of your problem.   

For more re. cable lengths with various AVT 1394a and 1394b cameras, please see AVT technical support knowledge base article:  http://goavt.mykb.com/Article_DF663.aspx

Regards,

Scott

[Rick_vd_Z]

Thanx for your quick response, but that's not the case, all six cables are just 3 mtr long.

[ScottSmith]

The original post referenced 10m cable, and your original post didn't mention length.  I think you may have different issues,since Jorge's problem occured after reboot, and your problem is resolved after reboot.  I'm worried that we're confusing each other by continuing different issues in one thread...

Since your situation involved 1394b cameras (Pike) in addition to 1394a cameras (Guppy),  are you aware the the Microsoft XP (SP2 and SP3) and Vista issues with 1394b?   Thankfully there are easy workarounds, but unless you've done one of them that could be related to reducing effective throughput...  In any case, please advise if you are aware of the issue and if you've done a suitable rollback or driver substitution.  For more please see knowledge base article and links at http://goavt.mykb.com/Article_249D6.aspx

Regards,

Scott

[hegb_85]

I have the same issue as Jorge.

After the reboot the camera disappear from MAX and had a "!" in the device manager. I update the driver and the camera goes back to normal, I can see it in MAX and work with if normally.

Do you any ideas?

I'm working under LV 8.5.1 with IMAQdx drivers, I'm not sure about the version of the drivers.

Any ideas? This camera worked normally and without this issue about 1.5 years, no major software updates had been done on the PC.

Windows XP and SP3 are installed.

Help is appreciated.

[Rick_vd_Z]

As written in this topic higher up. I have had a similar issue with AVT Guppy camera's on a robotic arm,it might be caused by:

1. When there is a minimal friction by movement on the connector on the camera side of the cable, this causes the system to come with the error you describe. You should actually use rugged or dragchain firewire cables. But we have solved this issue by preventing friction on the connector by fixating the camera cable to the connector with a latch.

2. The amount of camera data is too much for the bandwidth on the PCI-bus, lower the package size per camera.

3. Install the new AVT Firewire driver, it might solve your issue.

4. If using more than 4 camera's consider installing a hub for additional external power to the camera's.