Budget Cameras compatible with ImAq?

[SiRe99]

Hey all, I'm working on a design project in school trying to acquire video of an athlete and feed it into Vision Builder and LabVIEW. The problem is the camera we have been using is not exactly up to the task of automatically triggering off a signal from LabVIEW, and automatically feeding data/video back into LabVIEW/Vision Builder. Since I am budget constrained (this needs to be under $200 for this particular application), I am hoping to see if it would be possible to use a generic USB or firewire webcam for this purpose. If not, I could possibly acquire a low-end camcorder for that price but it might take more time. Not sure if this would work for the intended work. If any more questions need answering in order to answer my questions, feel free to ask. I am essentially asking if it is possible and/or what are the minimum requirements for a camera to do this. Thanks for the help guys!

[Moorethoughts]

Sire99,

You can trigger both a USB and Firewire camera through our software (LabVIEW) with few problems.  It is easier to do if they have external digital input lines that support triggering, but if those are not available, then software triggering is possible.  If you would like to see an example of how to do this, open your Example Finder by going to Help » Find Examples.  Once that is open, under Browse, go to Hardware Input and Output » IMAQdx » Signal Input and Output » Triggered Grab.  This example outlines the basic coding necessary in order to configure a trigger in LabVIEW.  Beyond that, here is a white paper written for Firewire cameras that explains what the different trigger modes are, as well as some of the basic triggering concepts:

http://www.ni.com/white-paper/6317/en 

You may notice that the link is written for our compact vision system, but feel free to ignore those components, as the code written in the link and the firewire triggering descriptions should apply to what you are trying to do.  So long as the Firewire camera is DCAM compliant you should have no issues at all communicating with it through our IMAQdx software. More information on triggering for Firewire cameras can be found under the "Triggering" heading of the following document:

https://www.ni.com/en/support/documentation/supplemental/06/acquiring-from-firewire--cameras-with-ni...

For USB 2.0 cameras, so long as it is Directshow Compatible, you can use IMAQdx.  That being said, I would recommend using a firewire camera for this application because USB cameras do not support triggering as readily as IEEE-1394 (Firewire) cameras do.  If the camera has external triggering lines (digital inputs that support triggering), then you should have no issues with it, but firewire would still be the suggested bus type if you have to choose between the two.  Hopefully that helps a bit, and good luck with the rest of your application!

Regards,

Keith M.

Applications Engineering

[AlexanderKhodarev]

i had good experience with Sentech cameras. They are reasonably priced but still above 200. However they might give you un academic discount - at least push for that.

http://www.sentechamerica.com/cameras-groups/usb2.0.aspx