Cameralink Interface Options from NI

[csk]

Does NI plan to support other computer-interface options

(ie. PCMCIA, USB2, GigE) for the Cameralink standard?

There are competitor solutions out there but I'd like to go

with NI if its only just a matter of time before release.

We currently use the PCI and PCIe bus interface in-house

and have a multiple of requests for a solution that is

'portable' (ie laptop).

We would need the ability to support two cameralink interfaces

on one computer.

-Chet

[BlueCheese]

Hi Chet,

When you are asking for other interface options for CameraLink, I assume you mean you want to hook up existing CameraLink cameras to your laptop? If you aren't tied to existing cameras, you may be better off with a native FireWire or GigE camera plugged into your laptop.

However, if you do have existing CameraLink cameras there are some options available. Pleora makes a small CameraLink-to-GigE Vision adapter that works well with our IMAQdx 3.0.1 driver (http://www.pleora.com/products/iport_1kcl.php). Additionally I seem to recall some company(ies?) selling CameraLink-to-Firewire adapters (which if DCAM compliant, would also work with IMAQdx).

Another option I can think of would be to use an ExpressCard MXI Express card cabled over to a PXI chassis with a couple of PXI-1428 (base/medium cameralink) cards. There is a combined MXI Express controller/chassis available at https://www.ni.com/en-us/support/model.pxi-1033.html that would work nicely. The 5-slot chassis is a bit bigger than a GigE converter box, but is still pretty small.

Hope this helps,

Eric G

[Robert_Eastlund]

Another option would be to use the FrameLink PCMCIA Camera Link card from Imperx, see http://www.imperx.com/frame_grabbers/camera_link/framelink.html.  Imperx provides LabVIEW VIs for the FrameLink card.

Regards,

Robert Eastlund

[csk]

Can NI confirm the two port GigE NIC will work with the current NI Vis Acq?

Intel Corp. PWLA8492MTBLK PCI 10/100/1000MBPS DUAL PT BK

I want to run a 2 channel base config camera over GigE and
would like to drop the GigE switch.

[BlueCheese]

Hi Chet,

That board appears to be one of the older PCIx dual-port based boards. In general, all of the Intel Pro/1000 cards are pretty similar, so I would expect it would work with our driver. However, we have not qualified our driver internally with it, and as such it is not listed in our INF file for our High Performance Driver. While we tried to obtain as many older cards as possible to qualify with our driver, we unfortunately were not able to validate some of the more exotic cards like the one you mentioned. You could either use the card with Intel's driver, or force Windows to use our driver even though the device id is not listed (which again I would be very surprised if it did not work). Using Intel's driver you would lose the performance benefits and multiple ports would be trickier to configure.

If you have not yet purchased a card, a better option if you want multiple ports might be one of the newer Pro/1000 PT Dual Port cards. These are PCI Express x4 and have been extensively tested by us for use with our driver. They are priced about the same as the PCIx one you mentioned above. Unless you were planning on putting the previous card in a fast PCIx slot rather than PCI, you'll also be much less bandwidth-constrained than the other card.

Please let me know if you have any more questions.

Thanks,

Eric G

Message Edited by BlueCheese on 03-30-2007 10:18 AM

[csk]

Thanks Eric.

It was a board that came up during a search so I have yet to purchase one.

Maybe someone at NI can writeup an app note showing how to setup a
GigE solution using NI approved GigE switches and GigE NICS both for
the desktop and laptop configurations.

One NIC to one camera and one NIC to many cameras would be great

-Chet

[AnthonV]

---

BlueCheese wrote:

However, if you do have existing CameraLink cameras there are some options available. Pleora makes a small CameraLink-to-GigE Vision adapter that works well with our IMAQdx 3.0.1 driver (http://www.pleora.com/products/iport_1kcl.php). 

---

Hi, I'm using CameraLink Medium and Base cameras in RT on a desktop PC.  I need to move to a more industrialised chassis and was hoping to use the NI PXIexpress chassis.  Unfortunately NI has no PXIexpress CameraLink cards, only normal PXI.  I cannot use these PXI cards as my bandwidth requirements are too high for PXI.

So I am interested in using the NI GigE PXIexpress cards in combination with these devices from Pleora mentioned above.  (They convert CameraLink Base to a GigE line and CameraLink Medium to 2x GigE lines).  I need to know whether I will be able to use my existing IMAQ code as-is, or am I giving myself a lot of extra work by going this route?

Then hopefully in future either my cameras will be available in GigE or NI will sell the PXI-1429 in a PXIe form factor and I will then be able to get rid of the Pleora devices. 

Also any idea how 2x GigE lines from one camera will be handled by the IMAQ drivers?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks. 

[csk]

 Ahhh...I have two of those Gige converters sitting around...

Although I think the Pleora product is good, you will need to understand there will be bandwidth limitations with GigE.

The cameralink to GigE conversion is seamless on the video data BUT the serial IO is a problem.  There isn't a direct

channel via serial over GigE. With that said, you need to create an XML template file that maps cameralink serial commands

to registers in the Pleora converter. The command structure needs to follow a SET/GET format, wherein, each command

must acknowledge a command write and be able to report a value when queried.  This is not a Pleora specific problem,

GigE compliance to an emerging spec is the issue. When a GigE camera is queried, it reports its capabilities via this XML file.

But there isn't a standard for cameralink camera features, so mapping vendor specific commands to a standards file is the

problem. There may not be a direct map for a given command...

The Pleora converter worked perfectly with NI-MAX. Again, that capability only rolled out during my development effort.

If you go with Pleora, and intend to use your company's net to pass packets, rather than a point to point connection, you

will need to understand what kind of packet filtering via routers, if any, is being done and any firewall type apps on the pc. I used a point

to point connection with one NIC and then another NIC via a bridge to gain company net access. It worked and I used the setup

to create a portable dual cameralink channel demo solution using a laptop. But... I only mapped a subset of commands to get it

working..

Maybe, Pleora has solved alot of these issues since I last used their platform... Dunno. I pulled the plug on the program

because it became a 'work in progress' with Pleora as new features were being developed realtime.

I have chosen another approach that may be your  solution with the PXI chassis.

I am now using a dual channel Cameralink card by a company called IMPERX. Its a Cardbus 54 format. I think most of NI's

PXI frames have this port. It doesn't yet work with linescan cameras but I've gotten around this since my company

manufactures the dual channel NIR/CCD camera I use it for. I created a pseudo FVAL to create frames....like an areascan.

It works great for area scan cameras out of the box.

Using their API, I get a pointer to their image buffer and from there I use the IMAQ/VDM function set. It was an easier

port for me than the Pleora effort.

Hopefully, this helps you.

-Chet Knurek

-Senior Staff Engineer

-Princeton Lightwave

-1D/2D/3D Imaging Systems

cknurek@princetonlightwave.com

Message Edited by csk on 07-16-2009 07:55 AM

[AnthonV]

Thanks for the insights!

I don't know if I understand the Cardbus suggestion completely - to connect the CameraLink Cardbus framegrabber to a PXIe chassis, wouldn't I need a PXIe Cardbus carrier from NI?  I do not think such a card exists.  (Camera -> CameraLink -> IMPERX Cardbus -> PXIe Cardbus Carrier -> PCI express on backplane -> PXIe controller).

All the cameras I work with are currently linescan, it sounds like this might be problematic?  Also as I'm using LabVIEW RT, IMPERX's drivers might not work.

I'm hoping NI releases the NI-1429 and NI-1430 (which are PCIe) in a PXIe format soon, this *should* be simple to do (says I who knows nothing) and these high throughput cards are obvious candidates for the PCIe form factor. 

Given your feedback, I'm leaning towards sticking to the desktop PC for now.  Its actually a much cheaper solution than the PXIe chassis and I could always place it in an IP65 box and on a foam mattress to 'industrialise' it.

Thanks again.