Has anyone multiplexed 5 or more cameras?

[TS9]

Has anyone setup a system using a lot of cameras? I have an application that will require either 5 or 9 cameras. Speed is not a critical factor (the part will not be moving) but I'd like the acquire rate to be on the order of at least a second or two for all 9.
I believe I could use three 1409 cards and synchronize them. Would I have to synchronize all 9 cameras together as well as the cards or if I have 3 hooked up to each, can I just synchronize the 3 cameras hooked to each card and simultaneouly grab from all 3 cards?

Does anyone know of a standalone multiplexer that could take all 9 cameras and output 1 video stream that would go into a 1409 or 1407 or other NI card? I heard of the video multiplexers that will t
ake multiple cameras for recording to a vcr, but I'm not sure one of those would work.

Thanks

[BruceAmmons]

Getting all your images in a second or two should be easy, especially if you synchronize the cameras on each card. You should be able to read from the 1409 cards simultaneously unless you hit a PCI bus limit. With 30 fps cameras, you should be able to get all the images in 1/10 of a second. Even if you have to read each PCI card separately, you would still only take about 1/3 of a second.

I would seriously consider firewire as an option also. This would give you the flexibility of digital cameras with easy configuration and a high degree of control from the computer (shutter speed, gain, etc.). It might end up being cheaper, also.

I don't know of any multiplexers that would work with the 1409 card.

Bruce

[crelf]

I totally agree - using firewire cameras will allow you to hang them all of the same card (only one card required, so you won't need to look at multiplexing anything), will be cheaper, and will allow up to 63 devices on the FireWire bus. As acquisition speed isn't an issue, FireWire would be perfect for your application. This option negates the need for framegrabber cards, although you will need to purchase (not very expensive) the IEEE1394 (FireWire) Vision Toolkit to extend MAX to see your devices, and perform IMAQ functions (more info on the toolkit is here).

You can find more information on IEEE1394 and other vision techniques in my book: Image Acquisition and Processing with LabVIEW.