IMAQdx and gigE vs firewire?

[david_jenkinson]

Hi,

We've been using Basler firewire A cameras for the last few years.   We are using all functions from the IMAQdx palette when doing pattern match, etc.  What are the code implications if we want to migrate to a gigE version of a similar camera?  I remember reading something somewhere that the IMAQdx layer would provide code abstraction so that either would work using the same code.  Is this true?

Thanks

David Jenkinson

[BlueCheese]

Hi David,

You are correct that IMAQdx abstracts the differences between all the camera types it supports such that you can use any supported camera types (firewire, GigE Vision, USB DirectShow, and IP Cameras) with the same code.

The only exception is really the various attributes the cameras expose. Just like different firewire cameras might have a different subset of attributes that they expose, GigE Vision cameras go one step further and have all their attributes determined by a very flexible XML file scheme (GenICam) that allows all the camera functionality to be self-described by the camera vendor.

What this means is that if you want flexibility to move between different cameras you likely want to avoid directly hardcoding specific attributes in your code (or at least move them into a flexible portion of code that can be customized). You can also make use of the IMAQdx driver to save various configurations off into camera files or strings and then dynamically load them in your code as well.

Eric

[david_jenkinson]

Hi Eric,

Yes there are definitely places in our code where we query and set attributes.  I guess the only way to flush those out is getting the different model  and seeing what problems there are.  

Thanks for the info.

Dave