IMG_ERR_TMO and crashes with IMAQ vision, PCI-1409, Windows 2000 Pro and Single board computer ?

[FraserD]

I am able to snap and grab (with limited image
sizes) on a single board computer (Windows 2000) and PCI-1409. However, it ceases to acquire the image (CCIR 25fps) telling me it can't capture that much video data and asking me to reduce the image. Other times it times out (IMG_ERR_TMO) and other times it crashes out completely. PCI-1409 has been tested successfully on other desktop machines running windows NT. IMAQ Vision still crashes when the display the image VI is removed, therefore ruling out the 4MB video card as a reason.

[Kyle_V]

FraserD, are you getting these errors in MAX? The error that asks you to reduce your image size is the DMA Timout, I believe. This error is caused when the PCI bus controller is expecting more data than the frame grabber gives it. That's why reducing the image size (thus the expected data) sometimes removes the error. You'll also see the error if you unplug a camera during an acquisition. Usually if this error occurs after working for a little while, there are a few sources: the camera could start outputing a bad signal, the cable connection could be loose, or the computer may be too busy to keep up with the incoming data. Of the three, the cable issue is usually the most common. However, if you have an older computer, or if you're performing any other processes
in the background, the error can occur.

I'm curious when you say "IMAQ Vision crashes when the display the image VI is removed." Does LabVIEW or your programming environment crash? Are you running one of the image acquisition example programs that came with NI-IMAQ? You should never have to display an image in order to acquire it. Often times, if you're getting a DMA Timeout error while opening and closing windows in Windows, removing IMAQ WindDraw display may help (so will getting a faster graphics card).

[FraserD]

These errors are occuring on a single board computer in MAX and also when running LABVIEW. LABVIEW itself crashes sometimes and other times the operating system crashes, rebooting itself or freezing up.

What i meant by "IMAQ Vision crashes when the 'display the image' VI is removed" is that i think it is not a graphics problem - i remove the display VI (IMAQ Windraw) in one of the NI-IMAQ programs(LLGrabAndDisplay.vi) and run it and the DMA error occurs or it crashes LABVIEW or the operating system crashes.

I have now tried my PCI-1409 card and the same camera source on another machine and it works fine. I have tried both WIN2000 pro and WINNT on the single board computer and the DMA timeout problem persists. When i reduce the frame size down to 200x200
it last longer before the DMA timeout error occurs. 100x100 allows the acquisition to occur indefinitely, however this is of no use to my system as i need the full video signal.

Presently the single board computer has an Intel 69030 SVGA graphics controller with 4MB of SDRAM graphics memory. Do you think this may still be the problem?