Installing GUPPY camera

[viswa]

Hello all,

                   Today i have received AVT GUPPY F-036B monochrome firewire camera along with IEEE1394a card which is a PCI card and has 2 firwire outputs. I have installed IEEE 1394 card in my PC and is recognised when i rebooted PC after installation.

Now i want to know how to configure the camera in NILabVIEW environment??

AVT says that the camera can be easily configurable after installing IEEE1394 card one has to install their software package then the camera will be automatically recognised. Later i can set all the parameters using their software.

I want to use LabVIEW 8.2 version along with NI vision assistant to configure the camera. Just stuck up with what to do next???? 

Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated!!

Is IEEE1394a card equivalent to a framegrabber???

[viswa]

Hello all,

                I have connected the camera to Firwire board  and configured using MAX. I was confused about what kind of drivers were needed for configuration, but found out later in NI-IMAQ serves as driver for the camera. The help in MAX provided me information for configuration. 

Now the problem is the image flickering when camera is used in GRAB or SNAP mode.

Any idea about what could be the reason???

Message Edited by viswa on 03-02-2010 10:17 AM

Message Edited by viswa on 03-02-2010 10:17 AM

[ScottSmith]

Flickering image is most likely due to brief exposure time out of synch with ambient lighting in your facility.   Overhead office lights often flicker with the electrical grid - while this is imperceptible to the human cognitive system, the camera merely acquires the photons present for the duration of the exposure.

Try using longer exposures (reduce lens aperture if necessary to avoid overexposure).  Else control your lighting.

[viswa]

Hi Scott,

               I can see live image when grabbed in MAX or with IMAQ1394 grab vi. The problem is about status LEDs onthe camera (explained in the link).

There are two LEDs.

The first LED is green one. When sufficient power is supplied to the camera the green LED is on and ready to use (firewire cable can supply power). I can see that on my camera so it is ready to use. 

But the second LED which is orange, blinks when i grab images from the camera and also look very dark and fluctuates. Even the orange LED blinks when MAX grab function is used.

The orange LED says: Asynchronous and isochronous data transmission active (indicated asynchronously to transmission over the 1394 bus).

Can anybody help me to solve this problem??

 Look at page number 78 and 79.

http://www.alliedvisiontec.com/fileadmin/content/PDF/Products/Technical_Manual/Guppy/Guppy_TechMan_V...

[ScottSmith]

But your message (further) above wrote of flickering, presumably in the image? 

It's not clear to me what your current question is:

(a) the image(s)/controls via MAX and IMAQ1394 vi

(b) the images fine, but just curious about the semantics of the Guppy-LEDs

...if you are getting the images you want, why the worry about the LEDs?

I guess what I'm suggesting is that you express your problem relative to the image-acquisition goals - that may be the easiest shared frame-of-reference.  Then others of us can respond with NI or AVT knowledge relative to your overal goals and any gaps you currently have in meeting them.

... just my way of seeing the world.   ... or Weltanschauung, as my German colleagues would say.  😉

[viswa]

Hi Scott,

                        My question was initially about flickering of live image. According your suggestion i have adjusted shutter speed and exposure. I noticed the flickering was removed only by adjusting shutter speed.

I also changed gamma from 0 to 1, so now image is visible not too dark, i felt the settings were correct by varying focus of the lens and aperture size. May be its crude estimation.

Still reading NI IMAQ 1394 documents to know about acquisition using external triggering with a pulse genrated by a DAQ card.

So almost my problem is solved. You are right when anybody sees live image with out any trouble why to bother about it?? But little afraid of damaging camera unknowingly.....

What is the relationship between shutter speed and flicker???? Any clues.....just curious to know.

Thanks for your help. 

[ScottSmith]

> You are right when anybody sees live image with out any trouble why to bother about it?? But little afraid of damaging camera unknowingly.....

We appreciate your caution - preferable to an RMA request for "I think I blew up my camera"  😉

But blinking LEDs are normal, just meant as a trouble-shoot aid if something wrong.  Since everything ok, don't worry about it in this case.   As Casey Stengel once said, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."    [Though my favorite is "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."]

> My question was initially about flickering of live image. According your suggestion i have adjusted shutter speed and exposure. I noticed the flickering was removed only by adjusting shutter speed.  What is the relationship between shutter speed and flicker???? Any clues.....just curious to know.

Sure - that's an easy one - short exposures out of phase with the "beat" of ambient lights will sometimes be in dark phase, sometimes in bright phase.  By lengthening exposure, you sample across intensities and it averages out.  I did a quick Google search for you on "camera image flickering with lights" and found a nice overview at

http://www.pixim.com/news-and-events/pixim-in-the-news/Reducing-fluorescent-flicker-in-security-came...

Cheers,

Scott