NI cRIO IP camera support

[AmarMakana]

Hi,

          I am working with a cRIO 9022. Also, I have an ethernet based camera (Panasonic C210A). It should be given power supply through its converter. The converter has got 2 LAN slots and the Ethernet cables are such that, one goes to the camera and one goes to the cRIO and the camera is given power through the converter using a 9V Adapter.

          Now, when I create a VI under the target(cRIO) and try to search for this particular IP camera(not sure if it's IP camera or not), it doesn't show up in the Vision Assistant sub vi. I have the drivers for this camera installed on the HOST PC. But, those drivers aren't installed on the cRIO, the target. I am not sure if the drivers can be installed on the target also in some way. (Should the files from the Host be transferred to the Target using FTP Client, for installation)?

          The ethernet slot on the cRIO has got 2 LEDs above and below the ethernet cable. They both glow green when I connect the camera. But, I can't find the camera when I use Vision Assistant.

Can anyone help me with this issue?

Amar Makana.

[Matt-J]

Hi Amar,

Image acquisition on a cRIO is very limited right now. The only supported RIO acquisition is from IP cameras made by Basler and Axis. These cameras make use of the IMAQdx driver. Take a look at this link, and look under the Fast Ethernet (IP) section for further clarification. Since you are using a Panasonic camera, the driver does not know how to recognize it.

In addition, with the correct type of camera, the IMAQdx drivers need to be installed on both the host PC and the cRIO to properly configure image acquisition. Take a look here for clarification on the proper steps to set this up. Let me know if I can help with anything else.

Best regards,

[AmarMakana]

Thanks Matt, for the information on cRIO and IP Camera support. As, I have only the Panasonic Camera as the only IP camera with me right now, I will wait for the developements in cRIO and its drivers to identify this particular camera. I used the USB cameras connected to the HOST PC, to be accessed by the cRIO, but had no luck there, someone already gave explaination for that. I hope as you are an Applications Engineer, you can answer another question of mine.

I have worked with NI USB 6216, for a Data Acquisition and Control job. I had to select only the N samples option to work with the Acquisition process. If I selected Continuous Samples option, the hardware responds abruptly to the control signals I give( say I gave a proportional output with respect to the error). In this case, I plotted the acquired waveforms on a chart and I see that the waveforms are displayed with broken lines(like set of samples). 

Also, I used a NI cRIO 9022 to do the same thing from the same hardware. In this case, I didn't get those breaks in the waveform. I have used the Analog Input Module Channels and set them in High Speed mode for Acquisition. Can you tell me why this is happening?

And is there a way to avoid those kind of breaks in the signal when I am using NI USB 6216? I think that Buffer Size could be the only reason behind this, but would like to have a better explaination from a professional engineer who has got more hands on experience than me on these hardware. If this problem isn't clear, I will be attaching screenshots of the waveforms I got when I used these hardware seperately. 

Amar Makana.

[Matt-J · Accepted solution]

Hi Amar,

Let me preface my comments by saying that you should post this question here, on the Multifunction DAQ discussion board. Our applications engineering group monitors our forums, and you should get input from a DAQ supporter. In addition, you will likely get a response from our very large forum community. You would not likely get a community response to your 6216 question on this thread, since it is categorized under machine vision.

With that said, it is hard to say what might be causing these waveform breaks without knowledge of the type of signal being monitored. When you post in the DAQ thread, you should include a description of the signal being read in addition to the screenshots you mentioned. However, since you mentioned that N-samples worked, but continuous did not, that leads me to think that the read buffer size should be increased. When using low-level DAQmx VIs, you can specify the size of the read buffer, which allocates a certain amount of computer memory to read samples in from your DAQ device. Then, every time a loop containing the DAQmx read executes, it will pull this many samples out of the buffer. Also, depending on the signal type and number of signals being read, you might be seeing aliasing from not sampling fast enough, or from multiplexing error since the 6216 does not support simultaneous sampling. These are a few things to consider, and I would encourage you to mention them in your DAQ post.

Hope this helps!