PCI-1405 frame grabber is obsolete, what else for replacement?

[suanleba]

Hi, we use NI PCI-1405 fram grabber and Guppy Monochrome camera for NI machine vision applications. but recently we heard PCI-1405 fram grabber  is osolete and NI will not support analog frame grabber services. now we are sourcing the replacement for PCI-1405.

1) Anybody can recommend which NI products could be good replacements for our PCI-1405 frame grabber 

    (PCI-1405 is about US$ 1100 , Guppy camera is about US$ 1250 )? and which brands and model of digital  cameras we need to choose?

2) IEEE 1394 or camera link(any others?) for camera interface, which we need prefer ?

3) what is the enviroment requirements regarding the selected new frame grabber?  any demo software for image grab, display,etc, just like NI MAX?

4) any examples of sourceode recommended for image aquisitions by using the above new frame grabber? evaluate how much the changes in vision sourcode needed if the new frame grabber is chosen for our application?

Thanks in advance

Suanleba

[BruceAmmons]

I would also like to see an answer to this question.  Since NI is no longer offering any hardware to acquire signals from an analog camera, I would like some suggested alternatives.  Perhaps a good analog to firewire converter that works well with IMAQdx drivers, as well as an analog to GigE converter that will work with IMAQdx.  I still get requests to acquire signals from analog cameras, and I have no good method to get them into LabVIEW for analysis.  I understand that analog cameras are probably no longer a money maker for NI, but some sort of support would be extremely helpful.  They should have kept a single board available instead of obsoleting the entire collection.

Bruce

[BullDozier]

Hey Bruce,

We set up a page to answer some of the questions about what to do for migration at ni.com/analogmigration.  We don't have specific pieces of hardware that we recommend for firewire or gige conversion, although some people have had luck with off-the-shelf video capture cards.  You can use most 3rd-party directshow capture card in IMAQdx through our USB support.  I'm sorry that we don't have any specific hardware recommendations at this time.

[BVSmith]

And the link to that page is...?

[BVSmith]

Never mind.  I see the link now 🙂

[PAR]

We are using Pleora IPort-Analogue Pro converter that converts analogue video to GIGE Vision format.  Not cheap (1200 $US) but the recent firmware update will allow two video stream conversions and they will support this product for a long time since the CDN (and I presume other) military organization is using it.  There documentation path is a bit tricky but the most important issue is to download their latest ebus_sdk  and use GEPlayer to set up IP address (we use static addressing).

We went this route so that all streamed image capture software is now standardize to GiGE Vision (we are absolutly staying away from USB based systems)

Hope this helps

Paul

[BitFlow_User]

BitFlow still offers two Analog frame grabbers, the AN1 for single camera use and the AN4 for up to four camera solutions.  A switch to GigE is nice and all, but if you still want the same controls over the camera that you had with the frame grabber, it's best to stick with another frame grabber.  BitFlow offers a LabView plugin API which enables you to back up and running in no time.