Point Grey Chameleon Camera Crashing Labview

[RMTS]

Hi there

I have purchased a Point Grey Chameleon USB 2.0 camera and I have configured so that Labview recognizes the camera and can control it.  However, I have been noticing something strange happening and I am looking for some guidance on solving this problem. 

Outline of series of events:

1. Camera will run normally and I can capture video with no problem.  Randomly, the chameleon camera drops communication with the computer.  The vi can no longer find the camera and it shows up with a small 'x' as disconnected in Measurement and Automation Explorer.

2. Immediately, ANY other vi that is communicating with a USB device (not just the camera!) crashes.  I have seen the following error codes:  50405 and 50808 (both related to 'USB transfer failure')

3.  Labview freezes completely and then crashes.  

4.  Must restart the computer to reopen Labview and get the vis to run successfully again.

Initially, I believed this was a computer hardware issue related to the USB controller.  I tried reinstalling and/or updating software, drivers, cables, etc.  This did not solve the problem.  I then was preparing to purchase a new USB controller and/or motherboard, so I replaced the computer temporarily with another that we had used in the past to run this experiment.  And I then found that I had EXACTLY THE SAME PROBLEM on this different machine.  The common denominator here is the Chameleon camera and the FlyCap software/drivers. 

Has anyone else experienced this problem of a Point Grey Camera dropping communciation with Labview and simulateneously corrupting the communication with other USB devices?  Did you have any luck solving this problem?

Thank you

Richelle

Graduate Researcher, Ohio State

[dstrandb]

Hi Richelle,

The errors that you mentioned usually occur after the host PC's USB controller reports a USB transaction error. According to Intel's specification, a transaction error is any error that caused the host controller to think that the transfer did not complete successfully. 

Since you've already tried the device on another computer, we know that it's not a problem with the USB controller in the computer. Do you have another USB cable you could try to see if that's what's causing the disconnection issues?

[RMTS]

Hi David

Thank you for your reply.  I have already tried switching the USB cable that connects the Chameleon camera to the computer.  This did not fix the problem.

Richelle

[dstrandb]

Hi Richelle,

Does communication to the camera drop when it is the only USB device attached to the computer? One of the USB devices is causing the transaction error, so it will be helpful to narrow down the specific device.

It could also be the case that the multiple USB devices are competing for bandwidth, which is causing connection from one of them to drop. This possibility will also be narrowed down by checking to see if communication drops even when only the camera is connected.