Support for USB cameras in VBAI?

[another_novice]

NI have a free driver that allows Vision 7.1 to access USB 2 cameras. Is there anything similar available for VBAI that would allow me to use an industrial USB 2.0 camera?

[Steffen Hoog]

The packet of VBAI 2.6,  VBAI Developer Kit, LV 7.1 and VDM 7.1 allows you to create your own VBAI-Steps.

But with the use of NI-Grabber or 8254R (IEEE-1394 board + DIOs) you will have the possibilty to comunicate with other hardware via digital IOs. Aditional you can create a triggered acquisition.

Best regards,

Steffen

[Kyle_V]

The free NI-IMAQ for USB Cameras driver is meant to support simple USB webcams that use DirectShow.  For machine vision or scientific imaging applications, most USB cameras don't have the performance or the features needed, like triggering.  The primary "customer" for the free driver has been universities that use webcams in labs.

With that said, there are a few industrial USB cameras out there that can be used for machine vision.  The problem is tha there is no industrial USB camera standard that covers them all (like there is with FireWire), so companies like National Instruments would have to provide and support different drivers and software tools for every indutrial USB camera. 

A better solution is IEEE 1394 (or FireWire).  They offer the same performance as USB 2.0 cameras and are around the same price.  On top of that, almost every large industrial camera manufacture has a line of industrial FireWire cameras (including Sony, Basler, FLIR, and Cohu), and they all conform to the same DCAM (or IIDC) standard.  WIth this standard, our one driver, NI-IMAQ for IEEE 1394 Cameras, works with all of them.

Vision Builder AI is designed to solve machine vision applications without programming, while USB cameras usually don't provide the triggering or advanced modes necessary for machine vision.  Because machine vision and USB cameras don't usually go together, we didn't provide support for USB cameras within Vision Builder AI.  My question to you, another_novice, is why would you like to use a USB camera with Vision Builder AI?  Are there particular features in a certain USB camera that you can't find in other cameras?  I would really like to know so we can get a better picture of how our customers are using our products.

Thank you.

KyleV.

[another_novice]

Kyle,

To answer your question about why USB - recently I've been using a machine vision standard USB camera from Lumenera. It's a nice camera and I can plug it in to any PC with USB2. Not every computer has Firewire - yes I can add a card for $30 - but USB gives me more flexibility. It is also cheaper. I recently bought and installed VBAI 2.6, which I like very much, but I was disappointed to learn that I had to buy the Firewire driver separately - an additional $400.

So the bottom line is: USB is more universal, I don't need to buy additional drivers, and the cameras are competitive with Firewire.

[Kyle_V]

The Lumenera cameras are some of the few USB cameras that are suitable for machine vision.  With that in mind, even if NI-IMAQ for USB Cameras was supported from within VIsion Builder AI, it would be very limited (no triggering, no advanced features.)  

While it may be too late for your application, one option would be for Lumenera to develop their own custom acquisition step for Vision Builder AI.  With the new Vision Builder AI Development Kit, anyone can develop their own custom steps for Vision Builder AI.  That means Lumenera doesn't need a USB driver from NI; they could just create their own custom step to provide to customers who are using NI Vision Builder AI with their camera.  WIth this, they would be the only USB camera solution for Vision Builer Ai customers. 

Perhaps if you and I both contact Lumenera separately, we could work with them to build a quick plug-in for Vision Builder AI from which you and all future Lumenera/NI customers could benefit.

Thanks.

Kyle V

[soloio]

hallo,

i wuold like to use a lumenera usb2 frame grabber with lucamapi.dll, but i have a problem!!!!

please, can i have a typical example that explain how can use this dll???

thanks, best regards

[soloio]

How can use lucamapi.dll with labview???? Can i have a typical example???

Thanks!

[Torba]

Soloio,

If you are trying to access a dll file in LabVIEW, use the Call Library Function node that can be found in the All Functions >> Advanced palette after right-clicking on the block diagram.  You can find an example on how to use this VI by opening the Example Finder in LabVIEW (Help >> Find Examples) and typing "dll" in the search bar under the Search tab.  There should be a "Play Sound" example that demonstrates how a Call Library Function node makes a call to a dll.  For more information on what parameters to pass to the lucamapi.dll, please contact Lumenera.

Regards,

Mike T

National Instruments

[MarcelJ]

Hi,

A Lumenera driver for Labview can be found here : http://admesy.nl
It directly interfaces with lucamapi.dll

[Little_Helper]

Hi

Do you know if USB cameras are supported in VBAI 3.0.1?

It wonders me that USB isn't supported in VBAI, many think that USB isn't a good alternative in MachineVision application versus e.g. firewire or gig-e, but many people are wrong in that matter. USB cameras are very good for MachineVision and when USB 3.0 comes, even more usb-cameras will come. Even USB 2.0 has higher bandwith than 1394a, and with USB 3.0 they are aiming for 10 times the bandwidth of current USB2.0 solutions, or approximately 5Gbps.