Troubles with Basler scA1390-17gc and 0xbff6901b timeout error in MAX

[miguelparadacontzen]

Hello People.

I'm having troubles with the implementation of a camara set. I have 4 Basler scA1390-17gc camaras conected to a  NI PCIe-8235 card in a Win7 environment. The 4 ports are well configured with the NI GigE Vision Driver, each camara is on his own subnet along with it's driver. 2 of the camaras work without any problems when I acquire images in MAX with the snap/grab buttons. If I change this good working camaras to different ports, with the corresponding IP modifications, they both work perfectly in any of the 4 ports. However, the other 2 camaras, with the same configuration, give a timeout 0xbff6901b error in MAX when I try to acquire. They behave the same in any port. 

Firewall is down, the drivers are correct, Jumbo frames seems to be alright. Even more extrange, if I change the driver to the Basler's provided, I can acquire images from the 4 camaras in Basler's Pilot Viewer software. But, of course, then I have no access to work with NI products. Therefore i don't believe it's a hardware problem. 

I have also notice that the not working camaras have consecutive MACs (0x30530f46dc and 0x30530f46db) while the goodworking ones have MACs in another range (0x30530f509f and 0x30530f509c). I don't know if this is a good reason but, stupid or not, the not working camaras have some misspelt parameter's names ("bandwith" instead of "bandwidth"). That's the only correlation I've been able to find...

I will really apriciate if someone can help me....  Many thanx.

greets,

Miguel.

[BlueCheese]

Hi Miguel,

Sorry to hear you're having troubles.... For reference, what version of IMAQdx are you using?

Given the exact error message you are getting (0xbff6901b - frame timeout), I'm a little unsure of what might be the problem. Essentially that just means that the camera didn't send an image. Is it possible that someone reconfigured the triggering settings on those two cameras? When you open the cameras, the cameras will first load whatever power-on default settings they have saved (you could change this to the factory default). Next, the IMAQdx driver will load the previously saved settings (overriding what the camera powers on with) from the camera file associated with the particular camera instance. These usually live in C:\Users\Public\Documents\National Instruments\NI-IMAQdx\Data on Windows 7. If you had no previously saved camera file, the settings the camera powers up with are saved as the initial camera file. I'd suggest trying to diff the camera files between the working and non-working cameras and see if you can spot a difference.

Also, while it should be unrelated to your problem, it might make things easier for you to switch to not having manually configured IP addresses on different subnets for each camera/port combination. On Windows Vista and later, the network stack works properly enough that IMAQdx can work correctly with multiple network interfaces all picking an automatic link-local address. You could just leave the cameras and the PC getting an automatic IP address and it will just work, regardless of how many ports are in use.

Eric 

[screamingmouse]

I had the same poblem today. Here is my fix:

I had one working Basler Camera, and on non working Basler camera.  So I don't think it was my network card or any firewall issues (besided I don't have one)

Turns out I needed to disable test packets on the non working camera by this procedure:

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/8D9A975B04F66B728625768900805A21

which states:

The test packet timeout error can also be handled by configuring the Test Packets Enabled attribute for the camera to be disabled in Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX). Follow these steps to set this attribute:

1. Open MAX.
2. Click on the Basler GigE camera under Devices and Interfaces»NI-IMAQdx Devices.
3. Choose the Camera Attributes tab.
4. Click on View Options listed right above the camera attributes, and then choose to View All. This allows all camera attributes to be displayed.
5. Click on Expand All to list all the attributes.
6. Select the Test Packet Enabled attribute and set it to be disabled.
7. SAVE THE CONFIGURATION

That will generate a new error of 0xBFF60493 which will be fixed by this accepted solution:

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=200&message.id=26623&query.id=806694#M26623 

which states:

In MAX (Tools->NI Vision->Remote Image Options...) and turn off the option to "Display images on remote monitor."

[markEast]

Hi, I'm having the same issue with the timeout error for the same camera in MAX.

I've followd the advice of disabling test packets with no joy or different error message (made sure to save the settings) .

Again the camera works with the plyon viewer software which came with the camera.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Mark

[screamingmouse]

I know it sounds basic, but please verify all your settings against this Tutorial.  The top part about NI-MAX should help.

http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/5750

The only reason I offer this first is because I just now noticed something in that file that fixed a problem I was having but shelved due to time constraints. And I've read that file many times.

I have a Basler 640-70gm that was giving me time outs.  My problem turned out to be my packets were still at 8000.  Try bumping them down to 1500 and see if that helps.

Good luck

Martin Lee

[markEast]

Cheers Martin,

for anyone else who has issues  I found that after reducing down the packets to 1000 this allowed me to aquire the images.

But to bring the packets back to 8000 I had to uninstall the pylon viewer software that came with the camera. It had made alterations to the Local Area Connection which MAX didn't like.

I was then able to reconfigure the port server adapter (Intel(R) Pro/1000 Adapter) to allow jumbo frames to 9014 bytes.

This sorted the problem for me.

Thanks again for the quick reply Martin

Mark

[screamingmouse]

No problem.

Just a quick question:

Are you using a gigabit switch or connected directly to the camera from your Intel Ethernet port?

This makes a difference in the configuration order.  NI makes great software but I have found I need to do steps in a particular order to get a new camera commisioned.

thanks

[markEast]

Hi Martin,

it's an Intel® Gigabit ET Quad Port Server Adapter

dont know much about it. I just started a new job and they handed me a camera and set me at a pc.

Cheers,

Mark

http://www.intel.com/Products/Server/Adapters/Gb-ET-Quad-Port/Gb-ET-Quad-Port-overview.htm