Unibrain Fire-i400 IEEE-1394 Camera Not Detected in MAX

[Doug1974]

Here's the situation.. I'm trying to get an entry for my Unibrain Fire-i400 camera to appear in the Measurement and Automation Explorer. It will not. I am using a Unibrain Fireboard-RED IEEE-1394 PCI card and the camera I mentioned previously. Both the board and camera are present in the Windows 98(SE) Device Manager. I can even acquire images using the native fire-i application. I've been looking into this and have found that I may require "NI IMAQ for IEEE 1394 Cameras" (P/N: 778413-01) which NI sells for ~$535CDN!! I have NI-IMAQ 2.5.2 installed on the machine -- am I doing something wrong? Are there 'free' third party drivers to get my setup to function with Labview(6.1)? Or do I have to purchase the expensive driver from NI?

[BruceAmmons]

I think you are stuck getting the drivers from NI. They are pretty nice drivers, if that helps. You may be able to integrate 3rd party drivers into your software, but it won't work as smoothly or easily.

That appears to be the trade off with firewire cameras. The firewire board is much cheaper than a video acquisition board, but then you have to buy the drivers.

Bruce