pixelfly at high framerates

[paul willems]

Hi all,

I have a problem with my pixelfly vga (from pco) camera: running it at low frame rates (<20-25 fps) is not a problem and grabbing a picture let's say every minute is also not an issue. However, I cannot record at the 50 fps which the camera should be able to do. Since it does 50 fps under different software (camware), I suspect the problem is in the communication with labview. Have any of you seen this problem before?

Thanks in advance!

Paul Willems 

[ninlmartijn]

Dear Mr. Willems,

Thank you for your post on our webforum. Important is how the camera is connected to the computer (interface card), and how Labview is communicating with the driver from the interface card.

In some cases the interface card (framegrabber) has his own memory, or the images are steamed into the memory from the computer. In this way Labview will be able to get some frames at once, and there is no need to access the driver and hardware for each frame.

Within Labview it is possible to make one loop specially for acquiring data (to run as fast as possible) and one loop for analyzing the data. Please review the produces consumer design pattern.

Best regards,

[nesa]

Hi all,

I had the similar issue with Pixelfly QE camera and the problem is in the VI.

Although camera can go up to 11 fps in some other software, the best I could do is 6fps with the VI that was provided by the manufacturer. The problem is that their VI is written to use only one (out of two buffers in the Pixelfly QE camera) and that slowes things down. I asked them if they are going to write better VI soon and they don't think so. I was hoping somebody did it already.

Nenad

[Amirber]

Hi all

I have started working with the pixelfly camera and faced a problem, when I use the "simpler test.vi" the vi communicates with the camera once and retrieves the camera information, but during execution of the final subvi an error occurs and from that point the camera no longer responds (not even to the CamWare) until I restart the computer. I received the error "-3" during the first run and on the second run "-7".

I tried to add some time delay between the subvi's, and to remove some of them but with no success. I am using LabView 2010 on XP 32bit with the drivers from the PCO site.

Thank you,

Amir

[Corné_Westeneng_NINL]

Hi Amir,

Thanks for posting your question.

I have read your problem and therefore I have several questions.

- Did you measure any troubles in MAX? (Measurement and automation explorer)

- Can you please send me a MAX technical support report? so I can see what drivers/software & hardware you use.

Documenting Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX) Configuration Information Through MAX Technical ...

- You used the "simpler test.vi" where did you find this VI?

- Did you tried any of the VI's in the example finder from Labview?

Regards,

Corné Westeneng

Applications Engineer

NI-Netherlands

[Amirber]

Hello Corné,

When using the MAX it is not possble to see the camera thu it can be used with other programs I guess it is because it is connected threw a PCI 540 card (also not shown in the MAX). The via a Call Library Function Node which returns the error.

I used the "simpler test.vi" provided by PCO on thire website: http://www.pco.de/drivers/ or direct link.  in the driver manual it is stated that: 

"There are two major components to the PixelFly system: the PCI interface board and
the camera head. LabVIEW communicates with the PCI interface board, which
communicates with the camera head over a high-speed serial link."

How can I access the codes in the dll provided by PCO or inspect that the dll is properly read?

Thank you,

Amir

[Corné_Westeneng_NINL]

Hi Amir,

Unfortunately I do not know how to acces the DLL provided by PCO.

Did you already contact PCO about your Camera & Labview version support?

What type of camera do you have?

I've done a bit of research, and you need to install the following drivers:

NI Vision Acquisition Software 2012.08

Have you allready installed this driver?

Regards,

Corné Westenen

Applications Engineer

NI-Netherlands