using remote desktop/VNC/X with LabVIEW & Vision

[2verb]

Hi,

I work at a place where machine vision is an important part of our application. It is generally convenient to use Remote Desktop to do our development because the computers connected to the hardware are in a clean room environment. In some cases developers even work from home after accessing the company LAN via VPN.

Remote Desktop works well for these situations until we have an IMAQ display control with a constantly updated camera image. If the developer is at home when this image starts, then the connection is effectively broken because it is impossible to do anything.

I have tried using VNC, but the VNC server/client I tried was unusable for developing with LabVIEW, never mind debugging vision applications.

I was hoping to find out if other developers had had similar experiences and if anyone had found a better solution then Remote Desktop?

Thanks!

[BullDozier]

Hey 2verb,

Thanks for contacting NI.  This problem is perplexing.  I would love to know more about the problem if you have time.  When you say the connection is destroyed, do you mean that the connection is terminated when the image updates?  I've used image control's over remote desktop before, but never outside of work.  I'll remote into my work computer this weekend and try to run a VI with image acquisition and see what happens.  This is an interesting problem that I can't say I'm familiar with.  Any further information you could give me would be awesome.  In the meantime, have a great weekend!

Thanks,

[2verb]

Sorry for the lack of clarity in my description.

The link stays up most of the time. What happens instead is that communication between you and the remote machine becomes painfully slow or in some cases events are lost entirely.

So if you click on a control nothing may happen for several minutes. Or nothing may happen at all. In addition it is obvious that the local console is not getting updates from the GUI that is displaying the camera images.

The reason I say this effectively destroys the connection is because it becomes impossible to move to the next step of whatever you are doing.

[BullDozier]

Hey 2verb,

So I tested this out over the weekend.  From my apartment, I was able to remote desktop into my work computer and run a program that had a IMAQdx firewire camera connected, another program that had a USB IMAQ camera connected, and another program that used a plain old analog IMAQ camera.  All three programs just performed continuous acquires.  I did notice that it was a little slower than being in front of my work computer, but this was due to my internet speed.  The remote desktop doesn't require a ton of bandwidth, but it does require bursts of speed when it is refreshing.  I believe I was spiking my internet connection and this is how I explained my lag. 

This is likely what is happening to your employee's computers when they're remoting into them.  It is possible that the internet speed is causing Remote Desktop to stumble.  I hope this helps you out.  Let me know if I can clarify anything.

Thanks,