vbai custom interface

[pallen]

I just started playing around with the custom interface option in VBAI and I have to ask what may be a stupid question.

I have a CVS 1456.  I'm not 100% sure, but it seems that my custom interface is only viewable if I use a web browser to access the controller.  (This works)

What I'd really like, is to see my custom interface show up on the monitor output from the CVS unit.  Right now all I see is the inspection image and the overlays I added.  

Is this possible?

[ChristopheC · Accepted solution]

Hi Patrick,

Unfortuntely, what you're describing is not possible. The purpose of the custom user interface is to replace the standard Inspection Interface that you have when you run an inspection in inspection mode from your host computer and control Vision Builder AI from your host computer, or another computer connected on the network using a web browser.

Currently, the only way to customize the VGA output of the CVS is to insert a Custom Overlay step. With this step, you can overlay booleans, results and even images onto the image.

-Christophe

[pallen]

Thanks Christophe,

This is what I suspected.  But I thought I'd ask.....just in case.

I do like how easy it is to make a web browsable custom interface though. 

[ChristopheC]

Creating a browsable custom interface is very easy.

First, you create your custom interface in LabVIEW (LabVIEW 8.5.1 for Vision Builder AI 3.6). The interface is going to be the front panel of the VI. You can place simple controls and indicators like numerics, booleans, strings, graphs, charts, and of course images (image display control). You can even add simple code on the block diagram that is going to be run when you choose to update the custom UI in VBAI. On the diagram, you can only use LabVIEW primitives (not subVIs).

Vision Builder ships with a couple templates you can use.

Once the VI is created, you import it in Vision Builder through the Tools>>Inspection Interface Configuration menu.

All the controls you placed on the front panel are available to all steps that use previous results (like for example the calculator step), as well as when you define transition conditions in the state diagram.

You can set the value of the indicators of the UI (including images) with a specific step (Use Additional Tools>>Update Inspection UI).

To make the UI accessible from web browsers, you need to be connected to a target (Compact Vision System or Smart Camera). Select Target>>Target Options, then select the Web Server catagory. Enable the web server and specify the IP addresses of the computers that you want to allow to connect to the UI.

Save your inspection, open it and run it in inspection mode. You can then close the inspection UI from Vision Builder, while choosing to keep the inspection running on the target.

(Inspection>>Close).

You can then open a web browser from a different machine, if you'd like, type the IP address of the target, and voila!

I encourage you to look at the following application note for some examples:

http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/6714

This is a really powerful feature that allows you to change some parameter values directly from the inspection interface, display multiple image, your own logo, even change the flow of the state diagram.

Best regards,

-Christophe