FLIR A320 infrared camera Labview Developer Kit feedback

[Nanopit]

We are planning to buy an A320 FLIR infrared camera and devlope our own software using FLIR's Labview Developer Kit.

I'm having a hard time finding feedback on the ease of use or robustness of this Labview Developer Kit.  Could some FLIR IR camera users please post about their experience using Labview to interact with a FLIR IR camera?  We are not purchasing the researcher software and intend to write our own measurement software using Labview 8.5 and this Developer Kit.

We plan to use this camera in a research setting to observe heat maps of LED lighting and compact fluorescent bulbs.

The A320 model is a new version of the A20M model.  Among other things which have changed from the A20M to the A320 is that the connection cable has been changed from firewire to a 10/100 ethernet line.


Basically, we've been burned by poorly implemented Labview VI's provided by manufacturers before, and I couldn't find FLIR on the NI official drivers list (I see a NI-IMAQ for firewire cameras, but not for ethernet ones).  Thus, we're looking for some feedback before dropping a large chunk of change to purchase this camera.

Thanks very much for all help offered.  🙂

[BlueCheese]

Hi Nanopit,

Have you considered the A320G? Its GigE Vision compliant and thus works with NI's IMAQdx driver. From my understanding, FLIR's GigE Vision implementation is nice and exposes many of their features cleanly so they will show up in MAX and be controllable in your LabVIEW application. I honestly have no idea what's included in their LabVIEW Developer's Kit for their GigE cameras, so I can't tell you how well that works (maybe someone else can chime in). However, I think your image acquisition and camera control should probably be a snap with that camera and IMAQdx, and shouldn't require any software from FLIR to work.

-Eric

[Nanopit]

The extra $6k for the upgrade to the A320G for the GigE connection was a bit out of our price range for what we can spend (also hard to justify as the GigE would be the only difference for our intended applications).

I am new to the world of Labview Vision programming/interfaces (this is my first venture in the genre).  Is there a Labview 8.5 standard for 10/100 ethernet cameras that I can check for A320 compliance via FLIR Customer service?

Thank you for your constructive help, BlueCheese.  🙂

[BlueCheese]

Hi Nanopit,

Sorry, I didn't realize there was such a price difference between the two! Unfortunately, (to the best of my knowledge) the 10/100 models use a proprietary protocol that will probably only work with their software/toolkit. While it is a faster speed connection too, the real difference with the GigE model is that it adheres to the GigE Vision standard and thus is compatible with software like IMAQdx natively.

The other options (though again I am not sure about pricing and other differences in capabilities) are their firewire models like the A20M you mentioned and the A40M. These will work natively with IMAQdx as well. Lastly, they do also have CameraLink models that will most likely work with our IMAQ framegrabbers as well, but those are probably much higher in price than even the GigE Vision ones.

Hope this helps,

-Eric

Message Edited by BlueCheese on 02-27-2008 10:38 PM

[Nanopit]

Thank you, BlueCheese.  Your insight into the communication protocol differences is very welcome.

Yeah, the A320 vs. A320G price difference caught me off guard as well.  Also, interestingly, the A20M costs $1k more than the A320 even though the A320 is the replacement model for the A20M!  That $1k savings coupled with the A320 having 4 times the resolution of the A20M (320x240 for the A320 vs. 160x120 for the A20M) makes taking a chance on the software worth it as long as FLIR has a decent return option if things don't work out (I'm waiting to hear back from a rep about their return policy for the A320).  However, that would still leave me with a limited amount of time to test if it's right for us and I'm currently writing my first real Labview program.

The proprietary 10/100 protocol is a bit discouraging, but shouldn't be too much of a problem as long as the FLIR-provided Labview kit is nicely done.  I'll ask the sales rep if the A320 uses a proprietary 10/100 protocol and I'll post here when I hear back from him.

[Epsilon]

Hi!

We are an authorized FLIR Systems, Inc. integrator as well as an NI Alliance Partner.
You can also use the analog video output on the A320 (no "g") option as well in case that is an option for you. The other option is to use the FLIR LabVIEW digital toolkit to acquire the images over standard Ethernet. The protocol is not necessarely proprietary in that sense, however FLIR's image format contains camera calibration values as header information, which needs to be handled seperately.

We can assist in writing or developing applications using FLIR cameras and LabVIEW if you need help.

Best,
Markus Tarin



Message Edited by Epsilon on 04-07-2008 09:47 PM

[angi1]

Hi Markus,

I am trying to use Flir A320 (no "g") with FLIR labVIEW digital toolkit 3.2, but I can get no image. I am using the examples provided with the toolkit, but after getImage I receive a timeout. Can you help me? Is there some parameter to set?

Thank you,
Giacomo

[Epsilon]

Hi Giacomo!

Please make sure that you have the Ethernet address and subnet mask setup correctly for the camera. You can check this using a command prompt and a ping command. For example ping 192.168.102.2 (that being the IP address of that camera). It should return a response other than a time out.

You can also use Internet Explorer and type in http://192.168.102.2, since the camera has a web server built in. Please replace the example IP address with the one from the camera.

You should also have a little GUI from FLIR that shipped with the camera - IRMonitor. Can you get an image with that?

I would try to turn off DHCP (Dynamic host control protocol) on your PC and set up a fixed and static IP address for starters. You can set that in your network settings in Windows.

Your PC's settings could look like this:

IP Address: 192.168.1.2

Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

The camera should then look like this

IP Address: 192.168.1.3

Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

Give that a try and see, if you can connect to the camera that way.

Best,

Markus Tarin

[angi1]

Hi Markus!

Thank you for your quick reply. The connection is ok. I can reach the camera with ping and I can see the image with IE or with IRmonitor. The problem is with LabVIEW and specifically with getImage. The other functions seem to work. For example I can adjust the focus from LabVIEW, but when I use getImage I receive timeout. Have you some experience about this? Are you using the same camera and the same toolkit (A320, Labview Toolkit 3.2)?

Thank you again,
Giacomo

[Epsilon]

Greetings.

Okay good, so we have eliminated the possibility of communication problems.

In one revision there was a technical issue with acquiring images from an A320. Please verify with FLIR that you have the latest and greatest toolkit & patches.

I remember that there was a fix for the A320, I just can't remember what the issue was.

Keep us posted.

Happy 4th of July!

Markus Tarin