Firevire camera & Driver problem

[danilo]

Hello!

I have big problem.

I'm using AVT Marlin F145-C2 on Firewire "A" 400MB and Stingray F146C on Firewire "B" on 800MB.

For development system I'm using Visual Basic 6 with NI IMAQ Legacy driver 2.0.5. I use camera in SNAP mode.

System is running on Windows XP SP3.

I have problem with performance. On my laptop where I have installed development system image acquisition

takes around 350ms and on run time system(diferent PC with same HW performance) it takes around 650ms

same operation. I'd like to remind that all camera settings are the same.

On the other hand I have almost same situation with cameras AVT Marlin on Firewire B where  I'm running on development

system operation with speed of 550ms and on run time machine  with speed 850ms.

I really don't understand why is that happening. Is it possible that transfer speeds are low?

Please provide me any help or sugestions.

Best regards!

Message Edited by danilo on 02-22-2010 08:10 AM

[BruceAmmons]

First suggestion:  Check out each camera in MAX and see what the maximum frame rate is.  That is the best you can possibly get.  If your firewire B camera works at 800 MB, it is fine.  If it only goes to 100 MB, you need to use a patch to fix it.

Second suggestion:  Use Grab instead of Snap.  Snap reconfigures the camera every time it is used, which takes a significant amount of time.  Grab configures the camera once and keeps it configured while you continue to acquire images, which is much faster.  It just has to read the next image available.

Bruce

[danilo]

Hello!

Thanks for reply.

In MAX with GRAB mode it works with required frame rate 16fps. I have already used the patch and now I can use all speeds even 800MB.

Before each acquisition I must reconfigure camera setings even video mode is sometimes necessary so GRAB mode i s not something I like or need.

The problem is whay it is working on one computer OK and on the another several computers not OK?

Regards!

Message Edited by danilo on 02-22-2010 12:39 PM

[danilo]

Hello!

Any other idea?

Regards!

[Ben_Engelen]

Hi, IMAQ uses the microsoft implementation of the firewire driver, and this is not as performant and robust for machine vision applications. AVT has released a so called : AVT 1394 BusDriverPackage (

[Ben_Engelen]

the link to AVT site:

http://www.alliedvisiontec.com/us/products/software/windows/avt-1394-busdriverpackage.html

With this tool you can install this driver for every firewire card available in your system.

greetings,

Ben

[danilo]

Hello!

I have install bus driver from AVT also, but there were no better results.

Best regards!

[Ben_Engelen]

you could always try to use IMAQdx instead of legacy Firewire driver. But you will need to by a license for it. Also an option is to use the AVT firepackage driver instead of IMAQ. (Its for free when using AVT camera's) I have only used the camera's with imaqdx in LabVIEW. I also do not use the snap or grab functions instead use the advanced functions to first configure the camera and then to start stop an acquisition. Greetz, Ben

[danilo]

Hello Ben!

I'm using legacy driver and the question is why this works OK on one PC and on the another not?

That is  the real question? What could cause that? How can I debug?

On GOOD machine ia get SNAP comand executed in 370ms and on BAD machine I get SNAP command executed

in 650ms. Why, what is the reason?

Camera has fixed times for comands execution so there shouldnt be any delays,

I belive?

Regards!

[danilo]

Hello!

Any aditional ideas?

Regards!

Message Edited by danilo on 02-24-2010 02:14 AM