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Basler Camera II
Pete from United States [56 posts] |
9 year
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Hi STeven, it has been awhile. This is a continuation from a post from last year (see post Basler Camera). I have finally been able to get back to this project and tried latest code (Ver 2.61.44) with still the same issues. I startup RR ater selecting the camera source. When the program starts both the Run & Camera are selected and I have a image, but it is only 320x240. I'm still unable to change the image resolution to the full output of the camera 2452x2054. As mentioned before if the Camera button is not selected and I go into options and all 3 selections below camera are grayed out.
If I add the Camera_Properties module, it shows the video format as UYVY and video size 320x240, if I change the video size I get a larger display but a distorted image, believe it still only has data for the 320x240 image.
If the camera is selected and I go into options, select video options and I select a different output size from the pull down I get a message 'This format is not currently available'. Also there are times when I toggle the Camera button my video stream stops updating and I have to quit and restart. I may also get a message that RR has detected the camera but could not connect to it. This happens if the camera is already being used by another application or is in a locked state.
Is it possible to get this camera working with RR or should I just give up, would it help if I were to send you the camera and see what is happening?
Things are so close as this camera has a slightly better resolution and minimal distortion on the corners.
Thanks,
-pete
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Steven Gentner from United States [1446 posts] |
9 year
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Pete,
Two possibilities here:
1. From what you describe, we had similar issues with some of the other IP based cameras and directshow drivers. So much so that we added the Genicam module that should hopefully get around these issues. Can you try untoggling the camera button (such that it is off) and add the GeniCam module and specify the IP address of the camera. This module produces its own image so it is VERY important NOT to have the camera button nor any other application on the machine using the camera (otherwise the module will fail to connect).
This module circumvents any Windows drivers and talks directly to the camera over IP. Note that you will have to download the GeniCam DLLs to help parse the XML output of the camera. You can get these and more descriptions from
http://www.roborealm.com/help/GenICam.php
Note that the RR version you have already has the module but still needs the DLLs from genicam.org
You might find that a better and more stable solution. At least when we have a problem with that module there is more we can do about it rather than try to guess what is going wrong in a directshow driver that we don't have anything to do with.
Note that also assumes you have a GigE compatible Basler camera ... which has already been tested with this module.
2. If that fails, yes, then lets have you send us that physical camera which would allow us to debug and investigate those issues directly.
STeven.
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Pete from United States [56 posts] |
9 year
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Hi STeven,
I'm able to connect to the camera using the GenIcam module, but still having issues. I might be able to make a change like the scan area which I was able to change, but no image appears. As soon as I try changing something I get a popup message 'Could not read camera XML configuration!(0)'. In the RawXML tab I can see lots of info. A couple of times I was able to get to the Advanced tab and display various parameter data, but the majority of the time the same popup message appears.
I go to the normal Basler camera viewer and change AOI and going back to RR at the lower AOI things seem to start working. At AOI 640x480 in the GenICam module I see the Image faults counter increasing slowly in the GenICam module, I change the AOI to 800x600 and the image faults counter is counting faster. I change the pixel format from YUV422_YUYV_packed to mono8 and I get no image faults, changing to AOI 1280x1024 begin to get many image faults. At this rate I would never be able to go to 2452x2058. If I begin to increase the AOI area I begin to get the popup message. I have increased the Frame rate from 30 to 600uS thinking that may slow data coming from the camera but it did not help.
Any other ideas I could try?
I have been trying this work around to grab the entire image, and that is to used a smaller AOI like 320x240 and then moving the position with the Top and Left properties as what I'm trying to do is decode 30 2d matrix codes. The initial plan was to capture the image and use the crop command to select areas on the image for decoding. This would result in capturing 1 frame or an average of frames and then process. The second approach would required reacquiring images for the 30 positions, but I think may only take a couple of seconds longer which is not an issue.
It would still be nice to capture the entire image.
Thanks,
-pete
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Steven Gentner from United States [1446 posts] |
9 year
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Pete,
Can you send us the Raw XML? You can paste it into this site's contact form and just send it. That way we can check to see what might be a bit different in your particular camera.
The problems you are having with the image size have to do with the way the data is being send (UDP) which does not correct for errors. What is happening is that the connection between the computer and the camera is not fast enough to support really large frames. It also has to do with the computer's speed and its ability to keep up with the data packets.
What I would try to do is reduce the fps to something very slow (5 fps) and then try to increase the frame size. Reducing the rate will slow the data packets and hopefully allow things to catch up.
When you changed to a different format, that also reduces the data load which is why you were able to get a larger image using that format. Definitely stick with mono8 as that is the smallest size. You may even have some formats that compress the image a bit which would really help ... but we'll see if any of those exist in the raw XML that you send and make a recommendation based on that.
STeven.
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Pete from United States [56 posts] |
9 year
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STeven,
As for the computer I'm using for development is it 2.7GHz Intel i7-4800MQ with 16GB of ram, just got it within the last month. When running the camera with the Basler program pylon Viewer (x64) I get the following 1280x1024 image 27.fps at 67.8MB/s and at 2453x2055 image 10fps at 95.6MB/s.
In RR would slowing the fps be done by changing the Frame Rate in the GenICam module to 200,000uS (5fps).
-pete
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Juan Cabrer from United States [11 posts] |
9 year
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Pete,
Do you have a utility from Basler that you can use to configure the camera? If so, use it to configure the camera as you want it to appear, and save the configuration as UserSet1. Also make this the default userset at startup.
I would recommend that you start with 8-Bit, just to keep things simple.
I'm not vary familiar with this type of Balser camera. It seems to sit somewhere between an IP and machine vision product. Is there a configuration webserver embedded on the camera? Some Basler IP cameras have more than one stream, and they can be configured independently of each other.
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Pete from United States [56 posts] |
9 year
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John,
The problem is if I set the AOI to max (2453x2054) using the Basler utility and then open RR I get no image and keep getting the XLM configuration popup error. Using the Basler image tool there are no issues acquiring full image resolution.
I have 5M USB camera and RR can handle the image size, but it may be compressing the data when sending, when using the Basler 5M camera using the GigE link seems to be where the problem lies. Per STeven using the GenICam module to communicates direct to the camera and may help but there are still problems.
STeven, are you still interested to see if you can get this camera to work if I were to sent it you?
-pete
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Steven Gentner from United States [1446 posts] |
9 year
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Pete,
There are a couple things we can try ... but it would be easiest to test those on the actual camera rather than remotely. I'll send you additional info via email.
STeven.
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Pete from United States [56 posts] |
9 year
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Hi STeven,
Received the camera back today, I think things have gotten worst. Had difficultly getting the GenIcam module to see the camera. When I got it to connect I keep getting a popup message, Could not get exclusive access to the camera! You may have another device currently connected or may just need to wait a couple seconds for the connection to timeout. Selecting either 'Yes' or 'No' and the message keeps appearing.
When I start RR it has an image size of 320x240 running at 10FPS. I select the GenIcam module. I may or may not see the camera showing up when it does I select start and the above popup message appears. I select yes and it keeps coming back.
I have rebooted the PC and nothing else is connected to the camera, yet the message keeps appearing. I have downloaded the latest RR version 2.61.56. At this point I can't seem to do anything. If I'm able to quickly delete the GenIcam module I can get the popups to stop.
If a select the GenIcam module again I'm unable to see the camera. Yet I can still quit RR and open the Basler Python viewer and all is working with no issues. I quite the Python viewer come back to RR with the same results.
Under 'Options' -> video format I still get the message "This format is not currently available" Assumption is output size should be set using the Gen!Cam module is this correct?
At this point I can not always get the camera to show up in the GenIcam module and when its does and I start it the popup messages keep appearing.
STeven are there some special sequences you used to get this camera to work?
Thanks for any additional help,
-pete
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Steven Gentner from United States [1446 posts] |
9 year
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Pete,
I think there might be a conflict with the Balser drivers. Ironically, I was unable to install the CD that was with the camera for some reason or other. Thus the machines we tested with only had the Genicam drivers and nothing else. Do you have a vanilla machine that you can test this quickly on?
Be sure NOT to have the camera button pressed when running the Genicam module as it will slow down the image acquisition. The Genicam module provides the image itself and thus just overwrites anything of a connected webcam.
Another possibility is to quickly disable to Windows Firewall in case that is causing issues. The Basler drivers may not use the same communications channel as the Genicam stuff does so even if the Basler drivers work that doesn't mean the Genicam ones will. Testing on XP would also solve any firewall or network security issues.
We also made a quick update to avoid too many of those popups.
If testing on a machine without the Basler drivers also doesn't work then there must be something in your environment that we didn't come across in our testing. One possibility is to then use a screen sharing application to allow us to check your environment directly to see what might the issue be.
STeven.
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Pete from United States [56 posts] |
9 year
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Hi STeven,
I had thought of the driver conflict and in the network adapter properties is an entry call 'Ptlon GigE Vison Streaming Filter' which I unchecked. Seemed to help reduced the massive ammounts of popups and was able to the start GenICam module. This was last week. Since reading your reply, I should not have the Camera tab selected, I was selecting that. In the options tab should there be any camera selected??
Right now I have the latest 2.61.57 running, I have the GigE vision streaming filter unchecked in the network adapter properties. I have the script with only the GenIcam module, the module is started and scan area and settings are not grayed out, I have width at 2448 and height at 2050. The FPS is showing 1.8 but I have no image, just a previous static image from before.
I have not seen any of the popups but I got a meeage when RR started about seeing the camera but not being able to connect to it. I quit RR and restarted and this time received no connection issue message, but still no image. My FPS is now at 0.1 still have not seen an image.
Do you have a script you used when working with the camera I could try?
As for trying on a different system I am trying to get a trial download for trying on a different system.
-pete
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Pete from United States [56 posts] |
9 year
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Hi STeven,
Trying to load RR on a different system is not as easy as it seems. I can not seem to get past the registration process to install on a different system.
I have 5 registrations from the FIRST robots team that I mentor that we never used but I not sure how to install as I don't have the voucher with me, can't remember if it was a different URL to goto.
In the end what can I do to get the trial version to work on a different computer to see if that is causing my issues.
Thanks,
-pete
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Pete from United States [56 posts] |
9 year
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Hi STeven,
Here's as update, camera is working using the GenICam module on a different system running XP. Would you have any ideas to get working on Win7?. At the present time unable to totally disable the firewall on my Win7 development system. Looking into this to confirm it is a firewall issue.
Will keep you updated once I can get the firewall disabled.
Thanks,
-pete
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Juan Cabrer from United States [11 posts] |
9 year
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Hi Pete,
If you cannot disable the firewall on the Windows 7 machine (I'm assuming you were able to on the XP?), you either need a camera that supports firewall traversal, or you will need to open up UDP on the firewall to inbound traffic.
Unfortunately, if you cannot get even this most basic level of access to the firewall configuration, there is nothing else you can do.
In my work, this situation comes up frequently, and the only acceptable solution is to use a dedicated NIC point to point between the camera and the PC.
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Steven Gentner from United States [1446 posts] |
9 year
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Pete,
The configuration is being received because your system probably allows inbound traffic over the standard GenICam port 3956 but when the image is sent, one picks a random unused port to receive data back on that port. If the traffic is blocked, all that RoboRealm can determine is that no image data is being returned. We had exactly this problem on one of our Win7 boxes.
If you cannot disable the firewall, you can instead try adding a rule to allow RoboRealm to receiving Inbound traffic from all UDP ports. See if you can access Control Panel->Windows Firewall->Advanced Settings and then select Inbound Rules. See if RoboRealm or RoboRealm.exe has any entries in that list and what they have configured. You will need a UDP inbound rule at least for port 54321 in order to receive the image correctly.
What we can try to do is also expose that port number in the interface so that you can try changing it to something that is perhaps allowed. For example, many apps will use port 80 since that is most often open to allow for web browsing (but that doesn't typically use UDP). Other streaming services like Skype, etc. are also good ports to try if you cannot get a firewall rule added.
I'll let you know when that update is available in case you need to test other ports.
STeven.
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Pete from United States [56 posts] |
9 year
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Hi John,
I was able to get the firewall disabled for a short while from our IT guy. I have confirmed the firewall has been the issue. I will be letting my manager know about this issue. Such a pain when you are trying to develop a test to find out the tools you have been give to do a job have imposed limitations. I have submitted a request to open ports on the firewall for my development system.
Thanks for the help,
-pete
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Pete from United States [56 posts] |
9 year
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Hi Steven,
The software loaded on my system has the windows firewall disable and uses the the McAfee enterprise firewall which is locked by the security group. I have submitted a request to have the firewall opened on my system. We will see what happens. If they can not open the firewall I will request a separate development system with no IT security control.
Thanks,
-pete
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