Difficulty using Pixelink PLB741EU USB camera with Labview

[kbaker]

Hello.  I am currently evaluating a Pixelink PLB741EU USB camera to decice if I should buy it over the JAI BM-141, and I would like to use Labview to control the camera.  I am very familiar using the IMAQ-dx drivers/labview commands with my firewire and GigE cameras, but it appears that I cannot use this driver with this USB camera.  I found out after the fact that they have firewire and GigE versions that I should have tried instead.  Also they have a SDK that they really try to push, but that costs an additional $600 and I am not sure if I really want to purchase this camera so I don't want to buy it now...  I  want to run some simple tests with the camera to determine if I want to purchase it (and maybe later purchase the GigE version so I can use the IMAQ-dx driver instead).  I just want to see what the image sensativity is with my light sources (~810nm), and also see what the depth of field is, and compare these results with another JAI BM-141 GE GigE camera that I have yet to receive.  I should be able to just use the IMAQ-dx driver with that, but Pixelink suggestst that I use their SDK, and I don't know how ...  I have an external trigger that I want to expose the USB camera when the trigger level is high, that is also used to turn on/off my light sources .  I am very familiar doing this with the firewire and GigE Prosilica AVT cameras, but not this one... 

I am wondering if anyone has experience using the Pixelink PLB741EU USB camera with Labview software?  I would like to use it without the SDK, but if you have used it I would like to know what you think about it.  Is it better than NI IMAQ-dx software?  Also I would be interested in hearing anyones experience using a Pixelink and/or JAI camera, since like I said before I have only used Prosilica AVT cameras in the past, but I am not to happy with their product (another story).  Thanks in advance for any help.

Kevin

[The_Chancenator]

Hi Kevin,

There are some troubleshooting steps that you can try to get this camera up and working with IMAQdx. 

First, is the camera DirectShow compliant?  The IMAQdx driver uses this layer, and it is imperative that your camera complies with this standard.

Second, did the camera come with any sort of software?  If so, install it.  It doesn't necessarily have to be the SDK, but we will need the driver.

Third, does the camera show up in the Device Manager?  If so, is it listed as a National Instruments Imaging Device?  Does it show up in MAX?  Also, what version of IMAQdx do you have?  The USB cameras we rolled into this driver in 2009.

Also see this article: Troubleshooting USB Camera Installation Problems

Cheers,

[kbaker]

Hello Marti.  As I said before I just want to do some testing with this camera to see if it will fit out application, and I don't want to spend a lot of time developing the software.  I am very familier with the IMAQdx drivers, becasue I have used firewire and GigE cameras, so it would be good if I could use something like this for the USB pixellink camera...

Yes the USB camera is Directshow complient.  I am not sure what this means though...  The camera shows up in MAX under the IMAQdx devices, but I cannot change any of the attributes?  Please see image.

I installed their propritery software, and it seems to work so the driver should be there.

I  believe I am using the latest IMAQdx...  I am running Labview 2009.  How can I tell what version I am using? 

Thanks again for your help.

Kevin

[BlueCheese]

Marti,

DirectShow cameras will not show up as National Instruments devices because it is still the vendor-supplied driver that is associated with the camera.

Kevin,

Does your camera now work for acquiring images? Is it just the attributes that are missing? I expect this is because the drivers for your camera are simply not exposing that functionality via the standardized DirectShow interfaces. They might only have such control on a custom UI panel within their driver. You'd have to talk with them and get them to implement the programmatic interfaces that IMAQdx requires (IAMVideoProcAmp and IAMCameraControl).

Eric

[kbaker]

Thanks Eric.  Yes the camera works now using there properatry (Pixellink Capture OEM program) .  But as you said I can't change or see any of the camera attributes in MAX, and would therefore assume the same is true with Labview.  I wonder how hard it would be to have them implement would be for them to have the programmatic interfaces that IMAQdx requires?  I guess I don't understand if the Pixellink says the camera is DirectShow capible, and if IMAQdx uses it then what is the problem?  It seems that Pixelink dropped the ball and only supports the bear minimum of the DirectShow capability.  Anyway thanks to you both for the help.

Kevin

[tomsticklandrenishaw]

I've got exactly the same problem here.

I installed Pixelink Capture SE and OEM versions. No idea what the difference is.

Both have help saying that there's a PixeLINK driver that supports Directshow.

I've googled a bit and found that i need to install the IMAQdx software. Found that here: http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/2137/lang/en

I'm going to play round with that to see what happens next.

Device is showing in the control panel as the PixeLink camera, so the USB recognises it and drivers are installed for it.

[tomsticklandrenishaw]

I also found this: http://sine.ni.com/devzone/cda/epd/p/id/5030

This seems to have the IMAQdx driver too. I've no idea what the difference is.

[tomsticklandrenishaw]

After a lot of faffing about I've finally got Maxx to get images from the camera. I had to download the latest drivers from the Pixelink site.

It looks like I have to install Labview IMAQdx on a free 30 day trial to actually acquire images in Labview.

Is there any other way I can do it? Free 3rd party dll files or something?

[tomsticklandrenishaw]

Have to buy a licence for IMAQdx, expensive.

Cannot get the IMAQ USB camera download to work - need vision 7.1, don't have that.

Got it working with the free eztwain.dll . This is slow, but does work.

Since then I've obtained the Pixelink SDK with Labview wrappers in. It almost works, still got a few issues.

[mogilvie]

Hello,

Our cameras are Directshow compatible but we have create our own custom directshow interface that provides more functionality over our cameras via Directshow.

If you test our cameras using the NI Vision Assistant, you will be able to see our Video and Image settings Windows.

Thank you,