APPLICATION NOTE
How to Use the Basler pylon USB 3.0 AIK
Adapter with Cognex VisionPro
Document Number: AW001320
Version: 03 Language: 000 (English) Release Date: 15 June 2015
How to Use the Basler pylon USB 3.0 AIK Adapter
with Cognex VisionPro
Table of Contents
1 Introduction ... 3
1.1 Supported Pixel Formats ... 3
1.2 Connecting and Disconnecting Cameras... 3
2 Requirements ... 4
3 Installation ... 5
4 Operating a Basler USB 3.0 Camera with Cognex VisionPro ... 8
4.1 Accessing the Camera in Cognex VisionPro ... 8
4.2 Configuring the Camera ... 10
4.2.1 “Settings” Tab ... 11
4.2.2 “Image Properties” Tab ... 12
4.2.3 Advanced Features ... 13
4.2.3.1 pylon Viewer ... 13
4.2.3.2 VisionPro: “Imaging Device” Tab... 14
4.2.3.3 VisionPro: “Custom Properties” Tab ... 15
5 Troubleshooting ... 17
5.1 Hardware Not Visible or Application Stops Responding ... 17
1 Introduction
The Basler pylon USB 3.0 AIK Adapter enables you to operate Basler USB 3.0 cameras with Cognex VisionPro. After a few simple configuration steps, Basler USB 3.0 cameras are displayed in VisionPro where you can configure them as desired.
The Basler pylon USB 3.0 AIK Adapter is available in a .zip file containing the .msi files for 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems (pylonAIKSetup.msi and pylonAIKSetup64.msi) as well as the corresponding pylon runtime files for 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems. You can download it here: http://www.baslerweb.com/Downloads-Software-43868.html.
1.1 Supported Pixel Formats
The current version of the AIK adapter supports a subset of pixel formats of Basler USB 3.0 cameras. Following is a list of supported formats:
• Mono 8 • Mono 12 • Mono 12p • Mono 12 Packed • Bayer BG 8 • Bayer GB 8 • RGB 8 • BGR 8 • YCbCr422_8
More formats will be added in future releases
.
1.2 Connecting and Disconnecting Cameras
The adapter lists the cameras available when VisionPro is started. Cameras that are connected to the PC when VisionPro is already running, will not be displayed.
2 Requirements
The pylon USB 3.0 AIK Adapter requires the pylon Camera Software Suite or the pylon Runtime (U3V) to be installed.
The AIK adapter requires version 4.2.x of the Camera Software Suite or the Runtime (U3V). The appropriate pylon runtime can be found in the same folder as the corresponding AIK adapter setup. When using the 64-bit AIK adapter, you need to install the 64-bit version of the pylon software and for the 32-bit AIK adapter the 32-bit version is required.
NOTE
If you don’t have the correct version of the Camera Software Suite or the Runtime (U3V) installed, you are still able to install the AIK adapter, but when you later start VisionPro you will receive an error message.You can download the pylon Camera Software Suite and the pylon Runtime (U3V) here:
http://www.baslerweb.com/Downloads-Software-43868.html
For information on how to install the pylon Camera Software Suite or the pylon Runtime (U3V), see the Installation and Setup Guide for Cameras Used with the Basler pylon 4 Camera Software Suite (AW000611). You can download this document from the Documents Download section of the Basler website: http://www.baslerweb.com/Support_Document_Downloads-18489.html
The pylon USB 3.0 AIK Adapter has been successfully tested with Cognex VisionPro versions 7.0, 8.1, and 8.2.
3 Installation
Before installing the Basler pylon USB 3.0 AIK Adapter, make sure that you have read the information in the Requirements section.
To Install the Basler pylon USB 3.0 AIK Adapter:
1. Run pylonAIKSetup.msi by double-clicking the file or by executing it from a command prompt. The pylon USB 3.0 AIK Adapter Setup Wizard is displayed.
2. In the Welcome dialog, click Next.
3. In the Select Installation Folder dialog, specify the desired location and click Next. The Confirm Installation dialog is displayed.
A progress bar is displayed. When the installation is complete, the Installation Complete dialog is displayed.
5. In the Installation Complete dialog, click Close to finish the installation and close the setup wizard.
The Basler pylon USB 3.0 AIK Adapter has now been installed and Basler USB 3.0 cameras can be accessed in Cognex VisionPro.
4 Operating a Basler USB 3.0 Camera with Cognex
VisionPro
This section explains how to access a Basler USB 3.0 camera in Cognex VisionPro and how to configure the camera’s features.
4.1 Accessing the Camera in Cognex VisionPro
To Access a Camera:
1. Start VisionPro QuickBuild with administrator rights by right-clicking the VisionPro QuickBuild shortcut and then clicking Run as administrator.
2. Double-click Image Source.
3. Click the Camera button.
The drop-down list Image Acquisition Device/Frame Grabber will list all Basler USB 3.0 cameras connected to the PC.
If not all the expected cameras are listed, see Connecting and Disconnecting Cameras for possible reasons.
4. Select the desired camera from the list. 5. Click Initialize Acquisition.
The camera can now be configured in VisionPro.
6. To open a live display, click the camera icon in the toolbar. A separate window opens showing a live display.
4.2 Configuring the Camera
Once the camera is accessible in VisionPro, you can configure its features. Basic features are available on the Settings and the Image Properties tabs in the Image Source dialog.
4.2.1 “Settings” Tab
On this tab, you can configure exposure, brightness, and contrast. Note that these features are named differently in VisionPro and the pylon Viewer. The following table contains a list of the differences.
VisionPro pylon Viewer
4.2.2 “Image Properties” Tab
On the Image Properties tab in the Image Source dialog, you can configure the ROI. For
example, a smaller ROI can lead to higher frame rates and can generally improve performance. To move the ROI, use the Origin X and Origin Y fields as well as the Width and Height fields.
NOTE
When changing the ROI, the ROI is cropped internally by the camera to the smallest-possible size.If the hardware doesn’t support the resulting ROI, e.g. because the ROI doesn’t meet the minimum width or height requirements, the remaining parts of the image are cropped by VisionPro.
NOTE
It is not recommended to move the ROI of the camera an odd number of pixels when using the Bayer mode.If you do, the Bayer pattern would move and this would result in colors being displayed incorrectly as the pixels can’t be interpreted correctly anymore.
4.2.3 Advanced Features
If you want to access more advanced configuration features, you have three options: • pylon Viewer
• VisionPro: Imaging Device tab in the Image Source dialog • VisionPro: Custom Properties tab in the Image Source dialog See the following sections for details of these options.
4.2.3.1 pylon Viewer
Using the pylon Viewer to configure the features of a Basler USB 3.0 camera is an easy way to view and change parameter settings.
The pylon Viewer requires a full installation of the pylon 4 Camera Software Suite. The pylon Runtime (U3V) alone is not sufficient.
For information about how to use the pylon Viewer, refer to the pylon Viewer help that is part of the application.
4.2.3.2 VisionPro: “Imaging Device” Tab
On the Imaging Device tab in the Image Source dialog, you have direct access to the camera’s features.
To Configure a Feature:
1. In the Feature Access area, enter a feature name in the Feature field. 2. Click Read.
The current value will be displayed in the Value field. 3. Change the value for the feature in the Value field. 4. Click Write to write the value to the camera.
4.2.3.3 VisionPro: “Custom Properties” Tab
On the Custom Properties tab in the Image Source dialog, you can select features from a list of all available features and change their settings.
To Configure a Feature:
1. Click Add New (upper left corner of the tab).
5 Troubleshooting
This section lists problems that may occur when using Basler USB 3.0 cameras in Cognex VisionPro and provides solutions to fix them.
5.1 Hardware Not Visible or Application Stops Responding
If you experience problems such as your cameras not being visible or your application not responding anymore, check the following:
• Under Windows 7, vision applications using an imaging device must be run with administrator rights. Open the Properties dialog of the vision application and ensure that Run this program
as an administrator is selected on the Compatibility tab.
• Locate the aikserver.exe or aikserver_64.exe (C:\Program Files\Cognex\VisionPro\bin). Open the Properties dialog and ensure that Run this program as an administrator is selected on the Compatibility tab.
• Using the Registry Editor, check the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\cognex\AIK\Errors subkey. Errors that don’t produce
an error message are logged here and can help you solve the problem.
5.2 Live Display Flickers
If you notice a flickering of the live display of the camera, the PoolSize registry entry value may be too low. This condition may also be indicated by the following error message:
Bad memory ptr, please increase pool size!
The AIK adapter setup sets the PoolSize entry to an appropriate value but under certain circumstances this error may still occur. To fix it, carry out the following steps.
To Change the Value of the “PoolSize” Registry Entry:
1. Using the Registry Editor, open the following subkey:
To Specify the “PoolSizeQuantum” Registry Entry:
1. Using the Registry Editor, go to the following subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\cognex\AIK\AdapterBaslerpylon
2. Right-click the AdapterBaslerpylon subkey, and click New > String Value. 3. Name the new entry PoolSizeQuantum.
4. Right-click the PoolSizeQuantum entry, and click Modify. 5. Change the value in the Value data field to 0x400.
6. Click OK.
The pool size will be calculated based on the following formula: PoolSize x PoolSizeQuantum
Now you can for example specify a pool size of 4 GB by setting Poolsize to 4 MB (4 GB / 0x400).
For more information, see the “Acquiring Large Images with an Imaging Device” section in the Cognex VisionPro help.
NOTE
Incorrectly editing the registry may severely damage your system.Before making any changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data on your computer.
If these steps don’t solve the problem, contact Basler support. Contact details can be found on the Basler website: http://www.baslerweb.com/Support_Contact-167426.html
Revision History
Document Number Date Changes
AW00132001000 24 Jul 2014 Initial release of this document.
AW00132002000 6 Feb 2015 Clarified that the AIK adapter only works with version 4.1 of the pylon Camera Software Suite.
AW00132003000 15 Jun 2015 Updated the required pylon version and added that pylon runtimes are now contained in the AIK adapter setup .zip file.
