Quick Start Guide GigE Vision Single-Head Controller

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Quick Start Guide—GigE Vision Single-Head Controller

Overview

This Quick Start Guide provides instructions for basic setup of a MEGAPLUS camera and MEGAPLUS Central Control Software. For additional information, please consult the MEGAPLUS User’s Manual.

Required User Supplied Equipment

 Computer system meeting minimum below specs:

Pentium 4, 2.4 GHz, 1 GB RAM with 380 MB free disk space Windows XP (SP4) or Vista

 Intel Pro 1000 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter with National Instruments High Performance Driver installed.

 CAT 5 or better Ethernet Cable

MEGAPLUS Camera Package Contents

 GigE Vision Based MEGAPLUS Camera Controller Unit (CCU)

 Power Supply

 MEGAPLUS Camera Head and Head Cable (possibly supplied in a separate shipment)

 Software CD containing MEGAPLUS Documentation and MEGAPLUS Central (MPC)

 Software CD containing National Instruments (NI) Vision Acquisition (VA) Installation (host GigE driver and SDK)

Assembling the Equipment

Caution: Make sure the MEGAPLUS Camera Controller power switch is turned to the OFF position before connecting the cables!

1. Connect the camera components. Attach the camera head cable between the camera and the controller. Hand-tighten the thumbscrews. Plug the silver LEMO connector from the power supply adapter into the Power Input port on the controller.

2. Connect the Ethernet cable between the Intel Pro 1000 and the GigE Vision port on the MEGAPLUS Controller.

Booting the Computer and Verifying Presence of the National Instruments GigE Vision Adapter

1. Make sure that the National Instruments driver is properly installed.

2. Check “Device Manager” under Network adapters. There should be an entry -“National Instruments GigE Vision Adapter.”

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3. If not, right click on “Intel(R) PRO/1000……….””Properties””Update Driver”. Follow the instructions as shown below.

4. It may take up to 60 seconds for the IP address to be resolved

5. Wait until the “Limited or No connectivity” message is displayed in the taskbar area. Your actual message may differ from the example below. This message appears when the PC is directly connected to the controller. You can ignore this message.

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Installing NI Software

If another GigE Vision Compliant application will be used to control the MEGAPLUS camera, change its settings, and provide SDK support, then the NI Vision Acquisition software may not be required. Contact your Princeton Instruments representative if further clarification is desired.

1. Insert the National Instruments CD into the computer’s CD-ROM drive. The autorun.exe program will automatically start up. In some cases, you may be asked if you want to run the auto.exe program --- click on the Run autorun.exe choice. 2. When the National Instruments splash screen appears, click on the “Install NI Vision…” link. If the NI splash screen does

not appear (no autorun), then run Setup.exe found inside the VISIONACQ directory.

3. Select the features to install. Deselect any unneeded features. For instance, deselect the entry titled “IMAQ 4.1” (version may be different) if no NI frame grabber is installed. Deselect “NI-IMAQ I/O 2.1”. Select (add) any required software support, like “Microsoft Visual Basic Support” under the IMAQdx entry.

4. Continue the installation until requested to activate the software.

5. Use the serial number included with the NI software to activate the software. Store this serial number in a safe place for future reference.

Installing MEGAPLUS Central Software

MEGAPLUS Central requires NI Vision Acquisition (IMAQdx) to be installed. Install NI Vision Acquisition software if planning to use the MEGAPLUS Central software.

1. Insert the MEGAPLUS software CD into the computer’s CD-ROM drive. The menu program should start automatically. If your system does not start the menu, open Windows Explorer, go to the Install folder on the CD and double-click on the “MenuBox.exe” application on the CD.

2. Select the option to Install MEGAPLUS Central Software and follow the onscreen instructions. The MEGAPLUS Camera Installer will start automatically after the application files have been installed.

3. Camera Installer adds an entry for your MEGAPLUS camera into the camera list. A descriptive name for the camera can be added to help identify it. Select GigE Vision only.

Preparing for Image Acquisition

1. Ensure the Ethernet Cable is connected to the “GigE Vision” port on the controller (not the “Diagnostics” port) and the GigE port on the computer.

2. Disable the Windows firewall and any other third party firewall such as Symantec or MacAfee.

3. In Windows Device Manager, select the Properties for the Intel Pro 1000 Adapter and on the Advanced tab, select “GigEVision Only” for Jumbo Frames.



If you do not have an Intel Pro 1000 card but your Network Interface Card supports Jumbo Frames, set the packet size to the highest available and make note of that size.

 If your Network Interface Card does not support Jumbo Frames then the maximum allowable packet size is 1500 bytes. By default, the NI-IMAQdx driver uses a larger packet size. The packet size can be reduced in MAX: a. Select the camera in MAX, and select the Acquisition Attributes tab at the bottom of the screen.

b. Reduce the value of Packet Size to 1500 or smaller. The camera should now acquire images when the Snap or Grab button is pressed.

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4. Optional: To reduce the initial connection time to the camera, from the Windows Start menu, select “Settings”, “Network Connections”, right-mouse click on the Local Area Connection for the National Instruments GigE Vision Adapter.

 Select Properties.

 Click on the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) or Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).

 Click on Properties.

 Select Use the following IP address: Enter 169.254.1.1 for the IP Address and 255.255.0.0 for the Subnet Mask.

Acquiring Image Data for the First Time

1. Power on the GigE Controller and wait until the “Status” light blinks steadily at about 1 blink per second.

2. Start the NI software named Measurement Automation Explorer (MAX).

3. Click on My System, Devices and Interfaces, and wait until NI-IMAQdx Devices is displayed. When

cam0:PrincetonInstruments MegaPlus… is

displayed, click on it and wait until the data display appears.

4. Select the Acquisition Attributes tab and set the packet size to be the same or smaller than the size selected via the Windows Device Manager. For example, if you selected 9014 in Device Manager, you will need to set the packet size to 9012 (the packet size you set in the application software must be evenly divisible by 4). If you don’t have an Intel

Pro adapter and jumbo packets are not supported, set the packet size to 1500.

5. After you’ve confirmed operation, close MAX. You will be asked if you want to save. Say “Yes.” 6. Then close the MAX software.

Acquiring Image Data from MEGAPLUS Central

1. Double-click the MEGAPLUS Central icon to start the program or, from the Windows taskbar, select Start > All

Programs > MEGAPLUS Central. When MEGAPLUS Central starts, it verifies GigE Vision communication with a camera. 2. Review the camera settings. Confirm that the packet size is compatible with your adapter settings and National

Instruments MAX packet settings. See “Preparing for Image Acquisition” and “Acquiring Image Data for the First Time” for more information.

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Changing from One Camera to Another

1. Acquire data. See “Acquiring Image Data for the First Time.” This confirms that the camera and controller are working properly.

2. Go to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\National Instruments\NI-IMAQdx (for Windows XP/2000) or C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\National Instruments\NI-IMAQdx (for Windows Vista 32-bit).

3. Delete the Data directory.

4. Make sure the application software is closed.

5. Locate the camera EXE file that corresponds with your camera model. For example, if you have a monochrome ES11000 camera, locate the ES11000M.exe file.

 If you access to the internet, go to

ftp://ftp.princetoninstruments.com/Public/Software/MegaPlus/GEVfiles

and download the file (this is the latest version) to your computer.

 If you do not have to internet access, browse to the GEVfiles subdirectory on the CD.

6. Run the EXE file that corresponds with your camera model. This updates the GigE flash in the controller.

7. When the update is complete, click OK.

8. Turn off the controller, connect the new camera, and turn the controller back on. After the controller finishes initializing, you can start the application software and begin setting parameters and acquiring data with the new camera.



NI-IMAQdx User Manual: Available in the Support section.

 Acquiring from GigE Vision Cameras with Vision Acquisition Software - Parts I & II: Available in the NI Developer Zone section.

 Troubleshooting GigE Vision Cameras: Available in the NI Developer Zone section.

In addition, the GenICamTM_{Standard Features Naming Convention document can be downloaded from the emva.org}

website.

Troubleshooting

The camera seems to be taking too long to connect but does finally connect:

 Check the IP address: if using a static IP, confirm that it is as indicated in Step 4 “Preparing for Image Acquisition.” Controller has not finished initializing (about 1 minute). It takes about 1 minute for DHCP to timeout, and then it takes another 30 seconds.

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Camera does not appear in MAX:

 Check the software firewall. If active, turn it off.

 Check the IP address: if using a static IP, confirm that it is as indicated in Step 4 “Preparing for Image Acquisition.”

 Controller has not finished initializing (about 1 minute). It takes about 1 minute for DHCP to timeout, and it takes another 30 seconds.

Camera appears but Snap or Grab is not working:  High Performance driver is not installed.

 Jumbo packets are not selected or are not supported.

Application reports a Timeout Error: The software is waiting for an image that it doesn’t receive within the timeout period.

Check that the packet size in the application software is compatible with the setting for the network adapter (see Step 3 of “Acquiring Image Data for the First Time”). Camera is in Trigger mode (trigger didn’t arrive or trigger interval is longer than the timeout value). Increase the trigger frequency or increase the timeout setting.

Image capture problems (lines or missing data): Data rate from the camera is higher than the computer is able to

support. Use an Intel Pro 1000, jumbo packets, check system resources, and use a direct Ethernet connection between the camera controller and the computer (remove intervening switches/routers).

Red X appears in MAX: Another application is already using the camera. MAX and MEGAPLUS cannot be running at the same time. Only one of these applications can be active at a time. Close MEGAPLUS and MAX. Restart one of the

applications.

Attribute out of Range or unable get and/or set an attribute:

1. From MAX, go to Camera Attributes. 3. Change UserSetSelector to Default 4. Select UserSetLoad

5. Click on EXECUTE.

6. Wait for the camera to disappear from MAX (goes away due to a bug) 7. Close MAX.

8. Delete the NI-IMAQdx Data directory. This directory is located in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\National Instruments\NI-IMAQdx (for Windows XP/2000) or C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\National Instruments\NI-IMAQdx (for Windows Vista 32-bit).

9. Open MAX.

10. Wait for the camera to re-appear. 11. The problem should be resolved.

Quick Start Guide GigE Vision Single-Head Controller

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Quick Start Guide—GigE Vision Single-Head Controller

Overview

Required User Supplied Equipment

MEGAPLUS Camera Package Contents

Assembling the Equipment

Booting the Computer and Verifying Presence of the National Instruments GigE Vision Adapter

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Installing NI Software

Installing MEGAPLUS Central Software

Preparing for Image Acquisition

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Acquiring Image Data for the First Time

Acquiring Image Data from MEGAPLUS Central

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Changing from One Camera to Another

Recommended Reading



Troubleshooting

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Known Issues