Exposure control in Vision Builder AI

Hello,
is there any way of adjusting the exposure time and/or gain of a NI17xx camera programmatically ??

Hi Borst
Yes, you can set the value in vision builder. check the links for help http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/epd/p/id/6319 and http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/2B9B31A6E53A8D2586257673006482B5
Sasi.
Certified LabVIEW Associate Developer
If you can DREAM it, You can DO it - Walt Disney

Similar Messages

Vision Builder Crashes Labview

I have an application where I need to acquire and inspect many high resolution images 3Mp at high throughput.
I'm using:
LabVIEW 8.5.1
NI-Imaq 4.1
Imaqdx 3.2
Vision Builder AI 3.6
ISG 3Mp Camera through Startech 1394a PCI card
In order to meet the cycle rate, I'm trying to multi-thread the application by having one thread that acquires images and enqueues them into another thread that saves them to the hard drive then runs the VBAI inspection. The VBAI inspection then uses the "simulate acquisition" step inorder to load the image from the hard drive and make the appropriate measurements. I've run the application and monitored the processor usage, and the processor seems to stay within 0-80%. However, my application will crash intermittantly.
I've been able to repeat the behavior pretty reliably if I activate/toggle a ring control on my front panel while the cycle is running, and I can't do so if the VBAI thread is not running.
I understand that this is could be a difficult problem to help debug remotely. I'm wondering if there is anyone with similar experience, or some better way for me to creat a high throughput machine vision app with VBAI.
Thanks,
Ryan

Dear Ryan,
You are right, this is difficult to debug remotely, but I can make a suggestion or two. Perhaps you've taken care of these, perhaps not...
One potential downfall with this setup is running into a race condition. If you don't establish data dependency, and make sure that you save and close a particular image before trying to open back up again with VBAI, you could cause the behavior described. Race conditions would be even more of a concern if you were using a certain number of files as an image buffer, and then recycling through them.
What in this ring control? What does the ring control do?
Have you tried generating LabVIEW code from your VBAI inspection, and then encapsulating the VBAI code in a subVI, and just passing your images into that instead of saving them to disk? I would suggest doing this to see if you still experienced the crashes when you are only working in LabVIEW, and without saving and opening images from disk.
Let me know how things go; I hope the above suggestions provide some help.
Best Regards,
~Nate

NI-1744 Smart Cameras go offline using Vision Builder AI and LV2010?

I've run into a perplexing and frustrating problem.
I have a set of 6 NI-1744 smart cameras used to monitor sample motion in an automated system
A central robot moves samples between 6 satellite chambers; there is a camera mounted above the entrance to each of the satellites; the sample carriers are drilled with up to 10 holes encoding their numbers in binary (0-1023). There is also an L-shaped registration mark drilled near the region for the number encoding. Matters are complicated somewhat in that the second generation of carriers has a slightly more complicated registration mark (which includes the simple L of the first generation).
What I would like to accomplish is this:
Most of the time, I just want to be able to see what's under each camera, illuminating from above using a ring light attached to the camera. Call that Inspection A.
I may need to capture an image without the ring light. Call that Inspection B
When a sample transfer is occurring, I need to run a more complicated inspection (Inspection C):
A light is turned on underneath the end of the sample transfer arm (the "fork"), backlighting the region where the hole pattern would be if a carrier is in fact present.
Acquire an image of the fork with the backlight on.
Check to see if the image shows the fork to be empty. If so, return that information and the inspection is complete.
If not, look for the (backlit) registration mark and establish a coordinate system for the holes. Look to see which holes are present, calculate the sample number, return the data and the inspection is complete
If not, look for the 2nd gen registration mark. If it is found, establish the coordinates as in step 4, calculate the number, return the data and complete.
If none of the registration patterns are found, turn on the ring light, capture an image and return it so the operator can intervene and enter the appropriate data.
I have successfully built the inspection, and it appears to work in the Vision Builder configuration interface, or if run from the Vision Builder inspection interface. If I attempt to *use* the inspection, accessing it via the VBAI interface in Labview, one or more of the cameras will hang after one or more inspections and stops responding to LabVIEW. It will take multiple reboots to get it back on line and visible to either VB or Labview.
Originally, I had thought to configure the camera to run inspections continously and select inspection A, B, or C based on a variable I could access using the Labview Shared Variable Engine. Every time I tried that the camera in question would hang. My current sort-of-successful software uses the VBAI functions in LabVIEW to open Inspection A, B, or C on the camera, run that inspection a single time and return the results and inspection image. That still ends up with one or more cameras hanging, especially if I've added the case to handle the more complicated registration mark.
I think I may be running out of memory in the camera. I have occasionally received an out of memory error message when running the inspection in debug (step) mode in the VB configuration interface, at which point the camera will disconnect from the VB interface. When I look at the system monitor tab for a camera in MAX, I can see that it is showing me 11.5M free/124M total memory, and 72.3Mfree/118M total disk space. If I understand those numbers, that means that less than 10% of the memory is free when the inspection starts!
I'm only communicating with the cameras via the ethernet interface. Are there any software components I don't need to have installed on the 1744 (MAX lists about 12 different things installed!) in that case?
Alternatively, it appears there are VBAI functions available that might let me acquire an image and then process it via a local copy of Vision Builder running on the host PC, rather than in the camera. Is that so, and if so, would it be faster than running the inspection in the camera?
I've attached a zipfile with the inspection that appears to stall the camera, and samples of typical images captured of the empty fork and a sample holder.
Kevin Roche
Advisory Engineer/Scientist
Spintronics and Magnetoelectronics group
IBM Research Almaden
Attachments:
Carrier Read Problem.zip ‏657 KB

The good news: thanks to some offline assistance from Brad, my cameras are no longer crashing.
The bad news: my labview VI using VBAI functions still fails for one or more cameras after a while (typically >12 hours of monitoring).
It's very odd: the cameras are still visible online.
I can ping them.
I can connect to them via VBAI, run inspections that way (either in configuration mode or inspection mode), and disconnect successfully.
My calling VI, however insists that it can't connect (usually with a -354700 error from VBAI Connect.vi, occasionally with a -354705).
I am using shift registers in the monitor loop of the main VI so that I can pass the VBAI session reference for each camera back to the subvis that actually load and run the desired inspection once a connection has been made. After an indeterminate time, one or more of those appears to go bad, but if I attempt to reset and connect to the camera again (I did include a control to let me close and reconnect if necessary from the monitor loop), I still get the above errors.
The only way to get them back online within LabVIEW this morning proved to be to stop the main VI and reset all the controls to default, reboot the cameras, and then restart the VI. At that point it was able to connect to all 6 again and has been running happily for over 8 hours.
I set up the persistent sessions using the shift registers because I have observed in the past continually opening and closing resources like that can lead to memory problems. It also dramatically reduced my cycle time when all I want to do is get the latest images from the cameras to under 2 seconds.
Any ideas? Is there some subtlety to disconnecting/reconnecting to the VB in the cameras via Labview that I'm missing?
I am working on a slightly smarter version of the inspection that can be allowed to run continously in a camera and simply return the appropriate result when asked, rather than having to start and stop different inspections as I do now, but that is not ready for deployment yet. It's the symptom of running just fine for X hours and then losing one or more cameras that is baffling me right now.
Kevin Roche
Advisory Engineer/Scientist
Spintronics and Magnetoelectronics group
IBM Research Almaden

Is there a way to bypass the first two inspection block after first cycle in Vision builder AI?

I want to inspect the C-C of a matrix of holes (holes side by side). But when I do re-cycle the routine, the hole #'s change location (not in same place twice) and the my C-C are all not side by side and all over the place. For example, diaganal 4 holes away, etc...

laj,
I'm not sure that I completely understand the question that you are asking in your post. You may want to repost your question with some additional information and explanation to allow this forum to help you more effectively.
As for the question that you posed in the title of your email, can you bypass the first two steps of your Vision Builder for Automated Inspection (VBAI) script? The answer is unfortunately no. VBAI is designed to repeatedly run through the same script and does not allow only a portion of the script to run.
If you need more control over your application than VBAI can provide, you may need to move a programming language like LabVIEW, which will allow for lower level decision making.
Please post a follow up if you have any additio
nal information you would like to add, or have additional questions.
Regards,
Jed R.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

Send variable from vision builder to NXT Brick

Hello,
I have a color sorting machine controlled by an NXT Mindstorms brick. I believe that Labview has a module to communicate with the Lego brick, but I was wondering if the Vision Builder (which we are currently using for another application) could also communicate with the brick (we don't have Labview). Ultimately, after insecting the object with Vision Builder, I would like to send a variable (based on the inspection) to the NXT mailbox, preferably via usb, otherwise BT, that would serve as a motor command for the servo. If there is no such communication module, is there a code that I could insert into the Vision Builder program that would allow for such a communication?
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi there,
As far as I know, Vision Builder will not be able to "target" the Lego Mindstorms brick.
The LabVIEW add-on for Lego Mindstorms can be found here: http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/4435
I'm assuming you're planning on connecting your camera to a PC?
Although I just found a camera that can connect directly to the Lego brick here: http://www.mindsensors.com/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=78
If your LabVIEW code is running on your PC, you should be able to use either vision builder or vision assistant and then have your brick "do something" based on the results. You'll have to choose your PC as the "target" for your code and you will need LabVIEW and the Mindstorms add-on to make this work.
Patrick Allen

My camera won't work with IMAQ vision builder

I have a Hitachi camera , and a PCI 1407 frame grabber
the camera works well in MAX under devices , but when I open the IMAQ vision builder , it not visible in the devices , and I can't open MAX from the vision builder. It's gets me that error "1074397163" at the end it has bad interface
it's not the power supply of the camera since it works well at MAX , so its like the camera's name is img0 in MAX , and another thing in IMAQ vision builder, I tried updating my softwares but nothing happened, can anyone help please ??
thanks

Dalia,
I think I may need some clarification on what exact program and function you are using. Are you getting this error with the Vision Builder for Automated Inspection (VBAI)? Or are you using LabVIEW and are receiving this error from the IMAQ Init.vi?
If it is in VBAI, and you are trying to acquire an image, the Devices should auto-populate in the Main tab of the Acquire Image setup. Simply select the camera and press Grab or Snap.
If it is in LabVIEW, right-click on the interface input of the IMAQ Init.vi to create either a constant or a control. If it does not auto-populate with the correct camera name as it is in MAX, "img0". Or you can change the interface name in MAX by simply right-clicking on the camera and selecting "Rename"
Can you elaborate on what you are referring to when you say "the MAX explorer won't work in IMAQ"?
Huntington W
National Instruments
Applications Engineer
***Don't forget to give Kudos and Accepted as Solution where it is deserved***

Vision builder AI 2011 incompatible with Vis created by Labview 2011 ?

Hi,
I have some issues to drive some motor by a Vi created under Labview 2011 using an inspection built under vision builder AI 2011
The step for running a Labview Vi said me that it only support 2010 VIs or earlier ? How two NI softwares 2011 can be incompatible ?
So I try to save under a old version but this vi is part of a huge LLB...Is it possible to save this LLB as a 2010 version without saving all subvis .ctl etc.. ? I am a little confused...
Thank you for your help

You should be able to save the top level VI for previous to LV 2010, and all VIs from that LLB will also be saved to a LV 2010 version LLB that can be used by VBAI. There is a restriction that any VIs from a toolkit that you have to pay for (i.e. Vision), even if they are in your LLB will not be saved for previous, but driver VIs (i.e. Motion, DAQ, NI-IMAQ) if they are in your LLB will be saved in the resulting LV 2010 LLB.
I realize this isn't ideal and VBAI will be supporting LV 2011 or a future version later. Another option will be to use the VBAI API in LV 2011 to have VBAI do just the image processing portion of your control system and do Motion, or other functionality in LV environment and control VBAI from LV using the VBAI API (this allows you to load inspections, run them, get images, and results, etc.), which does support LV 2011.
Hope this helps,
Brad

Vision builder 2.6 general/tutorial

Hi,
I'm slowly trying to learn the functions of image acquisition and processing with LabVIEW. So far, I've stepped through some basic tutorials of LabVIEW (check). Next I installed some NI-IMAQ components and attempted to look at some examples (half check). Finally, I have found Vision Builder; unfortunately, I do not have a copy of the latest version and I'm forced to use a trial version of Vision Builder 2.6.
At this point, I'm kinda stuck because I can't seem to find any good Vision Builder tutorials. I understand that the program itself comes with a few example programs, but it doesn't help to much if it doesn't go through each building step. National Instruments has some video tutorials online, but it looks like the tutorials are with respect to new versions of Vision Builder with differing interfaces.
Finally, my reason for resorting to Vision Builder is because I downloaded some LabVIEW image processing tutorials, but some of the sub.vi's were missing (IMAQ mult, IMAQ sub). So as a result, I was unable to step through the projects, or observe how they functioned. I downloaded Vision Builder because someone mentioned that it might update my .vi library so I could run these image processing programs. But now I'm still unable to run these programs, and I have another program that I need to learn.
Does anyone have any recommendations of tutorial sites, or pages that might help get me started with Vision Builder? Or possibly any general suggestions about how to go about programming a vision processing program (maybe I'm not understanding the process correctly)?

Well it looks like no one replied to this post.
Just for a future reference (if anyone else has a question like this)
I called National Instruments and talked with one of their applications engineers. This description of the products helped me get a better understanding of how each one works, etc.
LabVIEW is Lower level programming that involves customization of user interfaces, peripheral device control, and data manipulation. LabVIEW is the center piece of the National Instruments software that will integrate code from other NI products.
IMAQ is a supplemental package that can be added on to LabVIEW for additional functionality. IMAQ provides LabVIEW with a library of image acquisition functions.
Vision Assistant functions much like LabVIEW itself. The Vision Assistant provides the user with image processing functions which clean/restore/manipulate an image so that it can be handled in LabVIEW or the Vision Builder. Vision Assistant code can be exported so that it can be handled by LabVIEW.
Vision Builder is a complete control/programming module in and of itself. The program interface provides a high level programming design which controls the image acquisition, all the way through the image processing. Vision Builder also contains the Vision Assistant.
Vision Development Module is a combination of the Vision Assistant and the Vision Builder. First off, the module provides LabVIEW with an extensive library that contains many of the image processing functions that is included with Vision Assistant. Secondly, the program also has an embedded Vision Builder program, that gives the user the option of a provided UI, or self developed UI through LabVIEW. The Vision Development Module is a complete package of vision acquisition and processing software.

Vision Builder key navigation(toggle)

Hi,
I'm wondering if you can assign a key (ex: enter, F1, F2) to a button in the user interface for vision builder.
I know LabView allows users to assign a key toggle to the buttons; can you do that in Vision Builder?
If not, is there any way that i can use keyboard to control the user interface buttons?
Thank you

Hi Jon,
Unfortunately to my knowledge we can not assign keys to toggle booleans in VBAI. If this is something you are highly interested in, you may want to create a feature request at the LabVIEW idea exchange so it can be considered for future versions.
http://forums.ni.com/t5/NI-Idea-Exchange/ct-p/ideas
Cole R.
National Instruments
Applications Engineer

NI Vision Builder vs. LabVIEW RT + NI Vision Assistant

Hello
I’m designing a vision application which should be able to run stand-alone (EVS-1463RT). The app will have up to 30 inspection states (read gauge value, checking for the presence specific objects, etc.) approximately. The second requirements are the communication ability with other devices not NI via TCP/IP and logging pictures in FTP.
Now I’m thinking about the two possible solutions.
Create an AI with NI Vision Builder
Create LabVIEW RT app and with using NI Vision Assistant build inspection states
A have to say that the first solution is not my favorite because I tried to implement the TCP/IP communication in NI Vision Builder and it was function but the using of the server is limited. In the other hand the building the inspection is “easy”.
The second solution has following advantages for me: better control of the app, maybe better possibility to optimize the code, implementation my own TCP/IP server. My biggest concern is the using NI Vision Assistant to generate the inspection states.
In conclusion I have to say that I’m not experience in the vision app but the LV RT is no problem for me.
Thanks for any opinions
Jan

Hi Jan,
> A have to say that the first solution is not my favorite because I tried to implement the TCP/IP communication in NI Vision Builder and it was function but the using of the server is limited.
Could you give more feedback on this point? What do you mean by "using of the server is limited". More precise feedback and suggestions would help us improve the functionality.
What I would recommend you look into is the use of the VBAI API. You can find examples in <Program Files>\National Instruments\<Vision Builder AI>\API Examples\LabVIEW Examples
This features allows you to run VBAI inspection within your LabVIEW application, an retrieve results that you can send using a TCP implementation of your own in LabVIEW, without having to use the VBAI TCP functionality.
You retain the configuration feature of the Vision part of the application, and can add extra code in LabVIEW.
The API functions allow to basically open an VBAI inspection file, run it synchronously or asynchonously, and retrieve images and results.
As you mentioned, the other solution is to implement your state diagram in LabVIEW and use the Vision Assistant Express VI in different states. What VBAI give you that Vision Assistant doesn't is the pass/fail limits for each step (and the state diagram).
Best regards,
Christophe

Compatibility of developed Vision library with NI Vision Builder AI

We developed a specific Vision library using NI LabVIEW and Vision Toolkit.
My requirement is to identify the compatiblity of this library with NI Vision Builder AI.Can we use the existing VI's with Vision builder?
Please provide me your comments asap.
Regards:
Vaibhav Kanchan
Sr. Engineer
NI Certified LabVIEW Developer(CLD)
NI Certified TestStand Developer(CTD}

There are multiple ways to add functionality to Vision Builder AI using a set of VIs you wrote:
1) Vision Builder AI can run a VI you write that use your VIs using the Run LabVIEW VI step.
2) You can also develop a custom step (that include the configuration page) for a better user experience, using the VBAI SDK, and use your VIs inside.
With these 2 solutions, you will need to use a specific version of LabVIEW to integrate your library, as Vision Builder AI is a LabVIEW application, and VBAI will execute the code from the Run LabVIEW step, or custom step using the LabVIEW runtine engine that it was built with. The version of LabVIEW depends on the version of VBAI. For example, for VBAI 2011SP1, you need to use LabVIEW 2010.
3) You can automate/drive Vision Builder AI from LabVIEW on Windows. (Open an inspection, run once, run continuously, etc, and get the resulting results and image that you can further process using your library. You can use the API on Windows with any version of LabVIEW.
For example, the VBAI 2011 API supports LabVIEW 8.5 through 2011.
You will run your developped application on Windows only, but it will be able to control Vision Builder AI running on remote targets.
If you're running Vision Builder AI on Windows, I see no compatibility issues with any of the above solution, except for using the correct version of LabVIEW in the first 2 solutions I mentioned. Using 1) and 2), you will also be able to develop code that can run on targets that Vision Builder AI supports, like smart cameras, and embedded vision systems.
If you plan to support remote targets, like smart cameras or Embedded Vision Systems, there are things to consider for your library to be compatible:
These targets run different operating systems: some run Pharlap, some run VxWorks, all run LabVIEW real-time on these OSes. If you used LabVIEW and Vision Development module to build you library based on VDM, the only thing to consider is to make sure to use the same version of LabVIEW and Vision Development Module installed on the target. Let me explain:
When you configure one of these remote targets from Vision Builder AI running on the Windows host machine, we install an image that contains a specific version of LabVIEW Real-time and Vision Development Module (For example, in the case of VBAI 2011 SP1, the remote target image has LabVIEW Real-Time 2010 and Vision Development Module 2011). Those should be the versions you need to use to create your VI to run with the Run LabVIEW step or custom step). We ran into some compatibility issues when customers update their Windows machine with a newer version of Vision Development Module, and write a VI or custom step they want to run in VBAI, that uses a new function that is not supported with the DLLs installed on the target.
If your Vision Library uses some other DLLs (code you may have written in text based language or third party DLL), you will have to recompile the DLL for the operating system of the target (Pharlap or VXWorks, depending on the target) for the code to work on the remote target.
Hope this helps and is not too confusing.
Best regards,
-Christophe

Vehicle tracking using vision builder

Can anyone help me to track a vehicle using vision builder?

The Object tracking feature allows to track multiple objects.
To do exactly what is shown in the video, where the number of cars is variable, you need to use LabVIEW and Vision Development module to have more control over the creation of the objects. (The limitation with Vision Builder AI is that each object to track is associated with a tracking session, so you have to know up front how many object you need to track, but VBAI can track multiple objects).
The principle that I described should be the same in LabVIEW: somehow detect the new car that comes into the field of view, and at that point learn the object so that it can be tracked. The prerequesite should be that you must know where to detect the car that comes into the field of view. The difficult part of the application is to define the region of interest of the new object you want to track.
The LabVIEW example for object tracking is located here:
C:\Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2014\examples\Vision\Tracking\Object Tracking.vi
Christophe

Programatically extract x,y posisition found by Vision Builder pattern match

I would like to write the cordinates found by doing pattern match to a file. Can this be done with the Vision Builder?

In the following we proceed to function block search pattern extracted in the previous process (the parameters as rotation angle and minimum score is inserted into SETTINGS control), extract the output of the search function to get the position values indicators that will be displayed on the front panel)
Atom
Certified LabVIEW Associate Developer

Problem with Vision Builder and LabView: Error -1074395995, File not found

I have created an inspection with Vision Builder AI 2009 SP1. In it I load some pictures from the HDD and run some checks over it. It works fine. Then I have migrated it to LabView 2010, I get a message that the migration is successfull, but when I run the VI on LabView I get a fail status. I have been checking my program and I have found and error when I try to load the picture from file: Error -1074395995 occurred at IMAQ ReadImageAndVisionInfo
Possible reason(s): IMAQ Vision: File not found.
But I am not sure which file it refers to. At first I thought it was the picture I wanted to load, but I have checked the path and it is correct, so maybe it refers to another thing. What puzzles me most is that it works perfectly on Vision Builder and I have changed nothing in LabView, maybe it is a problem with the migration. Any clues?

Here's a screenshot of what I'm talking about. Put a break point here and see what the path is and compare that with what Vision Builder AI is using (described where to find this in the previous post). You could find where this global is used to make debugging easier.
Hope this helps,
Brad
Attachments:
Generated Code.png ‏43 KB

How can I see the current script file name in Vision Builder

I would like to not have to remember which script file I have open. Is that displayed somewhere?

Brian,
I have been looking over Vision Builder 6.1, and from what I can tell, the name of the file that you are working on is not displayed on the screen, and there does not appear to be a way to get it to display there.
This seems like a very worthwhile feature to add, and I definitely agree that it would be useful. You may want to consider filing a Product Suggestion by using the Product Suggestion Center (PSC) that is linked below:
Product Suggestion Center
The PSC links directly into our R&D group's suggestion database, and any suggestions entered would be reviewed by the R&D team.
Regards,
Jed R.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

Exposure control in Vision Builder AI

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