VBAI Performance

Hi
we are using VBAI 2012 full version and we wrote an application on our computer using a Basler GigE cam. To see how fast our application is running we use from time to time the benchmark function. But the results are confusing. Sometimes we get only the performance to check 1 piece a second. After closing and restarting VBAI the same application gives us a speed of up to 4-5 pieces a second.
Is there an effect that the application gets slower by a longer use of VBAI? How can we avoid that our application gets to slow.
By comparing the results in details we see that some functions need 10 times the time when using VBAI for a long time in comparison to after a restart of VBAI.
How can this be?
greetings
Oliver

Hello Brad,
thanks for this idea we will try to uncheck the updating image box.
Meanwhile we changed the application that it will run on the VBAI Server and a CVI program controls the application. Today we made some measurements, the results are not so good as expected, we can only check three parts a second. It is enough for our application but there will be no more reserve. I attached the results to this message. You can see the different results of five measurement. The most different value is the time the inspect needs.
Is there any possibility to give the server a higher priority that it will run faster?
best regards
Oliver
Attachments:
Mappe1.zip ‏51 KB

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Can I use a camera for application in Labview and VBAI at the same time ?

Dear all,
I'm trying to save an AVI file with Labview and make an image process with VBAI at the same time, in one machine.
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I'm not necessarily saying that. It's been a while since I've used VBAI, so I don't remember all of the capabilities, but if VBAI can do the inspection and recording at the same time, you should be fine.
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Certified LabVIEW Architect
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Multiple instances of VBAI

I know that we can now acquire from multiple cameras in VBAI (thanks!). However, I feel that doing so leads to very complex inspection sequences. It does not look like VBAI has fully embraced parallelism for things other than FTP transfer. What do I do if I have 5 GigE cameras that each must be triggered, and where it is possible that two could be triggered at the same time? Can I run multiple instances of VBAI on a single PC (hey, it's multicore)? I predict that the current answer is to just use LabVIEW, but VBAI is mostly LabVIEW.... right?
I would like to maintain only the simple, single-camera, inspections on the PC. Running multiple VBAI instances would allow me to dedicate an instance to each camera without worrying about what is going on wth the other 4 (or more).
No, I haven't tried to do this yet. Currently, I am out of town and away from my vision lab. I figured that if this is possible, it is worth mentioning to the public, and if it is not then it is worth mentioning to R&D. The system I am picturing would be a future version of a system we just completed where we had 4 NI Smart Cameras and one GigE camera. The question came up about what to do if all 5 cameras were GigE. Don't worry, we still love the SmartCams!
On a posting streak,
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PrimeTest Automation
Solved!
Go to Solution.

FYI, feedback to Marketing / Product Development from an industrial user of several brands of vision systems...
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Currently IMO, because of the difficulties and expense involved with licensing, software version dependencies, and working with the NI hardware in general, I only consider NI where the additional functionality/flexibility is required. I have had good luck with PC-based applications of VBAI. If I could use an off-the-shelf industrial PC and run inspections in parallel-- making it easier to maintain and lowering the average cost per inspection, I probably would reconsider.
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How can I write to a Siemens S7-300 PLC tag from OPC Server.vbai page by using a Knob object ?

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Attachments:
manual_writing_to_plc.png ‏298 KB

The tutorial at the following location explains how to use Vision Builder AI as a OPC server.
https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-18647
http://www.ni.com/white-paper/13574/en
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Creating custom interface panels in LabVIEW for use in VBAI.

Greetings everyone,
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Dallin Katt
Message Edited by And.Pkg on 10-16-2008 09:00 AM

In the Breakpoint forum is an ongoing thread "Monthly Bugs" that lists bugs posted in the forum. It is maintained by the forum users for the forum users.
I have already submitted yours. Its no garantee that it is a bug or that it is spotted by NI. You could always contact your local NI application engineers and have them report it as a bug, if they think it is you will receive a CAR ID.
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Regards,
André
Using whatever version of LV the customer requires. (LV5.1-LV2012) (www.carya.nl)

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Hi Brad,
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Attachments:
Section of RS38_3JAN13.vbai ‏96 KB

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Attachments:
Color Example.zip ‏358 KB

How to add Basler acA2040-180km/kc as a target in VBAI?

I am a newbie to Labview and VBAI, having a basler ACE model acA2040-180km/kc, how could I add it as a target in VBAI?
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Solved!
Go to Solution.

It doesn't look like the cameras are detected in MAX. They shouldn't be under the Serial and Parallel ports, but under the NI-IMAQ Devices and NI-IMAQdx Devices section. Here's a screenshot of what that looks like and you will see a Snap and Grab button in MAX to make sure your acquisition works well. Once you can acquire here, then VBAI will have no problems either.
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Attachments:
MAX View with Cameras.jpg ‏74 KB

VBAI: Fire a pulse every N msec based on inspection status

The VBAI Delay function seems to have the functionality I am looking for, but it is too coarse in that the time lapse is 1 second minimum.
I have a Smart Camera (1772). I am doing an OCR inspection that could take a somewhat varying amount of time. I would like to fire a rejector if the inspection fails. The rejector must fire at a fixed amount of time after the camera is triggered. If I cannot reliably do that, then I need another controller in the system which I should not need because the Smart Camera shoulkd be more than adequate. I know it can be done in RT, but I would like to keep things in VBAI for ease of Customer training.
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Dan
Solved!
Go to Solution.

You could have a Generate Pulse step before your acquisition where the pulse is configured to generate a pulse based on a trigger (so configure a continuous pulse and wire you acquisition trigger to an ISO Input line as well that will trigger the output). Now this is the important part...you need to make sure your processing is done before the 100ms or whatever delay you specify or the pulse will begin. If you determine that you don't need to pulse based on your processing, transition to a state where you stop pulse generation on that line to stop it before it happens. In either case, transition to the End state and then the inspection can start again with the state that has the Generate Pulse/Acquire/Process and so the pulse will be reconfigured again for the next part.
If this doesn't work for you, then you could try a SW timed approach. You could have a Run LabVIEW step that gets an accurate timer value when the acquisition step completes, and another VI call that will wait for a user specified amount of time (millisecond resolution) before it continues.
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How to Convert FLIR Gray Scale Image to a Temperature Map in NI VBAI

I have been working with a FLIR A315 Infra-Red camera and NI's VBAI software. I need to determine the presence and continuity of a hot mastic foam that has been injected into the hollow bulb of a rubber weatherstrip seal in 4 adjacent locations that flow together inside the weatherstrip bulb to form a continuous foamed mastic plug.
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I have attached some images below to illustrate what I am working with and how far I've gotten.
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FLIR_IR_Monitor.jpg - a screen capture of a FLIR IR monitor utility that shows temperatures measured at a number of points and areas (showing it can be done)
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So, I am part of the way there, but so far have not found a way to map the gray scale image that VBAI is acquiring from the FLIR IR camera into a heat map from which I can determine temperatures - and would appreciate some help on how to do this.
Kind regards,
Nick
Solved!
Go to Solution.
Attachments:
iPhone_Photo.jpg ‏239 KB
FLIR_IR_Monitor.jpg ‏113 KB
NI_VBAI.jpg ‏205 KB

Hello,
Image provided by FLIR camera are unsigned 16bit.
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VBAI vs LabView/Vision?

I am designing a machine vision system that will use 16 GigE cameras, run on a dedicated PC, and will use standard edge and blob tools to perform a fairly routine set of inspection tasks. I will not need to code any new special-purpose image algorithms.
Because of the large number of cameras, I am interested in using parallel processes/threads as much as possible.
Also, I need to trigger inspections via Ethernet/IP from a Allen Bradley/Rockwell PLC.
Would there be any obvious advantages to using the Labview Vision Development Module rather than VBAI?

Here are some things to consider (in addition to what Christophe said).
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4. If this is the case (all your processing is the same), and the inspection is straight forward, I think using LabVIEW to run everything in parallel with a rentrant VI that does the acquisition and vision algorithm might be the simpliest and fastest approach, but it might take longer to develop the code.
Hope this helps give you some more ideas, and let us know if you have more follow-up questions.
Brad

Handling variable number of detected ojects in VBAI calculator

I have an inspection that searches for bright objects (holes) in a product, and typically it does not find any (good), but when it does I need to know the locations of each hole, to determine xy-boundaries of the region of holes, i.e., the mins and maxes of the xy-coordinates of each hole. To do this, I'd like to use a caclulator step and interate through all the holes found.....but I don't believe the calculator can handle a variable number of holes..or can it?
Thanks,
Eric
Solved!
Go to Solution.

It can if you put it in a loop with the index step indexing through each detected object and getting the center X, Y for hole[i], passing these results to caluclator, incrementing i, and using index step to get coordinates for next hole, and leave this state when no holes left.
Hope that helps,
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Attachments:
Looping Sample.vbai ‏15 KB

VBAI - LabView interface error - "The selected inspection could not be loaded", "Inspection File Error"

I have been programming/interfacing VBAI2012 and LV2011 for two years already.
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Send serial command in VBAI based off of calculation

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