VBAI: Triggering Inspections

Just starting out with VBAI.
I am an experienced Cognex In-Sight user and am very impressed with many of the VBAI capabilities.
Dumb question: Inspections will be triggered by a ControlLogix PLC via EtherNet/IP messages.
Have I missed something, or do I need to build all the state transition logic for the ready/trigger/busy/done protocol, as well as heartbeats?
On Cognex it happens automatically. Putting in loops to poll the state of E/IP tags is not the most CPU-efficient approach, since the PC will also be running other software (HMI).
For a discrete camera trigger I understand that the acquire image tool can wait for a trigger edge transition, but we try to stay away from discrete signals to keep the cables to the cameras simple (PoE).
Thanks in advance!

Brad:
At the least, I think it would be a really good idea to have an Ethernet/IP template for ControlLogix PLCs as well as a template trigger protocol state diagram that customers can use as a starting point. I am sure that is something that you gurus could throw togethere in no time and would save customers untold development hours and eliminate unnecessary troubleshooting for your many new customers who are not yet VBAI veterans.
Cheers,
Nelson

Similar Messages

How to display 16 bit image in VBAI custom inspection interface?

I'm working with 16 bit grey scale images in VBAI. In configuration mode, there is an option on how to handle 16 bit display mapping, and it works very well to preview the effect of the different display possibilities. However, those settings do not carry over into inspection mode. In the custom inspection interface, if I right click on the image display area it also has an option for 16 bit image mapping, with a default value of "Full Dynamic". It allows me to choose something else, but if I save the custom interface and reopen it, the value always reverts back to "Full Dynamic" For the time being, I've worked around it by adding a vision assistant step to convert the 16 bit image to 8 bit, but I would really prefer to take this step out. Are there any tricks to getting the image mapping setting to work properly within the custom interface? Thanks, Jason

I would not expect that to happen. I will investigate. In the mean time if you have LabVIEW you can export the custom ui and edit the block diagram in LabVIEW. Then you can add a property node for the image display control to set the 16 bit display mapping when the vi runs. Make sure to reimport this updated ui and edit the step that updates the custom ui to run the code when the step executes. I'll let you know what I find out about why it reverts when you try to set it from the editor in VBAI.
Thanks
Brad

VBAI 2011 "Inspection Interface Configuration" does not support LV 2011 vi?

I am trying to use LV2011 vi for VBAI2011 Inspection interface, but the error message appears:
"This step only supports LabVIEW 2020 VIs or earlier. To fix this problem, save the VI to a previous version of LabVIEW".
I tried to save my 2011 VI to 2010 VI, and then tried again. But a blank, new windows popped up, with title "VBAI_Temp_Inspection_Interface.vi", and it hang there forever.
Please help.

Could you post your LV 2011 VI so I can see what might be the problem. VBAI should offer to save the VI to a previous version for you, but there are some limitations with this (i.e. LabVIEW doesn't allow VIs from toolkits to be saved for a previous version). For this to have a chance of working though, you need to make sure you have bundled all your dependnecies into an LLB as mentioned in the Context Help for the Run LabVIEW step.
Thanks,
Brad

Creation of multiple inspection points

Hello experts,
I try to figure out how to create multiple inspection points for one operation at process order release.
It means that the release of the process order triggers:
- inspection lot creation (lot origin 03)
- inspection points creation for operation with inspection characteristics assigned to it
In the recipe header, I entered inspection points = 150 - generated inspection point, qty or time
(module function QAPP_CUST_IP_CREATE is activated for "automatic creation of insp. points")
In the operation header, I select time related -and enter 1 HR
However no inspection point is created at process order release. Only inspection point identifier is created automatically when I select the next inspection point in TR QE51N.
Do you have any tips on the subject ?
Thanks in advance
Best regards
Amaury

Dear Amuary
Doubt if there is any solution in standard. Use exit so that thr first 3 inspection points gets activated quickly. Try these exits
QAPP0001
User exit QAPP 1 (create inspection point)
| QAPP0002 |User exit QAPP 2 (create inspection point & other data)
Regards
Gajesh

Material specification and Inspection plan - Task list usage

Dear Friends,
In inspection type Task list usage is assigned
For Example
inspection type 01 - usage - 03
inspection type 05 - usage - 05
inspection type 06 - usage - 07
inspection type 10 - usage - 06
In my scenario i want to use all the above inspection type for a product
if i use mateial specification there is no any problem with my Task list usage
If suppose i use inspection plan do i need to create different inspection plan with different usage
or is it possible to create one inspection plan with all the above usage
what about universal usage 03 can i use it
i try to use but system does not triggering inspection lot
can any one Suggest some ideas
Many Thanks & Regards
Raj

Hi Raju,
All of first pls understand the concept of Task list and specification.
If you need to inspection any material in very systematic manner, where you will have well segregated operations where the appropriate Work Centers will be bind and under that hierarchy MIC will be attached. The inspection will be governed by some inspection points. And according the the same Samples will be calculated. When you wanna go with all these functionality then you must have to use Task list (Inspection plan).
And if you don't wish to have these functions then simply go with the material specification.
Now it comes the actual query about task list usage.
If there is a common inspection plan is supposed to be used for all the inspection types for your material then you can prepare only one inspection plan, put ant of the Usage to it it can be 05 or 03 universal. But what you have to do is,
Go to SPRO->Quality Management->Quality Inspection->Inspection Lot Creation->Maintain Inspection Types Execute and set the Task list usage as the same it is set in the inspection plan for all those Inspection types for which that common inspection plan is supposed to be used.
Note:- There is no any link between inspection lot creation and task list usage of inspection plan.
Regards,
Shyamal

Inspection lot for Goods receipt

We have material "X" of material type "VERP".
Batch Management is not active for this material.
QM procurement key is not active for this material.
No QM inforecord exist for material, plant & vendor combination.
Inspection type 01 is active for this material.
Usually till date purchase team was selecting stock type as unrestricted stock while making PO.
And after GRN material always use to get posted in unrestricted use without triggering inspection lot.
But today when a new GRN is posted with reference to a PO (in this PO also the stock type is unrestricted stock), stock get posted to quality stock triggering a inspection lot.
I have checked ,recent changes done in material master. But no relevent changes are done recently.
Can anybody explain why this is happened that the inspection lot get triggered for this GRN only? and though the inspection type 01 is active since long back, why the inspection lots were not triggered for earlier GRN?
Thanks & Regards

When I investigate this issue it was found that through transaction QA08 the inspection type 01 was recently assigned to the said material by mistake. while performing QA08 the check box for change document was not active. and due to this there was no change history was available.So it miguided me that the inspection setup was active since long time back.But in actual this was not the case.
Any way, my problem get resolved.This is helpfull for other users also.
Regards
Vivek

When is customization dangerous even if the BADI's/exits are all there ????

In this blog post here:
/people/david.halitsky/blog/2007/03/08/the-astrobiology-of-enterprise-soa-how-planet-abap-can-seed-life-on-planet-bpx
I gave a schematic outline of the badi's and exits required to customize SAP QM in a particular way.
Up until recently, it was thought that we only had to use these badi's and exits
to update QALS records in order to link an inspection lot to an inspection plan that is not the one that standard SAP logic picks.
But it turns out that we not only have to update QALS in this way, but also delete SAP-added records from AFFL, AFVC, AFVU, and AFVV and re-add our own corresponding to the operations in the non-standard plan we're selecting for the inspection lot.
OK - so we know exactly how to do these deletes and re-adds, because the way SAP does the original inserts into AFFL/AFVC/AFVU/AVFF (during a MIGO goods receipt post) is perfectly clear - the sequence of FMs and forms is:
FM's:
qeev_tables_generate
qpap_plan_read
qpap_post_qapo
co_bt_order_post_qm
co_vb_order_post
FORMs performed from co_vb_order_post:
affl post
afvg_post (takes care of afvc, afvv, afvu)
But even though we know what we're doing, and even though we can do everythign we need to do with an SAP-delivered BAdI or exit, maybe what we're doing is still too dangerous because we're relying on SAP keeping a number of different files interrelated in exactly the way they are now:
QALS
MAPL
PLKO
PLFL
PLAS
PLPO
AFVC
AFVV
AFVU
AFFL
What do you think ?
Thanks in advance for whatever time you can afford to spend considering this matter ...
djh

Hi Stephen -
I appreciate the responses from you and Chris very much, because my current customer is right now grappling with the question of whether what we "need" to do is actually too much dangerous over-customization. So this is not a discussion in the usual "theoretical vacuum".
I want to explain why I think the "direct update" rule here MAY not apply in this particular case.
But before I do, I want to make very clear that I was the one who brought this situation to management attention when it turned out that NINE core SAP tables were involved, not just ONE. So whereas I felt more or less comfortable with one update to one table to repoint an inspection lot to a different inspection plan than the one which SAP selects, I didn't feel at all comfortable with direct updates to eight other core tables, particular when these involve what amount to "key field updates" - effectively, "deletes/re-adds".
That being said, the details of this particular case involve the fact that when we go for the eight core SAP tables, we are not doing anything other than doing exactly what SAP does, but with different "ALLOWABLE" choices. There are SAP delivered transactions which allow a customer to choose the inspection plan that will be associated with a given inspection lot. These transactions record the customer's choice in two different ways: 1) first - in the relationships among the rows of PLKO, PLAS, PLFL, PLPO; 2) second - in the relationships among the rows of AFFL, AFVC, AFVV, and AFVU. So what we're doing in the exits/BAdI's is:
1) undoing the choice of inspection plan that SAP has made and recorded in these tables;
2) recording our "custom" choice of inspection plan in these tables.
For this reason, it is difficult to BLINDLY apply the "don't do direct updates" and "don't do something SAP doesn't anticipate you doing" rules. Because on the one hand, it is true that SAP does not specifcally say in the BAdI documentation or exit parameters: "use this exit to change choice of inspection plan" or "use this BAdI to change choice of inspection plan". But on the other hand, we are not using the exits/BAdI's to do anything different than SAP already does when MIGO GR posting triggers inspection lot creation and inspection plan assignment.
With respect to the "watch-out for problems during upgrade" rule of thumb, it is also difficult to apply this rule blindly because it turns out that in our case, all the columns in the relevant tables are KEY columns. And for that reason, it is hard to imagine SAP changing its fundamental "E-R diagram" for QM during the course of any future upgrade. And if this possibility is, in fact, remote (i.e. if SAP cannot really change the "E-R" key columns of QM tables without rewriting QM from scratch), then the "upgrade problem" issue really doesn't arise.
Anyway, I want to close this post by saying that the functional analysts who proposed the customization in the first-place do NOT think that direct updates of nine core SAP tables is overly dangerous, and this is why management has to make a difficult decision between what the functional consultants are saying and what the in-house development lead is saying.
As a consulting developer, my job (fortunately!) is to collect the relevant facts and present a clear picture to the development lead, so that he or she can in turn present a clear picture to management.
It will be interesting to see the eventual outcome of this situation, and I will of course report this outcome back to this thread.
And again, thanks very much for taking the time to respond.
djh

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

VBAI2011 Save for Previous Version option

Hello,
Since VBAI 2011 is one of NI products, I am curious that it has an option of Save As For Previous version like Labview, or is there any way around it?.
I currenlty have running Labview 8.6 in my systems which doesn't work well with VBAI 2011. What I have done is using Labview 2012 evaluation version to re-save my VI 8.6 till to 2010 version. I am thinking an option of down-grade my VBAI if possible.
Thanks.
Hoa Huynh
University of Minnesota

Not sure if you're aware, but you can use the Vision Builder API in LabVIEW to control an any version of VBAI 2010 or greater with any version of LV 8.5 or higher. There is a shipping example located in your Vision Builder AI\API Examples folder. The API has several advantages over migrating your inspection to LabVIEW, so you might want to check it out. Here is a web video of how to use the API to control VBAI, run inspections, and get the results and images:
http://zone.ni.com/wv/app/doc/p/id/wv-2424
Hopefully Vision Builder will eventually support saving for previous, but until then, using the API allows you to use a variety of LabVIEW versions with a variety of VBAI versions.
Hope this helps,
Brad

Transfer stock through UD

dear guru,
i have set inspection origin 06 for return goods from customers,
my lot is created, i have recorded results also, after that when
i go for UD decision for that inspection lot, there is no tab for
Stock tranfer.(in qa11)
please help me out
points will be rewarded
Regards
Pravin

hi
inspection type 06 is not stock relevant ,hence you will not find the stock transfer page.
Processing materials as non-stock-relevant goods
If a material is not stock relevant, the system does not valuate and track the quantity of goods in an inspection lot. All inspection lots with the following inspection lot origins are not stock relevant:
·        02 - Goods issue
·        03 - Production
·        06 - Return from customer
·        07 - Audit
·        10 - Delivery to customer with sales order
·        11 - Delivery to customer without sales order
·        12 - Delivery (general)
·        13 - Production inspection on basis of run schedule header
·        14 - Plant maintenance
·        17 Externally triggered inspection
regards
thyagarajan

Usage Decision for an insp. lot

dear all
i want to make UD for an insp. lot of insp. type 06(return delivery).when i made ud it did not ask me for posting of that material.there is no insp. lot stock tab.can anybody help me to resolve this issue.

hi
inspection type 06 is non stock relevant ,hence you cannot able to post the material .
Processing materials as non-stock-relevant goods
If a material is not stock relevant, the system does not valuate and track the quantity of goods in an inspection lot. All inspection lots with the following inspection lot origins are not stock relevant:
·        02 - Goods issue
·        03 - Production
·        06 - Return from customer
·        07 - Audit
·        10 - Delivery to customer with sales order
·        11 - Delivery to customer without sales order
·        12 - Delivery (general)
·        13 - Production inspection on basis of run schedule header
·        14 - Plant maintenance
·        17 Externally triggered inspection
Posting stock-relevant materials to inspection stock
In inspection stock, QM has exclusive control over the material stock. This means that the material can only be posted in and out of inspection stock via the inspection lot. Materials can be posted to inspection stock for the following inspection lot origins:
·        01 - Goods receipt
·        04 - Goods receipt from production
·        05 - Miscellaneous goods receipt
·        08 - Stock transfer
·        09 - Recurring inspection
regards
thyagarajan

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.
Sequence of operations:
1. Parts travel under 1772 on a conveyor
2. Sensor triggers 1772 when a part is present
3. Image is acquired and processed. OCR inspection performed
4. If OCR inspection fails, fire output pulse exactly 100 (for example) milliseconds after the trigger from step 2
5. Repeat from step 2
Any idea how to achieve that in VBAI?
Thanks,
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.
I would recommend the first option since it will be hardware timed (but requires some extra wiring), and if that doesn't work, I can help you with a VI that will do the SW timed behavior you want.
Hope that help,
Brad

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.
There is one very frustrating problem:
- Sometimes after changing some codes in VBAI, and I switch to Inspection Interface (by clicking File->Switch to Inspection Interface), there would be error saying "The selected inspection could not be loaded"
- and then there is NO WAY to know what is going on. It does not tell you where the error is. Its so frustrating, you changed a couple of things, and the you have error switching to Inspection Interface, but then you don't know what is causing the error.
Is there any log file which I can check?

Guys,
I have resolved this issue and successfully installed and configured jive forums on my laptop.
I have documented high level steps on my blog http://orafusionmiddleware.blogspot.com (Non revenue generating, only for knowledge sharing)
Cheers,
Sandeep

Overlay inspection info in VBAI running in Labview

Hi,
I'm running an inspection using the NI Vision Builder AI palette in Labview.
I show images in Labview using "VBAI Interface - Get inspection Image.vi" but the images appears without info (Overlay objects like ROIs, edges,...)
Is there anyway to overlay some inspection info???
Thanks so much for helping me :-)

Does the image have overlay information when you run the inspection in Vision Builder AI? If so, are you reducing the image size with the Get Image function? Reducing the image size, removes any overlays, although this is fixed in the 2013 version that will release soon.
If you aren't reducing the image size using the Get Image VI, you can add overlay information in Vision Builder using the Overlay step, or you could get the results in LV using the Get Measurements VI and overlay the info there. I would recommend using the Overlay step in VBAI since it makes it easier to align all your results and easily get them from a simple UI.
Hope this helps,
Brad

Run inspection results Vbai in CVI interface

Hello,
I am trying to develop an application designed for the operation of a machine vision
Firstly, I will work with simple images on my PC and I made the necessary treatment with NI Vision Builder Automated Inspection , well, I have several inspection tests (multiple files. Vbai) ...
What I want to do is load the inspection results in a developed interface by LabWindows / CVI
1) I want to display the main window in NI Vision Builder interface in a picture box.
2) I also want to have state inspection Inspection Status in a text box or other way if available.
3) The Start button starts the inspection files. Vbai successively
Enclosed you will find two images on the skeleton of the CVI interface as an example of inspection NI Vision Builder over the generated code in CVI.
Tahnks in advance
#include <cvirte.h>
#include <userint.h>
#include "interface.h"
static int panelHandle;
int main (int argc, char *argv[])
if (InitCVIRTE (0, argv, 0) == 0)
return -1; /* out of memory */
if ((panelHandle = LoadPanel (0, "interface.uir", PANEL)) < 0)
return -1;
DisplayPanel (panelHandle);
RunUserInterface ();
DiscardPanel (panelHandle);
return 0;
int CVICALLBACK QuitCallback (int panel, int control, int event,
void *callbackData, int eventData1, int eventData2)
switch (event)
case EVENT_COMMIT:
QuitUserInterface (0);
break;
return 0;
int CVICALLBACK DemarrerCallback (int panel, int control, int event,
void *callbackData, int eventData1, int eventData2)
switch (event)
case EVENT_COMMIT:
break;
return 0;

You should check out the shipping example located under Vision Builder\API Examples\CVI Examples.
Hope this helps,
Brad

VBAI: Triggering Inspections

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