Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Mark Rivers <[email protected]> · Tue, 6 Feb 2018 13:05:55 +0000

Hi Jörn,

Yes, the aravisGigE driver is definitely an option for Linux.  aravis actually now supports USB cameras as well, and Tom Cobb thinks it will probably work with 10 GBit cameras as well.

I have a requirement for a driver that will work with Windows, for which aravis is not an option.  Since I thus need to write a driver that uses the Spinnaker SDK I would like it to also work on Linux.  Then we have the same interface for Linux and Windows.  Linux users would have a choice of which driver to use for Point Grey/FLIR cameras, as they do now.

I have written to FLIR technical support requesting that they provide a version of the library that will work with RHEL/Centos 7 (gcc 4.8).  They have passed the request higher up in the company, so we will see what happens.

I have started work on the ADSpinnaker driver (https://github.com/areaDetector/ADSpinnaker).  It is actually already working on Windows to collect images.  There is still lots of work to be done to control all of the parameters.

Thanks,

Mark

________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Jörn Dreyer <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 6, 2018 4:35 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: FLIR Spinnaker SDK: Request for input

Hi,

just my small remark,

the libraries that you noted (libGenApi_gcc540_v3_0.so and
libGCBase_gcc540_v3_0.so) are from the ebus SDK of Pleora. So that points to a
genicam/GigEVision compatible camera. For cameras with ethernet there is a
chance that they work with the aravisGigE driver. Did you try to talk to the
camera using the arv-tool-0.4 from the aravisGigE/vendor/aravis-linux-x86_64/
bin directory?
If the camera is using USB, then you are stuck with the manufacturer SDK.
Otherwise, give it a try.

Regards,

Jörn

Am Dienstag, 6. Februar 2018, 11:05:26 CET schrieb
[email protected]:
> Hi Mark,
>
> To my knowledge we don't have any Spinnaker cameras here at Diamond at the
> moment... However, we have been arguing about similar topics with detector
> vendors in the past and what seems to have worked is to ask that they build
> their Linux libraries against large-scale, long-term support Linux
> distributions - and follow their release cycle. These distributions are
> used across many sites and organisations across the world. The
> compiler/libs versions on there are fairly conservative and constant.
>
> In my view, currently RedHat (or CentOS) 7 would be a good, conservative
> choice that would be supported and in use for several years. If they insist
> on a debian-based distribution then go for one of the Ubuntu Long Term
> Support (LTS) ones.
>
> An even better and more portable solution would be to wrap their entire
> public API in "extern C". A C API is more portable across compiler/linker
> versions, but C++ is not (your error relates to a C++ string type).
> Obviously, this could potentially be a major change to their code and API!
>
> Just my £0.02 worth...
>
> Cheers,
> Ulrik
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
> On Behalf Of Mark Rivers Sent: 05 February 2018 14:41
> To: 'EPICS Mailing list' <[email protected]>
> Subject: FLIR Spinnaker SDK: Request for input
>
>
> Folks,
>
> I have begun work on a new ADSpinnaker driver based on the Spinnaker SDK.
> The Spinnaker libraries for Windows are no problem.  However, the Linux
> libraries have names like:
>
> libGenApi_gcc540_v3_0.so
> libGCBase_gcc540_v3_0.so
>
> The name implies that they were built with gcc 5.4.0.  When I try to link
> against these libraries on my Centos 7 system with gcc 4.8.5 I get errors
> like the following:
>
> /home/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-2/ADSpinnaker/lib/linux-x86_64/libSpinnaker
> .so: undefined reference to `std::__cxx11::basic_string<char,
> std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> >::find(char const*, unsigned
> long) const@GLIBCXX_3.4.21'
>
> This means it requires GLIBCXX 3.4.21.  When I run the following command
> "strings" on my Centos 7 system I see that I have the following versions of
> GLIBCXX:
>
> corvette:ADSpinnaker/spinnakerApp/src>strings /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6 | grep
> LIBCXX GLIBCXX_3.4
> GLIBCXX_3.4.1
> GLIBCXX_3.4.2
> GLIBCXX_3.4.3
> GLIBCXX_3.4.4
> GLIBCXX_3.4.5
> GLIBCXX_3.4.6
> GLIBCXX_3.4.7
> GLIBCXX_3.4.8
> GLIBCXX_3.4.9
> GLIBCXX_3.4.10
> GLIBCXX_3.4.11
> GLIBCXX_3.4.12
> GLIBCXX_3.4.13
> GLIBCXX_3.4.14
> GLIBCXX_3.4.15
> GLIBCXX_3.4.16
> GLIBCXX_3.4.17
> GLIBCXX_3.4.18
> GLIBCXX_3.4.19
> GLIBCXX_DEBUG_MESSAGE_LENGTH
>
> So the most recent version I have is 3.4.19, I don't have 3.4.21.
>
> I think it is unfortunate that their Linux Spinnaker version requires a very
> recent version of Linux and gcc.  I believe it will pose a problem for many
> of our sites that are using older versions of gcc.
>
> Assuming it is technically possible, I would like to try to convince FLIR to
> release a version of the library built with an older version of gcc.  Other
> vendors (e.g. AVT) do this.
>
> In order to convince them I would like to get some input from sites that are
> currently using Point Grey/FLIR cameras or plan to do so within a year or
> so.
>
> - About how many of their cameras do you current use or plan on using within
> the next year? - What version of Linux, gcc, and GLIBCXX are you using on
> your production machines?
>
> Thanks,
> Mark
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Mark Rivers
> Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2018 4:50 PM
> To: 'EPICS Mailing list'
> Subject: FLIR 10Gbit Ethernet camera question
>
>
> Folks,
>
>
>
> FLIR (formerly Point Grey) has introduced 10 Gbit Ethernet cameras.  They
> currently sell a 4096 x 3000 pixel version which can do 68 frames/s for
> $3,950.  They will soon start selling a 2448 x 2048 camera which can do 162
> frames/s (price not announced yet).  These are very interesting cameras,
> since they use the Sony CMOS chips with very low read noise and global
> shutter.  These data rates are 775-796 MB/s, which is more than 2x faster
> than the same chips using a USB-3 interface.
>
>
>
> These cameras cannot use the FlyCap2 SDK that other Point Grey cameras use.
> They require their new Spinnaker SDK.  They are GeniCAM compliant, so they
> may also work with the aravisGigE driver.  Note that their new BlackFlyS
> cameras also require the Spinnaker SDK, they don't work with FlyCap2
> either.
>
>
>
> My questions:
>
> -          Has anyone begun an areaDetector driver that uses the Spinnaker
> SDK?
>
> -          Does anyone know if these 10Gbit cameras will work with the
> aravisGigE driver?  Any idea if aravisGigE is capable of running at the
> 10GBit Ethernet speeds?
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mark

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System