Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Mark Rivers <[email protected]> · Wed, 17 Oct 2018 15:54:54 +0000

Mark,

There is a simple example program from Point Grey called GigEVisionPerformance.cpp that is built as part of ADSpinnaker.  It does continuous acquisition and then calls pCam->EndAcquisition().  Does it work correctly?  If not then you should open a support issue with Point Grey.

Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: Engbretson, Mark S. <[email protected]> 
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2018 9:47 AM
To: Mark Rivers <[email protected]>; [email protected]
Subject: RE: Camera Recommendations [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

There are some issues with the ADSpinnaker software under Ubuntu 18.

Example: I can collect single images fine, I can collect multiple images fine, but I can not do a continuous scan. Stopping that will stop the process, but never clears the Acquire PV back to 0. So never cleanly stops, so can never actually start it back up again.

It looks as if it should be in stopCapture, that is what is being called for single and multiple,  but it does not.

Added trace code as follows -

asynStatus ADSpinnaker::stopCapture()
{
    int status;
    static const char *functionName = "stopCapture";

    setIntegerParam(ADAcquire, 0);
    callParamCallbacks();
    setShutter(0);
    // Need to wait for the task to set the status to idle
    while (1) {
        getIntegerParam(ADStatus, &status);
        if (status == ADStatusIdle) break;
//        if (status == ADStatusIdle) continue;
        unlock();
        epicsThreadSleep(.1);
        lock();
        printf(".");
    }
    try {
printf("In the start of try block \n");
        pCamera_->EndAcquisition();
printf(" after \n");
        ImagePtr pImage;
        // Need to empty the message queue it could have some images in it
        while(pCallbackMsgQ_->tryReceive(&pImage, sizeof(pImage)) != -1) { printf(".");
        }
printf("At the end of the try block \n");
    }
    catch (Spinnaker::Exception &e) {
      printf("in the catch block \n");
      asynPrint(pasynUserSelf, ASYN_TRACE_ERROR,
          "%s::%s exception %s\n",
          driverName, functionName, e.what());
      return asynError;
    }
    printf(" at end of stopAcquire \n");
    return asynSuccess;
}
In the ioc console, I see

epics>
epics> In the start of try block
 after
At the end of the try block
 at end of stopAcquire
In the start of try block
 after
At the end of the try block
 at end of stopAcquire
.In the start of try block

So I am getting a hang on the statement

        pCamera_->EndAcquisition();

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Mark Rivers
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2018 7:47 AM
To: 'POZAR, Andraz' <[email protected]>; [email protected]
Subject: RE: Camera Recommendations [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Hi Andraz,

> we have tried using BFLY-PGE-13S2M-CS with adSpinnaker on Ubuntu 16 
> and FL3-GE-13S2M-CS with adPontGrey on Centos 7 but both of them "freeze"
after running smoothly for some time.
> They become unresponsive and an IOC reboot is required in some cases 
> even
power cycle of the camera.

That's interesting.  I have some questions about this:

- What is the approximate mean time it takes for the camera to freeze?  I would like to try to reproduce the problem and want to know how long I would need to test.
- Have you tried running the Point Grey software, either FlyCap2 or SpinView with these cameras?  Does that also freeze?  That would tell us if it is a problem with the hardware or their library, or the EPICS software.
- Have you tried running the aravisGigE software?  That would also help to see where the problem is.

I own several of the BlackFly GigE cameras, but I am using them for development, not in production, so I have not run them for a long time where I might observe this.

However, I am using Point Grey Grasshopper3 cameras in production, both GigE and USB3 versions.  Right now I have a GS3-U3-23S6M that has run for 42 days at 100 frames/s with no problems.  That is running ADPoinyGrey on Centos 7.
I use the same model for tomography with ADPointGrey on Windows where I typically collect 200GB/day with no issues.  I also have 2 GS3-PGE-23S6C
(GigE) cameras that have run for 15 days at 46 frames/s with no problems.
Those are running ADPointGrey on Windows.

Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: POZAR, Andraz <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2018 5:01 PM
To: Mark Rivers <[email protected]>; [email protected]
Subject: RE: Camera Recommendations [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Hi Mark,

Thank you for recommendation, however, we have tried using BFLY-PGE-13S2M-CS with adSpinnaker on Ubuntu 16 and FL3-GE-13S2M-CS with adPontGrey on Centos
7 but both of them "freeze" after running smoothly for some time. They become unresponsive and an IOC reboot is required in some cases even power cycle of the camera.  We're running them at toughly 1 Hz so they should get overworked.

At this stage we're looking at potential alternatives or any kind of advice if someone has had similar experience with those cameras?

Cheers,
Andraz

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Rivers [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2018 10:45 PM
To: POZAR, Andraz <[email protected]>; [email protected]
Subject: Re: Camera Recommendations [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Hi Andraz,

The Point Grey Blackfly cameras will meet your specifications:

https://www.ptgrey.com/blackfly-gige-poe-cameras

Here are 2 examples:

BFLY-PGE-13S2M-CS

1/3 inch, global shutter, 1288x964 pixels

3.75 micron pixels
66% QE, 11 e- read noise, 9339 e- full well
58 dB dynamic range
30 FPS
POE
$345

The following model has significantly better QE, read noise, and dynamic range in a somewhat larger format:

BFLY-PGE-23S6M-C
1/1.2" sensor, global shutter, 1920x1200 pixels
5.86 micron pixels
80% QE, 7 e- read noise, 33105 e- full well
73 dB dynamic range
41 FPS
POE
$495

Either camera can be used with 3 areaDetector drivers:

ADPointGrey (Windows, Linux RHEL 7 or higher) aravisGigE (Linux, most any
version) ADSpinnaker (Windows, Linux Ubuntu 16 and higher)

Mark

________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of POZAR, Andraz <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2018 12:44 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Camera Recommendations [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Hi all,

We're looking into replacing our old Firewire cameras with Ethernet ones and we'd be interested in any suggestions and experiences you have had with different camera models.

Some requirements:

-          1/3 inch, global shutter, mono sensor at roughly 1300 x 900
resolution

-          Good quantum efficiency and low noise

-          Roughly 4 microns pixel size

-          Ethernet

-          Preferably POE

-          areaDetector support

Cheers,

Andraz Pozar

Controls Engineer
Australian Synchrotron

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Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System