Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Wayne Lewis <[email protected]> · Wed, 17 Oct 2018 16:36:00 -0700

Hi Mark, Andraz,

We have also been using the FLIR BlackFly at ESS. The model number we
are using is BFLY-PGE-31S4M-C.

Some answers to your questions are below:

On Wed, Oct 17, 2018 at 04:04:51PM +0000, Mark Rivers wrote:
> Hi Andraz,
> 
> I have 4 more questions:
> 
> - Is your camera connected point-to-point with a dedicated NIC, or is it on a network with other devices?

Point to point on dedicated NIC. 

> - Have you enabled jumbo packets on the NIC?

Yes.

> - Have you followed the recommendations in this Point Grey article for system network buffer sizes?
> https://www.ptgrey.com/KB/10016

Yes.

> - Are you seeing error messages about "Image inconsistency" indicating dropped frames?

Yes. Variable frequency, but typically at least one every few minutes.

> - 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.

This can vary from less than an hour to a few days, running at 10 fps.
In one example I just checked, it failed after 5583 frames.

To get the camera going again, I've found the following works:

- restart the IOC
- attempt to start acquisition (this fails the first time with the
following message on the IOC console):

2018/10/18 01:31:45.725 pointGrey:startCapture: ERROR calling
StartCapture Type=33 Description=Error starting isochronous stream.

- restart the IOC again
- acquisition starts successfully this time

> - 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.

Yes to both. We have not observed freezes, but have not run for long
periods of time. We do see the image inconsistency errors here also.

> - Have you tried running the aravisGigE software?  That would also help to see where the problem is.

No.

Wayne

> 
> I have found that Point Grey cameras work best when using a dedicated connection, jumbo frames, and increased Linux network buffers.  They seem to be less tolerant than AVT/Prosilica cameras of other traffic on busy networks.
> 
> Mark
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: 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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-- 
  Wayne Lewis
  e: [email protected]
  w: http://ospreydcs.com
  p: +1 631 905 1964

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System