support for non-baumer cameras? about rc_genicam_api

[heikohimu]

The GenTL producer is not specific to Baumer cameras and should work with all standard GigE Vision 2.0 cameras. What is the model of the Point Grey camera?

[smissan]

this is
BFLY-PGE-13E4M-CS

it works with pleora. It may be something on my end, I will try building on Windows. Good to know that this TL is not restricting just for Baumer cameras.

[smissan]

actually, the protocol version for this camera is 1.2. Is this an issue? Any way to connect to 1.2 cameras with this library?

[heikohimu]

I just saw it. GigE Vision 2.x is not backwards compatible to 1.x. I do not know if the Baumer GenTL producer supports 1.x. Apparently it does not. It seems that Pleora implemented both protocols in their producer. The rc_genicam_api works with any GenTL v1.5 compatible producer. If you have one from Point Grey or Pleora, you can use it by setting the GENICAM_GENTL64_PATH to the directory of the producer, i.e. the location of the *.cti file.

[smissan]

thanks, this makes sense. I will try another producer library, or try with version 2 camera.

[smissan]

hmm quite a few .cti-s are failing to load. Stemmer imaging USB3 GenTL loads, but Gev one does not.

[smissan]

I was able to load other GenTL libraries. Some of them require to comment out GenTL 1.5 specific functions, as these are not implemented. Stemmer imaging GenTL works with functions commented out - everything from
reinterpret_cast<void*>(&IFGetParentTL)=dlsym(lib, "IFGetParentTL");
onward.

I was also able to get device info with Baumer GenTL - looks like something was broken in my network settings:

Interface     enp0s8
Display name: enp0s8
TL type:      GEV

getting list of devices
dlist size 0
number of devices 1
Device devicemodul00_b0_9d_dc_c9_6d
Vendor: Point Grey Research
Model: Blackfly BFLY-PGE-13E4M
TL type: GEV
Display name: 222333
Access status: ReadWrite
Serial number: 14469485
Version:
TS Frequency: 0

[heikohimu]

Ok, I see. rc_genicam_api is meant for GenTL 1.5. You may tweak the code as you like, but we wont support lower versions of the interface. Regarding your network setup. Did you try connecting the camera directly to the PC?

[smissan]

these were network settings in my VM. I'm getting another issue now, trying to read frames (baumer GenTL):

./gc_stream devicemodul00_b0_9d_dc_c9_6d
Press 'Enter' to interrupt grabbing.

Exception: Invalid layout of buffer attached to chunk parser! : RuntimeException thrown (file 'ChunkAdapterGEV.cpp', line 97)

[heikohimu]

Ah, you are working in a VM, not in the native operating system? This will only work if the VM uses the bridge mode of network card, because the discovery mechanism in GigE Vision works by sending UDP broadcasts.

The error means that the chunk data that is sent from the camera does not fit to the layout specified in the GenICam XML file from the camera. I am not sure what the problem can be.

[smissan]

yes I use bridged adapter in VM, and the camera is being discovered (with some challenges). I will try building on Windows and see if may be streaming will work. Thanks a lot for your help.

[smissan]

on windows this camera gives me a bunch of "Incomplete buffer received" and nothing is saved as image files.

gc_stream.exe devicemodul00_b0_9d_dc_c9_6d n=10
Press 'Enter' to interrupt grabbing.

Incomplete buffer received

[smissan]

another update - I updated camera firmware and it's now streaming images. Excellent, thanks again for the amazing project.

[heikohimu]

Thanks. Actually, incomplete buffers can easily occur if the application does not read the network packages fast enough. This is not the only reason, but a typically one. The problems can be reduced by increasing the MTU (e.g. 9000) and the size of the network buffer.

So, it seems that your problems are solved. I am closing this issue now.