IEEE 1394 Camera Acquisition with a PXI-Cardbus 8310
Primary Software: Driver Software>>NI-IMAQ for IEEE-1394
Primary Software Version: 2.0.2
Primary Software Fixed Version: N/A
Secondary Software: N/A
Hardware: PXI/CompactPCI>>Controllers>>PXI-8310
Problem: I have an IEEE 1394 (Firewire) camera connected to a PXI-8252 in a PXI chassis. The PXI chassis uses a PXI-Cardbus 8310 to connect to a laptop. Why am I unable to acquire images from my firewire camera from my laptop in the Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX)?
Solution: Possible reasons a laptop is unable to acquire images from an IEEE 1394 camera using the PXI-8252 and PXI-8310:
- Some laptops do not work the PXI-Cardbus 8310. See the Developer Zone tutorial in the Related Links section below to check if a laptop has been tested.
- The PXI-8310 user manual specifies an "up-to" speed rating of 50 MB/s to the laptop and 10 MB/s from the Laptop. Some laptops may not see these rates. If you are acquiring from a 1394 camera at 400 Mbits/s, this is the equivalent of acquiring at 50 MBytes/s which is the fastest possible acquisition speed for the PXI-Cardbus 8310. As stated earlier, it is possible that some laptop hardware and configurations may not be capable of acquiring these speeds.
To see if this is the problem, try changing the 1394 camera's speed from 400 Mbps down to 100 Mbps in MAX. Also set the Video Mode to the smallest frame size and frames per second. If this works, then the throughput of the PXI-8310 is most likely the problem. Try changing the Video Mode and Speed settings to find the fastest settings possible for a system.
Alternatives
- If the laptop has a PCMCIA slot, then the PXI-Cardbus 8310 is the only option. If the laptop has an ExpressCard slot (which is backwards compatible with PCMCIA), then the laptop is compatible with both the PXI-Cardbus 8310 and PXI-ExpressCard 8360. The PXI-ExpressCard 8360 is recommended because it has a higher throughput (110 MB/s instead of only 50 MB/s).
Related Links:
NI PXI-CardBus8310 Product Page
NI PXI-ExpressCard8360 Product Page
Developer Zone Tutorial: What Laptops Have Been Tested with the NI PXI-CardBus 8310 PXI Controller?
Attachments:
Report Date: 04/05/2007
Last Updated: 04/06/2007
Document ID: 484H98S4
