Axis M1013 holding exposure and white balance

[mkausas]

We have been having trouble getting our Axis M1013 to hold exposure and white balance values between restarts.

We have the ability to set the exposure and white balance modes on our M1013 to auto and hold, but we can't figure out how to make the camera hold the same values over restarts. In our tests, it resets to some default value every time.

In previous years using the M1011, we haven't had trouble, so it seems like this might be a M1013-specific issue.

Does anyone have experience with this?

Any help is appreciated.

[Mr. Lim]

We having been asking the exact same question, and have yet to find an answer.

[Greg McKaskle]

How are you changing the settings? Or what procedure should I follow to reproduce the bug?

I used a web browser to log into the camera, changed the white balance to Fixed Indoor, the Brightness and Exposure and Exposure Priority to make a dark exposure. I saved, viewed the image. I unplugged and plugged in the camera, waited for it to boot, and the exposure was still dark. I reviewed the parameters and they matched what I'd set.

I have an expired beta version of Vision Assistant on this laptop, so I can't see if there is a problem with the particular parameters that it is setting versus what the M1013 supports.

Greg McKaskle

[notmattlythgoe]

I had this issue too. What I did was use the robot code to change the exposure from auto to hold since I wasn't seeing a hold option in the settings in the web browser. You should be able to do this with a very simple robot project and have it change the setting when you enable the robot in teleop.

[Tom Line]

We have this exact same issue. We've verified it is a camera issue that we can repeatably produce.

We proved this to ourselves by disconnecting the camera from the crio and bridge and going straight to the computer. We logged into the camera using the administrator account, and set and saved the brightness and exposure values to automatic. We then held a flashlight in front of the camera lense, allowed it to darken, then set to 'hold current' and saved. Upon removing the flashlight from the lense the camera retains the darkened settings.

Power cycling the camera causes it to began acting as though the settings have been returned to 'automatic'. Going in through the web interface still shows the settings on both white balance and exposure set to 'hold current'.

We have tried changing these settings in the 'simple' camera GUI interface as well with the same results. We have tried saving the settings using both the 'root' administrator account, and the FRC account added by the FRC camera configuration tool. We have reset the camera to factory defaults and manually configured it without the FRC configuration tool and had the same result. We have tried repeatedly saving the 'hold current settings' and had the same result. We have tried configuring the camera using the Labview code in vision processing at run time and setting an exposure value of zero with no noticeable effect. We have tried setting the code to 'hold current' and permanently deploying with the same issue, and we have tried formatting the cRIO and then running the code from the computer with the same issue.

We have 2 of these cameras, one purchased through AM First Choice, and one purchased from an outside vendor. Both exhibit the same behavior.

[mmaunu]

Originally Posted by Tom Line

We have this exact same issue. We've verified it is a camera issue that we can repeatably produce.

We proved this to ourselves by disconnecting the camera from the crio and bridge and going straight to the computer. We logged into the camera using the administrator account, and set and saved the brightness and exposure values to automatic. We then held a flashlight in front of the camera lense, allowed it to darken, then set to 'hold current' and saved. Upon removing the flashlight from the lense the camera retains the darkened settings.

Power cycling the camera causes it to began acting as though the settings have been returned to 'automatic'. Going in through the web interface still shows the settings on both white balance and exposure set to 'hold current'.

We have tried changing these settings in the 'simple' camera GUI interface as well with the same results. We have tried saving the settings using both the 'root' administrator account, and the FRC account added by the FRC camera configuration tool. We have reset the camera to factory defaults and manually configured it without the FRC configuration tool and had the same result. We have tried repeatedly saving the 'hold current settings' and had the same result. We have tried configuring the camera using the Labview code in vision processing at run time and setting an exposure value of zero with no noticeable effect. We have tried setting the code to 'hold current' and permanently deploying with the same issue, and we have tried formatting the cRIO and then running the code from the computer with the same issue.

We have 2 of these cameras, one purchased through AM First Choice, and one purchased from an outside vendor. Both exhibit the same behavior.

We have tried these same steps with the same results (mentor here for OP). Instead of holding a flashlight up to the camera, we use a fancy styrofoam cup to get the same effect. When we "hold current" on the exposure, everything is fine with the camera until we power cycle the robot. By fine, I mean that the image is nicely dark and the vision targets show up very clearly. We have tried "holding current" via the web interface, via the AxisCamera class (we use Java), and by sending http requests to the camera from a SmartDashboard widget. Every time, no matter what we try, the camera image reverts to an "automatic" exposure setting when we boot back up; the image is no longer dark and we need to recalibrate the exposure settings with said fancy cup.

I am glad, I guess, that we aren't the only ones experiencing this.

Greg, how are you setting the settings on the Axis M1013? We will try to duplicate your steps. I don't have our camera in front of me, but I believe that we are using the Video -> Camera Settings page to handle the exposure.

Thanks all for posting...let's get this figured out

[Mark McLeod]

Possibly the firmware versions are different?
v 5.40.5.3 is available from Axis.

Some of the M1013 cameras I've looked at have been running v 5.40.5.2
I'm sure there are other variants out there.

[mmaunu]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

Possibly the firmware versions are different?
v 5.40.5.3 is available from Axis.

Some of the M1013 cameras I've looked at have been running v 5.40.5.2
I'm sure there are other variants out there.

We updated our camera's firmware to 5.40.5.3 and retested the exposure and white balance holding, but it did not make a difference.

Like Tom, we tested changing the settings in both the web and simple interfaces with both the root and FRC users, but received the same results.

[Tom Line]

I had hopes that someone would figure this one out - I've called Axis and their 'support' is less than helpful (have you plugged it in?).

We've updated to the newest firmware as well and it didn't change the behavior.

[Greg McKaskle]

Here is what I found when looking at the M1013.

I logged into the camera to see if I could find the auto/hold exposure control on the M1013. I couldn't find it. I looked at a parameter report on the camera and verified it was in "auto" mode.

I modified the LV dashboard to set the exposure to hold. I looked at the parameter report and it said "hold". I rebooted the camera and the parameter report still said hold. I modified the exposure value on the camera's web page and saved, and it still said "hold" in the report.

So, I believe that the camera will still hold the calibration, but the web page will no longer let you set it to that mode, and in fact if you save the right things on the page, I could see how it may switch back to auto.

The parameters report is available on the web page as shown in the attachment. It is the Parameters List button. Search for [ImageSource.I0.Sensor]. I am running a beta version of Vision Assistant, so I'm not able to easily verify that it will set the camera to hold.

Can someone verify that this procedure works for them, or detail how you are setting the camera to hold and how you are checking whether it resets?

Greg McKaskle

[jonboy]

We have had the same behavior ie losing the exposure hold value on the M1013 camera when power is cycled.

Our solution was to revert to the axis 206 camera which will save the exposure hold setting when power is cycled. 206 is discontinued but available on EBAY.