Labview CMUcam demo problem

[Windward]

Currently, I'm trying to get labview to work with the CMU camera. The camera is powered and our serial plug is plugged in, yet when I set the com to comport4 and press run, it does not run. I am not sure what the problem could be. I am not sure what the program demo itself is supposed to do, but I get an error stating there was a problem connecting. The error states that the error could be because of lack of power or a serial connection problem.

But I am pretty sure there is power and it is connected properly.

FYI, we are using a USB to serial converter, which works with the robot controller.

Any advice?

[Joe Hershberger]

Originally Posted by Windward

Currently, I'm trying to get labview to work with the CMU camera. The camera is powered and our serial plug is plugged in, yet when I set the com to comport4 and press run, it does not run. I am not sure what the problem could be. I am not sure what the program demo itself is supposed to do, but I get an error stating there was a problem connecting. The error states that the error could be because of lack of power or a serial connection problem.

But I am pretty sure there is power and it is connected properly.

FYI, we are using a USB to serial converter, which works with the robot controller.

Any advice?

Take a look at this post. Try the suggestions there and see if you still have the problems.

Good luck!
-Joe

[Danny Diaz]

Originally Posted by Windward

FYI, we are using a USB to serial converter, which works with the robot controller.

I use a USB-to-Serial converter as well to communicate with the CMUCam2, you need to make sure you've installed NI-VISA and also make sure your COM port shows up in Measurement and Automation Explorer (if you don't know what that is, you don't have NI-VISA installed).

-Danny

[CmptrGk]

Originally Posted by Windward

Currently, I'm trying to get labview to work with the CMU camera. The camera is powered and our serial plug is plugged in, yet when I set the com to comport4 and press run, it does not run. I am not sure what the problem could be. I am not sure what the program demo itself is supposed to do, but I get an error stating there was a problem connecting. The error states that the error could be because of lack of power or a serial connection problem.

But I am pretty sure there is power and it is connected properly.

FYI, we are using a USB to serial converter, which works with the robot controller.

Any advice?

i had a similar problem, in device settings i changed the port that the converter "was" to com1 and it worked. at least for me the gui wont see anthing above com3

[Windward]

Originally Posted by Danny Diaz

I use a USB-to-Serial converter as well to communicate with the CMUCam2, you need to make sure you've installed NI-VISA and also make sure your COM port shows up in Measurement and Automation Explorer (if you don't know what that is, you don't have NI-VISA installed).

-Danny

Ok, we installed NI-VISA, and our port shows up in Measurement and Automation Explorer. We are still getting the same error.

[Danny Diaz]

Originally Posted by Windward

Ok, we installed NI-VISA, and our port shows up in Measurement and Automation Explorer. We are still getting the same error.

Have you configured your baud rate for the COM port to 115200? That's a step I most often forget. Double-click on the COM port in MAX and then switch to the middle tab at the bottom of the screen (Device Settings I think) and set the Baud Rate to 115200.

-Danny

[Windward]

Originally Posted by Danny Diaz

Have you configured your baud rate for the COM port to 115200? That's a step I most often forget. Double-click on the COM port in MAX and then switch to the middle tab at the bottom of the screen (Device Settings I think) and set the Baud Rate to 115200.

-Danny

We already have, we have followed all of the instructions in the manual (unless there is some special manual we don't know about).

[Danny Diaz]

Originally Posted by Windward

We already have, we have followed all of the instructions in the manual (unless there is some special manual we don't know about).

Hmmm, if you're absolutely sure you've configured the COM port correctly, you've made sure the Camera app has the correct COM information (reported by MAX), you have NI-VISA installed, you have a completely charged backup battery plugged in, the camera is ON (there are green lights illuminated on the camera), the serial cable is firmly connected to the camera, and you can still not get the camera to connect then I don't know what to say.

Have you tried to use the camera with the IFI controller, or used the camera in any way thus far? Who knows, maybe you've got a bum camera? (just guessing)

-Danny

[Joe Hershberger]

Originally Posted by Windward

We already have, we have followed all of the instructions in the manual (unless there is some special manual we don't know about).

When you get the error, an error cluster should appear on the upper right in the application. What is the error code and error message?

Are you able to communicate with the camera using hyper-terminal?

-Joe

[Windward]

The error code is 5101. The source is "timeout during query."

We can program the camera with IFI loader, and we can use Kevin Watson's CMUcam code with it.

[Joe Hershberger]

Originally Posted by Windward

The error code is 5101. The source is "timeout during query."

We can program the camera with IFI loader, and we can use Kevin Watson's CMUcam code with it.

Hmmm.. I've never seen that error and it's not a defined error in LabVIEW. Can you give any more description about your setup?

Try testing the LabVIEW dashboard application. That will allow you to test the serial port on your computer.

-Joe

[Windward]

Ok, we downloaded the new code updated yesterday, and we're getting a new error:

code: d-1073807339

Source: VISA Read in query for result from serial port.vi->CMUcam2.vi->CMUcam2 GUI.vi


What is the LabVIEW dashboard application?

[Joe Hershberger]

Originally Posted by Windward

Ok, we downloaded the new code updated yesterday, and we're getting a new error:

code: d-1073807339

Source: VISA Read in query for result from serial port.vi->CMUcam2.vi->CMUcam2 GUI.vi

That error indicates that the camera can not talk to the computer. This could be because the serial cable is bad, the power to the camera is bad, the camera is plugged into the RC and the computer, etc. It also tells you that VISA is installed and that it was able to open the port. It could still be that you are not choosing the correct speed settings or not the correct port.

Originally Posted by Windward

What is the LabVIEW dashboard application?

The dash board is linked from this post. The direct link is here (only good till Friday).

Any more symptoms?
-Joe

[Windward]

Originally Posted by Joe Hershberger

the camera is plugged into the RC and the computer, etc.

What does that mean? Are we not supposed to have the camera plugged into both at the same time?


We tried the dashboard application and it worked fine.

EDIT: We also went here http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=42043 and tried all of Danny Diaz's instructions for the VISA test panel.

with the serial cable plugged into the program port on the RC, we got "IFI>\x00Searching...\r\n" for the buffer, 19 for the return count, and the return status was "xBFFF006B".

with the cable plugged into the camera, we got "CMUcam2 v1.01 c7\r" for the buffer, 18 for the return count, and "xBFFF0015" for the return status.


EDIT AGAIN: We also tried plugging the serial cable into the programming port, but we once again got error 5101, "timeout during query". Our camera seems to work fine (it tracks and can find the green light at a limited range), we just need to use labview to calibrate it better.

[Danny Diaz]

Originally Posted by Windward

What does that mean? Are we not supposed to have the camera plugged into both at the same time?

Bingo. The CMUCam2 cannot output from both serial ports at once, seems like if the TTL ouput is plugged in it uses that instead of the db9 serial port. Hence, unplug from the RC and that has been found to allow it to communicate via LabVIEW.

-Danny