Using T_Packet_Data.mx versus confidence

[354.FIRST]

FIRST

I have read all the related posts and I still have some confusion.
We have been using
if (T_Packet_Data.mx != 0 )
to determine if the camera sees the target light and it was working perfectly.
everyone says to use
if (T_Packet_Data.confidence > ##)
which was not working... but may be we have not found the right confidence.
I don't understand why T_Packet_Data.mx != 0 worked so well and what I should be worried about if I keep using that.
May be should I use something like...
if (T_Packet_Data.mx != 0 && T_Packet_Data.confidence > 80)
?????

SECOND
Our camera is not working at all since we shipped this years 'bot and mounted on the 2005 system. We recompiled for the 8520 board without problems using Using_Last_Years_FRC.txt.

The camera has both the red and green lights on like it's got the target even if we cover the lense. I read all the posts and so far no luck...
We connected to Labview and the camera lense is grabbing frames without problems. We connected the camera pwms to a joystick and the pwms work.

Any more thoughts on this?

HELP!

-354