Need Help: FRC Labview with local USB-cam (or laptop Webcam)

[Ziaholic]

Thanks guys. Funny, bio, I was already at that page once, then clicked something on the left-hand side and never went back to it ... I think it was the comments about the memory leak that initially scared me away.

The download installed correctly, now it's up to me to figure out how to get it all to work! (I got the USB-IMAQ download, not the Vision Assistant)

I'm using the standard FRC bot template as a guide, but it's still tricky. My standalone app doesn't need all of those robot/competition conditional cases. So I'm picking up on why/when the template code is doing something, then trying to find a similar function in the USB-IMAQ library. It is definitely kicking it up a notch w.r.t. my fledgeling Labview skills.

Anybody have a sample VI using these USB IMAQ routines to gather and display video from a local cam?

This week I'll get my hands on our cRio so I'll be able to use the standard template code for the next few weeks, but one day the team will want the controller back ... and I want to be able to work on some prototype vision algorithms without hogging a desired team resource.

Hey NI! Adding USB support to this year's FRC distribution would be GREAT ... I think biojae's right ... the '09 FRC LV installation only has the "Camera Open" function for the Apex IP camera. ... at least that's the only one that I could find.

Thanks again guys.

[Vikesrock]

Is the Axis Camera the desired team resource or is the cRIO? I would recommend using the Axis camera if possible as (baring changes to the kit electronics) is the camera you actually want to be developing for.

The Axis camera can be connected directly to a computer via an ethernet cable and then be used with the Vision Assistant. You can also develop a Labview app for the desktop and interact with the camera using the provided FRC libraries. As Greg mentioned errors may appear on occasion, but they do not affect the functioning of the program.

[Ziaholic]

I almost went down that path ... I have the Axis camera at my house, and could've re-configured it to work on my home LAN.

It just seemed silly to be on my laptop in the living room, playing with a camera that was hooked to a 100' ethernet cable that snaked back into my home office. ... especially since I was staring at a camera right there in my laptop lid. (and not having the Axis power cord was another reason to try to get my webcam working)

I understand the desire to develop the apps using the same camera we'd use in competition, but I figured that I could still investigate various hi-level methods with any camera, then fine-tune those methods once I was back running on the 'bot.

This all becomes moot in a few days, when I get my team's controller for the next few weeks. If I still don't have a USB solution working when I give back the cRio, I'll simply setup the Axis cam to work on my home network.


[edit] If I had the Axis power cord, I would've tried plugging it into my home router and reconfiguring it ... I didn't know that it'd work by plugging directly into my Laptop's RJ45. I just assumed I had to plug it into my home router. My laptop's RJ45 is inactive 99.99% of the time, I could reconfigure it to some dummy IP range without affecting it's wireless surfing etc. This sounds like a very feasible option. Thanks for the tip.