Axis Camera without the cRIO

We are trying to view image data on the dashboard without runing it through the cRIO for lag reasons, is this possible? If so, how can it be accomplished? I can access the cam through the router and it has an IP similar to the robot’s(10.30.44.19), How could we set this up?

Thanks!

You can view it from a standard web browser, or you could find a way to display it via your favorite language. (I’d suggest removing the password, though)

If you do use a language to access the camera, I would suggest bypassing the MJPEG stream and going for the still frame capture. I haven’t noticed any detriment in image speed and it was easier to set up.

I am able to successfully parse the MJPEG stream for ZomB, you can use ZomB or look at the source in ZomBdll\NetAndDataProcessing\Video\MJpegStream.cs

The NI site contains a tutorial showing how to display camera MJPG images on the dashboard. The link is http://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-15144.

Greg McKaskle

The NI site contains a tutorial showing how to display camera MJPG images on the dashboard. The link is NI Community - National Instruments.

I followed this tutorial, and I created a new FRC Dashboard Project. Now how do I make this new dashboard be the one that comes up when I launch the driver station (or log in as driver)?

(Maybe this is a dumb question… I don’t actually have access to the robot now to test if the video is showing in the window. Is there only ever 1 dashboard, and creating a new Dashboard Project it makes it the one?)

Either rename it and copy it over to replace the original Dashboard, or change the Driver Station configuration file to point to the new one.

We don’t do software development on the Classmate, so we have to copy the compiled program from our programming computer. We got tricky and used Windows file sharing to make the folder on the Classmate containing the Dashboard program available on the network. A simple change to the build specification can put the .exe file in the right place automatically.

I’ve the same headache, I’ve never actually used Labview… How do I take the modified Labview project from my development PC and get it over to my classmate? Is there a tutorial somewhere? I feel like I’m missing something basic, like an ‘export’ or ‘deploy’ button or something.
Thanks in advance.

You’ll need to create an .exe for your dashboard under Build Specifications, then that can be copied to your Classmate.

Here are three different methods of doing this:

  1. If you’re developing the dashboard on the same machine:
  • Go under Build Specifications
  • Right-click on FRC PC Dashboard
  • Select Properties
  • Change “Target filename” to “Dashboard.exe”
  • Change “Destination directory” to “C:\Program Files\FRC Dashboard”

Then when you build, your .exe will replace the existing Dashboard every time.
2) If you’re developing elsewhere then you can just copy the exe to the FRC Dashboard directory.

  1. Give it a unique name and change the Driver Station ini to point to your Dashboard.
  • In the file: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Shared Documents\FRC\FRC DS Data Storage.ini
  • Edit the line: DashboardCmdLine="“C:\Program Files\FRC Dashboard\Dashboard.exe”" to point to your dashboard. (be sure to preserve the double slashes in the filename path).

You can combine with method 1) above and give your Dashboard a custom name while having it build right where it’s needed.

This may help. Or not. Either way, I’ll post this:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/922232/AxisCamera.java
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/922232/Camera.java

Thanks, we got it working last night, one more item that we noticed was that nothing seemed to work until we changed user “root”'s password to “admin” instead of the default “pass”. I saw that in an a single pdf of the 5 or so instructional pdf’s on setting up the camera.
Thanks again!

By default, the camera requires authentication for requests such as grabbing an image. Your options are to add an account such as FRC:FRC, and duplicate the authentication data, make a different account such as root:??? and duplicate that authentication data, or if you look for it, you can also turn on the camera’s anonymous access and don’t bother with authentication.

The LV VIs will repeat through up to three authentication requests or FRC:FRC, root:admin, and root:pass and then it will give up and return an error. I’m not sure about the java code.

Greg McKaskle