Best practices with The Imaging Source DMK camera

[Michael Covington]

I'm using PHD2 with an Imaging Source DMK21AU04.AS monochrome camera.  For the most part, it works fine, but I have some questions.  If these raise new issues I can grab some log files.  My computer runs Windows 10 1511 (not 1607), with current Windows updates (not including upgrading to the July 2016 release).

(1) Until recently I used Open CV to access the camera.  Now that does not seem to work -- hangs with a message about an unhandled exception -- but WDM still works.

(2) To get reliable performance with WDM, I have to go to camera tools (wrench on camera icon), make some trivial setting, and undo it again.  An example is turning auto exposure on and then off again.  If I don't do that, it tends to hang when taking exposures > 1 second.

I mention (2) because I wonder if it means the interface to WDM needs one more initialization step.

(3) I understand there was thought about providing native support for Imaging Source cameras (like PHD 1 has), but that project stalled.  Does anyone know its current status?

(4) What is the secondhand value of an STV... :)  :)   No, seriously, this is not the place to ask that, but I'm really enjoying PHD2.

[Michael Covington]

By the way, I am using PHD2 2.6.2.  I am just wondering if I should drop back to an earlier version.

[Andy Galasso]

On Fri, Nov 18, 2016 at 9:41 PM, Michael Covington <m...@uga.edu> wrote:

(1) Until recently I used Open CV to access the camera.  Now that does not seem to work -- hangs with a message about an unhandled exception -- but WDM still works.

do you know what changed between when it worked and when it didn't?

 

(2) To get reliable performance with WDM, I have to go to camera tools (wrench on camera icon), make some trivial setting, and undo it again.  An example is turning auto exposure on and then off again.  If I don't do that, it tends to hang when taking exposures > 1 second.

I mention (2) because I wonder if it means the interface to WDM needs one more initialization step.

You could try PHD2 v2.6.2dev5 or later which has the most up-to-date WDM support.

(3) I understand there was thought about providing native support for Imaging Source cameras (like PHD 1 has), but that project stalled.  Does anyone know its current status?

The status is tracked in our issue tracker, it's #360.  Sorry, nothing new to report.

Andy

[Michael Covington]

On Friday, November 18, 2016 at 9:55:06 PM UTC-5, Andy Galasso wrote:

On Fri, Nov 18, 2016 at 9:41 PM, Michael Covington <m...@uga.edu> wrote:

(1) Until recently I used Open CV to access the camera.  Now that does not seem to work -- hangs with a message about an unhandled exception -- but WDM still works.

do you know what changed between when it worked and when it didn't?

Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, no, although there may have been a Windows Update.  I'll continue probing this if it's not a known problem.

 

 

(2) To get reliable performance with WDM, I have to go to camera tools (wrench on camera icon), make some trivial setting, and undo it again.  An example is turning auto exposure on and then off again.  If I don't do that, it tends to hang when taking exposures > 1 second.

I mention (2) because I wonder if it means the interface to WDM needs one more initialization step.

You could try PHD2 v2.6.2dev5 or later which has the most up-to-date WDM support.

Thanks, I may do that!

 

(3) I understand there was thought about providing native support for Imaging Source cameras (like PHD 1 has), but that project stalled.  Does anyone know its current status?

The status is tracked in our issue tracker, it's #360.  Sorry, nothing new to report.

Andy

Thank you for your prompt reply!   Of course, if OpenCV or WDM will support this camera adequately, there's no need for native support.  I will continue to be attentive and bring forward any relevant data that I collect. 

[Michael Covington]

Updates: After switching to 2.6.2dev5, WDM access to the camera does go more smoothly; it is not necessary to fiddle with the camera settings in order to get it initialized properly.

OpenCV access to this camera still does not work; when I start looping exposures, I get the message "*** Caught unhandled unknown exception; terminating."

Not a calamity because I can use WDM, but it's odd that OpenCV stopped working for unknown reasons.  If anyone wants to investigate this further, let me know and I'll see if I have log data that sheds any more light on it.   (Is it a matter of versions of OpenCV?)

[Andy Galasso]

Thanks for the update and glad to hear the updated WDM is working better.

We have not made any changes to the OpenCV code in PHD2, and have continued to ship PHD2 with opencv 2.4.10 DLLs. Since nothing has changed there, I strongly suspect it is something to do with windows.   We could try using a newer version of opencv to see if that makes a difference--let me know if you'd like to pursue that and I can make you a special test build.

Andy

[Michael Covington]

No need to go to that much trouble right now unless others report the same problem or the OpenCV people tell you that you need to change versions.  But thanks!

[Michael Covington]

One more data point.  On my other laptop (Lenovo, running Windows 10 1607, the version that broke webcam support but has subsequently been updated), I do not have this problem.  I can access the camera reliably as either WDM or OpenCV.  Accordingly, I am thinking of updating the Asus laptop to 1607.

[Michael Covington]

SOLVED.  The latest batch of updates to Windows 10 1511 seem to have taken care of it.  OpenCV is working again.

On Friday, November 18, 2016 at 9:41:05 PM UTC-5, Michael Covington wrote:

[Andy Galasso]

great, thanks for the update