Triggering secondary cameras not working
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Official commentwe saw that the cameras were synchronised after lowering the frame rate of the primary camera to 54fps. The cameras cannot reach full frame rate when in trigger mode. Even with overlapped trigger enabled.
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Hi Varun, so you are using pin 2 and 4 on the secondary camera? Could you please check if the secondary camera takes a pictures when you short these pins?
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Hi Manuel, Yes I am using those pins on the secondary camera.
I am using a breadboard to connect pin 5 (purple) on the primary camera to pin 4 (green) on the secondary camera. Both of these are connected together on the same line of potential on the breadboard.
I then connected both of the number 2 pins (black) together the same way. That was what I understood by the instructions on the website.
When you say 'short' pin 2 and pin 4, do you mean I should connect those pins together and see if the camera takes pictures?
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Hi Varun, yes that is what I meant. If the secondary camera is configured correctly, connecting pin 2 and 4 should trigger an image.
Did you also follow the steps to configure the cameras further down in the same article?
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Hi Manuel, Isn't pin 2 Ground so connecting pin 4 of the same camera would just short circuit the whole thing? I didn't understand that we were being asked to connect pin 2 and pin 4 of the same camera from the article.
Also yes I did follow the other steps to configure the camera using Spinview. But it hasn't seemed to work. I didn't do the optional steps. I only did the instructions specific to my model of camera. the CM3 (chameleon 3), I ignored anything else in it.
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Hi, Is there any other suggestions that you have? I tried to connect the green and black pins but I noticed no difference.
Only the primary camera seems to record images and I want both of them to do so.
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Hi Varun, yes please try connecting pins 4 and 2 of the secondary camera. When you make the wires touch, the camera should take an image if everything is configured correctly. Does that trigger the camera?
Do you have an oscilloscope to check the signal level coming from the primary camera?
If you cannot get this to work, could you please open a support ticket on https://flir.custhelp.com/app/ask ? Then we can take a look in a remote session.Best regards,
Manuel
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Hi Manuel,
I have actually managed to get the trigger working apparently. Now at least when I turn the trigger mode to off on the primary camera, both primary and secondary cameras start recording.
The problem now is that the secondary camera appears to grab frames at half the rate that the primary one does. I followed the advice on the main page and set the trigger overlap to "read-Out'. But it doesn't seem to help.
I have also checked the specifications and I can see that CM3-U3-31S4C-CS actually supports overlap triggering which the main page said to check.
Additionally do you know how I change the trigger mode between standard, overlap, etc on spinview? I can't seem to find that setting.
Lastly, I have only been doing the steps under spinview. Do you know if I need to do the ones with flycapture2 as well or if it is one or the other?
Kind regards,
Varun
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Hi Varun,
glad to hear that. Does it help to reduce the exposure time on the secondary?
The node name in SpinView should be "Trigger Overlap". If you cannot find the setting in SpinView, please try to update the camera firmware: https://www.flir.com/support/products/chameleon3-usb3/#DownloadsWhat software do you want to use with the cameras? FlyCapture2 or Spinnaker? You do not have to use both. If you are just starting now, I recommend to use Spinnaker: https://www.flir.com/support-center/iis/machine-vision/application-note/transitioning-from-flycapture2-to-spinnaker-sdk/
Best regards,
Manuel
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Hi Manuel,
I am using Spinnaker right now anyway. I would prefer to stick with that.
Also I don't think I actually downloaded the firmware the first time. I have downloaded it now and I have also downloaded visual studio 2022.
How do I update the firmware on both of the cameras now?
Regards,
Varun
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You can find the option to update the camera firmware when you right click on the camera in SpinView.
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Thanks. But updating the firmware did not seem to help.
And also I tried changing the exposure time but that setting is locked.
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Could you please open a ticket on https://flir.custhelp.com/app/ask ? Then we can take a look in a remote session.
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OK I will do that. Thank you.
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we saw that the cameras were synchronised after lowering the frame rate of the primary camera to 54fps. The cameras cannot reach full frame rate when in trigger mode. Even with overlapped trigger enabled0
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