Felix

adressing-several-unibrain-fire-i-cameras

they way I got this to work - on a mac - was to use the IOXperts drivers that came with the fire-i cameras 

the key thing these drivers do is to actually assign a different (serial # based) name to each camera

when you go through the driver set-up it allows you to give it a specfic name -

thus, by labeling the physical cameras 1-4 with a sharpie and labeling the matching drivers Unibrain Fire-I1 - through Unibrain Fire-I4 I was able to consistantly know what camera I was addressing through jit.qt.grab when.

I still went in and manually set up what camera I was addressing each time I had a performance, but this worked ok for me and the other perameters I was looking at changed depending on the actual performance space camera instal etc.

I have no idea about the PC end of things

Sent: Tuesday, November 6, 2007 11:55:24 AM

Subject: [jitter] adressing several unibrain fire-i cameras

I have to grab videos from 4 unibrain’s fire-I cameras at the same time - record to HD - Playback the videos recorded. I have no problem grabbing the 4 video streams in easy chain mode. 

But what I also need is to recognize each fire-I camera and assign them a name so that I never lose track of which image is given by which camera. 

Right now I only find jamie jewett comments in a forum’s thread (2004): «… you can give each camera a unique name that stays linked to the serial number of the camera -and thus you can easily know which camera you are addressing…». 

I have done this using the Fire I Application for Windows XP (Camera 1, Camera 2...). But I don’t know how to address them in jitter (using jit.qt.grab or jit.dx.grab). The «vdevice» message uses integers and the «get vdevice» gives me Unibrain Fire-i driver / Unibrain Fire-I for each camera (as in the Windows's device manager). I’m also interested in doing the same operation in OSX with the IOXperts drivers.

How can I name and address each fire-I cameras in jitter on Windows XP?.

How can I name and address each fire-I cameras in jitter on OSX?.

What drivers are best in Windows XP? And in OSX?

they way I got this to work - on a mac - was to use the IOXperts drivers that came with the fire-i cameras 
(this is not reccomended by cycling 74)

the key thing these drivers do is to actually assign a different (serial # based) name to each camera
when you go through the driver set-up it allows you to give it a specfic name - 

hope this helps
let me know if I can help more
jamie

----- Original Message ----
From: Felix 
Sent: Tuesday, November 6, 2007 11:55:24 AM
Subject: [jitter] adressing several unibrain fire-i cameras

Hello List!.
I have to grab videos from 4 unibrain’s fire-I cameras at the same time - record to HD - Playback the videos recorded. I have no problem grabbing the 4 video streams in easy chain mode. 
But what I also need is to recognize each fire-I camera and assign them a name so that I never lose track of which image is given by which camera. 
Right now I only find jamie jewett comments in a forum’s thread (2004): «… you can give each camera a unique name that stays linked to the serial number of the camera -and thus you can easily know which camera you are addressing…». 
I have done this using the Fire I Application for Windows XP (Camera 1, Camera 2...). But I don’t know how to address them in jitter (using jit.qt.grab or jit.dx.grab). The «vdevice» message uses integers and the «get vdevice» gives me Unibrain Fire-i driver / Unibrain Fire-I for each camera (as in the Windows's device manager). I’m also interested in doing the same operation in OSX with the IOXperts drivers.
So the questions should be:
How can I name and address each fire-I cameras in jitter on Windows XP?.
How can I name and address each fire-I cameras in jitter on OSX?.
What drivers are best in Windows XP? And in OSX?

--
Felix Luque
http://www.othersounds.net
felix@othersounds.net


Many thanks for your message; your info is of great help. Now I know how to do it on a mac. I use the IOXperts drivers a long time ago; I didn’t remember the naming step in the installation process. That is good for me, if the name is assign to the serial number of the camera is perfect. I would like to know if you connect the cameras in easy chain mode and if you had to pay for the drivers when you install several cameras (normally is one license per camera).

For the moment I don’t have a mac at my work, so I’ll have to wait some days before I can test it. I’m sure a lot of windows folks had the same problem dealing with several fire-i. Can anyone give a feedback for windows?

Hi Jamie.
Many thanks for your message; your info is of great help. Now I know how to do it on a mac. I use the IOXperts drivers a long time ago; I didn’t remember the naming step in the installation process. That is good for me, if the name is assign to the serial number of the camera is perfect. I would like to know if you connect the cameras in easy chain mode and if you had to pay for the drivers when you install several cameras (normally is one license per camera).
For the moment I don’t have a mac at my work, so I’ll have to wait some days before I can test it. I’m sure a lot of windows folks had the same problem dealing with several fire-i. Can anyone give a feedback for windows?
Thanks again Jamie!, 
F


the ioxperts driver came with the cameras - so it was 'free'

it used to be you could download it from unibrain directly but I just looked and I could not find it now...

I think you only have to pay for it once and then you can use it will all of the cameras - so you don't have to pay multiple times...

they have a pdf on multiple camera operation here:

http://www.unibrain.com/download/pdfs/Fire-i_Board_Cams/MultipleCamerasOperation1.pdf

they are remarkably kind at unibrain and I would not hesitate to contact them - they might have an oem driver they can send you directly or something...

else the $19 for the ioxperts is not so much...

I am not certain about the easy chain mode question - I don't know what this means - 

my cameras we ceiling mounted and so I used a 10 meter firewire cable from granite digital (better than the unibrain cable in my testing)

this connected to a hub that was externally powered - then 2 of the cameras were connected to the hub using 5 meter cables and 2 with 2 meter cables

I also found that given this configuration, one of my cameras worked best if also externally powered - 

I found using the hub worked better than chaining one camera into the next 

as far as I could tel this was strictly for ghost in the machine issues...

it was a major pain in the backside to figure out this set up - 

but once it was up and running it worked well -

I was using this for motion tracking and did not get great frame rates but that was fine for my application

a powerbook G4 1ghz was unreliable and would often crash running this set up for more than an hour

I also wonder what you are going to do on the recording end - I am using fw800 raid to get fast drive speed for capture - seems like this will definitely be an issue for you if you are trying to capture from multiple cameras simultaneously - you might see if you could capture different streams to different drives to help manage the load - perhaps someone else on the list has more perspective on this but you might want to consider using an external drive - esata (on a macbook or elsewhere) would be an even better choice because you would not be competing for bandwidth on the firewire bus between the cameras and the drive if you can work with a tower this may not be an issue and you could have an internal raid or what have you - I am laptop based for touring reasons...

http://www.unibrain.com/Products/VisionImg/Fire_i_BC.htm

             Fire-i™ Digital Board Camera is powered by the FireWire bus DC 

             voltage, coming from host adapters or other FireWire devices 

             connected with 6-pin cables.

             Fire-i™ Digital Board Camera is provided with a DC power input 

             jack connector, that can be used when the FireWire connection does 

             not provide DC power. This happens typically:

             when the FireWire bus is converted to a 4-pin connectionwhen, in 6-pin, no powering device is present, even from the FireWire interface.

This is the case when using CardBus FireWire adapters or on some laptops with built-in interface.

             Even if the FireWire bus is already powered, the DC power input 

             jack of the camera can also be used to reinforce it. The FireWire 

             bus voltage will adapt automatically when needed. A built-in diode 

             avoid any risk of voltages conflict or reverse current flow.

             Recommended DC adapter must provide stable regulated output 

             voltage of at least 12V DC,1A.

             To match camera DC input connector, the jack plug of the DC 

             adapter need following dimensions and polarity as on the figure.

Sent: Thursday, November 8, 2007 4:53:52 AM

Subject: [jitter] Re: addressing several unibrain fire-i cameras

Many thanks for your message; your info is of great help. Now I know

how to do it on a mac. I use the IOXperts drivers a long time ago; I

didn’t remember the naming step in the installation process. That is good

for me, if the name is assign to the serial number of the camera is

perfect. I would like to know if you connect the cameras in easy chain mode

and if you had to pay for the drivers when you install several cameras

For the moment I don’t have a mac at my work, so I’ll have to wait some

days before I can test it. I’m sure a lot of windows folks had the

same problem dealing with several fire-i. Can anyone give a feedback for

the ioxperts driver came with the cameras - so it was 'free' 

they have a pdf on multiple camera operation here:
http://www.unibrain.com/download/pdfs/Fire-i_Board_Cams/MultipleCamerasOperation1.pdf

I am not certain about the easy chain mode question - I don't know what this means - 
my cameras we ceiling mounted and so I used a 10 meter firewire cable from granite digital (better than the unibrain cable in my testing)
this connected to a hub that was externally powered - then 2 of the cameras were connected to the hub using 5 meter cables and 2 with 2 meter cables
I also found that given this configuration, one of my cameras worked best if also externally powered - 
quoting unibrain about this below.

I found using the hub worked better than chaining one camera into the next 
as far as I could tel this was strictly for ghost in the machine issues...

it was a major pain in the backside to figure out this set up - 
but once it was up and running it worked well - 

I was using this for motion tracking and did not get great frame rates but that was fine for my application
a powerbook G4 1ghz was unreliable and would often crash running this set up for more than an hour
1.5ghz powerbook G4 worked ok

anyway - gotta run - hope this helps
best
jamie

http://www.unibrain.com/Products/VisionImg/Fire_i_BC.htm
Powering the Camera

			  Fire-i™ Digital Board Camera is powered by the FireWire bus DC 
			  voltage, coming from host adapters or other FireWire devices 
			  connected with 6-pin cables.

			  Fire-i™ Digital Board Camera is provided with a DC power input 
			  jack connector, that can be used when the FireWire connection does 
			  not provide DC power. This happens typically:

			  when the FireWire bus is converted to a 4-pin connectionwhen, in 6-pin, no powering device is present, even from the FireWire interface. 

			  Even if the FireWire bus is already powered, the DC power input 
			  jack of the camera can also be used to reinforce it. The FireWire 
			  bus voltage will adapt automatically when needed. A built-in diode 
			  avoid any risk of voltages conflict or reverse current flow.

			  Recommended DC adapter must provide stable regulated output 
			  voltage of at least 12V DC,1A.

			  To match camera DC input connector, the jack plug of the DC 
			  adapter need following dimensions and polarity as on the figure.

----- Original Message ----
From: Felix 
Sent: Thursday, November 8, 2007 4:53:52 AM
Subject: [jitter] Re:  addressing several unibrain fire-i cameras

Hi Jamie.
Many thanks for your message; your info is of great help. Now I know
 how to do it on a mac. I use the IOXperts drivers a long time ago; I
 didn’t remember the naming step in the installation process. That is good
 for me, if the name is assign to the serial number of the camera is
 perfect. I would like to know if you connect the cameras in easy chain mode
 and if you had to pay for the drivers when you install several cameras
 (normally is one license per camera).
For the moment I don’t have a mac at my work, so I’ll have to wait some
 days before I can test it. I’m sure a lot of windows folks had the
 same problem dealing with several fire-i. Can anyone give a feedback for
 windows?
Thanks again Jamie!, 
F

--
Felix Luque
http://www.othersounds.net
felix@othersounds.net

Hi, I'm having a problem getting my max patch to recognize my fire-i board color camera. I can't download the IIDC firewire driver from IOXexperts at the moment, because the web page doesn't work. If you have this driver on your computer, can you email me it?

Hi, I'm having a problem getting my max patch to recognize my fire-i board color camera. I can't download the IIDC firewire driver from IOXexperts at the moment, because the web page doesn't work. If you have this driver on your computer, can you email me it?
Thanks
