IP Configuration Utility

Provided with ActiveGige is the camera IP configuration utility. Normally, a camera's IP address has a factory setting in the 169.254.x.x class B range. In this case you should follow the Network Setup instructions to property configure your network adapter. However, there might be when the camera IP needs to be changed, for example when multiple cameras are connected to several network cards. You can also have a situation when your camera becomes "invisible" due to the IP address mismatch between the camera and network card. The IP configuration utility can locate the camera on the network and modify its IP address for the proper operation.

To start the IP configuration utility run "gevconfig.exe" from ActiveGige working folder. You can also run it through the Windows Start Menu: Start -> All Programs -> ActiveGige -> IP Configurator. The following user interface will be displayed:

IP Tab



The upper window displays the list of all GigE Vision cameras currently found in the network. If there are more than one cameras, select the one you want to reconfigure. The current camera configuration information will appear on the right. If the IP of the selected camera doesn't match the TCP/IP settings of your network card, the IP configurator will ask you to assign the camera a temporary (forced) IP address with parameters matching the subnet mask and IP address of your network card.

Once the current IP address of the camera is set to a proper value, the IP configurator can proceed with changing a permanent IP address of the camera. The following options are available:

DHCP - the camera will reset its IP address automatically using the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. The IP address will be assigned in the 169.254.x.x class B range.

LLA - the camera will reset its IP address automatically using the Link Local Address (Auto IP). The IP address will be assigned in the 169.254.x.x class B range.

Persistent IP - the IP address is assigned manually by entering the desired parameters in the test boxes. Assigning a persistent IP address to the camera will provide the fastest time for establishing connection between the camera and network card. When using this option make sure that the IP Address and Subnet Mask of the camera match the corresponding parameters of the network card.

After selecting the desired option, click the Change IP configuration button. The camera should reset itself and the updated IP information should appear in the Current Configuration pane on the right. Note that some cameras require resetting the power in order for the new IP configuration to take effect.

Note - Before assigning the camera a Persistent IP it is recommended to try it as a temporary (forced) IP address. The camera will revert to the previous IP once the power is reset.


GigE Tab



The left pane displays the settings of the Broadcast channel which is used for monitoring and discovering a presence of GigE Vision cameras on the network. ActiveGige periodically sends the discovery request throughout the network and collects the information about all cameras that respond to this message in time. The following options are available:

Period, ms - the interval in milliseconds at which ActiveGige sends discovery requests looking for GigE Vision cameras on the network. If this value is set to a large number (such as 1000000), the discovery request will be sent only once upon the start of an application. This is a recommended scenario when the application is not required to monitor the presence of cameras on the fly. The default value of the broadcast period is 1500 ms.

Timeout, ms - the interval in milliseconds during which ActiveGige waits for responses from GigE Vision cameras after each discovery broadcast. Decreasing this time will make your application to initialize quicker, but it may prevent the discovery of some cameras especially in case of multiple cameras on the network. A recommended time for a single-camera setup is 200-300 ms, for multiple cameras - 600-1000 ms.

Attempts - the number of discovery requests used by ActiveGige to determine that a camera was removed from the network. When a new camera responds to the discovery message, ActiveGige immediately adds it to the list of connected cameras. However, it contains a safety mechanism which prevents it from immediately removing a camera from the list in case there was no response, because it may be caused by an accidental lost of a packet in the network. This parameter defines the number of discovery attempts that will be made by ActiveGige before it will consider the camera disconnected.

Use multiple sockets - selecting this option will make ActiveGige to use multiple sockets for sending discovery requests in case when multiple network cards are installed on the system. This can be used as a remedy against an erroneous IP address mismatch due to a non-standard implementation of the discovery protocol in some cameras. In general, it is recommended to keep this option unchecked to reduce the network load.

The central pane displays the settings for the Control channel which is used to obtain and modify camera parameters. The following options are available:

Heartbeat, ms - the interval at which ActiveGige sends the heartbeat signal to the camera. A GigE Vision camera uses the heartbeat signal as an indication that the application remains in a control of the camera. Once the application closes and the heartbeat sequence stops coming to the camera, it frees itself to another process. In some situations such as a trigger acquisition you may want to set the heartbeat interval to a large value to decrease the network traffic. If this value is set to 0 (default), the heartbeat period will be equal to 1/4 of the internal camera timeout setting which can be changed by modifying the Heartbeat property.

Timeout, ms - the interval in milliseconds during which ActiveGige waits for a response from the camera after sending a command. For example, when you move the Exposure slider in the Property Pages, the application sends a series of commands to a corresponding camera register, and each command must be acknowledged by the camera before the application can send the next command, in order to maintain the synchronization between the application and camera. The default value for this parameter is 200 ms, but some cameras have a slower response and may require using a larger timeout.

Attempts - the number of times ActiveGige will try to send the same command to the camera. If the camera fails to respond in time (timeout) on all of the attempts, ActiveGige will raise an error. The default value for this parameter is 5.

The right pane displays the settings for the Stream channel which is used to transmit video from cameras to ActiveGige.

Resends - the number of attempts that ActiveGige will make to request a missing video packet. GigE Vision cameras use the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) to send the video through the network. UDP guarantees that the video is delivered with no delays, but it is inherently unreliable in terms of the packet loss. If ActiveGige detects a missing packet, it will send a resend request to the camera asking it to retransmit the missing packet. You may want to disable this feature on slow systems to prevent the network socket from further clogging. The default value for this parameter is 3.

Timeout, ms - the interval in milliseconds during which ActiveGige will await for a video packet from the camera after sending a resend request.

Lookback - size of the lookback window in packets. When packets arrive out of order, ActiveGige looks back to determine if all the packets previous to this point have arrived. If not, a resend is issued. If the value is too low, unnecessary resends will be issued. If the value is too high and a packet is trully missing, a resend can be issued too late when the required packet is no longer in the camera buffer.

Multicast Address - the destination IP address used for the Multicast streaming. Per UDP requirements, the range of multicast addresses for local networks must be 239.0.0.0 - 239.255.255.255. The default value for this parameter is 239.0.0.1

Advanced Tab


   
The top left pane displays the settings for the Message channel which is used to transmit message events from cameras to ActiveGige.

Timeout - the transmission timeout for the message channel in milliseconds. Assigns the amout of time for the devices to wait for acknowledgement after a message is sent.

Retry Count - the number of retransmission attempts allowed for a message when it times out.

The middle pane displays the settings for the Action conditions which are used for Action commands.

Timeout - the interval in milliseconds during which ActiveGige waits for an acknowledge response from one or several cameras after sending an Action command.

Attempts - the number of times ActiveGige will try to send an Action command to the network. If devices failed to respond in time (timeout) on all of the attempts, ActiveGigE will raise an error. For more information refer to the description of the WaitForAck parameter of the SendActionCommand method.

The bottom left pane displays the settings used for Buffering of image frames and message events. The following options are available:

Frame stack - the size of the image frame buffer. In order to process all incoming frames without missing some of them, an ActiveGigE-based application should be able to complete processing of a frame before the next frame arrives from the camera. In some cases an intermittent overload of the system may cause the application to pause and extend the processing of the current frame beyond the frame interval. The existence of the frame stack allows ActiveGigE to buffer incoming frames and delay their arrival to the application's processing queue without skipping them. The larger the frame stack is, the higher the allowance for intermittent overloads will be. A drawback of selecting a large size for the stack is a high memory consumption. The default size of this parameter is 5.

Event stack - the size of the event buffer. Used for processing of message events coming from the camera. The existence of the event stack allows ActiveGigE to buffer incoming messages and delay their arrival to the application's processing queue without skipping them. The default size of the event stack is 8.

The right pane provides options for installing and uninstalling the Filter Driver. Installation of the Filter Driver is not necessary for the operation of ActiveGige, but it is recommended to increase the performance of your applications during the video capture, especially if your GigE network adapter does not support Jumbo frames.

Install - click this button to install GCAM GigE Vision Filter driver. Note that the driver will be installed on all network adapters found in the system. If you do not want the filter driver to be active on a certain network adapter, you should disable it in the Properties of the network adapter.

Uninstall - click this button to remove GCAM GigE Vision Filter from the system.