GigE troubleshooting

GigE cameras
1

To achieve best performance and avoid issues with your GigE camera, please follow the instructions in the technical manual or user guide for your camera:

Here are a few more tips:

Camera is not detected

Check if the camera is powered

The RJ45 Ethernet connector on the back for the camera contains LEDs, one of which illuminates when the camera is powered. If unlit, check the power adapter. If possible, test the adapter with a working camera to verify its operation. If using a custom power adapter, be sure the adapter and wire gauge is rated to 200–500 mA.

Use a suitable Ethernet cable

Use a Category 6 Ethernet cable or higher for reliable camera detection and best possible performance.

IP address

  • Connect a single camera directly to your NIC, no hub/switch.
  • There should be no gateway on your NIC.
  • Follow the instructions in the technical manual or user guide for your camera, section Configuring the host computer and following.
  • Linux, Vimba users: To change the IP configuration of a GigE camera in a foreign subnet, run Vimba Viewer with root privileges (for example, sudo -E [InstallDir]/Vimba_4_1/Tools/Viewer/Bin/x86_32bit/VimbaViewer). Note that running it as root instead of using sudo -E requires that GENICAM_GENTL32_PATH and/or GENICAM_GENTL64_PATH are set for the root as well.
  • In Vimba Viewer, click the camera icon and enter the IP address.
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    If the problem persists:
  • Windows: Open a command prompt and enter: ipconfig /all. Send a screenshot to our Technical Suppport team.
  • Linux: Open a terminal and enter: ifconfig -a. Send a screenshot to our Technical Suppport team.

Camera disconnects all the time

If your GigE camera disconnects all the time although all NIC and camera settings are correct and you get the error code -3 VmbErrorNotFound (Vimba):

  • The firewall may cause the issue. In that case, please disable it.
  • Make sure that all other NICs are not connected or have a valid IP address in a different subnet than the camera NIC. An IP conflict may also lead to permanent disconnection scenarios.

Camera is listed, but doesn’t acquire images

Reset your camera settings to factory default:

  • Set UserSetDefaultSelector to Default and rund the UserSetLoad command.

If StatFramesDelivered / StatPacketsReceived = 0:

  • Disable your firewall on the Ethernet adapter connected to camera.
  • Make that the camera isn’t waiting for a trigger signal. Vimba: Set TriggerSelector to FrameStart and TriggerSource to Freerun or FixedRate.

If StatFramesDropped ≠ 0:

  • Enable Jumbo frames. Follow the instructions in the technical manual or user guide for your camera, section Configuring the host computer and following.
  • Alternatively, reduce the camera packet size value to 1500. [tbd Viewer screenshot].
  • Linux users: Increase the priority of your application with sudo -E nice -n -20 <command>.
2

Not to forget the magic of the GVSPAdjustPacketSize command, adjusting the packet size between camera and NIC by sending test packets. That’s what VimbaViewer and our examples do.

Automatically adjusting to

  • 1500 if jumbo packets are not supported/enabled for the NIC but the camera boots up with 8228 on default
  • anything above that NIC and switch are supporting, the more the better

e.g. C#:
m_Camera.Features[“GVSPAdjustPacketSize”].RunCommand();

3

Is there any guidance for connecting to a camera through a Docker container? I cannot run VimbaViewer through docker (setting up an X server is complicated), but if I run the firmware updater I can see the camera, I am just not able to open the device:

root@137eca4af714:/vimba/Vimba_6_0/Tools/FirmwareUpdater/Bin/x86_64bit# ./FWUpdaterConsole --show -d all

==============================================================================
 Vimba Firmware Updater Console
 Version: 1.2.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 (c) Allied Vision Technologies 2012-2020 
==============================================================================
--> Starting Vimba...Success
--> Get connected devices...Success

    Found 1 devices...

--> Open device 1...Fail
--> Stopping Vimba...Success

*** Error...No device found...
4

Not sure if the GigE interface is bridged correctly, essentially for the discovery broadcast packets.
Could you test the VimbaC examples please?
e.g. Vimba_6_0\VimbaC\Examples\Bin\x86_64bit\ListFeatures

5

I’ve figured out my issue with docker - the bridge was not correctly set up, and the MTU on the appropriate NIC had to be set to 9000.