Skip to content
This repository has been archived by the owner. It is now read-only.

PylonRecorder/PylonRecorder

master
Switch branches/tags

Name already in use

A tag already exists with the provided branch name. Many Git commands accept both tag and branch names, so creating this branch may cause unexpected behavior. Are you sure you want to create this branch?
Code

Files

Permalink
Failed to load latest commit information.
Type
Name
Latest commit message
Commit time
February 28, 2017 14:58
October 25, 2018 09:01
May 23, 2018 10:10
June 10, 2016 11:45

Description

Standalone acquisition and recording software for Basler Cameras using the PylonSDK Also offers basic support of USB webcams through OpenCV

Required libraries

Uses QT OpenCV and the Pylon SDK (included in Release) Requires the (free) Pylon5 libraries which come with PylonViewer Download from the [Basler website] (http://www.baslerweb.com/en/products/software/pylon-windows)

IMPORTANT: The program itself does not allow adjustments of camera parameters. Use PylonViewer to adjust all settings and look at Con

Compiles on Windows 7-10 64bit (MSVC2013) and Linux (gcc). The Pylon SDK is currently not available on OSX.

Usage

The program is released as one executable file ("PylonRecorder") together with all dynamically linked libraries in the same folder. On startup the program looks for the first available Basler camera. If multiple cameras are present it will open the first one which has not been opened. This means that multiple instances of the program can run accessing multiple devices. When a camera was opened the camera is directly started in continuous mode for live view.

Modes

  • Framewise Trigger: A single frame is acquired on each trigger.

  • Continuous: An infinite number of frames is acquired on trigger until the user clicks "Stop".

  • Burst: A given number of frames is acquired. When the desired number of frames was entered the program displays the resulting length of the recording (hh:mm:ss:ms).

Filename

A filename can be entered or picked with the browse button. If the "auto" checkbox is ticked the filename is automatically generated from the timeStamp of the first frame that was acquired. The browse button can still be used when "auto" is checked to browse for a folder to store the automatically named files.

Trigger

The recording can be triggered by a software trigger ("Trigger" button) or through a hardware trigger if the "External Trigger" checkbox is checked. Make sure that the line mode is set to input for the trigger line! E.g. Line Selector -> Line 4, Line Mode -> Input (in PylonViewer) The first available line is taken for external trigger.

External stop

Using the command line parameter --stopline <line> (e.g. --stopline 3), a line can be used to externally stop the recording. If activated, the recording is stopped when the specified line toggles from low to high. This behavior can be reversed by inverting the line in the configuration file or through pylon Viewer. The signal can only be read as long as frames are incoming. Hence if the camera is not acquiring frames, the signal can also not be read.

User defined output (e.g. through plugins)

Plugins can use PylonRecorder to output TTL signals on the general purpose lines. For this to work, the line has to be set as output and has to have the User Output signal assigned. E.g. Digital I/O Control: Line Selector -> Line 4, Line Mode -> Output, Line Source -> User Output 3) (in PylonViewer)

or

Digital I/O Control: Line Selector -> Line 3, Line Mode -> Output, Line Source -> User Output 2) (in PylonViewer)

Important: Currently only the direct-coupled lines (3 & 4) can be used from PylonRecorder.

Command line options

Options can be added using the --<option> syntax

Option (long) Option (short) Description
window-x wndx Open the programs window at x (pixel)
window-y wndy Open the programs window at y (pixel)
window-width wndw Set the programs window width to (pixel)
window-height wndh Set the programs window height to (pixel)
path p Set the programs path to (directory)
display-framerate df Set the programs display framerate (framerate)
camera-idx cam Try to use camera (idx)
config-file cfg Load or save configuration from/to (file) (load if (file) exists)
recording-codec codec Record using (codec)
compression-quality compression Set compression quality of codec to (0-100
autofilename Enable automated naming of files on startup
stopline Enable hardware recoding stop on first available input line
record Enable recording on startup
external Enable external triggering on startup
continuous Start camera in continuous mode
framewise Start camera in framewise mode
burst Start camera in burst mode
frames Record number of

Example: PylonRecorder.exe --wndx 10 --wndy 30 --wndw 400 --wndh 400 --p D:\test --df 10 --cam 0

Currently supported videocodecs are: h264 (default), mjpeg or none (raw)

The Windows release also includes a startup.bat file to which command line options can be added. startup.vbs links to that same file and can be used to create a shortcut to the Desktop that prevents the batch file from opening an addditional Command shell window.

Configuration files

Basler cameras

The settings of Basler cameras are stored on the camera itself. You can use PylonViewer to directly change the configurations on the camera.

Alternatively you can load a .pfs settings file on to the camera by using PylonRecorder and the command line parameter --cfg or --config-file If filename exists it will be loaded, otherwise the program will write a file containing the current configuration of the camera.

PylonViewer can also save a .pfs configuration file (Camera -> Save Features).

You can also adjust the settings by modifying an existing .pfs settings file (in any text editor).

USB cameras

The program also offers basic support for USB cameras through OpenCV. Supported cameras can be configured through a configuration file that contains the opencv configuration parameters. Currently the following parameters are supported.

Parameter Meaning
CV_CAP_PROP_FRAME_WIDTH Frame width
CV_CAP_PROP_FRAME_HEIGHT Frame height
CV_CAP_PROP_FPS Framerate
CV_CAP_PROP_FOURCC Codec
CV_CAP_PROP_BRIGHTNESS Brightness
CV_CAP_PROP_CONTRAST Contrast
CV_CAP_PROP_SATURATION Saturation
CV_CAP_PROP_HUE Hue
CV_CAP_PROP_GAIN Gain
CV_CAP_PROP_EXPOSURE Exposure

The configuration file should contain one parameter per line followed by a comma and the value it should be set to. E.g. A configuration file to set the camera resolution would contain:

CV_CAP_PROP_FRAME_WIDTH, 640

CV_CAP_PROP_FRAME_HEIGHT, 320

Plugins

To use one of the available tracking plugins for PylonRecorder you need to download and place the plugin's shared library (on windows a .dll file) into the PylonRecorder program folder. PylonRecorder will then automatically detect and load the plugin.

Socket

The program listens on port 20001 for TCP connections. Once a client connected, parameters are sent to the client in the following packet format:

  1. uint32 packetSize;
  2. uint32 packetType
  3. data

packetSize is the size of the TCP packet in bytes. PacketType can be a value from the following list:

  • SOCKET_TIMESTAMP 0
  • SOCKET_START 1
  • SOCKET_STOP 2
  • SOCKET_FILENAME 3

In case of SOCKET_START, SOCKET_STOP and SOCKET_TIMESTAMP data contains a uint64 value for the time stamp from the current image of the camera (in ns).

The time stamp of the first frame is transmitted as SOCKET_START

The time stamp of the last frame is transmitted as SOCKET_STOP

Any other frames timeStamp is transmitted as SOCKET_TIMESTAMP

The program also transmits the filename on initial trigger in a packet of type SOCKET_FILENAME. Note that the filename only contains Latin-1 characters. This facilitates communication with Matlab. Avoid any other characters when manually giving a name.

Socket example in Matlab

  • Setting up the socket: mySocket = tcpclient(127.0.0.1, 20001);

  • Reading the "header": msgSize = read(mySocket, 1, 'int32');

msgType = read(mySocket, 1, 'int32');

  • Reading a timestamp: timeStamp = read(mySocket, 1, 'uint64');

  • Reading a filename: str = char(read(mySocket, msgSize-8));

fullFileName = str(5:end); %This is how the String is packed by QT

Bugs

Please note that there was a bug in the Pylon SDK. In case PylonRecorder crashed after 10 Minutes when not triggered, please update to Pylon 5.0.5 libraries.

From the 5.0.5 release Note: USB3: Fixed an issue where a timeout occurred when the waiting time for an image or a camera event exceeded 10 minutes.

Please report all bugs here

Implementation

The Basler SDK only provides bursts of int64_t number of frames. In practice this value is (for unknown reasons - please let me know if you have an idea! ) limited to a maximum of 255, which is not enough for most applications. To circumvent this limitation the burst mode is started but the TriggerMode property of the camera is immediately set to Off, meaning that the camera is now really running in continuous mode. The number of frames is counted in the camera event handler to set the TriggerMode back to On once the number of frames have been acquired. This results in an extra trigger signal at the beginning of the recording due to the mode switch.

About

Standalone acquisition and recording software for Basler Cameras using the PylonSDK

Resources

License

Stars

Watchers

Forks