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Troubleshooting acquisition reliability issues


A number of factors can cause acquisition reliability issues. You can use the Matrox Capture assistant utility to determine if you are having reliability issues. In this utility, select a camera; then, on the GigE Vision Devices tab, in the right pane, select the Acquisition Statistics tab. This tab will show whether any acquired frames (images) are corrupt as a result of missing packets. You can produce statistics either by starting a grab using your GigE Vision application or with the Matrox Capture Assistant utility's built-in acquisition interface. For more information, refer the Matrox Capture assistant white paper (located in your Matrox Imaging\Tools folder).

The following is a list of the common causes of corrupted frames:

  • Your Gigabit Ethernet network adapter is not well-suited to your GigE Vision camera's bandwidth requirements. Matrox recommends using a Matrox Concord GE/GX or an Intel Gigabit Ethernet network adapter.

  • Your network adapter settings have not been adjusted for GigE Vision acquisition. You need to adjust your adapter with recommended settings.

  • Your firewall is preventing automatic packet size negotiation between Matrox's GigE Vision driver and your GigE Vision camera. Improper packet size can result in poor acquisition performance, as well as corrupt frames. You should adjust your firewall settings for optimal GigE Vision performance.

  • A network device between your GigE Vision camera and your network adapter, such as an Ethernet switch, is dropping packets. See the Using an Ethernet switch with GigE Vision cameras section.

  • The total bandwidth of all GigE Vision cameras streaming image data to the same network adapter exceeds its link speed.

  • An insufficient inter-packet delay.

  • Your camera does not have the packet resend capability.

  • Your Ethernet cables are not rated Category 5e (Cat 5e) or better.