This support article covers the setup and configuration of Basler camera's with Swing Catalyst.
Note: In order to use Basler camera's with Swing Catalyst you will need a Halcon USB dongle and a license. Please contact contact@swingcatalyst.com to purchase a license.
Halcon installation & configuration instructions here:
Important:
Make sure you have the MVTec Halcon driver filter installed, the camera's will not function properly without. Also make sure to uncheck any other filter drivers installed, e.g Basler filter driver.
Make sure Swing Catalyst is allowed both on private & public networks in the Windows Defender firewall
Example:
Setting the IP of the cameras
IP Setup
Each camera and Ethernet card (NIC / Network interface controller) should be configured with static IP's on different subnets (and subnet mask)
Note: NIC IP is the IP address of the network adapter on your computer and the cam ip is the IP address of the camera. The ... indicates a range, as this is an example you can set the IP to.
Examples for single or multi camera setups (with one or more network card / adapters):
Cameras on network adapter 1:
nic ip: 10.0.1.1
cam ip: 10.0.1.10 ... 10.0.1.20
subnet mask:255.255.255.0
Cameras on network adapter 2:
nic ip: 10.0.2.1
cam ip: 10.0.2.10 ... 10.0.2.20
subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Cameras on network adapter 3:
nic ip: 10.0.3.1
cam ip: 10.0.3.10 ... 10.0.3.20
subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Cameras on network adapter 4:
nic ip: 10.0.4.1
cam ip: 10.0.4.10 ... 10.0.4.20
subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
First we need to setup the IP of the camera, this is done through the Pylon IP Configurator.
Press the start menu button on your keyboard and type pylon ip and the IP Configurator should show up. If it doesn't, it's likely you do not have the software installed.
To install the Pylon software see: https://www.baslerweb.com/en/sales-support/downloads/software-downloads/ and look for: pylon 5.1.0 Camera Software Suite Windows.
Click on the camera then select Static IP
Set the IP address of the camera, subnet mask according to the example above.
Note if you're using multiple cameras you need to
Configuring Basler GigE camera's through Halcon
In Swing Catalyst, navigate to the Settings tab and to Cameras.
Click on Advanced.
- Navigate to the Configuration tab.
- Enable the GtlNumBuffers checkbox and enter 200 as the value.
Setting up Basler GigE camera's:
Lets have a look at how to set the exposure, shutter speed and frame rate.
NOTE: If you are unable to get view the settings & get an error in Swing Catalyst, please check the Windows Firewall settings. Try to turn the firewall off to check if it's the firewall blocking Swing Catalyst's access to the cameras.
If the settings work & you can stream fine, make sure Swing Catalyst is allowed on both public & private networks in the Windows Defender firewall.
Expand the AcquisitionTrigger tab and enter the maximum (or lower) frame rate, then click Enable Acquisition Frame Rate. This will allow you you to define the frame rate. Note: Frame rate can be limited by exposure values.
Setting exposure values
It's usually best to use a manual exposure for static environments, such as indoor studios. A fully auto exposure can cause the frame rate to be changed and lead to an inconsistent image. In this case we're not using auto exposure as we want to be able to control this ourselves. Generally an exposure time less than 2000 (2ms) is recommended.
Setting gain values
Similar to exposure, setting the gain to manual for static / indoor lighting conditions is best. The higher the exposure the more grainy the image will be and the longer the video encoding will take vs low gain.
To set manual gain, change Gain Auto from Continuous to Off, then pause and play the playback to reload the settings. Set the gain values by changing the number values in Gain (Raw).
Changing the image size, area of interest, region of interest & more
In some cases you want to reduce the image size to focus in on a specific area of the video image, for example to view the club and ball on impact in detail.
This can be done with area of interest, also known as AOI, and ROI, region of interest. Reducing the overall image size with this function also can give you a frame rate increase.
Saving settings to the camera
It's important to save the settings to the camera. If this isn't done all of what you've configured will be lost.
Make sure you set the Default Set Selector & Default Startup Set. There are different user sets to choose from and in theory you can have different settings saved on each set. I.e you can select "User Set 1" as your default, then hit User Set Save to save your current settings to that profile.
