Vimba X for ARM64 Release Notes

Version: 2024-1

Summary

Main changes in this release:

  • Compatible transport layers:

    • By default, transport layers from the TKH Vision brands SVS-Vistek (USB), Euresys (Coaxpress) and NET GmbH are loaded for usage with Vimba X (if installed). Please note that this is an untested preview.

  • Transport layer loading:

    • By default, Vimba X loads all TLs found in the same directory as VmbC.dll.

  • Vimba X Viewer:

    • “Image Format tab” including Multi ROI

    • Event Viewer window access has moved to icons above the image

Transport Layer

Version

GigE Transport Layer (VimbaGigETL.cti)

1.10.0*

USB Transport Layer (VimbaUSBTL.cti)

1.5.0*

CSI Transport Layer (VimbaCSITL.cti)

2.0.0

APIs

Version

VmbC API (libVmbC.so)

1.0.6*

VmbCPP API (libVmbCPP.so)

1.0.6*

VmbPy API

1.0.5*

Image Transform Library (libVmbImageTransform.so)

2.1.0*

Tools

Version

Vimba X Viewer

1.4.0*

Vimba X Firmware Updater

2.0.4*

* Changed in this release of Vimba X

Hardware requirements

ARM board with ARMv8-compatible 64-bit processor

GigE cameras

A built-in Gigabit Ethernet network interface or Gigabit Ethernet network card (one or more) is required.

Note for IP configuration: By default, IP Configuration Mode is set to DHCP. You can use the IP Configuration dialog of Vimba X Viewer to apply changes or to force the IP address.

Allied Vision USB cameras

A built-in USB 3.0 (or higher) controller for PCI Express bus is required.

Testing has been performed on host controllers that are based on Asmedia chip sets. The driver may run on host controllers that are based on chip sets from other vendors, too. If there are any problems please feel free to contact our Technical Support.

Tested platforms

All transport layers:

Vimba X was tested with NVIDIA JetPack 5.1.0 (L4T 35.1.0) on:

  • AGX Orin Developer Kit

For supported camera models, the latest known issues, and other useful information, see: Getting Started with GenICam for CSI-2

Installation

To install Vimba X:

  • Uncompress the archive with the command tar -xf ./VimbaX.tgz to a directory you have writing privileges for like /opt. Under this directory, Vimba X will be installed in its own folder. In the following, we will refer to this path as [InstallDir].

  • Go to [InstallDir]/cti/and call (as needed, using sudo) VimbaGigETL_Install.sh and VimbaUSBTL_Install.sh.

  • Reboot your system.

  • If you have issues, see the Developer Guide, section Troubleshooting.

Vimba X Viewer: Vimba X Viewer can be found in[InstallDir]/bin/VmbViewer.

Examples: Vimba X includes precompiled examples that you can find in: [InstallDir]/bin. Uncompiled examples are located in: [InstallDir]/api/examples.

Uninstalling Vimba X: To uninstall Vimba X, go to [InstallDir]/bin and run the uninstall scripts as super user. This prevents any GenTL consumer from loading the Vimba Transport Layers. Then remove the installation directory.

Known issues

The following issues are known:

  • When experiencing trouble with image acquisition, try to increase the priority of your application with “sudo -E nice -n -20 ”.

Camera detection:

  • If multiple IP addresses are configured on one physical Ethernet adapter, then Vimba X sends GVCP discovery requests only to the last added IP address. Therefore, the camera is detected only if its IP address was added last.

Vimba X Viewer:

  • With some camera models, the message “Vimba X Viewer is not responding” appears for a few seconds when the camera is opened.

  • If the IP address is changed within the same network, the camera list doesn’t update automatically. Please click the Refresh button.

  • Sporadic issue: If a GigE camera was opened and then closed with Vimba X Viewer, it is displayed as locked and Vimba X Viewer does not open it again. Workaround: Close and open Vimba X Viewer.

  • With CSI-2 cameras, the Trigger IO tab is unavailable.

  • Goldeye cameras: No inputs and outputs are shown on the Trigger IO tab.

GigE Transport Layer:

  • A change of the available camera access modes cannot be reported for cameras in different subnets or with malconfigured IP addresses.

  • Not all ARM boards come with a GigE network interface. When acquiring images with only 100 Mbit/s, make sure to set the “StreamBytesPerSecond” feature to a reasonable small value (12 400 000). This adjustment is done automatically when the camera is connected directly to a 100 Mbit/s interface.

  • GigE cameras may be listed on a wrong Ethernet interface.

  • If many dropped frames occur especially with a small ROI, set GVSP Timeout to a higher value.

Vimba X APIs:

  • When API startup and shutdown is performed excessively within the same process, camera initialization may fail sporadically, which may cause exceptions. We recommend to have only one API session during one process.

  • Load/Save Settings: Not all LUT settings are saved.

Examples:

  • If a camera is already open, sometimes a misleading error message occurs (“Bad parameter”).

  • The ListFeatures example does not list all Interface features.

  • Sporadic issue of the AsynchronousGrab and Chunk example: stopping the stream causes an exception.

Camera detection:

  • If multiple IP addresses are configured on one physical Ethernet adapter, then Vimba X sends GVCP discovery requests only to the last added IP address. Therefore, the camera is detected only if its IP address was added last.

CSI-2:

  • For the latest known issues, see Getting Started with GenICam for CSI-2

  • If your application causes dropped frames, try to increase the number of frame buffers to approximately 7.

  • Switching the camera from GenICam for CSI-2 to V4L2 or vice versa requires rebooting the board.

  • Exposure times greater than approx. 1 second: Stopping acquisition may cause an error. Please close and open the camera to start streaming again.

Changes and release history

Changes in Vimba X 2024-1

VmbC:

  • Loads transport layers found in the same directory as VmbC.dll

  • Improved logging

VmbCPP:

  • Minor bug fixes

VmbPy:

  • Minor Bugfixes

  • VmbPy type hint improvements for better autocompletion in IDEs

GigETL:

  • Breaks compatibility with Vimba 6 (Vimba 6 Config mode not working anymore with latest Vimba X GigETL)

  • Cameras from SVS-Vistek are enabled by default

  • Marked old statistic features as “deprecated”

  • Minor bug fixes

USBTL:

  • Added new GenTL Buffer Info “BUFFER_INFO_DATA_SIZE”

  • Updated uriparser to 0.9.8

Vimba X Viewer:

  • “Image Format tab” including Multi ROI

  • Event Viewer window access has moved to icons above the image

  • Image Processing tab:

    • Sobel horizontal/vertical was interchanged in the camera firmware until firmware 13.x and the Viewer GUI compensated for that. With firmware 14, this is corrected in the camera and aligned to firmware 14 in the Viewer GUI.

  • Better performance when using high frame rates > 1000 fps

  • Minor bugfixes

Firmware Updater:

  • Fixed: With some Alvium camera models, the firmware update may take up to 5 minutes.

Image Transform Library:

  • Added support for 3x3 debayering of packed formats

Changes in Vimba X 2023-4

VmbC:

  • Added macOS support

VmbCPP:

  • Added macOS support

VmbPy:

  • Added macOS support

ImageTransform:

  • Added macOS support

USBTL:

  • Added macOS support

  • Added Event support

Vimba X Viewer:

  • Added macOS support

  • Added Sequencer tab

Vimba X Firmware Updater:

  • Added macOS support

GigETL:

  • Improved Adjust PacketSize

Changes in Vimba X 2023-2

VmbC:

  • Fixed: Open camera by IP may take 15s

  • Added Exclusive Access mode

VmbCPP:

  • Fixed: Open camera by IP may take 15s

VmbPy:

  • Fixed: Open camera by IP may take 15s

  • Fixed type hints for Python <=3.7.5 and =3.8.0

  • Updated AccessMode enum for consistency with VmbC

  • Added option for visibility level to list_features.py

USBTL:

  • Improved: standard conformity of resend for control channel commands

Changes in Vimba X 2022-1

VmbC:

  • New API (similar, but not compatible to VimbaC)

VmbCPP:

  • New API (similar, but not compatible to VimbaCPP)

VmbPy:

  • New API (similar, but not compatible to VimbaPython)

Image Transform:

  • Added supported transformations (supports pixel formats of NET cameras)

  • Renamed VmbGetVersion to VmbGetImageTransformVersion

  • VmbSetImageInfoFromString: removed stringLength parameter

Vimba X Viewer:

  • New Viewer (based on Vimba Viewer)

  • Additional features: Chunk support, 5x5 Matrix, Scheduled Action commands

GigETL:

  • Display name: AVT GigE TL (instead of Vimba GigE TL)

  • Scheduled Action Commands support

  • Chunk support

  • Pending_Ack support

USBTL:

  • Display name: AVT USB TL (instead of Vimba USB TL)

  • No functional changes, version was incremented because of internal changes

Known issues

The following issues are known:

  • Load/Save settings: We recommend using FeaturePersistType Streamable. Loading settings may cause errors when FeaturePersistTypes All or NoLUT were selected.