Use this table to help you to diagnose and resolve any issues you may encounter with your FLIR Blackfly S USB3 camera. For more help, contact Vicon Support.
| Issue | Resolution |
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| The camera doesn't show up at all in the Shogun Live System panel. | - Check that the USB3 cable is connected properly.
- Check that the correct drivers have been installed.
- Consider installing the FLIR software to check that there is no hardware issue with the camera.
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| The camera shows up in the Shogun Live System panel but there is no image from the camera. A warning about no trigger signal is permanently shown. | - Check that there is a Vicon Lock unit connected to the camera.
- Check that the Lock unit is powered up and connected to the PC by Ethernet so that it can be configured in Shogun Live.
- Check that a GPO is selected in the video camera settings and that this corresponds to the correct connector on the back of the Lock.
- If you have multiple USB ports in use, reduce the number of in-use ports to the minimum.
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| The camera is supposed to support higher frame rates than are shown in the drop down menu. | - Check the system rate. Only multiples of the video rate are permitted for the system rate. For example, if the system rate was 60 Hz, but the max speed of the camera was 50 Hz, then the max available frame rate is 30 Hz. If you changed the system rate to 100Hz, then 50Hz would become available for the camera.
- A USB2 port could have been inadvertently used. Check that you are using a USB3 port, which is usually blue in color and sometimes marked SS. A black-colored port is likely to be unsuitable.
- The USB3 port could be too slow for the camera. A port on the front panel of a PC may be slower than one on the mainboard if the internal cable is not of good enough quality. Try a different port.
- The USB3 interface might be shared between cameras. If the issue only manifests when multiple cameras are in use, this is likely to be the case. Consider using a USB3 expansion card.
- The USB3 interface might be shared with another device. A device that uses a lot of bandwidth, such as a USB web cam, network adapter, memory stick or removable hard disk, might be to blame. Disconnect all these devices and retry.
- If you have two cameras in use, connect one camera to the front USB ports of the PC and the other to the back USB ports. This reduces the USB bandwidth on the USB units.
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| A warning about lost frames occurs sometimes, particularly when there is movement near the camera or Lock. | - Sync cable may be strained or damaged, resulting in occasionally missed trigger pulses. Check the cable.
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| A warning about black frames being inserted is permanently present. | - The exposure for the camera may be set too high meaning there isn't time to start sending the data before the next exposure period. Try decreasing the exposure time.
- The frame rate may be set too close to the limits of the camera. Try reducing the frame rate.
- If the camera fails to work at higher frame rates, this usually indicates an issue with a USB3 cable, the USB3 port on the PC, or the performance of the PC itself. Eliminate any extensions and see if the issue is solved.
- If the issue persists, it may be caused by a lack of power to the camera. Consider using a powered hub.
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| A black image from the camera. | - If no warning is shown, it may simply be that exposure, gain, or gamma are set to extreme values, resulting in black data. Set to default values.
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| A very noisy image from the camera. | - Gain may be set very high. Consider increasing exposure and reducing gain.
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| Calibrator doesn't collect any wands from the video camera. | - Check that the video looks good and it is not getting a completely black image. Check that the red LEDs on the wands appear in the video when the wand is in Strobe mode. If they don't appear, it is likely that there is a very short exposure time or another timing issue.
- Enable Video Calibration mode and ensure that centroids can be seen in the image. If they are not present, adjust the exposure, gain, and threshold values to suit the lighting level in the video.
- If the video frame rate is not the same as the system frame rate, the exposure could be too long and multiple wand strobes are being picked up by the video camera which confuses the calibrator. Reduce the exposure for calibration or increase the video frame rate to the same as the system frame rate.
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| Video camera fails to calibrate. | - There could be multiple wands in each video frame. Check that the calibration exposure time is not too long.
- The camera could have moved during the wand wave or has not been securely mounted.
- The camera could have been connected or disconnected during the wand wave.
- The video stream could be unstable. Ensure that there are no warnings about triggers being missed and black frames being inserted.
- The wand wave may not have been suitable. It should cover as much of the desired volume as possible and be relatively quick.
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| After calibration, the wand overlay does not match the video exactly. | - Check that the test wand wave is in an area of the volume that was well-calibrated in the original wand wave. This is a particular issue with corners or when a small number of cameras are used. (When looking closely at the wand, a small difference is expected because the IR LEDs are not in exactly the same position as the visible LEDs.)
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