NI-IMAQ Installation
You may download NI Vision Acquisition Software from the National Instruments support page. Under the heading Hardware Driver, select NI Vision Acquisition. You will be asked to register. This is a huge download at 1214 MB.
Installing National Instruments Vision Acquisition Software
You must have Administrator access to install the NI Vision Acquisition Software. NI-IMAQ and NI-IMAQdx integrate with Measurement and Automation Explorer (MAX), the National Instruments configuration and test utility.
NI-IMAQ drivers are for National Instruments framegrabbers. These drivers ship with the hardware, but the online drivers are more current. The NI 1407, NI 1409 and NI 1410 video frame grabbers are all supported but the NI 1408 is not. Durango does not use any of the optional NI-IMAQ features, although you may wish to install the documention. You must install NI-IMAQ drivers before installing your NI-IMAQ framegrabber.
NI-IMAQdx drivers are for FireWire, GigE and USB cameras, none of which require any National Instruments hardware. NI-IMAQdx therefore requires a paid license, although you may install it for a 30 day evaluation. Many of the optional features are not required by Durango. Do not select the "High Performance 64-bit GigE Vision" feature unless you need it to support a GigE camera.
NI Measurement and Automation Explorer (MAX) is useful for configuring and testing NI-IMAQ and NI-IMAQdx devices and drivers. It is also useful with NI-DAQ devices and drivers that Durango uses for phase shifting.
This is for real. National Instruments may actually expect you to disable your Windows Firewall. Do return and deselect the High-Performance GigE Vision driver if you will not be needing it.
You must accept the license agreement to proceed with installation.
Check the box unless you are prepared to answer the same question repeatedly.
Review the summary.
Watch the pacifiers or else go get a cup of coffee.
Check the activation box only if you have a paid NI Vision Acquisition Software license. There is no need to activate if you will be using only NI-IMAQ drivers (and not NI-IMAQdx drivers).
Restart your computer.
Configuring NI-IMAQ
If you will be using a NI-IMAQ device (i.e. framegrabber), shut down your computer and install the device and connect your camera. Then restart your computer.
Double-click the MAX icon on your desktop to launch MAX. You can use MAX to modify camera properties. Once you have saved these properties, they become the default settings for all NI-IMAQ applications.
Expand Devices and Interfaces and NI-IMAQ Devices to display a list of the image acquisition devices installed on your computer.
Click the plus sign next to the image acquisition device to expand the menu tree and list the available channels or ports. Right-click the channel or port to display a list of available cameras.
Select the appropriate camera type from the list. Camera type selection varies according to the image acquisition device installed. For a video frame grabber, you should likely select RS-170 (60 Hz) or CCIR (50 Hz).
Use the Grab button to acquire images continuously. To change the camera settings, modify the parameters at the bottom of the image viewer panel.
When you are satisfied with your camera configuration, select Save and then quit MAX. Don't attempt to run MAX and Durango at the same time because they will fight over access to the NI-IMAQ drivers.
Configuring NI-IMAQdx
If you are using a USB camera, ensure that the camera is compatible with DirectShow, and that the camera driver is installed and functioning.
Instructions for configuring an IEEE 1394 (FireWire) or GigE Vision camera are included in the Measurement & Automation Explorer Help for NI-IMAQdx.
Connect the camera.
Double-click the MAX icon on your desktop. You can use MAX to modify camera attributes. After you have saved these attributes, they become the default settings for all NI-IMAQdx or NI Vision applications.
Expand Devices and Interfaces»NI-IMAQdx in the configuration tree to display a list of the cameras installed on your computer.
For IEEE 1394 cameras, NI-IMAQdx may not be associated with the camera. If this is the case, change the associated driver by right-clicking the camera and selecting Driver»NI-IMAQdx.
Select the camera from the list. You then can view or modify the camera attributes on the Camera Attributes tab located below the image viewer.
When you are satisfied with your camera configuration, select Save and then quit MAX. Don't attempt to run MAX and Durango at the same time because they will fight over access to the NI-IMAQdx drivers.
