Tools from Aravis

Aravis, the camera acquisition library, has some simple tools to access and control U3V cameras.

Name	Description	Note
arv-tool-0.8	Access device and control GenICam features*
arv-camera-test-0.8	Obtain the streaming data from devices
arv-viewer-0.8	Display the image data from devices	Available only for Linux

Control GenICam features

arv-tool-0.8 enables to access the device and read/write the values of the GenICam features. To learn about GenICam Standard, please check this page.

List the U3V devices

With arv-tool-0.8 command, all Camera devices are displayed, and U3V camera would be displayed as <the name of the camera> (USB)

arv-tool-0.8

$ arv-tool-0.8 
Basler-26760158A14A-22585674 (USB3)

why it does not work

When arv-tool-0.8 command does not work, it might be...

• The environment variable PATH is not set correctly (Windows).
• The device is not connected with SS USB port.

List the available GenICam features

Many of U3V cameras follow the Standard Features Naming Convention(SFNC) defined by EMVA; however, some devices may have device-unique features. arv-tool-0.8 with the option of features shows all available features of each camera. -n is to choose the target device, which followed by the name of the device.

arv-tool-0.8 -n <camera name> features

$ arv-tool-0.8 -n "Basler-26760158A14A-22585674" features
Category    : 'Root'
    Category    : 'AnalogControl'
        Enumeration  : [RW] 'GainSelector'
              * Gain
    ...
    Category    : 'ImageFormatControl'
        Integer      : [RO] 'SensorWidth'
        Integer      : [RO] 'SensorHeight'
        IntReg       : [RO] 'WidthMax'
        IntReg       : [RO] 'HeightMax'
        Integer      : [RW] 'Width'
        Integer      : [RW] 'Height'
        ...
        Enumeration  : [RW] 'PixelFormat'
            EnumEntry   : 'BayerGR12'
            EnumEntry   : 'BayerGR8'
            EnumEntry   : 'YCbCr422_8'
            EnumEntry   : 'RGB8'
    ...

In the example above, Basler-26760158A14A-22585674 allows read and write the value of Gain and PixelFormat.

why it does not work

When arv-tool-0.8 -n <camera name> features command does not work, it might be...

• The name of camera include parentheses "(USB)" which should not be.
• The name of camera contains the space but is not enclosed by double-quotation marks.

Read and Write the values

Knowing and setting some GenICam feature values is important to obtain the image sensor data with appropriate size, format, and brightness.

arv-tool-0.8 command with control option gives you the value of the feature, and the following example tries to obtain the value of the camera gain controling the amplification of the intensity (i.e. brightness).

arv-tool-0.8 -n <camera name> control <feature name>

$ arv-tool-0.8 -n "Basler-26760158A14A-22585674" control Gain
Gain = 0 dB min:0 max:18.0278

Now, you may feel the image is too dark with 0dB, and set it to 10dB by the following command.

arv-tool-0.8 -n <camera name> control <feature name>=<new value>

$ arv-tool-0.8 -n "Basler-26760158A14A-22585674" control Gain=10
Gain = 9.98343 dB min:0 max:18.0278

why it does not work

When arv-tool-0.8 -n <camera name> control command does not work, it might be...

• The name of the feature is not available on the target device.
• The new value to set is not expected (e.g. out of range or not in the list).

Note that the Gain of this camera is a converter in which camera description file converts the value of input to the register value, so 0.02dB is in the expected margin of error in their computation and rounding.

note

To know more about camera description file, please check the official documentation of GenApi.

Check the data transfer

With arv-camera-test-0.8 command, you can see the transfer rate of U3V camera data from the device.

arv-camera-test-0.8 -n <camera name>

$ ./arv-camera-test-0.8.exe
Looking for the first available camera
vendor name            = Basler
model name             = daA1280-54uc
device serial number   = 22585674
image width            = 1280
image height           = 960
horizontal binning     = 1
vertical binning       = 1
exposure               = 10302 ﾂｵs
gain                   = 0 dB
payload                = 2457600 bytes
 29 frames/s -    71.3 MiB/s
 31 frames/s -    76.2 MiB/s
 30 frames/s -    73.7 MiB/s
 30 frames/s -    73.7 MiB/s
 30 frames/s -    73.7 MiB/s
 29 frames/s -    71.3 MiB/s
 30 frames/s -    73.7 MiB/s
 29 frames/s -    71.3 MiB/s - 1 error
n_completed_buffers    = 240
n_failures             = 1
n_underruns            = 0
n_aborted              = 0
n_transferred_bytes    = 592072496
n_ignored_bytes        = 32

info

If the multiple camera devices are connected to the host machine, option -n <the name of the camera> allows to specify the device.

why it does not work

When the arv-camera-test-0.8 command does not work, it might be...

• The environment variable PATH is not set correctly (Windows).
• The device is not connected with SS USB port.

When the arv-camera-test-0.8 shows only 0 MiB/s transfer, it might be...

• The GenICam feature value of AcquisitionFrameRate might set wrong value.
• The device is not connected with SS USB port.

View the sensor images

With arv-viewer-0.8 command, you can run the GUI program to display the sensor image.

The viewer for Windows is currently not supported.

why it does not work

When the arv-viewer-0.8 command does not work, it might be...

• The GenICam feature value of PixelFormat might set wrong value.
• The device is not connected with SS USB port.