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Configuring the Prosilica GigE for a Desktop

Description: This tutorial covers configuring the Prosilica camera for a desktop and viewing images.

Keywords: Prosilica, desktop, IP, configure

Tutorial Level: BEGINNER

Compiling

Start by getting the dependencies and compiling the driver.

$ rosdep install prosilica_camera image_view
$ rosmake prosilica_camera image_view

Plugged In and Power On

First power on the camera and connect it to any computer. Wait for both the green and orange LEDs on the camera ethernet port to stay lit.

Host Computer Configuration

If you connect the camera to a non-robot host computer, you will need to configure the computer's network stack so that it can find the camera. The initial IP address of the camera is 169.254.x.x (out of the box) and we can this information to configure our host computer. If the camera IP has changed and you don't know the IP, please see the section on how to determine Prosilica IP address.

Shared Ethernet Port

Use these instructions if you are using the same ethernet interface to communicate with the camera and with another network. (For example, your desktop computer is connected to a hub that is connected to the LAN and to the camera.)

Figure out which network interface the camera is connected to (ifconfig or route may help). In this example we will assume that the camera is connected to eth0.

Create an alias through which the camera's IP address can be accessed:

$ sudo ifconfig eth0:0 X.X.X.99 netmask 255.255.255.0

where X.X.X is the same as the camera's IP address.

Dedicated Ethernet Port

Figure out which interface the camera is connected to. In this example, it is connected to eth0.

Setup the interface so that it can communicate with the camera:

$ sudo ifconfig eth0 X.X.X.99 netmask 255.255.255.0

where X.X.X is the same as the camera's IP address.

Finding the Camera

Run ListCameras to find the camera's unique ID (and make sure it is visible). ListCameras will repeatedly discover cameras on the network until you exit with Ctrl-C.

$ rosrun prosilica_gige_sdk ListCameras

• ***********************************
  No camera detected ...
  ***********************************
  02-2171A-06167 -  GC2450C - Unique ID =   103732 IP@ =       169.254.1.86 [available]
  ***********************************
  02-2171A-06167 -  GC2450C - Unique ID =   103732 IP@ =       169.254.1.86 [available]

You can also trying pinging the camera

$ rosrun prosilica_gige_sdk Ping CAMERA_IP

• -> 02-2171A-06167 - GC2450C
  Mode supported:         FIXED,DHCP,AutoIP
  Current mode:           FIXED
  Current address:        10.68.0.20
  Current subnet:         255.255.255.0
  Current gateway:        0.0.0.0

Now that you can see the camera let's look at some images from the camera.

Software Bringup

To start the Prosilica camera node in continuous mode, create a copy of the example launch file from prosilica_camera:

$ cp `rospack find prosilica_camera`/streaming.launch prosilica.launch

Now edit prosilica.launch to set parameter ip_address to the prosilica IP address from the previous step. The relevant snippet of the launch file is reproduced below:

• <launch>
    <node name="prosilica_driver" pkg="prosilica_camera" type="prosilica_node" output="screen">
      <param name="ip_address" type="str" value="IP_ADDRESS"/>
      <param name="trigger_mode" type="str" value="streaming"/>
      <remap from="camera" to="prosilica" />
      <rosparam command="load" file="$(find prosilica_camera)/cam_settings.yaml" />
    </node>
  </launch>

Now roslaunch your launch file:

$ roslaunch prosilica.launch

Viewing Images

To view images coming from the camera:

$ rosrun image_view image_view image:=/prosilica/image_raw

Now that you can view images from your camera you can learn how to calibrate it in this tutorial, how to calibrate a monocular camera.