Why Does My Point Grey DirectShow Camera Not Show Up in NI MAX?

Issue Details

I have installed all of the necessary drivers, however I still cannot see my Point Grey USB 2.0 camera in NI MAX.

Solution

Sometimes the DirectShow compatible USB 2.0 cameras from Point Grey will not show up as an IMAQdx device in MAX. This makes the cameras unusable with the NI Vision Acquisition Software. The cause of this problem is when the DLLs required to make the camera work with DirectShow do not register with Windows correctly. These DLLs are installed with FlyCapture, Point Grey's camera drivers, and this issue is also documented on Point Grey’s Knowledge Base.

To fix this issue, the DLLs for DirectShow will need to be manually registered with Windows. Here are the steps to do this:

Note: In the Windows Command Prompt type cd .. to move out of the current directory or cd desireddirectory, where desireddirectory is the name of the directory you want to move into. You can also type cd and then press Tab to cycle through the available directories.

1. Open the Windows Command Prompt (Start»Run type in cmd and press Enter)
   Note: In some cases, you may need to run an elevated Command Prompt in order to execute the commands below. To do this, click on Start and search for cmd. Right-click on cmd.exe and select Run as administrator.
2. Set the directory to the \bin folder in the FlyCapture directory. If the installation directory was left to default this folder can be found in the following location:
   • FlyCapture 1.x:
     <Point Grey Research>\PGR FlyCapture\bin
   • FlyCapture 2.x:
     <Point Grey Research>\FlyCapture2\bin
3. Then, execute the following two commands:
   • regsvr32 PGRDirectShowDecoder.ax
   • regsvr32 PGRDirectShowSource.ax

In FlyCapture versions 2.2.1.6 and later the DriverControlGUI tool can be used to register the DLLs for DirectShow with Windows.

1. Launch the DriverControlGUI from \bin directory mentioned above or the Windows Start Menu.
2. Select the Other Configuration tab.
3. Check both options under PGR DirectShow Filters.
4. Press Apply.

The DLLs should now be properly registered with Windows.

Additional Information

Some Point Grey DirectShow cameras can only be used one at a time. If you are working with multiple cameras and NI MAX only shows one, contact Point Grey to see if your camera's driver supports multiple-camera use.