GigE Vision Camera Not Discovered in NI Measurement & Automation Explorer

Issue Details

I am trying to acquire images from my Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) Vision camera and have it connected directly to my computer via an Ethernet cable, but I can not discover the camera under Network Devices in NI Measurement & Automation Explorer (NI MAX). I have installed the vision software but NI MAX it is not seeing the Camera. I can acquire images using the camera manufacturer's software. 

Solution

The issue may be caused due to different reasons. Find below some Items to look into:

• Verify you have the full NI-IMAQdx driver installed on your machine (NI-IMAQdx Development Support). This is necessary to work with the camera in NI MAX as discussed in "Cannot See Camera in NI MAX with IMAQdx Runtime Installed".
• Try the steps in Section 1 of the Troubleshooting GigE Vision Cameras Used With NI-IMAQdx Driver document. 
• Disable any firewall that could be blocking network traffic to your camera. Specifically, make sure that ports UDP 44515, UDP 44525,  and TCP 44516 are open to allow NI MAX to discover network devices, according to the information that is presented in Configuring Software and Hardware Firewalls to Support NI Products.
• Make sure your GigE Vision camera is receiving [enough] power.
• See if you can connect to the camera on the computer using the camera vendor's software. Sometimes camera vendor software will conflict with National Instruments Drivers, so you may need to uninstall after testing. If uninstalling it does not solve the issue, consider contacting the vendor to confirm if they have seen this behavior in that model of the camera (or if they can reproduce it) and if some additional steps need to be done to make it work with NI Software. 
• Update the NI-IMAQdx (or Vision Acquisition Software) version to the newest one supported by your version of LabVIEW. If using Vision Acquisition Software (VAS) 2015 August version, update to a newer version as there is a known issue reported under Bug 554321 that was resolved on VAS 2016 February. 
• Monitor your network traffic (using a tool such as Wireshark) on the computer you have the GigE Vision camera connected to in order to see if DISCOVERY_ACK commands are being sent from your camera to your computer.  If those commands are not seen, it is likely at least a networking issue (refer to case #3, #4, and #5 in Troubleshooting GigE Vision Cameras Used With NI-IMAQdx Driver)
  
  
  

Additional Information

GigE Vision cameras can either be powered using an external power supply or by using Power over Ethernet (PoE).  If PoE is supported by the camera. One of the more common reasons for a camera failing to be detected is that the PoE is not setup correctly. GigE cameras require a PoE injector, or GigE switch, that is compliant with the PoE 802.3af standard or adheres to the manufacturers specification. For example, here are the PoE specifications for two Basler GigE Cameras.
  Note: Always check with the user's manual for your specific cameras regarding the power specifications.