How to make a Point Grey camera work with DirectShow applications/ Drivers of USB3.0 Cameras

SUMMARY:  
This article explains why Point Grey imaging cameras sometimes do not work as expected with DirectShow applications, and how to fix this issue. 

---

APPLICABLE PRODUCTS :

All Imaging Products •

CAUSE:

Sometimes when installing or upgrading the FlyCapture SDK, the DLL files that enable the camera driver to work with DirectShow interfaces are not registered to the Windows Registry. As a result, DirectShow applications do not work with the camera. When this happens, you must register the DLLs manually.

Note: On 64-bit systems, the 32-bit version of the FlyCapture SDK must be installed in order to run 32-bit DirectShow applications. However,when installing the 32-bit FlyCapture SDK on Win64, the 32-bit DirectShow DLLs are not automaticallly registered. In this case, the required 32-bit DLLs must also be registered manually.

---

ANSWER:

To register DirectShow DLLs manually using the Windows Command Prompt:

1. Open the Windows Command Prompt utility
2. Navigate to the \bin folder in the FlyCapture directory.
   • For FlyCapture 1.x installations, the default path is C:\Program Files\Point Grey Research\PGR FlyCapture\bin
   • For FlyCapture 2.x installations, the default path is C:\Program Files\Point Grey Research\FlyCapture2\bin
3. Execute the following commands:
   regsvr32 PGRDirectShowDecoder.ax
   regsvr32 PGRDirectShowSource.ax

Note: If this procedure results in error 0x80004005, run the Command Prompt utility under elevated privileges. To do this, right click on the Command Prompt shortcut icon and selectRun as…Administrator.

To register DirectShow DLLs using the DriverControlGUI tool:

Beginning with FlyCapture SDK version 2.2.1.6, the DriverControlGUI tool can be used to register DirectShow DLLs. DriverControlGUI can be launched from the \bin folder of the FlyCapture SDK installation directory, or from the Windows Start menu. The relevant controls are under the 'Other Configuration' tab, as shown in the screenshot below.

Article 370:

How does my USB 3.0 camera appear in Device Manager?

SUMMARY:  This article explains the different ways your Point Grey USB 3.0 camera may appear in the Windows Device Manager.  APPLICABLE PRODUCTS : Flea3 USB 3.0 •  All USB 3.0 camera products •  ANSWER: The way that Point Grey USB 3.0 cameras appear in the Windows Device Manager depends on the driver configuration that is currently in use. In general, there are two ways to run a Point Grey USB 3.0 device: Install the Point Grey PGRxHCI (pgrxhci.sys) driver on a USB 3.0 xHCI card or built-in port. Although not the default installation configuration, this configuration is recommended, unless specified otherwise in TAN2011005. In this configuration, the USB 3.0 xHCI card or built-in port appears under the 'Point Grey Bus Host Controllers' node in Device Manager. The camera does not appear. This is shown as (A) in the figure below. Note:  The PGRxHCI driver may be incompatible with other (non-Point Grey) USB 3.0 devices that run on the same bus.  Use the driver provided by the manufacturer of the USB 3.0 xHCI card or built-in port. In this scenario, the Point Grey PGRUSBCam (pgrusbcam.sys) driver on the camera works in conjunction with the USB 3.0 driver installed on the card. The camera appears under the 'Point Grey Research Devices' node in Device Manager, and the xHCI card or built-in port appears under the 'Universal Serial Bus controllers' node. (There is no easy way to differentiate between a card that is installed separately and a built-in port.). This scenario is the default configuration when Point Grey USB 3.0 drivers are installed during the setup process for your USB 3.0 device. This is shown as (B) in the figure below.

What is the maximum number of cameras I can connect to a single USB 3.0 bus?
The theoretical number of devices on a network is 255 units, but in practice the number of devices is determined by the host controller 
and by host system processing speed. Host controllers available today support up to ~30 devices (hubs are counted as a device). Click 
here to learn what motherboard, CPU and chipset configurations Point Grey recommends for optimal processing performance. Point 
Grey performs long term tests with 24 cameras on one PC using 3 host adapters and six 4-port hubs. Click here to read “Setting up 
Multiple USB 3.0 Cameras “

How can I synchronize multiple cameras on the same bus? Do they automatically synchronize like Point Grey FireWire 
cameras?
Currently, Point Grey cameras do not automatically synchronize their image exposure with other cameras on the same USB 3.0 bus like 
Point Grey FireWire cameras. To achieve synchronization, you must use the camera's external trigger capability. The camera supports 
both hardware (an external electrical signal) and software (a software command to the camera) triggering. Note that the maximum rate 
at which the camera can be triggered may be less than the maximum frame rate of the camera when free-running.