Thursday, December 19, 2013

Newsflash: Machine Vision Camera-maker Thinks You Should Buy More Machine Vision Cameras!


This comes from Basler, who suggest it’s time to ditch Firewire/1394 for USB 3.0. A White Paper on their website sets out their reasoning, some of which makes sense and some of which I would question.

Four arguments are presented: 1394 hardware will disappear, Windows 8 doesn’t support it, the bandwidth is insufficient, and it will save you money.

The first two of these I agree with completely. Indeed, it’s been several years since I developed anything with Firewire, preferring to use GigE instead. So yes, new systems should not be developed with this outdated interface. But if the system is in-service and working well, why would you change?

The bandwidth argument makes no sense, and how will replacing cameras that still work save money?

Bottom line: if you’re developing applications with Firewire interfaces you’re building-in obsolescence. But if your old Firewire systems still perform the way you need, stay with them.

I suppose I should add one caveat: smart engineers will be looking ahead at how they would replace the old systems when they do fail.

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