Leaving DVT smart cameras behind

Much water has flowed under the bridge since Cognex completed their acquisition of DVT, but a lot of the old DVT cameras are still in service, plugging away at mundane and undemanding inspection tasks. Sadly though, the time comes for every camera when it can no longer perform its duties, and at that point a replacement is required.

This creates two challenges for the engineer assigned such a task: find a new camera to do the job, and get the application rewritten. Neither of these are trivial, but help is at hand.

Integro Technologies have on their website a handy little DVT to Cognex Cross Reference table. This shows which InSight Micro or 5000 series smart camera is equivalent to the old 500 series models.

What I found especially interesting though was the direct comparison of the old DVT cameras in terms of sensor, frame rate, speed and enclosure protection. Since these cameras are dying off this is of little more than curiosity value, but old timers might enjoy perusing the tables, if only to recall the earlier days of machine vision.

Such maudlin sentimentality makes me wonder if someone should launch a museum of machine vision. What do you think?

Machine vision needs its own Steve Jobs

A common theme among the many eulogies for Steve Jobs was his gift for simplifying what already existed, making devices such as mp3 players and phones a delight to use.

Oh how we need some of that thinking in machine vision. I’ve just spent a couple of days learning to use some new software from one of the leading vendors, and boy was it painful!

The actual vision tools are great; it’s just that the whole interface is overly complicated and clunky. Even the trainer was having difficulty finding the functions he wanted. I have no doubt that once the learning curve is climbed I’ll find it all very powerful. But I don’t recall my iPod having a learning curve. That, in my humble opinion, was the genius of Jobs: he made stuff so elegantly simple that it became a joy to use.

The only machine vision software products that have come close to being as intuitive as iTunes are the old DVT Framework product (remember that?) and the Banner vision software. Yes, they both had severe limitations but they made it easy for a guy in a factory to quickly set up an application.

You may argue that I’m nit-picking, but I disagree. If I’m going to use a product five days a week, fifty weeks a year I can put up with a learning curve. But the engineer who’ll implement one or two systems a year needs it to be intuitive and simple.

Vision software companies: heed my call. If you want to sell more software, make it easier to use.

Keyence goes linescan

As far as I know, the last machine vision company that attempted to make linescan imaging accessible to the regular user was DVT, and that wasn’t hugely successful, so I think it’s pretty big news that with their new XG-8000 product, Keyence is moving into linescan imaging.

The XG-8000 is actually the vision processor unit, but it will take a linescan camera, two if you also buy the expansion module. As with all Keyence vision products, the cameras are proprietary, meaning that you can’t plug in your Dalsa or Basler cameras. But there are some interesting features.

In terms of resolution, they’re offering 2k, 4k and 8k sensors, all of which are CMOS. The smaller sensors take a C-mount lens while the 8k takes a special M40 lens. Going to a C-mount format makes the cameras smaller than most linescans, and also permits a shorter working distance, both of which might be useful when space is tight.

No word on pricing - in fact at the time of writing the XG-8000 isn’t even on their website – but my guess would be around $15 to $18k. But I am guessing! That makes it expensive for a single camera configuration, but if you need two cameras the economics become more attractive. I imagine that the Keyence linescan cameras would be pretty much plug-and-play, which could be quite a time saver, and it also saves you from having to buy a framegrabber.

In terms of software and vision tools, the last Keyence system I played with was quite impressive, so I have no reason to think this will be any different. One other benefit I see is that while most linescan systems need some programming expertise, Keyence doesn’t.

In short, if you want to implement a linescan system quickly, and you’re not a skilled C++ or VB programmer, this might be a good product to consider.

DVT alternative

DVT fans loved the ability to use scripting to make what was really a pretty basic smart camera do some neat tricks. The InSight line from Cognex might be a better product, but that hasn’t stopped hardcore scripters from seeking an alternative.

A while ago I suggested that the PPT line was worth a look, since their IMPACT software provides a programming option; since then I’ve come across another alternative.

This is the EyeSpector®, developed in Germany by Eye Vision Technology and sold in the US through FSI Technologies.

To tell the truth, the EyeSpector® has been around for a couple of years now, but I have to admit that their color scheme and “Private Eye” marketing rather turned me off. However, I have now taken a look, and I think it’s an interesting DVT alternative.

The camera itself comes from Vision Components, who’ve been churning out smart cameras for quite a few years. The problem they had though was a lack of user friendly (no programming required) software, which is where Eye Vision Technologies came in. They’ve provided a front end which allows both drag-and-drop application development and programming in a form of VB.

Bottom line: it’s not pretty (to my eyes anyway,) but the EyeSpector® smart camera family might be worth investigating.

Last call for DVT!

A few days back the Cognex/DVT Smartlist forum erupted in yet another chorus of “why are you killing the best machine vision product in the world?” (Last chance to buy DVT smart cameras is mid December, I believe.)

I’m not going to rehash all the arguments for and against the DVT product line, although I will say that the big differentiator in the eyes of most users is the ability to write scripts, but I do want to share the response from Cognex to the flurry of complaints.

Rick Roszkowski of Cognex posted the following justification/explanation, and rather than try to paraphrase and summarize, I thought I’d just reproduce it here in full (and yes, I do have Rick’s permission to do so.)

Dear DVT Smartlist Community,

I'd like to take a few minutes to respond to [those] who have expressed their views on the Smartlist regarding customer support, service and product technology.

Last-Time Buy & Customer Awareness

Cognex fully understands the difficulties and challenges of migrating customers from one product line to another. We have been proactively meeting with our direct customers and channel partners for several years during this product line consolidation period and have successfully migrated the vast majority of DVT customers and applications to other Cognex products. We continue to welcome the opportunity to meet with and support our channel partners and their key customers during this transition period.

With respect to concerns over ongoing service and support; a primary reason Cognex accelerated the last-time buy period for a number of DVT models was so that we could maintain sufficient reserve positions of inventory to meet repair and service requests for the stated 5 year support period - assuming repair demands stay consistent with the trend for the past 12 months.

Technology

We do recognize gaps in functionality remain between the In-Sight® and DVT product lines, and the gap exists both ways. Each product line offers some unique, powerful and innovative features not found in the other product line. For example, the In-Sight Custom View capability is a patented and unmatched feature in the industry, and In-Sight products have an extensive set of network communication protocols to support integration with virtually all major industrial automation vendors.

PatMax® and IDMax® tools are industry leading technology. A number of unique DVT product features have been cited in this Smartlist thread, and Scripting and custom I/O management remain the most significant advanced features yet to be fully addressed by the In-Sight product line. Some of the gaps are filled by other Cognex products, like VisionPro(r), yet there are still others that go unmet. At this time, I must respectfully defer specific comments regarding future product enhancements in this public forum due to corporate policies, but I can say that we know work remains to more fully replace the DVT product line.

While it's easy to focus on what hasn't been done, it's also easy to lose sight of what has transpired in the past several years. Since the acquisition, Cognex has systematically migrated features of the DVT product line to the In-Sight family based on customer and channel partner feedback. During this time, we've sought to balance our engineering efforts to consolidate the product lines against demands for new products and features to meet emerging markets and applications, not to mention competitive threats.

As we've migrated features, we've also taken the opportunity to improve robustness, quality, performance and/or ease-of-use. A sample of features we've migrated includes:

• Image Filters (improved speed)
• Retained Images - Filmstrip (easier to use)
• Record/Playback (easier to use)
• Color Tools (improved ease-of-use and improved capability)
• Composite Shapes / Masking
• Link-Local Addressing
• Acquisition Trigger Delay
• Modbus Communication
• Robot Drivers
• Non-linear calibration (Cognex algorithm is 3x more accurate and supports DVT grid patterns)
• Line Scan Camera (superior image quality, faster processor, yes it still needs additional features)
• Hi-Res Color Camera
• EasyBuilder UI modeled on the Intellect UI.
• VisionView and EasyViews (to replace SmartLink)
  

I'm sure there are more, and our next release of In-Sight Explore and EasyBuilder will include additional features of the DVT product line, as will future releases.

With respect to remarks regarding integration into VB applications and sending terminal commands, I have to admit I'm quite surprised by comments like these and appreciate the support from those of you that have chimed in on this subject. The In-Sight product line provides a free .NET and ActiveX Display Control for integration into VB. The In-Sight product line also offers a comprehensive SDK (software developer's kit) built in .NET with full inter-op capability in to COM/ActiveX containers. The In-Sight SDK has been used by many of our large customers and systems integrators to create custom user interfaces and to integrate In-Sight into 3rd party HMI applications. The ToolBuilder feature of EasyBuilder allows users to create their own add-ins to EasyBuilder and provides means for our channel partners to protect their Intellectual Property. In-Sight also has an extensive set of native mode commands (i.e. DVT terminal commands) accessible via the SDK, through direct Windows socket communications or from any microcontroller via Ethernet or serial links.

My goal is not to provide a tit-for-tat on the capabilities of the two product lines, but to help bring some clarification to the situation.

In closing, I would like to thank the entire DVT Smartlist community. The Smartlist user's forum remains an integral legacy of DVT Company maintained and supported at Cognex. Many of you have been instrumental in helping drive requirements and assist with customer and application conversions. Many of you have found clever and creative ways to use In-Sight products to overcome feature-set differences between the two products.

The openness and candor of the Smartlist is a powerful tool, be it positive and supportive, or negative and critical. Rest assured we are listening to everything.

In the future, if you have specific concerns or requests, you are welcome to contact me directly.
Rick RoszkowskiSr.
Director of Marketing
Vision Systems Business Unit

Background on DVT

Anyone interested in a short history of DVT – the “smart camera” company that Cognex “took out” a few years back – will enjoy this biography of David Hicks. Apparently Mr. Hicks was part of the management team at DVT up until the acquisition by their bigger competitor.

DVT may not have had the best products, but their sales and marketing was second-to-none. In fact many engineers are surprised to learn that DVT was, in terms of both headcount and revenue, actually a relatively small business.

Makes one wonder what Cognex got for their money.

Microscan – a viable DVT alternative?

The major gripe DVT fans have with Cognex is the end of their ability to write scripts. Well while browsing the Microscan web site, I spotted these bullet points in the description of their Visionscape® software:

• Scripting language for additional custom tool development
• ActiveX control-based software component architecture for custom application-specific GUI development

So could Microscan be an alternative product to consider? Check it out and let me know what you think.

More DVT migration

Last month I explored how the introduction of new color “Micro” smart cameras was evidence of the pending demise of DVT. Now, just days later, we learn that Cognex have launched a line scan InSight.

Clearly intended to replace the DVT line scan camera, (which I understood to be a slow seller,) this shows that the end is fast approaching for the DVT line. But before you rush out to stock up with the plastic-bodied 500 series, (or brace yourself for the InSight 5604,) be sure to take a good look at the specs.

Let’s be honest, neither camera is exactly a world-class piece of hardware. The 1k imager on the InSight, (down from 2k in the DVT predecessor,) is positively 20th century, while an even bigger limitation is the restriction to 2048 lines. In other words, it’s not going to do web inspection. If you’re happy with a fairly low-resolution image of a small diameter part, the 5604 might work, but frankly you’d do better to explore a PC-framegrabber combo with real processing power.

DVT is dead. Long live Cognex.

An insight into product planning at Cognex?

How many color machine vision jobs have you ever done? I’m guessing it’s a very small number. Color images are more complicated to work with, and quite frankly, there are few applications that need them. Even in cases where you need to differentiate between say red and green, you can get away with combinations of colored lights and lens filters. In short, I’m not sure the world is hungry for new color “smart cameras.”

So why have Cognex launched three different color In-Sight Micros? Yes, it will give some marginal sales growth, but at the cost of further complicating their inventory management processes. I’m just not convinced the market for color is big enough to warrant the increased business complexity.

I suggest there are some other motives at work. I think the real reason for the new cameras is that Cognex are incorporating some of the DVT color algorithms into the Explorer software. In short, this is all part of phasing out Framework, Intellect and the 500 series range of cameras.

Think about it: a range of color In-Sight Micros is one more reason not to offer the old DVT products. If I worked for Cognex I’d probably see that as a sensible decision. Color Micros expand the product range now but will ultimately permit some significant pruning, and presumably some cost reductions too.

I know the fans of scripting will be sobbing into their coffee once more, but it’s just business. Adapt to the spreadsheet or find an alternative product.

By-the-way, the specs on the new cameras are quite interesting, especially the 2 Mp color Micro. It won’t be cheap but it could be a great solution to a problem that absolutely must have a color camera.

Life after DVT

I don't mean to continue beating up on Cognex, but I'd like to return to the “Oh My God, They’ve Killed DVT” line of thought. A lot of protestors on the DVT ‘SmartList’ discussion board have complained that the Cognex Insight range has no equivalent to the DVT scripting functions. The Cognex response so far has been along the lines of, “We don’t believe you need scripting: tell us why you think you do and we’ll show you why you’re wrong.” So do the legions of DVT fans have any choice but to just “suck it up”?

Well I’ve been checking out the PPT product line, particularly their IMPACT software. I firmly believe the only way to learn the capabilities of a package is to use it, and unfortunately I haven’t had the opportunity to do that. However, from a scan through the manual (available under “Downloads,”) it seems they offer the user/developer an uncommonly broad set of prepackaged tools plus the ability to program in “IMPACT Basic.”

So if you’re a DVT integrator you could do a lot worse than spend an hour or so checking out what PPT has to offer.

DVT fans – the end is near

The DVT line of smart cameras has a loyal fan base out in the real world of manufacturing plants. These fans are going to be very disappointed by the news that Cognex has decided to “NINA” the entire DVT family from June 26, 2009.

If you’re scratching your head over that particular acronym, “NINA” means Not Intended for New Applications. In other words, the Cognex salesforce, (and that includes their distributors,) will not be offering DVT products for new projects after that date.

Does this mean your DVT cameras are all obsolete? Well not entirely. Cognex have been pretty good about supporting older product lines, at least for a while, so it’s not as if they’re walking away from the DVT range. In fact you should still be able to buy DVT cameras until early 2011.

But with that said, you’d better start getting familiar with Insight programming, because any new projects you work on should be using that product family rather than the old 500 series.

Regular users of the DVT “Smartlist” discussion forum have already flagged that the DVT software has some tools not available on the Insight. In response, Lisa Eicher of Cognex said that they are interested in getting feedback from users regarding functionality issues. So if you have concerns, email Lisa at Cognex (I’m not posting her email address here ‘cause the spam ‘bots will pick it up and deluge her – email me if you want it,) or sign up for the Smartlist and post your comments there.

Let’s talk about it

When it comes to debugging non-functioning equipment, (hardware and software,) I have a theory. This states that I will never be the first person on the planet to have encountered this problem, and therefore the answer is out there somewhere, usually accessible on the World Wide Web.

A number of machine vision vendors have also recognized this, and have set up discussion forums to facilitate the sharing of information. (I suspect it also reduces the load on their Tech Support staff.) The best known of these is probably the DVT SmartList, (run by Cognex since their acquisition of DVT,) although it does have a weakness: it’s not searchable, which must mean that the same questions keep popping up over and over.

National Instruments also have an excellent discussion forum, which is searchable. And if you want to take the road less traveled, for NI disciples there’s also the LAVA forum.

On the other hand, Banner, whose vision products I like very much, offer no such online support. That’s a pity, and I suspect it may also be costing them business. One of the factors in the success of NI, (and I know there are many,) is the way in which their users have become an online community, sharing experience and helping the less knowledgeable.

Banner guys – please set up a discussion forum. It will help me, and it might help you too.

Something free from Cognex?

I noticed today that Cognex are offering a free 30 day trial of their VisionPro software. (Click here for details, but note that VisionPro is not for the novice. It's what we might term 'heavy-duty' vision software.)

So what does this tell us about their state of mind in Natick? Do they fear that their Insight and DVT ranges have achieved maximum market penetration and therefore to get more growth they need to move customers up market? Could sales actually be slipping? Or is there another motive?

The adoption of 1394 and GigE is interesting too. This is going to move Cognex away from their framegrabber range and make them more of a software company. Why would they want to do that? Is software more profitable than hardware? Or are they just facing up to the reality that the framegrabber's day are limited?