Troubleshooting your edgertronic camera

SYSTEM and CAMERA LEDs

If you are having troubles connecting to the edgertronic camera or taking videos, the first step is to look at the SYSTEM and CAMERA LEDs on the back of the camera.

Typically, the SYSTEM LED will be solid blue or yellow and the CAMERA LED will be solid GREEN.

The LED documentation describes all the color patterns allowing you to diagnose installation or configuration issues.

Network troubleshooting

Once you have completed the network configuration when edgertronic camera is directly connected to the computer without a DHCP server running on that computer, and are not using DHCP, you should be able to ping 10.11.12.13. On a Mac or Linux, open a terminal window, on Windows, launch the application cmd, and in the terminal window type the following:

ping 10.11.12.13

you should get something like:

$ ping 10.11.12.13
PING 10.11.12.13 (10.11.12.13: 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 10.11.12.13: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=3.595 ms
64 bytes from 10.11.12.13: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=1.114 ms
64 bytes from 10.11.12.13: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=3.639 ms
64 bytes from 10.11.12.13: icmp_seq=3 ttl=255 time=3.654 ms

If you can not ping the camera, please check your network settings. Type cntl-C to stop the ping command.

If you are connecting to a computer, router or other device that is running a DHCP server, then you will need to find out what IP address was assigned to the camera. You can remove the SD card or USB storage and find a file whose name contains the camera's IP address. Another option is use inspect the DHCP server database. On the back of the camera is the Ethernet MAC Address. In most cases, the router or DHCP server will allow you to see the IP address assigned to a particular MAC Address. In addition, most routers let you assign a static IP address to a specific MAC Address. This way you will get the same IP address each time you connect the camera to the router.

Once you find the IP address, you can use

ping <DHCP assigned IP address>

such as

ping 192.168.0.4

Troubleshooting Tips

Log files and accessing the shell

Log file

Create a folder/directory called log on the large SD card.

If the software in the camera doesn't behave as expected, you can help us in getting the problem resolved by enabling logging to the big SD card. You can do this by using your laptop computer to create a folder (directory) on the SD card called log.

After the problem occurs, wait 10 seconds for the log data to be written, remove the big SD card and email to info@edgertronic.com with following details

• The contents of the log folder,
• Description of what you were trying to do,what went wrong
• and also include the information in the About Tab of the web user interface.

For the technical crowd both the kernel messages and application messages are saved in /var/log/messages. On bootup, if the log directory is detected on the SD card, then a symbolic link is made from /var/log to the SD card's /log. directory.

Shell access

You can telnet into the camera with access to many of the common Unix commands as implemented by busybox.

When system processor does not boot

Background

The camera has an SPI EEPROM that holds the code for the FPGA. The FPGA controls the LEDS and at power on the FPGA starts by setting the system LED red. As soon as the ARM system processor starts to boot, the ARM tells the FPGA to change to blinking yellow. IF you are seeing constant red system LED that means the ARM is not booting.

The micro SD card holds the ARM bootloader, Linux kernel, and root file system. Indeed there is something wrong related to the micro SD card if you see a constant red system LED after power on.

How to resolve

• Remove the micro SD card : The micro SD card is in a spring loaded holder, so you push the micro SD card into the camera a few millimeters and then it gets ejected out (maybe even flying across the room depending on your style). I use another micro SD card to push the inserted micro SD card in, but you can use anything you think is appropriate. Very little force is needed when pressing the micro SD card into the camera a few millimeters.

• Reinsert the micro SD card. The pins face the big SD card slot. Again you will need something to push micro SD card a few millimeters past the edge of the camera case to properly seat the card in the holder.

• Power on and see if the camera is working properly.

If the camera still isn't working:

• You can reprogram the micro SD card if you want. Instructions are at: Edgertronic camera software recovery

• You can replace the micro SD card and program the new card you bought. Follow the same instructions above.

• If you prefer, and can wait a few a days for shipping, edgertronic can send you a pre-programmed micro SD card. Please send your mailing address to info@edgertronic.com.

Video quality troubleshooting

Light conditions

Chances are you don't have enough light or the light is poor quality. High frame rates require very short exposures. You are trying to capture something fast after all.

You have a choice of natural and/or artificial light.

Natural sunlight works best and the camera is white balanced for daylight. When possible, this is your best option.

Artificial light has 120Hz flicker due to our 60Hz AC power. All lights running on 120V 60Hz AC (CFL, fluorescent, tungsten, halogen and even LED's) will flicker to various degrees. Your eye can't see the flicker, but the camera can.

Depth of field (DOF) and focus

Back to the lighting issue, you are likely to be using some really short exposure times and your lens will be wide open. In this case, DOF is really small and focus is critical.
When was the last time you were outside, in full sun shooting F1.4? When you are trying to stop a bullet in flight, and have the exposure set to 1/100,000 sec, you will.

White balance

The camera is white balanced for 5000K [1]. Artificial lights may look yellowish. GE 6500K Daylight CFL's look pretty good. Beware of flicker.

Warning system

The edgertronic camera supports many different settings allowing you to customize the camera for your specific requirements. Some settings, or combinations of settings, will degrade video image quality. For some use cases, such as monitoring an assembly line, image quality is not the most critical objective. In other cases, such as videos for websites, high image quality is critical. The edgertronic camera supports a warning system to indicate when one or more settings may compromise video image quality.

Warning in Web UI

A warning box is displayed when a setting, or combination of settings, might degrade image quality. Text is displayed describing how to resolve the warning. In the settings modal, the settings causing warning are marked with a yellow warning icon.

Settings supporting warnings

The settings that generate a warning are listed below. To simplify localization, each warning value is unique.

Setting Key	Warning Key	Warning Value	Meaning
iso	iso_warning	1	High ISO settings can create increased noise, graininess or other artifacts.
subsample	subsample_warning	2	Subsample mode may cause alaising and/or other visual artifacts.
edr	edr_warning	3	EDR Mode[2] is less effective at high ISO settings.
		4	EDR Mode[2] can cause purple color shift in bright image areas.
overclock	overclock_warning	5	High Overclock settings may cause errors or visual artifacts. Use with caution.
genlock	genlock_warning	6	The Genlock receiver camera can only be triggered through the external I/O connector by the Genlock source camera and will ignore all other trigger sources.
force_monochrome	force_monochrome_warning	7	Force Monochrome Mode is enabled.
gamma_correction	gamma_correction_warning	8	Disabling Gamma may be useful for some video editing workflows, but can cause a loss of shadow detail in normal use.
pipeline	pipeline_warning	9	Using a video encode pipeline other than high encode quality may result is video artifacts.

[1] 5000K is the color temperature of fluorescent lamps for Auto White Balance.
[2] Enhanced Dynamic Range (EDR) is a technique where a non-linear transfer function is used to allow a greater dynamic range of luminosity to fit in the same number of luminance data bits.

Contact Us

Please visit our Main Websitefor camera pricing, ordering, and delivery. If you have an unanswered technical question, please email to info@edgertronic.com