Camera Issues and Solutions
1. Camera Parameter Adjustment Issues
1. XEMA-LC, High Reflectivity Workpiece, On-site Point Cloud Missing
Solution: For high reflectivity workpieces, use HDR mode with large/small exposure to balance overexposed and underexposed areas. Use radius filtering and depth filtering to reduce noise.
2. XEMA-S, Noise Inside Metal Ring, Large Fluctuations on Ring Edges
Solution: For high reflectivity workpieces, use high dynamic mode in high reflectivity mode. Ensure both parameter sets balance bright and dark areas. Avoid overexposure in the corresponding point cloud as it will affect quality. Enable filtering - if the filter value is too small, increase it for better results. Enable smoothing to reduce point cloud thickness.
3. XEMA-L, Black Reflective Compressor, Incomplete Point Cloud
Solution: For black highly reflective workpieces, use high dynamic mode with large exposure + gain (to save time). Use radius filtering and reflection filtering for noise reduction.
4. FINCH, Noise on Carton Surface
Solution: Enable depth filtering and radius filtering. Larger depth filter values provide stronger filtering. For radius filtering (e.g., fixed radius), larger threshold point counts increase filtering strength. In the example, depth filter 60 is insufficient - increase it while ensuring valid information is preserved. Similarly, increase the threshold point count for radius filtering.
5. XEMA-L, Aluminum Ring, Poor Point Cloud Imaging
Solution: Use high dynamic mode with two exposure sets: small exposure 1700/1023 to prevent overexposure in bright areas while preserving depth information, and large exposure 10000/1023 to reveal details in dark areas. Use radius filtering and depth filtering for noise reduction. Click high dynamic effect/parameters as shown below.
6. XEMA-L, Boxed Circuit Board, Excessive Noise and Point Cloud Missing
Solution: Use small exposure to balance bright areas (avoid overexposure) and large exposure to cover dark areas. For noise, use depth filter 40 with radius filter 2/10 combination. Optimization often requires multiple iterations - adjust parameters while observing depth map and point cloud. Increase depth filter threshold if needed (don't hesitate to increase by more than 1 at a time). Increase radius filter threshold significantly for better results.
7. XEMA-SC, Air Conditioner Copper Bolt, Poor Effect with Excessive Noise
Solution: Initial exposure was too high. Use HDR mode with two exposure sets: 200/1700 and 1023/5000. Since the distance is short and it's metal, no need for large exposure.
8. XEMA-L, Metal Shaft, Excessive Noise
Solution: For standard local reflective workpieces, use HDR mode. Since this is L model at 1.2m distance, use HDR with large exposure 1023/20000 and small exposure 1023/1700. Use noise filtering/depth filtering and radius filtering. Optimization often requires multiple iterations - adjust parameters while observing depth map and point cloud. Increase depth filter threshold if needed (don't hesitate to increase by more than 1 at a time). Fix the radius and increase the threshold.
9. XEMA-S, Metal Sheet
Solution: Remember that for thin metal sheets, there will always be areas with strong local reflection. Use HDR mode with two sets: 500/1700 and 1023/8000.
10. XEMA-L, Aluminum Ingot, Floating Noise Above
Solution: This noise appears as floating points above the actual workpiece, which is an imaging error. To filter this, increase depth filter value and radius filter strength. Here the depth filter is directly set to 70 (max 100). Normally radius filter (2, 10) is sufficient for general workpieces, but here (2, 18) is selected. Adjust filter parameters appropriately based on point cloud visualization.
11. XEMA-L, Smooth Metal Ring Workpiece
Solution: The main issue is noise on the inner ring due to reflection. The key is noise filtering while preserving valid information. Increase noise filtering strength until the inner ring appears black in the depth map, indicating noise is filtered out. Enable radius filtering and depth filtering appropriately. Use two-set HDR mode for metal workpiece imaging.
12. XEMA-LC, Parameter Adjustment for High-temperature Workpieces (>1000°C)
Solution: For high-temperature workpieces with uniform high temperature, reflection is not an issue, so single exposure is sufficient. Adjust exposure time based on depth map. For noise, in addition to radius filtering, increase depth filtering and noise filtering strength to effectively remove floating noise points.
13. XEMA-L, Washing Machine Inner Drum Thread Positioning
Solution: To minimize capture time while ensuring point cloud quality, observe the workpiece first. This is white plastic with no local overexposure, so single exposure is sufficient to save time. Since the requirement is <1 second, enable gain to reduce exposure time. I used gain 5 - higher values like 8 or 10 would introduce too much noise. Reduce exposure to 5000 for acceptable point cloud. When using gain, avoid smoothing as it increases capture time (gain and smoothing are time-wise incompatible). Use radius filtering and noise filtering - avoid depth filtering as radius filtering is sufficient. Noise filtering adds minimal time overhead. Final capture time: 630ms - excellent performance!
14. XEMA-S, White Plastic and Metal Combination
Solution: For workpieces with metal and non-reflective white plastic, especially when imaged near the edge of the FOV, use two exposure sets: large exposure for dark edge areas and small exposure for the center. Adjust values until both edge and center point clouds are clear. Vertical metal strips at edges will generate significant noise - enable reflection filtering and radius filtering. Filter until noise appears black in the depth map. Enable smoothing if time allows, as it increases capture time.
2. IP Issues
1. On-site Prompt: Different Network Segments
Solution: [To be written]
2. Can Search Camera IP but Cannot Connect
Scenario 1: Wrong Network Segment
Searching camera shows IP 192.168.5.233 with prompt "Local machine and camera are in different network segments"
Attempting to PING camera fails
Checking local IP shows three network segments: 169.254.X.X, 192.168.5.X, 192.168.4.X
Clearly, the camera was originally using 192.168.5.x for communication but was switched to direct connection on a different network port, causing PING failure.
Click [Auto Configuration] to change camera IP to the corresponding network segment (169.254.9.92 in this case) to establish successful connection.
Scenario 2: IP Conflict
In LAN, two devices under the same router have the same IP address (camera and any other device), which may cause communication hijacking between host and camera.
Example:
If both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 are set to 192.168.1.2
The host sends ARP packet "who is 192.168.1.2" via gateway, and both terminals respond, causing ARP table conflict in the gateway.
Troubleshooting and solution: Run "arp -a" in cmd to check if camera IP matches its physical address. If not, IP conflict exists and IP needs to be changed.
Reference: https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/29011567
3. Finch, Xema Cameras Disconnect Abnormally or Cannot Be Found
Problem: After abnormal disconnection, PickWiz automatically reconnects but disconnects again. In severe cases, cameras cannot be found in the configuration interface.
Possible Causes: On-site network instability (NIC IP configuration conflict, damaged network cable), poor network quality preventing camera detection.
Case 1: Damaged network cable
Solution:
First rule out duplicate IP conflicts on the LAN. Power off the camera and confirm that its IP cannot be pinged. Then power the camera back on. If the IP can be pinged after power-on, this is normal.
The camera IP address should be a static IP starting with 192.168.x.x. If it is 169.254.x.x, change both the camera and industrial PC to static IP addresses.
Download and extract the following archive. Then open a terminal, run the extracted ping_ip.exe tool, and append the camera IP address to the command, for example: ping_ip.exe 192.168.1.69. Use this to test whether the network between PickWiz and the camera is connected.
When the camera disconnects abnormally or cannot be found, if the ping result for the camera IP shows errors such as "timeout" or "packet loss", the camera issue is caused by network instability. If the ping result is normal, the cause is not the network and further troubleshooting is required for camera hardware or other abnormal conditions.
3. On-site Extrinsic Parameter Correction Issues
Camera accuracy may degrade due to factors such as transportation, temperature, and structural stress. The following is a detailed extrinsic parameter correction method for XEMA series cameras:
Extrinsic Parameter Correction Method for XEMA Series Cameras
1. Image Capture
- Fix the camera at the working distance. Open open_cam3d_gui.exe in the SDK and connect the camera. Place the calibration board flat at the center of the field of view, capture an image, and adjust to the best exposure time so that the calibration board is just not overexposed. For example:
In the same directory as the GUI, create a new folder to store the captured images and name it capture.
Start image capture. Five groups of images need to be captured. Go to the sdk_gui directory, right-click to open a terminal, run .\open_cam3d.exe, and find the image capture command as indicated by the red box in the figure below:
- Execute the image capture command: ./open_cam3d.exe --get-raw-02 --ip 192.168.6.63 --path ./capture/00.
192.168.6.63 is the camera IP. Change it according to the actual camera IP. 00 is the first image group. There are five groups in total, 00 to 04. Capture one pose at each position, as shown below: place the board flat at the center, then raise each of the four corners of the field of view with one sheet.
2. Camera Calibration
First export the camera's original calibration file locally. Go to the same directory as the GUI, right-click to open a terminal, and execute the command: open_cam3d.exe --get-calib-param --ip 192.168.6.63 --path ./param.txt
After exporting, return to the terminal and open the correction command. Run .\calibration.exe in the terminal and execute the following correction command:
./calibration.exe --correct --use patterns --path ./capture/ --version 3010 --board 20 --param-in ./param.txt --param-out ./param.txt
(Change the IP according to the actual camera IP. board 20 indicates the calibration board size and should be changed according to the actual board.)
- After correction is complete, write the calibration parameters from the terminal:
Execute ./open_cam3d.exe --set-calib-looktable --ip 192.168.x.x --path ./param.txt and wait for the write operation to complete.
- After writing the calibration parameters, connect to the camera in the GUI, place the calibration board, capture an image, and check the accuracy value. For example:
4. Other Issues
1. For some shipped versions of Finch cameras, color mode is incompatible with high dynamic mode. Update to the 0925 firmware.
2. When hand-eye calibration from Finch cameras in color mode is converted to black-and-white mode, the calibration coordinate system changes, causing abnormal picking.
Problem:
Solution: Hand-eye calibration in color mode and black-and-white mode can be converted. The following tool is temporarily provided for the update. This function will be integrated into the software later.
3. Abnormal Missing Point Cloud on Structured-light Cameras:
Check whether the lighting is flickering. If flickering is present, turn off the lights and see whether the result improves.
Check whether the image is overexposed. Point clouds will be missing in overexposed areas. If overexposure is caused by an external light source, such as very bright specular reflection, block the light. If it is caused by an excessively large exposure value, for example greater than 80000, reduce the exposure value.
Check whether the image is underexposed. This may happen when the object is too dark or the exposure time is too short. To solve it, increase the exposure time and projection brightness.
Check whether the lens is dirty. Dirt can cause abnormal point cloud loss. To solve it, wipe the camera lens with a lens cloth.
As shown below, the point cloud is still missing after the lights are turned off, which is caused by a dirty lens.
4. XEMA Camera Threadlocker Batch Check:
Threadlocker improves the machine's vibration resistance and provides better performance in eye-in-hand projects.
Check the camera serial number yourself. The serial number contains the camera production date. Machines produced after October 2025 have threadlocker applied; otherwise, they do not.
5. Structured-light Camera Cycle Time Is Too Long:
Check network speed test results.
Check firmware information.
Contact camera support personnel.