ADUVC

An EPICS Driver for USB Video Class (UVC) devices

Author: Jakub Wlodek
Corresponding Author: Kazimierz Gofron
Created: July 19, 2018
Last Updated: October 29, 2020
Copyright (c): 2018-2019 Brookhaven National Laboratory

Release versions of this driver are available on Github. Release notes are available here. Please report any problems or feature requests on the issues page here.

Installation

Note - ADUVC has only been tested on linux

Prior to installing the ADUVC install the required dependencies via your package manager:

sudo apt install libusb-dev libusub-1.0-0-dev libjpeg-dev cmake

If you wish to use the libjpeg version included with ADSupport, it is important to specifiy that during the build of libuvc - since cmake will by default link against the system version, which will cause a run-time conflict with the version with ADSupport. Otherwise, set JPEG_EXTERNAL=YES in the areaDetector/configure/CONFIG_SITE.local file, and rebuild ADSupport, ADCore, and then ADUVC, which will simply use the system version of the library for everything.

After the other dependencies have been installed, libuvc, the library for connecting to USB Video Class (UVC) devices must be built. The easiest way to do this is to enter the uvcSupport directory, and run the provided script, followed by make:

cd uvcSupport
./install-libuvc.sh
cd ..
make

You may need to edit the EPICS_HOST_ARCH variable in the install-libuvc.sh script prior to running it.

In the event that you do not wish to use the supplied helper script for building libuvc, you may build from source yourself. Documentation for the library can be found here

IOC Setup

Start by identifying connected cameras to your system, using the provided cameraDetector program in uvcSupport (libuvc must be installed using the provided script first):

cd  uvcSupport/cameraDetector
make
./uvc_locater

You will get output similar to the following:

UVC initialized successfully
-------------------------------------------------------------
Serial Number:      1275BB10
Vendor ID:          1133
ProductID:          2085
Manufacturer:       (null)
Product:            (null)
UVC Compliance:     0

You may need to run the program as sudo if camera serial number is locked behind root access.

Next, in the st.cmd file in the iocs/uvcIOC/iocBoot/iocUVC directory, locate the ADUVCConfig function call. There are two options for this function, one where the serial number is passed and product ID is set 0, and one where the productID is passed and the serial number is an empty string "". Simply uncomment the way you wish to connect to the device, and place the serial or productID in the appropriate parameter spot. From here the driver IOC is ready to be started with:

./st.cmd

Again, note that if usb devices are locked behind root privelages you may need to run the IOC with sudo, or adjust udev permissions/rules.

Further documentation, including CSS screenshots and usage information, is available at the driver's website.

Advantages

There are a few advantages the UVC cameras have over traditional industrial cameras:

• Price - Cameras can range from 20$ to 500$
• Ubiquity - Almost every consumer usb camera supports the UVC protocol, as well as many enterprise cameras
• PTZ - Built in Pan/Tilt/Zoom control makes certain devices easy all-in-one monitoring cameras
• Form Factor - Huge variety in camera types, including pencil cameras, board cameras, and traditional industrial cameras.

Example Devices

Below are some devices and specifications that have been deployed using ADUVC. If you have used a different camera with ADUVC, please feel free to add it to the list below.

Device	Max Resolution	Max Framerate	PTZ	Price ($)
E-Con See3Cam_CU55	2248x2048	60	No	120
Logitech HD Pro C920	1920x1080	60	No	129
Logitech BCC950	1920x1080	30	Yes	299
Opti-Tekscope microscope	1280x720	30	No	89
Fantronics Mobile Snake Cam	1280x720	30	No	20
USBFHD06H-SFV	1920x1080	30	No	75