Accessing a USB WebCAM

goennema · Feb 19th 2009

Admin note: This thread has been splittet from usbclient.lib

No, of course I don't. I try to compile the MS open source webcam driver <a class="postlink" href="http://www.codeplex.com/cewebcam">http://www.codeplex.com/cewebcam</a> against your SDK. It does compile without any problems against the headers of your SDK but it misses a library to link the USB-functionality to. The precompiled binary distributions of the driver work well with your platform as long as you do not try to capture images, but I guess these are compiled for older versions of win CE so I would prefer to compile it explicitely for the picocom.

I know there is an alternate camera driver shipping with CE6 providing a direct show interface but as I got as a first impression (with a windows XP desktop system) direct show behaves very unhandy when trying to do still captures instead of streaming video. (Streaming video will be a problem due to excessive USB-Bandwidth allocation when the system needs to support multiple USB-devices)

fs-support_MK · Feb 19th 2009

Ok now this is getting clearer.
To compile this driver the PicoCOM SDK is not sufficient. You will need a Driver Development Kit which will be the platform builder for WindowsCE device drivers. For this reason I have compiled this library within the PicoCOM2 environment for you.

goennema · Feb 19th 2009

I am wondering why all includes are already there. Just the .lib file is missing in your sdk. Anyway, thank you for compiling the driver. Would it be possible to provide me the debug version too? It contains several debug outputs that give information on driver failure.
Btw. I am using picocom1 but I guess the difference will be not that huge, isn't it?

fs-support_MK · Feb 19th 2009

I have updated the ZIP package above. It now also includes the debug version of the camera driver.

Quote from "goennema"

Btw. I am using picocom1 but I guess the difference will be not that huge, isn't it?

Yes, this should not be a problem, as the libraries the driver is build with are common for all WindowsCE 6.0 devices.

Meanwhile we have tested the USB driver, too and we succedded in capturing a still image and write it into a file.

goennema · Feb 19th 2009

Oh, most likely you got further than me. The driver that you have compiled freezes when I try to capture a still or if I try to start streaming. That is the same behaviour I see with the precompiled release binary from codeplex. The debug binary from codeplex works better.

And you did a capture using ioctl IOCTL_CAMERA_DEVICE_GETSTILLIMAGE? This did not work with any camera I tested. All of them returned error 258 stating something like "WebCam: Next Frame event not signaled rc 258" on the debug console (when using the debug binary from codeplex, your webcam.dll freezes on ioctl). This is strange thus IOCTL_CAMERA_DEVICE_QUERYSTILLFORMATS reports that my camera do support still frame modes. Can you tell me what type of camera you use?

IOCTL_CAMERA_DEVICE_GETNEXTVIDEOFRAME in streaming mode indeed works fine (with the debug dll) but the timing overhead for starting and stopping streaming for each frame is inacceptable.

EDIT: the debug binary you supplied in your last post does freeze too. The only one that does anything useful with my unit is the codeplex debug binary.

goennema · Feb 19th 2009

Additional info: I run my picocom with a fresh install of NKPC1_CORE_CF35_090202.bin with no further applications running besides my camera test.

fs-support_MK · Feb 19th 2009

Here is the code how we are capturing an image, also tested on PicoCOM1. We are using logitec webcam.

Code

int CWebCamTestDlg::WriteJPEG (LPTSTR lpszName, PBYTE pData, int nSize)
{
BYTE MJPGDHTSeg[0x1A4] = {
/* JPEG DHT Segment for YCrCb omitted from MJPG data */
0xFF,0xC4,0x01,0xA2,
0x00,0x00,0x01,0x05,0x01,0x01,0x01,0x01,0x01,0x01,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,
0x01,0x02,0x03,0x04,0x05,0x06,0x07,0x08,0x09,0x0A,0x0B,0x01,0x00,0x03,0x01,0x01,0x01,0x01,
0x01,0x01,0x01,0x01,0x01,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x01,0x02,0x03,0x04,0x05,0x06,0x07,
0x08,0x09,0x0A,0x0B,0x10,0x00,0x02,0x01,0x03,0x03,0x02,0x04,0x03,0x05,0x05,0x04,0x04,0x00,
0x00,0x01,0x7D,0x01,0x02,0x03,0x00,0x04,0x11,0x05,0x12,0x21,0x31,0x41,0x06,0x13,0x51,0x61,
0x07,0x22,0x71,0x14,0x32,0x81,0x91,0xA1,0x08,0x23,0x42,0xB1,0xC1,0x15,0x52,0xD1,0xF0,0x24,
0x33,0x62,0x72,0x82,0x09,0x0A,0x16,0x17,0x18,0x19,0x1A,0x25,0x26,0x27,0x28,0x29,0x2A,0x34,
0x35,0x36,0x37,0x38,0x39,0x3A,0x43,0x44,0x45,0x46,0x47,0x48,0x49,0x4A,0x53,0x54,0x55,0x56,
0x57,0x58,0x59,0x5A,0x63,0x64,0x65,0x66,0x67,0x68,0x69,0x6A,0x73,0x74,0x75,0x76,0x77,0x78,
0x79,0x7A,0x83,0x84,0x85,0x86,0x87,0x88,0x89,0x8A,0x92,0x93,0x94,0x95,0x96,0x97,0x98,0x99,
0x9A,0xA2,0xA3,0xA4,0xA5,0xA6,0xA7,0xA8,0xA9,0xAA,0xB2,0xB3,0xB4,0xB5,0xB6,0xB7,0xB8,0xB9,
0xBA,0xC2,0xC3,0xC4,0xC5,0xC6,0xC7,0xC8,0xC9,0xCA,0xD2,0xD3,0xD4,0xD5,0xD6,0xD7,0xD8,0xD9,
0xDA,0xE1,0xE2,0xE3,0xE4,0xE5,0xE6,0xE7,0xE8,0xE9,0xEA,0xF1,0xF2,0xF3,0xF4,0xF5,0xF6,0xF7,
0xF8,0xF9,0xFA,0x11,0x00,0x02,0x01,0x02,0x04,0x04,0x03,0x04,0x07,0x05,0x04,0x04,0x00,0x01,
0x02,0x77,0x00,0x01,0x02,0x03,0x11,0x04,0x05,0x21,0x31,0x06,0x12,0x41,0x51,0x07,0x61,0x71,
0x13,0x22,0x32,0x81,0x08,0x14,0x42,0x91,0xA1,0xB1,0xC1,0x09,0x23,0x33,0x52,0xF0,0x15,0x62,
0x72,0xD1,0x0A,0x16,0x24,0x34,0xE1,0x25,0xF1,0x17,0x18,0x19,0x1A,0x26,0x27,0x28,0x29,0x2A,
0x35,0x36,0x37,0x38,0x39,0x3A,0x43,0x44,0x45,0x46,0x47,0x48,0x49,0x4A,0x53,0x54,0x55,0x56,
0x57,0x58,0x59,0x5A,0x63,0x64,0x65,0x66,0x67,0x68,0x69,0x6A,0x73,0x74,0x75,0x76,0x77,0x78,
0x79,0x7A,0x82,0x83,0x84,0x85,0x86,0x87,0x88,0x89,0x8A,0x92,0x93,0x94,0x95,0x96,0x97,0x98,
0x99,0x9A,0xA2,0xA3,0xA4,0xA5,0xA6,0xA7,0xA8,0xA9,0xAA,0xB2,0xB3,0xB4,0xB5,0xB6,0xB7,0xB8,
0xB9,0xBA,0xC2,0xC3,0xC4,0xC5,0xC6,0xC7,0xC8,0xC9,0xCA,0xD2,0xD3,0xD4,0xD5,0xD6,0xD7,0xD8,
0xD9,0xDA,0xE2,0xE3,0xE4,0xE5,0xE6,0xE7,0xE8,0xE9,0xEA,0xF2,0xF3,0xF4,0xF5,0xF6,0xF7,0xF8,
0xF9,0xFA
};
int rc = 0;
DWORD dwBytes;
HANDLE hFile = CreateFile (lpszName, GENERIC_WRITE | GENERIC_READ, 0, NULL, CREATE_ALWAYS, 0, NULL);
if (hFile != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
{
BYTE bHdr[] =
{
0xff,0xd8, // SOI
0xff,0xe0, // APP0
0x00,0x10, // APP0 Hdr size
0x4a,0x46,0x49,0x46,0x00, // ID string
0x01,0x01, // Version
0x00, // Bits per type
0x00, 0x00, // X density
0x00, 0x00, // Y density
0x00, // X Thumbnail size
0x00, // Y Thumbnail size
};
WriteFile (hFile, bHdr, sizeof (bHdr), &dwBytes, NULL);
// Write DHT color segment needed for stand-alone file
WriteFile (hFile, MJPGDHTSeg, sizeof (MJPGDHTSeg), &dwBytes, NULL);
// try removing AVI header from image
#if 1
int n = *(pData+4);
n = n << 8;
n += *(pData+5)+4;
PBYTE p2 = pData + n;
WriteFile (hFile, p2, nSize-n, &dwBytes, NULL);
#else
WriteFile (hFile, pData, nSize, &dwBytes, NULL);
#endif
DEBUGMSG (1, (TEXT("Write %d bytes to image file.\r\n"), dwBytes));
CloseHandle (hFile);
} else
rc = GetLastError();
return rc;
}
void CWebCamTestDlg::OnBnClickedCapture()
{
HANDLE hCam;
BOOL bNoError = FALSE;
FORMATPROPS cFormats[10];
VIDFORMATSTRUCT cVideoFormat;
DWORD dwBytes;
DWORD dwFormat = 1;
LPBYTE pData = 0;
DWORD dwSize = 0;
DWORD dwBuff;
/* Open USB camera */
hCam = CreateFile (L"CAM1:", GENERIC_WRITE | GENERIC_READ,
0, NULL, OPEN_EXISTING, 0, NULL);
/* Query availble still image formats */
bNoError = DeviceIoControl (hCam, IOCTL_CAMERA_DEVICE_QUERYSTILLFORMATS,
(LPVOID)&dwFormat, sizeof (DWORD),
&cFormats, 10*sizeof(FORMATPROPS), &dwBytes, NULL);
if (!bNoError)
{
RETAILMSG(1, (L"IOCTL_CAMERA_DEVICE_QUERYSTILLFORMATS failed (LE:%d)\r\n",
GetLastError()));
goto CLEANUP;
}
/* Select image format and prepare image buffer based */
memset (&cVideoFormat, 0, sizeof (VIDFORMATSTRUCT));
cVideoFormat.cbSize = sizeof (VIDFORMATSTRUCT);
/* Note: A list of available formats are queried before and stored in cFormats */
cVideoFormat.wFormatIndex = 1;
cVideoFormat.wFrameIndex = 2;
bNoError = DeviceIoControl (hCam, IOCTL_CAMERA_DEVICE_GETSTILLIMAGE,
&cVideoFormat, sizeof (VIDFORMATSTRUCT), 0, 0, &dwBytes, NULL);
if (!bNoError)
{
RETAILMSG(1, (L"IOCTL_CAMERA_DEVICE_GETSTILLIMAGE failed (LE:%d)\r\n",
GetLastError()));
goto CLEANUP;
}
pData = (PBYTE) LocalAlloc (LPTR, dwBytes);
dwBuff = dwBytes;
/* Read the image */
bNoError = DeviceIoControl (hCam, IOCTL_CAMERA_DEVICE_GETSTILLIMAGE,
&cVideoFormat, sizeof (VIDFORMATSTRUCT), pData, dwBuff, &dwBytes, NULL);
if (!bNoError)
{
RETAILMSG(1, (L"IOCTL_CAMERA_DEVICE_QUERYSTILLFORMATS failed (LE:%d)\r\n",
GetLastError()));
goto CLEANUP;
}
/* Write the JPG into a file */
WriteJPEG (L"\\USBCam.jpg", pData, dwBuff);
CLEANUP:
if (pData)
LocalFree(pData);
if (INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE != hCam)
CloseHandle(hCam);
//return bNoError;
}

Display More

I must admit that I have added the driver directly into kernel. Could you tell me how you have installed the driver on PicoCOM? Maybe there might be a problem.

goennema · Feb 19th 2009

I put the webcam.dll to \\FFSDISK\Drivers\webcam.dll and associated it to the USB attach-process according to the manual delivered with the webcam driver.

the NDCUCFG-script looks like this:

Code

reg open \Drivers\USB\ClientDrivers
reg create key Video_Class
reg create key Video_Class
reg set value Prefix string "CAM"
reg set value Dll string "Webcam.dll"
reg open \Drivers\USB\LoadClients\Default\Default
reg create key 14
reg create key Video_Class
reg set value DLL string "\FFSDISK\Drivers\webcam.dll"
reg open \Drivers\USB\LoadClients
reg create key 1133_2241
reg create key Default
reg create key Default
reg create key Video_Class
reg set value DLL string "\FFSDISK\Drivers\webcam.dll"
reg open \Drivers\USB\LoadClients
reg create key 1133_2242
reg create key Default
reg create key Default
reg create key Video_Class
reg set value DLL string "\FFSDISK\Drivers\webcam.dll"
reg open \Drivers\USB\LoadClients
reg create key 1133_2243
reg create key Default
reg create key Default
reg create key Video_Class
reg set value DLL string "\FFSDISK\Drivers\webcam.dll"
reg open \Drivers\USB\LoadClients
reg create key 1133_2245
reg create key Default
reg create key Default
reg create key Video_Class
reg set value DLL string "\FFSDISK\Drivers\webcam.dll"
reg save

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I'll try out your code, but in its core functionality it looks too similiar to mine to expect too much of it. In parallel I will go and pick a logitech-camera to be sure to eliminate hardware issues.

goennema · Feb 19th 2009

Tried your code with my cameras, all of them report this (like expected):

WebCam: Next Frame event not signaled rc 258
IOCTL_CAMERA_DEVICE_QUERYSTILLFORMATS failed (LE:258)

Note: I tried it with the codeplex debug-dll as it showed up the best results until now.

goennema · Feb 19th 2009

interesting issue:

with your code, the debug-driver you supplied today, does NOT freeze, but shows more comprehensive errors on the debug console:

Code

WebCam: Error calling IssueIsochTransfer 87 87
ORMAWebCam: Camera error code 0
WebCam: Error calling IssueIsochTransfer 87 87
TS WebCam: Camera error code 0
WebCam: Error calling IssueIsochTransfer 87 87
faiWebCam: Camera error code 0
WebCam: Error calling IssueIsochTransfer 87 87
led WebCam: Camera error code 0
WebCam: Error calling IssueIsochTransfer 87 87
(LE:WebCam: Camera error code 0
WebCam: Error calling IssueIsochTransfer 87 87
258WebCam: Camera error code 0
WebCam: Error calling IssueIsochTransfer 87 87
)
WebCam: Camera error code 0
WebCam: Error calling IssueIsochTransfer 87 87
WebCam: Camera error code 0
WebCam: ReaReadIsocThreaddThread--
WebCam: Error calling IssueVendorTransfer rc: 31 ExtErr: 31
WebCam: Error set camera power rc 31

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The application console still shows:

IOCTL_CAMERA_DEVICE_QUERYSTILLFORMATS failed (LE:258)

fs-support_MK · Feb 19th 2009

Please try to replace your registry settings with the following ones:

Code

reg open \Drivers\USB\ClientDrivers
reg create key Video_Class
reg set value Prefix string CAM
reg set value Dll string \ffsdisk\drivers\webcam.dll
reg open \Drivers\USB\LoadClients
reg create key 1133_2245
reg create key Default
reg create key Default
reg create key Video_Class
reg set value dll string \ffsdisk\drivers\webcam.dll
reg open \Drivers\USB\LoadClients
reg create key Default
reg create key Default
reg create key 14
reg create key Video_Class
reg set value dll string \ffsdisk\drivers\webcam.dll
reg save

Display More

goennema · Feb 20th 2009

tried that and verified correct application using the remote registry editor.

This makes the picocom report an "unidentified USB device" on the desktop. Answering the prompt for "driver name" with \ffsdisk\drivers\webcam.dll makes the picocom generate the registry entries as stated in my previous post.

fs-support_MK · Feb 20th 2009

Sorry, there was an error in the script posted berfore. I have corrected this. ("reg create Video_Class" -> "reg create key Video_Class").
I have tested it again and its working without any problems with our camera.

goennema · Feb 20th 2009

Thank you, but this did not change the cameras behaviour.

But at last I succeeded after I tried a logitech quickcam. The Quickcam does its job quite good. And just for Info: There is at least one camera in my stock that freezes the driver you compiled for me (the debug binary from codeplex indeed works - or better, it does not crash/freeze). Some other cameras just do not work with the driver. I can use the register to read the camera properties but all tries to capture an image do fail.

All in all not a really satisfactory result, but thank you for your help

Ottoware · Jul 7th 2010

Well I've put the WebCam.dll in the \FFSDSK\Drivers\ map and added the key's in the registry, but I'm getting an error on opening CAM1. Should I see anything on the display when I plug in the QuickCam Pro5000 or on the debug output on rebooting the PicoCOM2?

guy roelant · May 24th 2015

Is all this compatible with wec2013 on effusA9?

I would like to try it also...

any recomendations or brands/types of webcam i have to test it with?

guy roelant · May 26th 2015

no takers here?

fs-support_ZU · May 27th 2015

Hello,

WEC2013 is not binary compatibel to WCE6/WEC7. You may download BSP and try this https://usbcamerawec7.codeplex.com/. I did not test but it is promising.

guy roelant · May 27th 2015

does this mean i have to rebuild my bsp than?

fs-support_ZU · May 27th 2015

You are already confirm with BSP?
I assume to built the components and copy dependencies to release directory before make a runtime image is enouth.

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