Troubleshooting

Camera-image issues

The camera image is too bright

• If the camera is in manual exposure mode, decrease the exposure time (see Parameters), or
• switch to auto-exposure mode (see Parameters).

The camera image is too dark

• If the camera is in manual exposure mode, increase the exposure time (see Parameters), or
• switch to auto-exposure mode (see Parameters).

The camera image is too noisy

Large gain factors cause high-amplitude image noise. To decrease the image noise,

• use an additional light source to increase the scene’s light intensity, or
• choose a greater maximal auto-exposure time (see Parameters).

The camera image is out of focus

• Check whether the object is too close to the lens and increase the distance between the object and the lens if it is.
• Check whether the camera lenses are dirty and clean them if they are.
• If none of the above applies, a severe hardware problem might exist. Please contact support.

The camera image is blurred

Fast motions in combination with long exposure times can cause blur. To reduce motion blur,

• decrease the motion speed of the camera,
• decrease the motion speed of objects in the field of view of the camera, or
• decrease the exposure time of the camera (see Parameters).

The camera image frame rate is too low

• Increase the image frame rate as described in Parameters.
• The maximal frame rate of the cameras is 25 Hz.

Depth/Disparity, error, and confidence image issues

All these guidelines also apply to error and confidence images, because they correspond directly to the disparity image.

The disparity image is too sparse or empty

• Check whether the camera images are well exposed and sharp. Follow the instructions in Camera-image issues if applicable.
• Check whether the scene has enough texture (see Stereo matching) and install an external pattern projector if required.
• Decrease the Minimum Distance.
• Increase the Maximum Distance.
• Check whether the object is too close to the cameras. Consider the different depth ranges of the rc_visard variants.
• Decrease the Minimum Confidence.
• Increase the Maximum Depth Error.
• Choose a lesser Disparity Image Quality. Lower resolution disparity images are generally less sparse.

The disparity images’ frame rate is too low

• Check and increase the frame rate of the camera images (see Parameters). The frame rate of the disparity image cannot be greater than the frame rate of the camera images.
• Choose a lesser Disparity Image Quality.
• Increase the Minimum Distance as much as possible for the application.

The disparity image does not show close objects

• Check whether the object is too close to the cameras. Consider the depth ranges of the rc_visard variants.
• Decrease the Minimum Distance.

The disparity image does not show distant objects

• Increase the Maximum Distance.
• Increase the Maximum Depth Error.
• Decrease the Minimum Confidence.

The disparity image is too noisy

• Increase the Segmentation value.
• Increase the Fill-In value.

The disparity values or the resulting depth values are too inaccurate

• Decrease the distance between the camera and the scene. Depth-measurement error grows quadratically with the distance from the cameras.
• Check whether the scene contains repetitive patterns and remove them if it does. They could cause wrong disparity measurements.

The disparity image is too smooth

• Decrease the Fill-In value.

The disparity image does not show small structures

• Decrease the Segmentation value.
• Decrease the Fill-In value.

GigE Vision/GenICam issues

No images

• Check that the modules are enabled. See ComponentSelector and ComponentEnable in Important GenICam parameters.