Rapid connection/disconnection

[Sebastian_A_1]

Hi,

I recently acquired an F200 camera and a laptop with an i7-4710HQ to be able to use it. It's taken a lot of forum reading and a fair amount of trial and error, de/reinstalling of the dcm sdk and the rest to get to where I am now.

When I first connect the camera it goes kind of crazy for a while connecting and disconnecting (making the classic windows pings as it does so), so fast it never shows up in the device manager but then after a while it calms down and shows up everywhere it should. However, once i try and run the samples anything that requires the depth data either fails to initialise and gives me the telltale disconnect bing (usually) or simply refuses to run. I have checked in the pc settings and it's definitely running on a usb 3 port, i have tried to flash the latest firmware to the camera but it tells me it's already there so now I'm kind of at a loss and would really like to get this up and running.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I've attached my SDK Info

Thanks in advance, Seb

[samontab]

It looks like your USB port is not providing enough power to the camera. The IR projector uses a lot of energy, and some ports just can't handle it.

Try connecting the camera through an external powered USB 3.0 hub.

[Sebastian_A_1]

That was my next attempt. Will pick one up tomorrow and see how it goes from there.

Thanks

[Massimiliano_B_]

hey Sebastian, I'm having the same problem here, fast plug-unplug sound just when apps try to access the realsense's ir and depth cameras.
Did a powered usb hub solve your problem?

[Sebastian_A_1]

I'm not entirely sure what's solved my problem but I seem to have a much more stable connection now, yes. I will however add a slight addendum to explain everything I did in case one part helps you or anyone else who comes across this.

I'm two hubs in, one was pretty cheap and none of my computers wanted to recognise it the day after I got it. First day with that one I had some luck and was getting 5 minutes at a time of solid run but then something would happen and I'd spend the next half hour trying to get it back up and running. I decided to blame this on the hub but it did concretely solve the connection/disconnection issues when I would first plug the camera in so I thought I was on to something. Next day I went to get something a little more substantial and grabbed, in case you have a plethora of hubs to choose from, an Icy Box IB-AC611. The camera stayed similarly temperamental while powered but I unplugged everything one last time hooked everything up and magic all working did a 45 minute continuous test there and then and then have been running different samples all day, without a hitch. The only difference when I hooked everything up this last time? The power cable fell out!

So I have now unplugged, replugged the camera to see what's up and it's still absolutely fine. I did probe a little deeper and grabbed the MUTT tools from Microsoft (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn376875%28v=vs.85%29.aspx) which I haven't yet seen around this forum yet but were pretty good diagnosis tool. I ran the USB 3 diagnosis tool (xhciwmi.exe in the pack of tools) and then tried to make sure the power switches were all taking place correctly with UsbLPM.exe. When connected through the hub everything is running smoothly, I see the port shift from U2 (device U3) to U0/U0, I get an image and everything is fine, connection is unfaltering. When I try and run any of the samples without, however, the camera disconnects, reconnects and then the port upgrades its power rating. I have to confess I have no idea what what I just wrote means but I am going to stab at the fact that it's a power issue and that by passing through a hub (that the computer is having to power) the port isn't allowed to doze off and can deliver when it's needed.

I also made sure the power management was off for the hub and camera by going into Device Manager, finding the camera then switching View mode, View>Devices by Connection, and going into the properties of every hub leading down the stack to the camera and ensuring "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" under Power Management was unchecked.

​I hope something in this spiel sorts your problem out. Feel free to drop a comment back on this if you want me to check any settings etc. Good luck.

Seb

[Massimiliano_B_]

hey Seb, I'm very grateful for you extremely detailed report, I'll try some hub/plug/unplug kung-fu, MUTT tools and eventually have my motherboard cleansed by a shaman.
I'll let you know if things get better (or worse!)

Thanks again!

Max