Event based webcam recording

Hamilton (Venus)
1

Hi,
Does anyone use a webcam to continuously record the deck, and when an error occurs, it saves the last X minutes? Like a car dash cam.
Is there a Hamilton library for this?
Thanks

2

@rickwierenga made a library for this called pynopticon

1 Like
3
3 Likes
4

Thanks, this is interesting. Just a shame it needs python - have you tried compiling this to a exe?

5

easy to convert: How can I make a Python script standalone executable to run without any dependency? - Stack Overflow

If you need to interface with this using external software, perhaps the included http api is useful to you.

6

At SLAS, Hamilton introduce there own built hardware and software for this particualr feature. My suggestion is to talk to Sales Rep

7

Are you still maintaining this? I get a lot of module not found errors when I just pip install :confused:

8

Yes, we showcased the new Deck Watch tool at the Hamilton booth at SLAS this year. As soon as I have more information about its product launch and features, I will be sure to post about it on the forum. I am very excited that soon we will offer such a solution on our platforms!

We do have a custom library I mentioned in a previous thread that might be of use in the interim.

https://forums.pylabrobot.org/t/on-deck-camera/297/6

3 Likes
9

This was just an internal project for our lab and I’m not sure anyone outside of it is using it, but of course it should be maintained.

I just updated the PyPI version:

pip install pynopticon==0.0.8

I also made some dependencies optional depending on what you wanna use. Per the updated README:

pip install pynopticon            # basic
pip install 'pynopticon[all]'     # all
pip install 'pynopticon[mail]'    # mail
pip install 'pynopticon[yt]'      # yt
pip install 'pynopticon[server]'  # server

Thank you for reporting this and please let me know if you have any other issues!

2 Likes
10

There’s also Labeye from Robiotec. Works with basically any USB webcam. You can have a shell command call within your method to start recording at a critical step, or what I liked to do was have it check the deck against a reference image of what it “should” look like after critical move steps or after an operator needs to load something and flag/pause the method if it didn’t match.

2 Likes
11

we are demoing it right now. happy to share experience

1 Like
12

Thanks! I’ve seen this, I like the deck recognition feature! The thing is you only know when to start recording once an error has occurred, and at that point you should have already been recording for a few minutes! Deck watch looks really cool from Hamilton, we are talking to our local reps about this now.

1 Like
13

Yes please :slight_smile: