How to store camera images and basket # together in a database?

alive15

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Oct 2015
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Montgomery, AL
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Good morning all,

I got assigned a cool project where I take a picture of every part ran off a machine and correlate each picture to the basket # it's placed in. Each basket will have roughly 150 parts, so all these images will be tied to that one #.

The end result? Basically, my manager wants to access our network drive, and have multiple folders named by the basket #, date, time, etc. and inside each folder have all those pictures.

The catch? Personally, I would love for all this to be done automatically somehow, but not sure which software would be capable of doing this? I'm assuming this is an IoT type of project, so seems very interesting and will be my first. I believe my company already uses Kepware to collect OEE data, but not sure if this software can accomplish what I need automatically? I don't want to keep grabbing the SD card from the camera daily, then figuring out what basket #s go with each picture, then manually entering all this into a folder on our network.

So far, I plan to use A.B PLC (machine using Micrologix, so will need to update to compact logix unless there is any easy way to do this with Micro-logix), AB or Cmore HMI, and Keyence / Cognex / IFM camera with EIP. Mainly need help figuring out the best IoT software also, so any recommendations welcome. Thanks!
 
Just some ideas!

Most network cameras that record to SD-CARD can be scheduled to upload (FTP) folder/images from the SD-CARD. (Example: everyday, or every other day, once a week, Etc.. This way you don't have to manually swap!

However, this project could easily be done with "Ignition Scada" (Example: create a transaction group (Basket #) trigger picture to write to needed Basket #). All this is now stored in SQL Database along with date/time now just apply "Filters - SQL Query" to retrieve the data any way you want it.
 
Try with Mitsubishi iQR PLC, GOT HMI and Cognex. It has everything you need, almost as off the shelf solution.
 
Just some ideas!

Most network cameras that record to SD-CARD can be scheduled to upload (FTP) folder/images from the SD-CARD. (Example: everyday, or every other day, once a week, Etc.. This way you don't have to manually swap!

However, this project could easily be done with "Ignition Scada" (Example: create a transaction group (Basket #) trigger picture to write to needed Basket #). All this is now stored in SQL Database along with date/time now just apply "Filters - SQL Query" to retrieve the data any way you want it.

I have heard about Ignition Scada and FTP, that may be the way to go. I know a lot of SQL database collection stuff is pretty expensive, so I'll have to convince the big wigs that we could use this on other machines to collect data also.

Could you give me a run down of how the Ignition software works? What kind of coding do I need to use? Also, I'm assuming I will need to connect camera directly to a new computer next to the machine, and then run Ignition Scada on that, grab photos and let the operator type in the basket # and store all photos like that somehow. So maybe I don't need PLC / HMI, just a PC?
 
Just remember that SQL will probably require a license the free SQL Server express only goes to about 10gb which could be used quite quickly on pictures, also not sure if it can be used in corporate systems. Your IT department may already have licences but they are user based so you would need to check the availability.
 
Hi Alive15:

If the Carmeas are IP - then all you have to do is configure the network, port forwarding, address translation(NAT)(PAT), so Ignition Scada server could actually be anywhere and the camera could be anywhere.

Parky is correct the express version(which is free) of SQL limits the database to 10gig, but you can create as many database's that you need so each basket# could be a database of 10gig.

To manage Ignition Scada you really should able to program with "Python and SQL".

If your using AB Micrologic PLC you can setup Ignition to read/write tags using Modbus/tcp, If using a Compact/Control logic they have a driver that is copy/paste.

Ignition is very user friendly, and I have seen nothing that can begin to compare.

Anyway this is all just my opinion, been in the busy for 45 years and have worked with all kinds of hardware and software.
 
Thanks for the info so far.

Does anyone recommend a good camera that can automatically store files onto a PC? I was looking at Keyence's IV series, but you have to manually backup everything onto the PC, it's not done automatically. I need a camera that can create a folder on my computer for the day, and dump about 1500 photos daily, then the next day, it automatically creates a folder and dumps the next batch of photos. Does anyone know of a vendor that carries such camera? Thanks,
 
Cognex for one but there are others. It does not create the folder for you but a very simple approach is to use the camera and FTP to store the pictures in one folder on the pc then use the task scheduler and a simple script to move the files and create a new folder once per day.



If you want to go fancy there are numerous camera software that runs on a pc a allows you to do pretty much everything you want but then there is usually programming knowledge required to tie the pieces together.
 
Thanks for the info so far.

Does anyone recommend a good camera that can automatically store files onto a PC? I was looking at Keyence's IV series, but you have to manually backup everything onto the PC, it's not done automatically. I need a camera that can create a folder on my computer for the day, and dump about 1500 photos daily, then the next day, it automatically creates a folder and dumps the next batch of photos. Does anyone know of a vendor that carries such camera? Thanks,

Cheap and not particularly industrial but I run Motioneye on a raspberry pi as part of my home automation. I have it configured to detect and record motion but I believe you can also trigger a snapshot. Files are automatically uploaded to an FTP server in folders auto-created by date.

Personally, I would probably knock something up in NodeRed on a raspberry pi with a camera and using a signal from the machine to trigger a snapshot via the GPIO. For something more challenging you could program up an ESP32 with a camera and GPIO to forward the image by FTP

Nick
 
I may do what Bratt suggested and use FTP server/site to get all my photos and then do Windows Task scheduler to organize everything. I have never used FTP, so I'll explain below what I'm struggling with.

I found Windows IIS FTP server/site, but having trouble setting it up. I created a FTP site and gave it a random ip address, and told my Keyence camera to search for this ip address. It also asked me to create a folder (I'm guessing to store all my photos), so I made one on my desktop. Both my laptop and camera connected to a managed switch. The Keyence camera has a "test connection" button, but it does not see the FTP site / server. I followed the steps from this link, but could not get it to work. Any ideas on where I might be messing up? Do I need to point my camera to the switch instead of directly to the FTP server/site?
 
Regarding the limit of MS SQL Express, use MySQL (Or MariaDB) both have free versions with no limit.

RE: FTP, checkout FileZilla.

+1 For Ignition, and it can store the images in the DB (as a BLOB) which would potentially make searching/retrieval in future easier.
 
I spoke with Ignition, but they said my application is too small; they normally do more plant-wide stuff; this project is only for one machine. They may be too pricy for our company as well.

Okay thanks the_msp and OkiePC, I will check out filezilla and try it out when I get the chance.
 

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