PIXCI® Imaging Imaging Boards: Use with the Orphaned iCut Application

1. PIXCI® Imaging Boards: Use with the Orphaned iCut Application

Background.

The iCut application chose EPIX® frame grabbers (i.e. PCI or PCIe cards) and support libraries (i.e. DLLs), for capturing images and video from the camera. The iCut application was not written by EPIX, Inc; the frame grabbers and support libraries used by iCut are off-the-shelf EPIX(R) imaging products and were not customized for iCut. iCut likely also integrated other hardware and software components supplied by other companies. Thus, EPIX, Inc. doesn’t have any knowledge of the iCut’s software’s architecture, is not responsible for iCut support, and, as far as the author knows, has never run iCut software or seen it run.

Some iCut systems use a Jai CM−50 camera; others use the EPIX® SV035B camera. Both are off-the-shelf imaging products.

To assist users of the orphaned iCut software, and based on questions, comments, and feedback from the iCut community, what is known about iCut vis-a-vis EPIX® imaging products follows.

Products.

Early versions of iCut used the PIXCI® SV5 frame grabber, for the PCI bus. It may have also used the PIXCI® SV4 frame grabber (essentially, an earlier version of the PIXCI® SV5), also for the PCI bus. Latter versions used the PIXCI® SV7, for the PCIe bus. Whether there is an iCut configuration option to select one or the other is unknown. Whether early versions of iCut can use the PIXCI® SV7 is unknown.

iCut software used V3.7 of the PIXCI® driver and 32-bit library (DLL). The PIXCI® V3.7 driver and library was designed to support Windows 7 32-bit and earlier version of Windows. As far as is known, there is only a 32-bit version of the iCut application.

Configuration Issues.

As far as is known, in the event of an error using the PIXCI® frame grabber, driver, and/or library, iCut only reports a generic ‘camera problem’ (exact text?), rather than reporting specific errors from the PIXCI® driver and/or library. Thus, problems and solutions require some guesswork. Most of the following material is extracted from the PC Configuration Tips (on www.epixinc.com); selected via educated guesses in lieu of missing error messages.

Open Windows’ Device Manager. Look for PIXCI® SV5 or SV7 under ‘Imaging Devices’. Check the status as reported by Device Manager, such as whether the PIXCI® driver is missing. If missing, download the V3.7 driver from www.epixinc.com/support_archive/archive.htm and install via the Device Manager. If the driver is installed but not version V3.7, uninstall the driver and install the V3.7 driver.

If installing the PIXCI® SV5 or PIXCI® SV7 on a new PC, the Device Manager may not know the proper name of the card, or that it is an ‘Imaging Device’ until after the PIXCI® driver has been installed. Look for a nameless device under ‘Other Devices’, ‘Miscellaneous’, or ‘Coprocessors’. Compare the device’s ‘Hardware ID’; against the Hardware Id’s of the PIXCI® frame grabbers of interest:

    VEN_109E&DEV_0350    PIXCI SV4
    VEN_109E&DEV_036E    PIXCI SV5
    VEN_109E&DEV_0878    PIXCI SV5
    VEN_165A&DEV_EA02    PIXCI SV7

Alternately, remove PIXCI® card (with PC powered off!), reboot, and check whether the Device Manager list has changed. If the PIXCI® frame grabber is listed by the Device Manager, whether found by name or Hardware Id, download the V3.7 driver (see above) and install via the Device Manager.

If the PIXCI® frame grabber is not found in the Device Manager, then either,

a. The frame grabber has been damaged,

b. The frame grabber is not properly seated in the PCI or PCIe slot,

c. The PC motherboard is damaged,

d. The PC BIOS settings must be changed to activate the PCI or PCIe slot.

It is not a PIXCI® driver issue - which is only loaded when and if the Windows Device Manager detects the PIXCI® frame grabber.

In addition to the PIXCI® driver, the support library (i.e. DLL) is required. iCut uses:

    XCLIBWNT.DLL V3.7

or perhaps:

    XCLYBWNT.DLL V3.7

(which? likely the former). This DLL must be present in iCut’s directory, or in Windows ‘system’ directory; typically

    c:\Windows\System32

on most PC’s. If missing, reinstall from iCut’s software distribution media.

If migrating to a new(er) PC, many new(er) PC’s default to energy conservation mode which prevents proper operation of the PIXCI® frame grabber. See the PC Configuration Tips discussion of ‘PCI FIFO Overflow’ and disabling ‘C−State’ in the PC’s BIOS.

Use on Windows 8/10.

The iCut application has been reported to successfully run under Windows 8/10 by requesting Windows to run iCut in Windows 7 compatibility mode. (Right click the iCut shortcut, select Properties, ...).

The iCut application has been reported to successfully run under Windows 8/10 64-bit. The 64-bit version of the PIXCI® V3.7 driver is required. A registry flag must be set as follows to permit use of a 32-bit application. Use ‘regedit’, and navigate into:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\EPIXXCW6

Edit the ‘PIXCI’ key; if it doesn’t exist, create it with ‘String’ type. If the ‘PIXCI’ key’s value doesn’t have a ‘-WT’ flag, append a space and:

    -WT 0x80

to the key’s value; alternately, modify the numeric value following ‘-WT’ so as to set the ‘0x80’ (base 16) bit. Reboot.

Camera Issues.

The JAI CM−50 camera is believed to be End-of-Life and no longer in production. The SV035B camera is still available from EPIX, Inc.

Both are analog cameras using the the same frame grabbers, but are not physically identical. Whether an iCut configuration option is needed to switch from one to the other is unknown. The degree of difficulty in mounting the SV035B in a system originally using the JAI CM−50 is unknown.

Updated: 27 March 2023