PointGreySWIR_legacy/README.md

Point Grey / FLIR USB2 camera on Ubuntu 24.04 / Linux Mint 22

Setup for a legacy Point Grey Research USB 2.0 camera (USB vendor 1e10) on a modern Debian/Ubuntu-family machine. Tested against the camera that reports:

idVendor=1e10 idProduct=2005
Product: USB 2.0 Digital Imaging Camera
Manufacturer: Point Grey Research

These cameras predate FLIR's Spinnaker SDK and are supported only by the older FlyCapture2 SDK (here, version 2.13.3.31). Spinnaker will not see them.

What this camera actually is

The reference unit was handed over as a "SWIR camera," but it is a standard visible/near-IR machine-vision camera with a wavelength converter fitted in front of the sensor. Worth knowing before you trust it for anything quantitative.

FlyCapture2Test reports:

Camera model - Chameleon CMLN-13S2M
Sensor       - Sony ICX445AL (1/3" 1296x964 CCD)

That is a plain silicon CCD, which physically cannot detect 1550 nm on its own (silicon's band edge sits near 1050 nm). It images 1550 nm because someone fitted an anti-Stokes upconversion phosphor over the sensor together with a visible-blocking filter. The phosphor absorbs roughly 1495–1595 nm and re-emits around 532 nm green, which the silicon CCD detects normally. The modification is entirely optical, so the camera still identifies itself as a stock Chameleon and there is nothing to configure for it in software.

In practice:

• Band-limited to about 1495–1595 nm. It will not see 1310 nm, 1064 nm or 2 µm. It responds to incandescent bulbs (blackbody emission reaches into that band) but not to visible LEDs.
• Direct sources only. It needs roughly 1–2 mW imaged onto the array (a laser spot, or a hot filament). It cannot image reflected or diffuse SWIR scenes.
• Resolution is phosphor-limited. The phosphor point-spread is around 70 µm, so 1550 nm images are much softer than the 1296×964 sensor implies, and dynamic range is only about 30 dB.

It is a cheap 1550 nm beam/source viewer, not a SWIR scene camera. Genuine quantitative or reflected-scene SWIR imaging needs an InGaAs sensor. The FlyCapture2 setup below is the same either way, since the camera electronics are unmodified.

What gets installed

The FlyCapture2 SDK was built for Ubuntu 18.04. Its GUI applications (FlyCap2, UpdatorGUI) depend on GTK2-era libraries (libgtkmm-2.4, libglademm-2.4, libgtkglextmm) that no longer exist in Ubuntu 24.04, so we do not install them. The core libraries only need libusb and libraw1394, which are still present, so this setup installs:

• libflycapture2 / libflycapture-c2 and their -dev packages (C++ and C runtime + headers).
• FlyCapture2Test and FlyCapture2Test_C — prebuilt command-line tools that list attached cameras and grab test frames. They link only the core library, so they run fine without the GUI stack.
• fc2view — a small live viewer built from fc2view.cpp in this repo, using OpenCV. It replaces the vendor's GTK2 GUI: it streams the first camera into a window and saves snapshots (see below).
• The example source tree at /usr/src/flycapture/src for building your own capture programs.

It also does the two bits of host configuration these cameras need:

• A udev rule + flirimaging group so the camera is readable/writable without root.
• A larger USBFS buffer (usbcore.usbfs_memory_mb=1000, up from the 16 MB default). Camera frames exceed the default buffer, which otherwise shows up as grab failures or dropped images.

The vendor GUI itself is the only thing lost by not being on 18.04, and fc2view covers the common need for a live viewport. If you specifically need the vendor GUI (e.g. for firmware updates via UpdatorGUI), run it in an 18.04/20.04 container.

Live viewer (fc2view)

install.sh compiles fc2view.cpp and installs it as /usr/local/bin/fc2view. With the camera plugged in:

fc2view

It connects to the first camera, prints its model and serial, and opens a live window. Keys: s saves a snapshot to the current directory as fc2-<serial>-<timestamp>.png (saved from the raw frame, so a 16-bit sensor keeps its full bit depth); q or Esc quits. It converts each frame to BGR for display, so it works on mono and colour sensors alike.

It's about 130 lines and depends only on OpenCV and the FlyCapture2 core library. Treat it as a starting point for your own acquisition code. Rebuild by hand with:

g++ fc2view.cpp -I/usr/include/flycapture $(pkg-config --cflags --libs opencv4) -lflycapture -o fc2view

Install

The SDK .deb files are bundled under sdk/ because FLIR's download is behind a login, so the repo is self-contained. From this directory:

sudo ./install.sh

Then log out and back in (for the flirimaging group to apply). The USBFS limit is set live during install and made permanent on the next reboot; a reboot covers both at once.

Verify, with the camera plugged in:

FlyCapture2Test        # prints camera info + grabs frames
fc2view                # opens the live window

FlyCapture2Test should show the camera's serial, model and firmware, then a batch of grabbed frames. That serial should match the one in dmesg/lsusb (00FBA0C0 on the reference machine).

Rolling out to another machine

The camera model and the OS release are the same across your machines, so:

1. Copy this whole directory (it includes sdk/ with the .deb files).
2. Run sudo ./install.sh.
3. Log out and back in (or reboot).

The script is idempotent, so re-running it to repair a machine is safe. If a machine is a different architecture (e.g. arm64) or a different OS release, the bundled amd64 debs will not apply; get the matching FlyCapture2 build from FLIR and drop its debs into sdk/.

Building your own capture program

Headers are in /usr/include/flycapture; the library links with -lflycapture. A minimal build:

g++ my_capture.cpp -I/usr/include/flycapture -lflycapture -o my_capture

Or start from a worked example:

cp -r /usr/src/flycapture/src/FlyCapture2Test ~/fc2test && cd ~/fc2test
g++ FlyCapture2Test.cpp -I/usr/include/flycapture -lflycapture -o FlyCapture2Test

Uninstall

sudo ./uninstall.sh

This removes the libraries, CLI tools, example source and udev rule. It leaves the flirimaging group, the GRUB USBFS setting and the apt dependencies in place (they are harmless and may be shared); the script prints how to undo those by hand.

Troubleshooting

• FlyCapture2Test finds no camera — confirm lsusb shows 1e10:2005. If it does, you probably have not logged out/in since install, so you lack the flirimaging group (id should list it). As a one-off check you can run sudo FlyCapture2Test.
• Camera detected but frames fail or time out — the USBFS buffer did not take. Check cat /sys/module/usbcore/parameters/usbfs_memory_mb (should read 1000); if it reads 16, reboot so the GRUB setting applies.
• error while loading shared libraries: libflycapture.so.2 — run sudo ldconfig.
• USB 2.0 bandwidth — this is a USB 2.0 camera (~480 Mbps shared). On a busy hub you may need to lower resolution or frame rate. Plugging it into its own port/controller helps.

Reference

• Vendor SDK README: sdk/README.
• FLIR "Configuring USBFS" note explains the buffer limit (the SDK README links to ptgrey.com/tan/10685, now under flir.com support).