Balluff - BVS CA-MLC / BVS CA-IGC / mvBlueFOX Technical Documentation
Installing the Impact Acquire driver

Table of Contents

Windows

Note
Before connecting the mvBlueFOX, please install the software and driver first!

All necessary drivers are available from the Balluff website: https://www.balluff.com/en-de/downloads/software/mvbluefox-usb-2-0.

Starting the installer application

  • mvBlueFOX-x86-3.0.0.exe (for 32-bit systems) or
  • mvBlueFOX-x86_64-3.0.0.exe (for 64-bit systems): will display the following dialog:
mvBlueFOX installer - Start window
  • Now, follow the instructions of the installation program and adjust the settings to your needs:
mvBlueFOX installer - Select folder
Since
Version 2.25.0 of this driver package

ImpactControlCenter is able to check the availability of new driver versions weekly. Deactivate the check box if ImpactControlCenter should not check for updates. You can activate this again in ImpactControlCenter via the help menu.

mvBlueFOX installer - Select features
  • After confirmation, the installation will start and copy files and install device drivers.
mvBlueFOX installer - Confirm installation
  • The installation is finished now you can close the window.
mvBlueFOX installer - Finished installation

You will find all tools like

either as shortcuts on the desktop or in the Windows start menu under Balluff -> Impact Acquire.

Afterwards, you can use DeviceConfigure to update the firmware if needed. The latest firmware image is available on the web - please check for updates. The current firmware version can be read out using ImpactControlCenter.

Linux

Additional packages will be needed to use all features of Impact Acquire.

Compiler etc. for building applications:

  • build-essential (meta package)
  • gcc 5.5.0 environment or newer

wxWidget release 3.0 or 3.2 packages, e.g.

  • libwxbase3.0-0v5
  • libwxbase3.0-dev
  • libwxgtk3.0-gtk3-0v5
  • libwxgtk3.0-gtk3-dev
  • libwxgtk-webview3.0-gtk3-0v5
  • libwxgtk-webview3.0-gtk3-dev
  • wx3.0-headers
  • libgtk2.0-dev
Note
The names of the packages mentioned above are Debian / Ubuntu specific. Other distributions (e.g. SuSE, Arch, Redhat, ...) will use different names.

The installation script will ask if the packages should be downloaded during the installation process. If some of the packages are not installed some features might not be available. If the e.g. wxWidgets related packages are missing on the target system then all GUI application coming as part of the Impact Acquire installation won't be available.

Note
If you are going to install the Impact Acquire package on an ARM device, please read this section first.

To use a (camera) device in Linux (capture images from it and change its settings), a driver is needed, consisting of several libraries and several configuration files. These files are required during runtime.

To develop applications that can use the device an API is needed, containing header files, makefiles, samples, and a few libraries.

Both file collections are distributed in a single package which is available in the Support section of the Balluff website. In addition to that an installation script is provided which can be downloaded from the same location. Using this script makes installing the driver package a lot easier.

Note
The following table shows the supported platforms and the corresponding package and installation script name:
ArchitecturePackageInstallation Script
ARM64mvBlueFOX ARM64_gnu 3.0.0.tgz install_mvBlueFOX_ARM
ARMhfmvBlueFOX ARMhf_gnueabi 3.0.0.tgzinstall_mvBlueFOX_ARM
x86_64mvBlueFOX x86_64_ABI2 3.0.0.tgzinstall_mvBlueFOX

The following example explains the installation process for the x86_64 package. The installation process for other packages will work almost identical except different names as mentioned in the previous table.

  • Please start a console and change into the directory where the installation script and the installation package are located e.g. /home/username/Downloads :
    cd /home/username/Downloads 
    Note
    If root permissions are needed, the script will ask for the permissions. There is no need to call it with root permissions.
  • You might need to enable the execute flag with:
    chmod a+x install_mvGenTL_Acquire.sh 
  • Run the install script:
    ./install_mvGenTL_Acquire.sh

During installation the script will ask, if it should build all tools and samples.

Note
The installation scripts is developed for Ubuntu/Debian, SUSE Linux and Red Hat Linux based distributions. On other distributions some features of the installation script may or may not work. Get in touch with us if you encounter any problems!

The installation script checks for package dependencies described above and installs them with the respective standard package manager (e.g. apt-get) if necessary. So an Internet connection is recommended.

Note
The installation script (install_mvBlueFOX.sh) and the archive (mvBlueFOX x86_64_ABI2 3.0.0.tgz) must reside in the same directory. Nothing is written to this directory during script execution, so no write access to the directory is needed in order to execute the script.

The script supports various arguments, which allow to customize the installation, the desired functionalities and the installation process itself. All arguments are optional:

ArgumentFunction
-h or --help Display the help.
-p or --path Define a custom installation directory.
-u or --unattended Unattended installation with default settings. By using this parameter you explicitly accept the EULA.
-m or --minimal Minimal installation. No tools or samples will be built, and no automatic configuration and/or optimizations will be done. By using this parameter you explicitly accept the EULA.

The target directory name specifies where to place the driver. If the directory does not yet exist, it will be created. The path can be either absolute or relative; i.e. the name may but need not start with / .

If no path is specified, the package will be installed to /opt/Impact Acquire.