FAQ
This section describes some common errors that might appear when building XiLens. Solutions to such errors are
also provided.
Known Limitation
Even though XiLens has been developed with robustness as a guidance principle, and is thoroughly tested, we are aware
that some limitations exist. Below we list the ones we are awa of, if you find new limitations that are not listed here
please contact us.
File format
The default format of the files used to store the images from all XIMEA cameras is an n-dimensional array
through BLOSC2. This allows storing all images in one single file, at video-rate, and in a lossless compressed fashion.
We strongly believe that this file format is ideal for storing large amounts of data, which is currently the only
supported file format by XiLens. These files can however be read easily using the python library blosc2 and
can also be transformed to other formats is necessary. You can find more details in our documentation.
File corruption
We have noticed that when the connection between a camera and the computer is interrupted, XiLens might end abruptly.
This error emanates from the XiAPI that is used to communicate with the cameras. This can sometimes also result in
an illegal memory access, which by nature is difficult to mitigate since the point at which the camera is accidentally
disconnected from the system cannot be determined beforehand. This can sometimes lead to corruption of the recording file.
To mitigate this, make sure to secure the connection between the camera and the computer, and never disconnect
the camera while recording data.
Application look in Ubuntu 24.04
XiLens might have a strange look in ubuntu 24.04 that does not feel native. This is because
XiLens uses Qt for the main Ui components. Unfortunately Qt only recently added support for Wayland in
version 6.8, which is not yet available via apt. You can install the latest version of Qt manually.
Alternatively, You can also overwrite the following variable to change the app look export QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb
to make it look more native to Ubuntu.
Camera support
Camera support can be obtained from XIMEA through their ticketing system. When you create a ticket, it is always a good Idea to attach the report from the XiCop diagnostics tool. In Ubuntu, you can do this by running:
The report is then stored in the file xicop_report.xml in the current working directory.
Linking error of libuuid
Solution
You most likely are missing the uuid-dev package, to fix this you
cna install it via:
Number of XIMEA devices found:0
Number of XIMEA devices found:0
number of ximea devices found: 0
xiAPI: ---- xiOpenDevice API:V4.25.03.00 started ----
xiAPI: EAL_DeviceEnumerator::OpenDevice - no camera with index 0 is available
xiAPI: EAL_DeviceEnumerator::OpenDevice - can not find device by ID 00000000
xiAPI: xiAPI error: Expected XI_OK in:../API/xiFAPI/interfaces/01_top/xifapi_Top.cpp xiOpenDevice/Line:86