I would like to run two plugable microscopes at once. They both work fine using the Microsoft default USB camera driver, but this driver can only handle one camera (microscope) at a time. Can you recommend an alternative driver that will allow me to use both at the same time?
Thanks for asking!
It’s not actually the driver that controls this, it’s the software. You have to find a software suite that allows more than one webcam to be viewed at a time. We currently don’t offer software that does this, but there are packages out there that allow multiple instances to be run simultaneously.
Hope that helps!
Actually, it is the driver. I’m writing the software (in LabVIew). I can acquire images from either camera, but not both at the same time. The LabView documentation is explicit that the ability to capture images from two USB cameras is driver dependent. They mention a couple of cameras (from Creative Labs) that are known to work. The Microsoft driver, which is what I appear to be using, cannot support two simultaneous cameras.
It appears that you are correct. Microsoft must have changed the UVC driver at some point, because this no longer works how it used to.
At this point, there’s no solution to run multiple microscopes at once. This used to be possible by running multiple in stances of the program, or using something like ManyCam, but no longer works.
I will continue to look for a solution, but beyond force-loading a driver and crossing fingers, I doubt there’s going to be anything viable.