Troubleshooting Orbbec Femto Mega camera

Troubleshooting Orbbec Femto Mega camera

Velogic Studio Essentials and Velogic Studio Pro can utilize the Femto Mega camera from Orbbec, which looks like this:


You can think of this camera as a miniaturized version of the Kinect, with an on-board CPU. It is connected to your PC via an Ethernet cable, which also supplies the power to the camera. If you have more than one Femto Mega camera, you'll also have a second Ethernet cable which provides the sync signal to the camera.

Indicator lights

You can check the indicator lights to help determine whether the camera is functioning properly.

Front LED



LED status
Meaning
Solid white
On and ready
Off
Off (or booting up)
Blinking orange
Waiting for sync signal


Note that "Solid white" means that the device has power and the onboard CPU is running; it does not necessarily mean that the sensors in the camera are active and streaming. You can check the front laser (below) to see if the sensors are active.
If the indicator is "Blinking orange", that means that the camera is configured to be a Secondary camera (in the Sync settings in Velogic Studio). As a Secondary camera, it will only run when it receives a Sync signal from the Primary camera. Steps to troubleshoot this:
  1. Check that you have the Primary camera configured as a Primary in Velogic Studio
  2. Check that the Primary camera is running (Front LED is on, and Velogic Studio is receiving frames from it)
  3. Check that you have sync cables from both the Primary and Secondary camera going to the Sync Hub
  4. Check that the Sync Hub has power (via USB-C adaptor)
  5. Check that the Primary camera's sync cable is going into the front of the sync hub (the side with only 1 RJ45 jack)
  6. Check that the Secondary camera's sync cable is going to one of the 8 ports in the "Secondary" group on the back of the sync hub 

Front laser

This is not strictly speaking an indicator LED; it's the actual laser that the camera uses to emit the light pulses which are then received onto the depth sensor to determine depth in the scene.

You'll be able to see this laser as a red light that appears to have "structure".
The laser should only be on when the camera is active and streaming data to Velogic Studio.
We recommend that you turn the power to the whole camera off overnight, just in case the camera gets into a state where the laser is running when not needed.

Rear LED

The light at the rear of the camera will be the first one to give any indication as the device boots up.
LED statusMeaning
Solid whiteOn and ready
OffNo power to device
Blinking whiteBooting


If the camera regularly disconnects and reconnects

... the most likely cause is the sync system, either because the sync cables aren't high quality OR the sync hub isn't getting USB power.

Quick fixes:
  1. The voltage switch on the Sync Hub should be set to 1.8V - but if you temporarily set it to 5V, you should see an LED beside the voltage switch come on. If not, try a different USB power adaptor and/or USB-C cord.
  2. Try a higher-quality and/or shorter connector for the primary and secondary sync cables.
If those quick fixes don't work, here's a longer procedure to confirm that the sync system is actually the cause of the problem:
  1. Watch the light on the right-hand side of the face of the camera.
    1. If it is consistently blinking orange, that means it's configured as a Secondary (so it's waiting for a sync pulse) but it's not getting the sync pulse
    2. If it starts out white, but then blinks orange, and then repeats that cycle: this means the camera gets an inconsistent or poor-quality sync signal. This causes an internal error in the camera, so it reboots and tries again.

  2. Unplug the Sync cable from the pigtail adaptor at the camera
    1. The camera should now stop the disconnect/reconnect cycle in Velogic Studio (or at least, the disconnects should be less frequent and take only a second or two each time).
    2. You should see the configuration options, but no video feed from the camera:
    3. The light on the front of the camera should be blinking orange, because it can't get any sync signal at all.
  • Change the Sync settings to make the camera Standalone (so it's not waiting for a Sync signal anymore):

    1. The camera will restart, and after about 30 seconds you should get a solid video feed from the camera.
    If you do now get a solid video feed from the camera, after switching it to Standalone mode, you've successfully confirmed that the Sync system is the issue.
    You can use Velogic Studio in this state; there is a small chance that the cameras will interfere with each other (because the sync system is not working), but the chance is small and the system will still be useable while you are fixing the sync system.

    How to fix the sync system

    1. Check that all of the cables used in the sync system are high-quality Cat6 or Cat6a cables. This includes the cable from the primary camera to the sync hub, and from the sync hub to all secondary cameras.
    2. Try shorter cables, even if that means running a cable directly across the floor rather than routed through the walls
    3. Check that the sync hub has 5v power (the sync hub doesn't ship with a USB-C power adaptor, but it needs one)
    4. Check that the sync hub voltage switch is set to 1.8V (but if you temporarily switch it to 5V, you should see the LED beside the voltage light come on)


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