Hello all,

have not been able to find a solution to this error

My aim is to run 6 pseye cams from my laptop. I have 3 usb ports, 2 x 2.0 and 1 x 3.0.

connecting all the cams individually (so 3 at any one time) works fine. However, when I connect two to a USB hub, the ipi recorder come up with the error 'Control Transfer Failed'

This happens if I have just 2 cams connected in one USB and none in the other two.

in device manager it is recognising all cameras as ps eye cams, as is the case in the ipi recorder camera selection, so they are recognised as connected.
If i connect just one cam through a USB hub, that works fine.

It seems there is some issue with the USB controllers or the ipi recorder setup.

I have read that usb controllers for 2.0 don't always deal well with more than 2 USB connections, so I have put one cam in each of the usb 2.0 ports and tried multiple cams in the usb 3.0 port but even the usb three port comes up with this error with just two cams connected to the USB hub. I have 3 USB hubs and is the same on each.

Other thing is that when I connect two of the cams through a USB hub and on in another, in the camera selection in the ipi recorder it says under each of the cams:
'Warning! more than 2 cameras connected to the same USB controller #1'

this is the same whichever ports I connect the cameras to. If i connect one in each of the ports, it doesn't show up, which suggests that both controllers are working.
This message always says #1 for all port connection setups.

I remember before, using windows 7, that i had to connect 4 cams to the usb 3.0 port and one in each of the 2.0 to get all 6 working ok, but this doesn't seem to work with this windows 10 computer, which is much higher spec.

the usb drivers I have are:
Intel(r) 8 series/C220 Series USB EHCI #1 - 8C26
Intel(r) 8 series/C220 Series USB EHCI #2 - 8C2D
Intel (R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller - 1.0

is a lenovo y70 laptop, the 17inch touchscreen model with 16GB Ram, core i7 quad core processor and 2Gb nvidia gfroce gtx 860M (or 870M) and 500gb SSD HD

Are there some settings somewhere in the ipi recorder or my usb controller settings that will resolve this issue?

many thanks

Rich

Hi
I guess the problem with 'Control transfer failed' message may be related to the USB hub. Is it active (with external power supply) or passive? Using an active one may solve this issue.
Recent Intel chipsets (on of which your laptop is based on) feature hybrid USB 2.0/3.0 controllers and do not actually have 2 physically separated USB 2.0 controllers. So mapping between devices and USB controllers may seem arbitrary and not strictly related to USB ports used for connection. So this might be a false warning. Anyway, it's just warning not preventing you from starting the recording process. What you should really care about is stable frame rate and (practically) none dropped frames.
From our practice modern laptops allow to connect up to 4 PS Eye cameras at 60 fps. If you want to connect 6 PS Eyes try to use 40-50 fps modes.

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Yes, I get the same warning even on my desktop with ample power and usb ports, it doesn't affect the cameras starting or recording at proper 60 fps frame rate on my machine, but of course I can not speak to your issue with it.

I did once try a cheap usb hub and 2 cams through it to one usb 2.0 port, but had no luck at the cameras even starting, so didn't attempt it with a better hub, although iPi has stated this can work, though that post has been made a while back before Win 10 came out, not sure it still applies now, I just wanted to try it, was on Win 10 already when attempted it, but I never needed to use a hub regularly, as I use an add-on USB 3.0 card.

I am not sure this applies to everyone, but in my specific conditions I can not set my camera gain properties above 20, with exposure set at 60, (which I use to cut down on the cameras motion blur), or I get constant frame drops/background warnings popping up in the view ports on all cams at random intervals, even though I have auto-gain turned off always to keep lighting stable.

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