Dual Kinect 2's on same machine?

Greenlaw · **Posted:** Mon Feb 11, 2019 11:48 am

Ugh...too busy this past weekend but still looking into this as time permits.

Re: the laptop, I noticed last night that there is slot in the side of the computer that looks like an ExpressCard slot. If this is the case, adding a second USB 3.0 controller might solve my dual Kinect 2 framerate issue on this computer.

Trying to confirm what this slot is now, and then I need to figure out which USB 3.0 ExpressCard works with the Kinect 2. I see a lot of options for Laptop USB 3.0 ExpressCards on Amazon. Does anybody have a recommendation for Kinect 2 compatibility?

Thanks in advance for any helpful advice.

Greenlaw · **Posted:** Mon Feb 11, 2019 12:26 pm

Confirmed, it's an ExpressCard slot! Now I need to figure out which card works with Kinect2 and Recorder.

Greenlaw · **Posted:** Mon Feb 11, 2019 2:04 pm

Ok, I think this card might work:

1 Port Flush Mount ExpressCard SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Card Adapter with UASP Support

This one has Renesas/NEC chips, which I believe are more likely to support Kinect 2.0. Is this correct? Just looking for an opinion before ordering it.

vmaslov · **Posted:** Mon Feb 11, 2019 2:07 pm

Yes, NEC chip is the safest choice for additional USB 3.0 controller.

Greenlaw · **Posted:** Mon Feb 11, 2019 2:20 pm

Thanks! Placing the order now. Will let everybody know in a couple of days if it works out.

Greenlaw · **Posted:** Thu Feb 14, 2019 2:05 pm

A quick update:

I received the USB 3.0 Expresscard for the laptop last night.

I can get a Kinect 2 to work with the Expresscard, along side a second Kinect 2 plugged into an on-board USB 3 port. Unfortunately, the frame rate for the sensor on the Expresscard is too low, ranging unsteadily at around 24fps. That's significantly faster than what I was seeing before but still not good enough for recording mocap. So, it's back to using a single Kinect 2 for this laptop.

Oh, well...the Expresscard only set me back about $24, so it's not a big loss. Actually, it may not be a loss at all because adding this controller expands my mobile capability for PS3 Eye cameras, and I may revisit using a PS3 Eye setup later this year. If I can find a faster compatible ExpressCard, I may try multi-Kinect 2 on this computer again.

So, next up: by sticking with the 'one Kinect 2 per computer' rule, I may be still be able to capture with three Kinect 2 sensors using my other hardware options. TBD.

I still haven't tried a multi-Kinect 2 setup with my re-built desktop workstation. Hopefully, my USB 3.0 card from the old workstation is compatible with the new motherboard. I'll give it a try in the next couple of days.

Will keep posting as things develop so stay tuned!

Greenlaw · **Posted:** Sun Feb 17, 2019 4:44 pm

Still planning to test this on my desktop workstation this weekend. ATM, I'm transferring my OS from the old HD to an SSD because my boot times are too slow. (It was slow before I rebuilt the computer.) Also, I noticed that I never transferred the old USB 3 card to the new motherboard, so this computer currently has only the onboard USB 3.0 controller. I guess I never bothered since that was all I needed at the time. Will try installing the old USB card after the migration and hopefully it will work.

As soon as the OS migration and card installation is done, and everything checks out, I'll try the dual Kinect 2 config with the new Recorder on this computer.

Will post again tonight.

Greenlaw · **Posted:** Mon Feb 18, 2019 1:47 pm

Woo-hoo! FINALLY...I got both Kinect 2 sensors running on the desktop workstation.

As shown above test, both sensors are maintaining the max 30fps on a single computer. One Kinect 2 sensor is plugged into a USB 3 port on the motherboard and a second one is connected to a USB 3 port into a PCIe controller on the same computer. This PCIe card is my old USB 3 controller card with the NEC Renesas chipset. The onboard USB 3 controller has the Intel chipset.

Note: The Intel and NEC Renesas USB 3 chipsets are recommended for Kinect 2.

Be aware that that newer USB 3.1 controllers tend to have the ASMedia chipset which is NOT compatible with Kinect 2, so be sure to check the specs online before buying. If you shop carefully, there are some USB 3.1 cards with NEC Renesas. (Even though I don't need a 3.1 card for this purpose, it is a much faster card.)

So, in theory, it appears I may soon have a total of 4 Kinect 2 sensors up and running since I can additionally run 1 sensor on the new laptop and 1 sensor on my old tablet computer. (Maybe...I'm not sure the tablet was able to maintain 30fps with the RGB video stream required for Maglite calibration.) I'll post more info when I find time to perform a complete capture test.

User Tips:

Attach the sensors one at a time after you launch Recorder 4. If you attach them both before launching Recorder, it might not pick up the second sensor.

As mentioned in the docs, you'll want to disable Autoplay. At first, I thought I could set each sensor to 'Take no action', but Windows still kept re-scanning for them for some reason. Finally, I just disabled Autoplay completely, which is probably okay since I always found this feature pretty annoying.

Question: I noticed that in the Recorder 4 Home screen, the 'progress' icon keeps spinning and stopping repeatedly for some reason. Is it supposed to do that? It probably doesn't matter since the two sensors are obviously working. Thanks in advance for any info.

Snapz · **Posted:** Sat Feb 23, 2019 8:00 am

...

Good post G, I am thinking of testing dual Kv2 again now, now that it's working on single PC.

Hope you can post a quick YouTube video to show the results you get this way with just dual sensors would be helpful.

Kinect v2's are still dirt cheap on eBay w/ adapters, so won't break the bank just to test it again.

Post any further issues you may have run into while setting it up, I should be ok with my machine config., but I mean anything with the driver, or whatever else maybe to expect, other than what you stated already.

Thanks!

...

Greenlaw · **Posted:** Sat Feb 23, 2019 11:10 am

Snapz wrote:

Hope you can post a quick YouTube video to show the results you get this way with just dual sensors would be helpful.

Will do. I'm going to make time for further testing this weekend.

Quote:

Kinect v2's are still dirt cheap on eBay w/ adapters, so won't break the bank just to test it again.

That's good to know. As you know, I got four Kinect 2 sensors a few years ago, thinking I'd be able to use them right away but my computer hardware at the time wasn't up to the task. Since it's looking like I may be able to do so with the new gear, I might look into getting another sensor as a backup.

If you start running your own tests, post what you learn here. Thanks! :)

Dual Kinect 2's on same machine?

Who is online