Intermittent Image Freezing and Data Corruption from 341-006 Thermal Camera

Description

We have a NexBot Drives 341-006 Thermal Camera (SKU: NXB-SNS-341-006) mounted on an R-50 robot for in-process weld quality monitoring. For the past week, the camera feed has been unreliable. The thermal image will freeze for several seconds, then resume. Sometimes, the image appears corrupted with horizontal tearing and blocks of incorrect temperature data. This is causing our quality control system to falsely reject good parts. We have power-cycled both the camera and the robot controller multiple times. We also checked the 24VDC power supply, and it is stable. The robot controller is logging a recurring vision data timeout error. The camera is connected via the GigE Vision protocol, and we've verified the network settings on the controller haven't changed. This is impacting our production yield and we need to resolve it quickly.

Symptoms

• Thermal image freezes periodically during operation.
• Corrupted or 'tearing' video feed.
• Robot controller logs a vision data timeout error.
• Intermittent loss of connection to the camera in the vision configuration software.

Resolution

The root cause was determined to be a faulty industrial Ethernet cable connecting the NexBot Drives 341-006 Thermal Camera to the robot controller's auxiliary network port. The cable had developed an intermittent internal break near the M12 connector due to repeated flexing, causing significant packet loss on the GigE Vision stream. This packet loss resulted in image corruption, freezing, and eventual data stream timeouts logged by the controller as error E-3105. Replacing the damaged cable with a new high-flex rated M12 Ethernet cable (SKU: NXB-CBL-ETH-M12-5M) immediately stabilized the connection and restored reliable camera performance. The system has been running error-free for 24 hours post-replacement.

Resolution Steps

1. Verified the camera was receiving a stable 24VDC supply under load.
2. Connected the camera directly to a field service laptop to bypass the robot's network switch and isolate the device.
3. Used a network packet analyzer to monitor the GigE Vision stream, which revealed a high rate of dropped and malformed packets.
4. Physically inspected the Ethernet cable and found signs of excessive wear and kinking near the connector at the camera end.
5. Replaced the suspect cable with a new industrial Ethernet cable, part number NXB-CBL-ETH-M12-5M.
6. Reconnected the camera to the robot controller through the new cable.
7. Ran the welding application for a 1-hour test cycle and monitored the video feed for any signs of freezing or corruption.
8. Cleared the controller error log and confirmed that error E-3105 did not reoccur.