*Posted October 10, 2015

If you have trouble connecting to your Kinect device, for example, if KinectUtil or RawKinectViewer keep terminating with an error similar to the following one:

terminate called after throwing an instance of ‘std::runtime_error’
what(): Kinect::Camera::Camera: Less than 0 Kinect camera devices detected
Aborted

then your PC might have a bad USB host controller.

First, check if your Kinect is plugged into a USB 3.0 or a USB 2.0 port. From a terminal, run lsusb and look for a line like the following:

Bus 001 Device 014: ID 045e:02ae Microsoft Corp. Xbox NUI Camera

Instead of “NUI Camera,” you might get “NUI Audio” or “NUI Motor,” and the bus and device numbers depend on your local setup. Note down the bus number you see, and then look for a line indicating a root hub with the same bus number, and device number 1, in the output from lsusb. In my case:

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

This indicates that my Kinect is plugged into a USB 2.0 bus. For USB 3.0, you would see:

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub

If your Kinect is on USB 3.0, try plugging it into a USB 2.0 port. Confirm via the above method that the port you found really is USB 2.0.

If your PC does not have USB 2.0 ports, of if the problem persists even on USB 2.0, you will have to buy and install a PCI express USB 3.0 extension card.

The important thing to look out for is that the USB extension card is based on a USB controller chip from NEC or Renesas Technology Corp., chip models “uDP720200″ or “uDP720202” or similar. When installing the card, you must connect the power plug on the back of the card to your PC’s power supply unit.

If you want to find out the chip type of your current USB 3.0 host controller, run the following from a terminal:

lspci | grep "USB 3.0"

In my case, the output is:

06:00.0 USB controller: Renesas Technology Corp. uPD720202 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 02)

Problems:

• • • Problem with the Kinect System recognition → Power adapter does not provide enough power
    • Problems with getting Kinect to be recognized → Use Mint 18 beta which supports Skylake CPUs
    • 0 camera detected → Can use Kinect with Windows and Linux by using another program (e.g., X Box One Kinect Sensor)
    • Problem with Kinect camera connection → Wrong USB port on the computer and not enough current from the 12V power supply or a bad cable: build own adapter using 3.5 amp 12Vdc power supply OR use a 12V 1.5A good quality plug pack
    • USB power supplies does not function properly → Power supply might be defective
    • Sandbox does not recognize Kinect/0 Kinect → Replace Kinect power source worked better OR plug the Kinect power source into wall rather than power bar OR use ‘Motomaster Eliminator Powerbox’ to power the Kinect
    • Using Kinect for Xbox one, depth field is static/not working in Rawkinect viewer → System had USB2 while new Kinect had USB3
    • Using 1414 kinect 360, the USB plug does not fit the USB socket on a Dell laptop, is there a modification or converter required to make this Kinect-USB transition?
    • Adapter does not provide enough power to Kinect: How to get more power to the Kinect through the power supply AC cable adapter or rewire/modify the circuitry to provide more power
    • Using 1415, when running ‘RawKinectViewer -compress 0,’ the popup window with the kinect-detection is not always immediate
    • The machine will not boot up with the Kinect sensor connected to the USB port but will when the Kinect is removed
    • Cannot locate Kinect, how to change it from USB2 to USB3?
    • Running ‘RawKinectViewer -compress 0,’ gets the viewer and it loads a single frame but does not update
    • Sandbox program will not launch if boot the computer with the Kinect plugged into USB2 or USB3 sockets
    • PC is not powering on when the Kinect is plugged in via USB and powered on, only powering on when it is unplugged or powered off
    • Running lsusb, the Kinect does not show up, no power to the Kinect

Recommendations:

• Hardware setup, Kinect and its interface, how to control: use Kinect version 1 (Kinect 360, model 1414), purchase Kinect USB power supply, use BenQ, use intel i5 + NVIDA 960 or better graphics card, mount projector at 90 degrees to the sand surface, 40in x 30in for sandbox dimensions
• Make sure USB3 chipset is connected to the PCIx Gen 2.0 bus of the motherboard; PCIx Gen 2.0 is required to support the 5.0B/s bus speed