IMX93 Camera Usage Guide

🚀 Introduction

This guide shows you how to get started using TechNexion camera modules on TechNexion IMX93 development kits. You must have the background knowledge to modify the kernel configuration, rebuild, and replace the kernel and the device tree source (DTS). This article is based on Yocto 5.0 (Scarthgap) 2026Q1 Release with Linux kernel version 6.6.52-2.2.2.

📸 Supported Camera Modules

TEVS Series
TEVM Series

Camera Series	Products
TEVS	TEVS-AR0144 TEVS-AR0145 TEVS-AR0234 TEVS-AR0235 TEVS-AR0246 TEVS-AR0521 TEVS-AR0522 TEVS-AR0544 TEVS-AR0821 TEVS-AR0822 TEVS-AR0830 TEVS-AR1335 TEVS-AR2020

Camera Series	Products
TEVM	TEVM-AR0144 TEVM-AR0145 TEVM-AR0234 TEVM-AR0235 TEVM-AR0246 TEVM-AR0521 TEVM-AR0522 TEVM-AR0544 TEVM-AR0821 TEVM-AR0822 TEVM-AR0830 TEVM-AR1335 TEVM-AR2020

Example

This article uses the TEVS-AR0521 as an example.

🧩 Supported Boards

SoM	Board
EDM-IMX93	EDM-WB-IMX93
AXON-IMX93	AXON-WB-IMX93

🔧 Hardware Setup Instructions

1. Power Supply Preparation

Use a DC 5V or 12V power cable to supply power to the board.
If you are using FPD-Link III SerDes, use a 12V power adapter (minimum 3A) connected through the barrel jack.

2. Debug Console Connection

Prepare a USB-to-UART cable when connecting to a PC.
Connect it to the CONSOLE1 connector.

3. Display Output Connection

Prepare a panel for output display.
Connect it to the LCD1 connector or LVDS1 connector on the board.

About display

The provided DTBs include configuration for 10.1-inch and 15.6-inch LVDS display panels, as well as 5-inch and 8-inch LCD panels.

This output is useful for verifying the camera stream on screen.

4. Camera Interface (CSI) Overview

The board has one MIPI CSI-2 interface, CSI1.
It uses a 70-pin board-to-board connector manufactured by Hirose.

💻 Prepare Yocto demo image for testing TechNexion camera

Use a Yocto demo image that includes the required device tree blobs and camera drivers.

🔽 Downloading the Demo Image

The prebuilt demo image is available on TechNexion's download server.

Download Link

EDM-IMX93
AXON-IMX93

🔗 Download Prebuilt Image for EDM-IMX93

💾 Flashing the Image

Flash the image to e.MMC or an SD card using one of these methods:

Method 1. Using the UUU Tool

🔗 How to Flash with UUU

Boot Mode

Set the board to Serial Download Mode before flashing.

Method 2. Using the U-Boot UMS Command

🔗 Using UMS in U-Boot

U-Boot Requirement

The board must boot a U-Boot version that supports the ums command.

Method 3. For Windows Users

🔗 Using Balena Etcher

🛠️ Build Yocto

TechNexion supports building a Yocto-based Linux image with the following kernel and branch.

📦 Supported Linux Kernel

Linux Kernel Version	Yocto Branch
6.6.52	tn-imx_6.6.52_2.2.2-stable

📁 Source and Build Instructions

Fetch Yocto Source

EDM-IMX93
AXON-IMX93

📖 Build Yocto for EDM-IMX93

📸 Camera Testing Instructions

🌳 Specify Camera DTBO in U-Boot

Connect the debug console cable to the carrier board.
Power on the board and interrupt boot when Hit any key to stop autoboot: appears.
Set the camera overlay:

CSI1 connector

u-boot=> setenv dtoverlay tevs

Continue booting.

u-boot=> saveenv
u-boot=> boot

tip

Append the display-panel overlay when you need on-screen camera output.

u-boot=> setenv dtoverlay=tevs vxt-vl050-070-8048nt

🎛️ Setup the media controller before camera streaming

Inspect the media topology:

$ media-ctl -p

Example output:

Media controller API version 6.6.52

Media device information
------------------------
driver          mxc-md
model           FSL Capture Media Device
serial
bus info        platform:42800000.bus:camera
hw revision     0x0
driver version  6.6.52

Device topology
- entity 1: mxc_isi.0 (16 pads, 2 links, 0 routes)
            type V4L2 subdev subtype Unknown flags 0
        pad0: Sink
                <- "mxc-mipi-csi2.0":4 [ENABLED]
        pad1: Sink
        pad2: Sink
        pad3: Sink
        pad4: Sink
        pad5: Sink
        pad6: Sink
        pad7: Sink
        pad8: Sink
        pad9: Sink
        pad10: Sink
        pad11: Sink
        pad12: Source
                -> "mxc_isi.0.capture":0 [ENABLED]
        pad13: Source
        pad14: Source
        pad15: Sink

- entity 18: mxc_isi.0.capture (1 pad, 1 link)
             type Node subtype V4L flags 0
             device node name /dev/video0
        pad0: Sink
                <- "mxc_isi.0":12 [ENABLED]

- entity 22: mxc-mipi-csi2.0 (8 pads, 2 links)
             type Node subtype V4L flags 0
             device node name /dev/v4l-subdev0
        pad0: Sink
                <- "tevs 1-0048":0 [ENABLED,IMMUTABLE]
        pad1: Sink
        pad2: Sink
        pad3: Sink
        pad4: Source
                -> "mxc_isi.0":0 [ENABLED]
        pad5: Source
        pad6: Source
        pad7: Source

- entity 31: tevs 1-0048 (1 pad, 1 link, 0 routes)
             type V4L2 subdev subtype Sensor flags 0
             device node name /dev/v4l-subdev1
        pad0: Source
                [stream:0 fmt:UYVY8_1X16/640x480@1/60 field:none colorspace:srgb xfer:srgb ycbcr:601 quantization:full-range
                 crop.bounds:(0,0)/640x480
                 crop:(0,0)/640x480]
                -> "mxc-mipi-csi2.0":0 [ENABLED,IMMUTABLE]

The graph view can make the topology easier to understand.

note

Generate the graph with:

$ media-ctl --print-dot > graph.dot
$ dot -Tpng graph.dot > graph.png
# Install Graphviz if needed:
# sudo apt-get install -y graphviz

We can observe that the link between ‘tevs 1-0048’ to ‘csidev-4ae00000.csi’ is a dotted line. This means it's not available.

Enable the link between the TEVS and CSI device.

$ media-ctl -l "'tevs 1-0048':0 -> 'csidev-4ae00000.csi':0 [1]"

Set the resolution and format of every media entity to match the camera output. Check supported formats, resolutions, and frame intervals:

# formats
$ v4l2-ctl -d /dev/v4l-subdev1 --list-subdev-mbus-codes
  ioctl: VIDIOC_SUBDEV_ENUM_MBUS_CODE (pad=0,stream=0)
          0x200f: MEDIA_BUS_FMT_UYVY8_1X16

# resolutions
$ v4l2-ctl -d /dev/v4l-subdev1 --list-subdev-framesize code=0x200f
  ioctl: VIDIOC_SUBDEV_ENUM_FRAME_SIZE (pad=0,stream=0)
          Size Range: 640x480 - 640x480
          Size Range: 1280x720 - 1280x720
          Size Range: 1280x800 - 1280x800

# frame interval of resolution
$ v4l2-ctl -d /dev/v4l-subdev1 --list-subdev-frameintervals width=640,height=480,code=0x200f
  ioctl: VIDIOC_SUBDEV_ENUM_FRAME_INTERVAL (pad=0,stream=0)
          Interval: 0.017s (60.000 fps)
          Interval: 0.033s (30.000 fps)
          Interval: 0.067s (15.000 fps)
          Interval: 0.100s (10.000 fps)

$ v4l2-ctl -d /dev/v4l-subdev3 --list-subdev-frameintervals width=1280,height=720,code=0x200f
  ioctl: VIDIOC_SUBDEV_ENUM_FRAME_INTERVAL (pad=0,stream=0)
          Interval: 0.017s (60.000 fps)
          Interval: 0.033s (30.000 fps)
          Interval: 0.067s (15.000 fps)
          Interval: 0.100s (10.000 fps)

$ v4l2-ctl -d /dev/v4l-subdev3 --list-subdev-frameintervals width=1280,height=800,code=0x200f
  ioctl: VIDIOC_SUBDEV_ENUM_FRAME_INTERVAL (pad=0,stream=0)
          Interval: 0.017s (60.000 fps)
          Interval: 0.033s (30.000 fps)
          Interval: 0.067s (15.000 fps)
          Interval: 0.100s (10.000 fps)

Set the resolution to 1280×720 at 60 FPS, for example:

$ media-ctl -V "'tevs 1-0048':0 [fmt:UYVY8_1X16/1280x720@1/60 field:none]"

🎥 Start Camera Video Stream via GStreamer

🎬 Launch GStreamer Pipeline

Start streaming with 1280×720 at 60 FPS:

$ gst-launch-1.0 v4l2src device=/dev/video0 ! \
  "video/x-raw,format=YUY2,width=1280,height=720,framerate=60/1" ! \
  fpsdisplaysink video-sink=waylandsink sync=false -v

🚨 Troubleshooting

Check DTB Overlay in U-Boot

CSI1 connector

  u-boot=> printenv dtoverlay
    dtoverlay=tevs vxt-vl050-070-8048nt

tip

The vxt-vl050-070-8048nt overlay is for the 5-inch LCD display panel.

Verify Camera Initialization

  $ dmesg -t | grep tevs
    platform 4ae00000.csi: Fixed dependency cycle(s) with /soc@0/bus@44000000/i2c@44350000/tevs@48
    tevs 1-0048: tevs_probe() device node: tevs@48
    tevs 1-0048: Version:26.3.0.1
    tevs 1-0048: Product:TEVS-AR0144, HeaderVer:3, MIPI_Rate:800
    tevs 1-0048: Chip ID: 0x0356
    tevs 1-0048: probe success
    mx8-img-md: Registered sensor subdevice: tevs 1-0048 (1)
    mx8-img-md: created link [tevs 1-0048] => [mxc-mipi-csi2.0]

Confirm Board and Camera DTB

EDM-IMX93
AXON-IMX93

  $ dmesg -t | grep -i model
    Machine model: TechNexion EDM-IMX93 and WB baseboard

  $ dmesg -t | grep -i model
    Machine model: TechNexion AXON-IMX93 and WB baseboard

Check Available Video Devices

$ v4l2-ctl --list-device

Example output:

FSL Capture Media Device (platform:42800000.bus:camera):
        /dev/media0

mxc-isi-cap_v1 (platform:4ae40000.isi:cap_devic):
        /dev/video0

Typically, /dev/video0 is the primary camera capture device when using CSI1.

🚀 Introduction​

📸 Supported Camera Modules​

🧩 Supported Boards​

🔧 Hardware Setup Instructions​

1. Power Supply Preparation​

2. Debug Console Connection​

3. Display Output Connection​

4. Camera Interface (CSI) Overview​

💻 Prepare Yocto demo image for testing TechNexion camera​

🔽 Downloading the Demo Image​

Download Link​

💾 Flashing the Image​

Method 1. Using the UUU Tool​

Method 2. Using the U-Boot UMS Command​

Method 3. For Windows Users​

🛠️ Build Yocto​

📦 Supported Linux Kernel​

📁 Source and Build Instructions​

📸 Camera Testing Instructions​

🌳 Specify Camera DTBO in U-Boot​

🎛️ Setup the media controller before camera streaming​

🎥 Start Camera Video Stream via GStreamer​

🎬 Launch GStreamer Pipeline​

🚨 Troubleshooting​

Check DTB Overlay in U-Boot​

Verify Camera Initialization​

Confirm Board and Camera DTB​

Check Available Video Devices​