TI Starter Kit EVMs Camera Usage Guide - Processor SDK Linux 09.01

🚀 Introduction

This article guides you how to get started using TechNexion camera modules on Ti starter kit.

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📸 Supported Camera Modules

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

More Camera Products Details

Check here ! 🔗 TechNexion Embedded Vision Solutions
Find out the solution which can accelerate your time to market for embedded vision projects.

Ti Processor SDK version

TechNexion is using ti-processor-sdk-linux with 09.01.00.0X (Dec 2023), if you need to support other versions, you can grab the source codes from 🔗 GitHub – TechNexion TI EVK camera driver and build it by yourself.

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🧩 Supported Ti Developer Kit

SoM	Board
AM62x	Ti SK-AM62X starter kit for Sitara™ processors

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🔧 Hardware Setup Instructions

1. Connect the Adapter Board and Camera Cable

With different board you need prepare match adapter board and cable for the connect pins.
Here is the table for you can easily to confirm what you need for your solution.

Developer Kit	Adapter board	Camera Kit
Ti SK-AM62	TEV-RPI15 Adaptor	TechNexion EVK RPI15

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🧰 Camera Installation Instructions

Method 1 - Using TechNexion Pre-built image

Prepare Yocto demo image for testing TechNexion camera

To test TechNexion TEVS Series cameras, you need a demo image that includes the required Device Tree Blobs (DTBs) and camera drivers.

Download and Select the Correct Image for Your EVK

Prebuilt demo images can be available for download via TechNexion's server.

Download Link:

🔗 SK-AM62X Image Download Link

Flashing the Image

You can flash the image to an SD Card using the following methods.

Micro-SD Card

The capacity must be higher 16GB.

For Windows Users

Use balenaEtcher to write the image to your SD card:

🔗

For Linux Users

Use bmap-tools for a fast and reliable flashing process to the SD card:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bmap-tools

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Method 2 - Build custom Linux kernel with camera driver

1. Download the camera driver and device tree blobs.

   $ git clone git@github.com:TechNexion-Vision/ti-evk-camera.git
   $ cd ti_evk_camera/
   ~/ti_evk_camera$ git checkout tn-ti_6.1.46_09.01.00.006

2. Copy to your kernel source code.

   ~/ti_evk_camera$ mv -r driver/media/i2c/tevs/ <fetch_kernel_folder>/driver/media/i2c/
   ~/ti_evk_camera$ mv arch/arm64/boot/dts/ti/k3-j721e-sk-tevs.dtso <fetch_kernel_folder>/arch/arm64/boot/dts/ti/

3. Modify makefile to add driver

   $ cd <fetch_kernel_folder>/driver/media/i2c/
   ~/<fetch_kernel_folder>/driver/media/i2c/$ vi Makefile

   Add this line in Makefile.

   obj-$(CONFIG_VIDEO_TEVS) += tevs/

   Modify Kconfig to add camera config

   ~/<fetch_kernel_folder>/driver/media/i2c/$ vi Kconfig

   Add this part under "Camera sensor devices" menu in Kconfig.

   config VIDEO_TEVS
     tristate "TechNexion TEVS sensor support"
     depends on OF
     depends on GPIOLIB && VIDEO_V4L2 && I2C && VIDEO_V4L2_SUBDEV_API
     depends on MEDIA_CAMERA_SUPPORT
     default y
     select V4L2_FWNODE
     help
       This is a Video4Linux2 sensor driver for the TechNexion
       TEVS camera sensor with a MIPI CSI-2 interface.

4. Modify makefile to add device tree.

   $ cd <fetch_kernel_folder>/arch/arm64/boot/dts/ti/
   ~/<fetch_kernel_folder>/arch/arm64/boot/dts/ti/$ vi Makefile

   Add this line in Makefile.

   #For SK-AM62X
   dtb-$(CONFIG_ARCH_K3) += k3-am625-sk-csi2-tevs.dtbo

5. Compile the kernel & module driver

   Finally you can start compile your new Image files, then copy and replace the Image files and add camera dtb overlay file in the SD card.
   

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📸 Camera Testing Instructions

Specify Camera DTBO in uEnv.txt

1. Find uEnv.txt file in prebuild image.

# Open on SK-AM62X, the directory might be here:
$ /run/media/BOOT-mmcblk1p1/uEnv.txt
# Open on HOST-PC, the directory might be here:
$ /media/username/BOOT/uEnv.txt

2. Add camera dtb specifies the name_overlays variable in uEnv.txt.

#SK-AM62X
    name_overlays= ti/k3-am625-sk-csi2-tevs.dtbo

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🎥 Start Camera Video Stream via GStreamer

Check Camera Availability

Use the v4l2-ctl tool to list connected video devices.

$ v4l2-ctl --list-device

Example output:

j721e-csi2rx (platform:30102000.ticsi2rx):
        /dev/video{X}

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Launch GStreamer Pipeline

The following is example.

Specify the capture device you just get /dev/video2 and start gstreamer to get video stream with 640x480 resolution on the display :

$ gst-launch-1.0 v4l2src device=/dev/video2 ! \
video/x-raw,width=640,height=480 ! \
waylandsink sync=false

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