TI Starter Kit EVMs Camera Usage Guide - Processor SDK Linux 12.01

🚀 Introduction

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

📸 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

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 12.01 (Jul 2026), 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.

🧩 Supported Ti Developer Kit

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

🔧 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

🧰 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
For Linux Users

Use balenaEtcher to write the image to your SD card:

🔗

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

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

Method 2 - Build custom Linux kernel with camera driver

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_6.12.35_11.01.07.05

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/

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_DEV && I2C
    select MEDIA_CONTROLLER
    select VIDEO_V4L2_SUBDEV_API
    select V4L2_FWNODE
    help
        This is a Video4Linux2 sensor driver for the TechNexion
        TEVS camera sensor with a MIPI CSI-2 interface.

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

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.

📸 Camera Testing Instructions

Specify Camera DTBO in uEnv.txt

Find uEnv.txt file in prebuild image.

# Open on SK-TDA4VM, the directory should be here:
$ /run/media/BOOT-mmcblk1p1/uEnv.txt
# Open on HOST-PC, the directory should be here:
$ /media/username/BOOT/uEnv.txt

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

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

🎥 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}

Launch GStreamer Pipeline

The following is example.

Disable wayland :

systemctl mask --runtime --now emptty.service

Bring up the camera (/dev/video0) with 1920x1080 at 30 FPS by Gstreamer pipeline :

media-ctl -d /dev/media0 -V \
'"tevs 4-0048":0 [fmt:UYVY8_1X16/1920x1080@1/30 field:none]'

media-ctl -d /dev/media0 -V \
'"cdns_csi2rx.30101000.csi-bridge":0 [fmt:UYVY8_1X16/1920x1080 field:none]'

media-ctl -d /dev/media0 -V \
'"30102000.ticsi2rx":0/0 [fmt:UYVY8_1X16/1920x1080 field:none]'

gst-launch-1.0 -v \
v4l2src device=/dev/video0 ! \
'video/x-raw,format=UYVY,width=1920,height=1080' ! \
fpsdisplaysink video-sink="kmssink force-modesetting=true" text-overlay=false sync=false

Bring up the camera (/dev/video2) with 4208x3120 at 5 FPS scaled to 1920x1080 by Gstreamer pipeline :

media-ctl -d /dev/media0 -V \
'"tevs 4-0048":0 [fmt:UYVY8_1X16/4208x3120@1/5 field:none]'

media-ctl -d /dev/media0 -V \
'"cdns_csi2rx.30101000.csi-bridge":0 [fmt:UYVY8_1X16/4208x3120 field:none]'

media-ctl -d /dev/media0 -V \
'"30102000.ticsi2rx":0/0 [fmt:UYVY8_1X16/4208x3120 field:none]'

gst-launch-1.0 -v \
v4l2src device=/dev/video0 ! \
'video/x-raw,format=UYVY,width=4208,height=3120' ! \
videoscale ! \
'video/x-raw,width=1920,height=1080' ! \
fpsdisplaysink video-sink="kmssink force-modesetting=true" sync=false

FPS may drop due to resolution scaling. To test without displaying the video :

gst-launch-1.0 -v \
v4l2src device=/dev/video0 ! \
'video/x-raw,format=UYVY,width=4208,height=3120' ! \
fpsdisplaysink video-sink="fakesink" sync=false

🚨 Troubleshooting

Usecase

Take TEVS-AR1335 for example.

Find out the Camera

Boot up SK-TDA4VM and check initialization of camera driver. it shows below messages, the driver is initialized correctly. If the drivers haven't been probed, please check the connector plugin correct.

$ dmesg -t | grep tevs

The message similar to the following :

root@am62xx-evm:~# dmesg -t | grep tevs
tevs 4-0048: tevs_probe() device node: camera@48
tevs 4-0048: CSI-2: 2 lanes, link 400000000 Hz, pixel rate 100000000, MIPI data rate 800 Mbps
tevs 4-0048: Version:26.6.0.1
tevs 4-0048: Product:TEVM-AR1335, HeaderVer:3, MIPI_Rate:800
tevs 4-0048: chip ID: 0x0153
tevs 4-0048: probe success

And then try to using media-ctl command to print the device topology from camera to CSI and the end to video device node.

$ media-ctl -p

We can get which v4l2-subdev is camera in this print message and then we can use v4l2-ctl by it.

Change Resolution

For kernel 6.1 architecture you cannot easily change resolution in gsteamer pipeline.
You must need to using v4l2-ctl to view and set the camera's supported resolutions.

1. Check camera supported resolutions via v4l2-ctl

$ v4l2-ctl -d /dev/v4l-subdev2 --list-subdev-framesize pad=0

root@am62xx-evm:~# v4l2-ctl -d /dev/v4l-subdev2 --list-subdev-framesize pad=0
ioctl: VIDIOC_SUBDEV_ENUM_FRAME_SIZE (pad=0,stream=0)
        Size Range: 640x480 - 640x480
        Size Range: 1280x720 - 1280x720
        Size Range: 1920x1080 - 1920x1080
        Size Range: 2560x1440 - 2560x1440
        Size Range: 3840x2160 - 3840x2160
        Size Range: 4208x3120 - 4208x3120

2. Set Format

$ media-ctl -d /dev/media0 -V \
'"tevs 4-0048":0 [fmt:UYVY8_1X16/1280x720@1/60 field:none]'

$ media-ctl -d /dev/media0 -V \
'"cdns_csi2rx.30101000.csi-bridge":0 [fmt:UYVY8_1X16/1280x720 field:none]'

$ media-ctl -d /dev/media0 -V \
'"30102000.ticsi2rx":0/0 [fmt:UYVY8_1X16/1280x720 field:none]'

🚀 Introduction​

📸 Supported Camera Modules​

🧩 Supported Ti Developer Kit​

🔧 Hardware Setup Instructions​

1. Connect the Adapter Board and Camera Cable​

🧰 Camera Installation Instructions​

Method 1 - Using TechNexion Pre-built image​

Prepare Yocto demo image for testing TechNexion camera​

Download and Select the Correct Image for Your EVK​

Download Link:​

Flashing the Image​

Method 2 - Build custom Linux kernel with camera driver​

Download the camera driver and device tree blobs.​

Copy to your kernel source code.​

Modify makefile to add driver​

Modify makefile to add device tree.​

Compile the kernel & module driver​

📸 Camera Testing Instructions​

Specify Camera DTBO in uEnv.txt​

🎥 Start Camera Video Stream via GStreamer​

Check Camera Availability​

Launch GStreamer Pipeline​

🚨 Troubleshooting​

Find out the Camera​

Change Resolution​

1. Check camera supported resolutions via v4l2-ctl​

2. Set Format​