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NXP IMX93LPDDR4X-EVK board TEVS Camera Usage Guide

🚀 Introduction​

This article guides you how to get started using TechNexion camera modules on NXP IMX93LPDDR4X-EVK board.

📸 Supported Camera Modules​

Camera SeriesProducts
TEVS
TEVS-AR0144
TEVS-AR0145
TEVS-AR0234
TEVS-AR0521
TEVS-AR0522
TEVS-AR0821
TEVS-AR0822
TEVS-AR1335

🔧 Hardware Setup Instructions​

Connect the Adapter Board and Camera Cable​

To set up TechNexion camera, connect the adapter board and camera cable to the MIPI CSI port on the EVK board.

💻 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.

🔗 Supported Release List (Instructions for IMX93LPDDR4X-EVK)

💾 Flashing the Image​

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

Boot Mode

Make sure your EVK board is set to boot from SD card.
Refer to the official NXP guide 🔗 Getting Started with the i.MX93 EVK

1. For Windows Users​

Use balenaEtcher to write the image to your SD card:

🔗

2. 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

🛠️ Build Yocto​

TechNexion supports building a Yocto-based Linux image tailored for camera modules using the following kernel and branch.

If you are using prebuilt demo image, you can skip this section. Please refer to 📸 Camera Testing Instructions section for camera testing steps.

📦 Supported Linux Kernel​

Linux Kernel VersionYocto Branch
6.6.52tn-imx_6.6.52_2.2.0-stable

📁 Source and Build Instructions​

🔗 Fetch Yocto source
📖 Build Yocto (Instructions for IMX93LPDDR4X-EVK)

🐧 Develop Linux kernel​

Fetch and compile Linux kernel.

Build Enviroment
  • Host OS: Ubuntu 20.04
  • Toolchain: aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc 9.4.0

Install cross-compile & dependency tools.​

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install -y gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu libncurses-dev libssl-dev bison flex git make

Clone the Kernel Source​

# For Kernel 6.6.52
$ git clone https://github.com/TechNexion/linux-tn-imx.git -b tn-imx_6.6.52_2.2.0-stable

Set cross-compile environment & the kernel config.​

$ export ARCH=arm64
$ export CROSS_COMPILE=/usr/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-
$ cd linux-tn-imx
~/linux-tn-imx$ make imx_v8_defconfig

Compile the kernel & module driver.​

# compile kernel
~/linux-tn-imx$ make -j$(nproc)
# create kernel module folder
~/linux-tn-imx$ mkdir -p ./modules
# compile module driver
~/linux-tn-imx$ rm -rf ./modules/*
~/linux-tn-imx$ make INSTALL_MOD_PATH=./modules modules_install

Change kernel Image, DTB & modules.​

~/linux-tn-imx/$ cp arch/arm64/boot/Image  <mount_folder>/boot/Image
~/linux-tn-imx/$ cp arch/arm64/boot/dts/freescale/imx93-11x11-evk-tevs-rpi22.dtb  <mount_folder>/boot/
~/linux-tn-imx/$ sudo cp -r ./modules/lib/modules/*  <mount_folder>/root/lib/modules/

📸 Camera Testing Instructions​

Specify Camera DTBO in U-Boot​

  1. Connect the debug console cable to the baseboard (via USB-C).

  2. Power on the board and interrupt the boot process. Keep pressing Enter when the following message appears: Hit any key to stop autoboot:

  3. Specify the appropriate device tree for your camera using the fdtfile environment variable in U-Boot:

u-boot=> setenv fdtfile imx93-11x11-evk-tevs-rpi22.dtb
  1. Save and continue the boot process:
u-boot=> saveenv
u-boot=> boot

🎥 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:

mxc-isi-cap (platform:4ae40000.isi:cap_devic):

/dev/video{X}

Launch GStreamer Pipeline​

Replace {X}, <res_w> and <res_h> with your capture device number and desired resolution:


$ gst-launch-1.0 v4l2src device=/dev/video{X} ! \
  video/x-raw,width=<x>,height=<y> ! waylandsink

🚨 Troubleshooting​

Boot up NXP IMX93LPDDR4X-EVK and check initialization of TEVS driver. If it shows below messages, the driver is initialized correctly.


$ dmesg -t | grep tevs

  tevs 1-0048: tevs_probe() device node: tevs@48
  tevs 1-0048: Version:24.9.0.1
  tevs 1-0048: Product:TEVS-AR0234, HeaderVer:3, MIPI_Rate:800
  tevs 1-0048: probe success

Ensure camera device tree blob(DTB) is specified correctly.

$ dmesg -t | grep -i model
  Machine model: NXP i.MX93 11x11 EVK board with TechNexion TEVS AR camera