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TI Starter Kit EVM Board TEVS Camera Usage Guide

🚀 Introduction​

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

📸 Supported Camera Modules​

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

🧩 Supported Ti Developer Kit​

SoMBoard
AM62xTi SK-AM62X
AM62ATi SK-AM62A-LP
TDA4VMTi SK-TDA4VM

🔧 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 KitAdapter boardCamera Kit
Ti SK-AM62TEV-RPI15 AdaptorTechNexion EVK RPI15
Ti SK-AM62A-LPTEV-RPI22 AdaptorTechNexion EVK RPI22
Ti SK-TDA4VMTEV-RPI15 AdaptorTechNexion EVK RPI15

Follow this demo video to connect adapter and cable to the CSI connector on 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.

🔗 SK-AM62X Image Download Link
🔗 SK-AM62A-LP Image Download Link
🔗 SK-TDA4VM 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.

1. For Windows Users​

Use balenaEtcher to write the image to your SD card:

🔗

2. For Linux Users​

Use dd flashing process to the SD card:

$ sudo dd of=/dev/<sd card> if=<Yocto prebuild image> bs=1M status=progress

📸 Camera Testing Instructions​

Specify Camera DTBO in uEnv.txt​

  1. 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
  1. Add camera dtb specifies the name_overlays variable in uEnv.txt.
#SK-AM62X
    name_overlays= k3-am625-sk-csi2-tevs.dtbo
#SK-AM62A
    name_overlays= k3-am62a7-sk-csi2-tevs.dtbo
#SK-TDA4VM
    name_overlays= k3-j721e-sk-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:

# CSI 0 (cam1)
j721e-csi2rx (platform:4504000.ticsi2rx):
        /dev/video{X}
# CSI 1 (cam2)
j721e-csi2rx (platform:4510000.ticsi2rx):
        /dev/video{X}

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

🚨 Troubleshooting​

Usecase

Take TEVS-AR0234 on SK-TDA4VM CAM2 connector for example.

Cannot Run Edge AI Demo Application

The pre-built image is based on TI's setup, so the default demo application does not support TechNexion cameras. To use TechNexion cameras, you can disable the demo service and launch the Weston desktop manually.

$ systemctl disable edgeai-init.service
$ systemctl restart weston
$ reboot

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@tda4vm-sk:/opt/edgeai-gst-apps# dmesg|grep tevs
tevs 7-0048: tevs_probe() device node: tevs@48
tevs 7-0048: Version:24.8.0.1
tevs 7-0048: Product:TEVS-AR0234, HeaderVer:3, MIPI_Rate:800
tevs 7-0048: 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 -d /dev/media1 -p

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

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@tda4vm-sk:/opt/edgeai-gst-apps# 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: 1920x1200 - 1920x1200

2. Set Format​

$ media-ctl --set-v4l2 "'tevs 7-0048':0 [fmt:UYVY8_2X8/1280X720@1/30 field:none]"