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IMX8MP Camera Usage Guide

🚀 Introduction​

This article guides you how to get started using TechNexion camera modules on IMX8MP development kits.

Background knowledge needed

You must have the background knowledge to modify the kernel configuration, rebuild, and replace the kernel and the device tree source (DTS).

e.g. IMX8MP Baseboards

This article uses the EDM-G-WB and AXON-WIZARD baseboards as examples.

This article is based on the 🔗 Yocto 4.2 (Mickledore) 2024Q3 Release.
The corresponding Linux kernel version is 6.1.55-2.2.0.

📸 Supported Camera Modules​

Camera SeriesProducts
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 Sensor Comparison
info

TEVI-OV5640 and TEVI-AR Series Cameras are deprecated starting from Yocto 4.2
Support for TEVI-OV5640 and TEVI-AR Series Cameras is available only up to Yocto 4.0. If you need to use these camera modules, please refer to the 🔗 Yocto 4.0 (Kirkstone) 2024Q1 Release.

🧩 Supported Boards​

SoMBoard
EDM-G-IMX8MPEDM-G-WB
EDM-G-WIZARD
AXON-IMX8MPAXON-WIZARD

🔧 Hardware Setup Instructions​

1. Power Supply Preparation​

  • Use a DC 5V or 12V power cable to supply power to the board.

Connect the power adapter via the barrel jack connector.

info

The EDM-G-WB can also be powered via USB Type-C (5V).

2. Debug Console Connection​

Prepare a USB-to-UART cable if you're connecting to a PC.

Connect the cable to the debug console port on the EDM-G-WB board.

3. Camera Interface (CSI) Overview​

  • The board features two MIPI CSI-2 interfaces, referred to as CSI1 and CSI2.
  • These use 70-pin board-to-board connectors manufactured by Hirose.
  • The image below shows a TEVS camera connected to the CSI1 interface.

💻 Prepare Yocto demo image for testing TechNexion camera​

To test TechNexion cameras, you will need a Yocto-based demo image that includes the necessary device tree blobs and camera drivers.

🔽 Downloading the Demo Image​

Prebuilt demo images are available for download on TechNexion's official server.

🔗 Supported Release List (Instructions for EDM-G-IMX8MP)

💾 Flashing the Image​

You can flash the image to either e.MMC or an SD Card using one of the following methods:

1. Using uuu Tool (Universal Update Utility)​

TechNexion provides a guide to flash the image using the uuu tool: 🔗 How to Flash with UUU

Boot Mode

Before flashing, ensure the board is set to Serial Download Mode in the boot configuration. You can refer to 🔗 Boot Mode Selection of EDM-G-WB for more details.

2. Using ums Command in U-Boot (USB Mass Storage)​

Alternatively, you can write the image directly to flash storage over USB-OTG using U-Boot’s ums command: 🔗 Using UMS in U-Boot

U-Boot Requirement

The board must be booted with a version of U-Boot that supports the ums command. Typically, this is done from the existing e.MMC.

🛠️ Build Yocto​

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

📦 Supported Linux Kernel​

Linux Kernel VersionYocto Branch
6.1.55tn-imx_6.1.55_2.2.0-stable

📁 Source and Build Instructions​

🔗 Fetch Yocto Source

📖 Build Yocto (Instructions for EDM-G-IMX8MP)

📸 Camera Testing Instructions​

Specify Camera DTBO in U-Boot​

Auto Camera Detection

If you are using TEVI AR series or TEVS cameras, you can skip this step. These models support automatic camera detection in U-Boot.

Manual DTBO Setup​

  1. Connect the debug console cable to the baseboard (via UART/USB).

  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. Set the correct camera overlay (DTBO) using the U-Boot environment variable:

u-boot=> setenv dtoverlay tevs
  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:

():
/dev/v4l-subdev0
():
/dev/v4l-subdev1

FSL Capture Media Device (platform:32c00000.bus:camera):
/dev/media0

mxc-isi-cap (platform:32e00000.isi:cap_device):
/dev/video0

mxc-isi-cap (platform:32e02000.isi:cap_device):
/dev/video1

In this example, /dev/video0 is the capture device connected via CSI1.

Launch GStreamer Pipeline​

Replace <res_w>, <res_h>, <x>, and <y> with your desired resolution and screen dimensions:

$ gst-launch-1.0 v4l2src device=/dev/video0 ! \
  video/x-raw, width=<res_w>, height=<res_h> ! \
  imxvideoconvert_g2d ! \
  waylandsink window-width=<x> window-height=<y> sync=false
warning

imxvideoconvert_g2d is optimized for the i.MX8MP platform and leverages ISI hardware for format conversion. You may optionally use videoconvert, but it is typically unnecessary.

🚨 Troubleshooting​

Ensure camera device tree blob overlay(DTBO) is specified correctly in u-boot.

  u-boot=> printenv dtoverlay
  dtoverlay=tevs

We can check whether camera have been initialized correctly.
For TEVS cameras:

  $ 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-AR0144, HeaderVer:3, MIPI_Rate:800
    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]

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

  $ dmesg -t | grep -i model
    Machine model: TechNexion EDM-G-IMX8MP and WB baseboard