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 Series	Products
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

SoM	Board
AM62x	Ti SK-AM62X starter kit for Sitara™ processors
AM62A	Ti SK-AM62A-LP starter kit for low-power
TDA4VM	Ti SK-TDA4VM starter kit for edge AI vision systems

🔧 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
Ti SK-AM62A-LP	TEV-RPI22 Adaptor	TechNexion EVK RPI22
Ti SK-TDA4VM	TEV-RPI15 Adaptor	TechNexion EVK RPI15

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

🧰 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
🔗 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.

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/tn-ti_6.1.46_09.01.00.006.git
$ cd ti_evk_camera/
~/ti_evk_camera$ git checkout tn-ti_6.1.46_09.01.00.006

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_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.

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-$(CONFIG_ARCH_K3) += k3-am625-sk-csi2-tevs.dtbo
#For SK-AM62A
dtb-$(CONFIG_ARCH_K3) += k3-am62a7-sk-csi2-tevs.dtbo
#For SK-TDA4VM
dtb-$(CONFIG_ARCH_K3) += k3-j721e-sk-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= 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.

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]"

🚀 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​