Gx series camera appnotes 4 rpi

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How to use the GX series cameras on the Raspberry board

1 overview

The GX series cameras are designed for embedded AI applications. They offer high-performance ISP capabilities, support multiple operating modes, provide a wide range of configurable features, and are built with a robust and reliable design. The cameras use the MIPI CSI-2 interface and are well suited for embedded computing platforms.

1.1 Supported modules

series	model	state
GX系列	GX-MIPI-IMX662	complete

2 Hardware Preparation and Installation

The GX-series cameras utilize a Raspberry Pi-compatible 22-pin interface but require an independent 5 V DC power supply.

3 Drive Installation and Verification

3.1 Download the driver package

wget https://github.com/veyeimaging/raspberrypi_v4l2/releases/latest/download/raspberrypi_v4l2.tgz

Domestic users can download it from Gitee:

https://gitee.com/veyeimaging/raspberrypi_v4l2/releases/

3.2 install the driver

tar -xzvf raspberrypi_v4l2.tgz

cd raspberrypi_v4l2/release/

chmod +x *

• For Raspberry Pi 5

sudo ./install_driver.sh veye_gxcam

Then restart the Raspberry Pi.

Note: If it is indicated that the corresponding version of the driver cannot be found, it means that we do not provide the compiled driver program corresponding to your PiOS version. Please try to compile from the source code.

3.3 Uninstall the driver

If you want to switch to a different model of the camera module driver, you must first uninstall the current driver.
sudo ./uninstall_driver.sh veye_gxcam

3.4 System status verification

Take GX-MIPI-IMX662 as an example:
dmesg | grep gxcam

It can be seen that the camera model probed during the Linux startup stage is:

camera is: GX-MIPI-IMX662

And the /dev/video0 node exists, which proves that the camera is functioning properly.

Note: Trigger script link.

4 Detect the status and configure the environment variables

Here, we provide a script named gx_probe.sh, which is used to automatically detect the recognized camera and configure the default model, width, height, frame rate and other information of the camera into the environment variables.

The usage method is:
$ source ./gx_probe.sh i2c_bus

A typical output is as follows:

$ source ./gx_probe.sh 10

The gxcam driver is loaded on i2c-10, but the camera is not detected!

Found veye_gxcam camera on i2c-10.

Setenv CAMERAMODEL = GX-MIPI-IMX662

Setenv FPS = 60

Setenv WIDTH = 1920

Setenv HEIGHT = 1080

You can verify the output result of the environment variable by using the command echo $CAMERAMODEL. Note that this environment variable is only valid for the current session.

5 Configuration of Raspberry Pi 5

On the Raspberry Pi 5, the camera driver now operates via the Media Controller API, necessitating proper configuration of the media graph beforehand. This involves correctly setting the formats of the media pads and establishing appropriate pad links.

A set of scripts implementing this functionality is provided and stored in the rpi5_scripts directory.

• ./find_entity.sh

$ ./find_entity.sh

This is a Raspberry Pi 5.

Kernel version is 6.12.47, use i2c-10 for CAM0 and i2c-11 for CAM1.

Found gxcam @ i2c-10 entity on /dev/media3

Plese get frame from /dev/video0 and use /dev/v4l-subdev2 for camera setting.

After a reboot of the Raspberry Pi 5, the media node and video node assignments for the cameras may change. Therefore, it is recommended to run ./find_entity.sh prior to performing subsequent operations to explicitly identify the device nodes.

As shown in the above diagnostic output, the system has detected two connected cameras, along with their corresponding device nodes.

The CAM0 port on the board corresponds to i2c-10, and the CAM1 port on the board corresponds to i2c-11.

• media_setting_rpi5.sh

$ ./media_setting_rpi5.sh

This is a Raspberry Pi 5.

Kernel version is 6.12.47, do not support unpacked format.

Kernel version is 6.12.47, use i2c-10 for CAM0 and i2c-11 for CAM1.

Usage: ./media_setting_rpi5.sh veyecam2m/csimx307/cssc132/mvcam/gxcam -fmt [UYVY/RAW8/RAW10/RAW12] -x [roi_x] -y [roi_y] -w [width] -h [height] -c [cam 0|1]

This shell script is designed to detect the connection of a camera on Raspberry Pi 5.

    It utilizes media-ctl and v4l2-ctl commands to configure the linking relationships and data formats of the media pad.

    Once completed, you can directly use /dev/video0 or /dev/video8 to obtain image data.

Before proceeding with the subsequent operations, this script must be executed to complete the configuration of the parameters.

For example, for the GX-MIPI-IMX662 that is connected to the CAM0 port:

./media_setting_rpi5.sh gxcam -fmt UYVY -x 0 -y 0 -w 1920 -h 1080 -c 0

6 Real-time preview

6.1 Use veye_viewer to play the images

veye_viewer is an open-source client software based on QT5.

For the code and usage, please refer to:https://github.com/veyeimaging/veye_viewer。

Domestic users can access the Gitee repository.

6.2 Use qv4l2 to play images

First, install qv4l2

sudo apt install qv4l2

Note: For Raspberry Pi 5, you need to execute the aforementioned media_setting_rpi5.sh script before starting the qv4l2 image playback to complete the necessary preparations.

Enter "qv4l2" in the command line to start the V4L2 player.

2. Click the ▶ (play) button to bring up the opened media window.

Play gx camera using qv4l2 on RPI

7 Gstreamer Application Examples

export DISPLAY=:0

7.1 Install GStreamer

sudo apt-get install gstreamer1.0-tools

sudo apt-get install libx264-dev libjpeg-dev

sudo apt-get install libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-dev gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly gstreamer1.0-tools gstreamer1.0-gl gstreamer1.0-gtk3

7.2 Run the gstreamer videotest command

gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! videoconvert ! autovideosink

7.3 Capture a picture (GX-MIPI-IMX662 @ 1080p mode)

gst-launch-1.0 v4l2src num-buffers=1 device=/dev/video0 ! 'video/x-raw, format=(string)UYVY, width=1920,height=1080' ! jpegenc ! filesink location=test_image.jpg

7.4 Frame rate test (GX-MIPI-IMX662 @ 1080p mode)

gst-launch-1.0 v4l2src device=/dev/video0 ! "video/x-raw,format=(string)UYVY, width=(int)1920, height=(int)1080,framerate=(fraction)30/1" ! videoconvert ! fpsdisplaysink video-sink=fakesink -v

7.5 Video preview (GX-MIPI-IMX662 @ 1080p mode)

gst-launch-1.0 v4l2src io-mode=dmabuf device=/dev/video0 ! "video/x-raw,format=(string)UYVY, width=(int)1920, height=(int)1080,framerate=(fraction)30/1" ! v4l2convert capture-io-mode=dmabuf output-io-mode=dmabuf ! autovideosink sync=false -v

8 V4L2-CTL Application Examples

8.1 Install v4l2-utils

$ sudo apt-get install v4l-utils

8.2 v4l2-ctl routine

• Capture a raw UYVY data image (in 1080p mode)

v4l2-ctl --set-fmt-video=width=1920,height=1080,pixelformat=UYVY --stream-mmap --stream-count=1 --stream-to=uyvy-1920x1080.yuv

• Capture 10 original UYVY data images (in 1080p mode)

v4l2-ctl --set-fmt-video=width=1920,height=1080,pixelformat=UYVY --stream-mmap --stream-count=10 --stream-to=uyvy-1920x1080_stream.yuv