This article provides information on how to start working with the CSI Camera Set 5MP AR0521 Color, which includes how to set up the hardware (wiring), install, and configure the necessary drivers for a touch demo.
e-con Camera and adapter
The CSI Camera Set 5MP AR0521 Color can be ordered with many Toradex computers on modules and carrier boards. See the compatible products.
CSI Camera Set 5MP AR0521 Front View Connected to Toradex Board
All the products can be ordered online in the Toradex Webshop.
This topic provides pin connection details regarding connecting the CSI Camera Set 5MP AR0521 Color to the carrier boards.
CSI Camera Set 5MP AR0521 module, cables, adapter, and carrier board
Note: The flat ribbon cable, used to connect the carrier board and the camera adaptor is very fragile. If your camera does not work, make sure to test the cable connections on the flat cable.
Please refer to the below instructions for connecting the display to your specific carrier board.
See the picture below for the direct connection from the camera to the Ixora board. Make sure to connect the pin 1 side of the CSI camera to the respective pin 1 of the carrier board (MIPI-CSI Connector X28).
CSI Camera Set 5MP AR0521 Connection to Ixora
Connect the camera to the Verdin Development Board as indicated in the figure below. The MIPI-CSI Camera Interface is on connector X47. Make sure to connect the pin 1 side of the CSI camera to the respective pin 1 of the carrier board.
E Con Camera Cable Connection To Verdin Development Board
Verdin Development Board Connection
Connect the camera to the Dahlia Board, as indicated in the figure below. The MIPI-CSI Camera Interface is on connector X16.
Warning: Picture still to be provided.
Note: Support was added from the BSP version 5.0.0+devel-202008 onwards.
The camera works both with the Toradex BSP Layers and Reference Images for Yocto Project and Torizon. The camera device driver and device tree are integrated into the Toradex BSP Layers and the binaries are deployed to the reference images. The next sections explain how to use the camera.
Install the Toradex Reference Multimedia pre-built image using the Toradex Easy Installer.
Via serial terminal or ssh, access the board and enable the device-tree overlay already available at /boot/overlay by writing the .dtbo name to the overlays.txt file. To write in the overlays.txt you can use vi and paste apalis-imx8_ar0521_overlay.dtbo on the variable fdt_overlays. After all, just sync and reboot the board so the changes can be applied.
# ls /boot/overlays
apalis-imx8_ar0521_overlay.dtbo display-dpi-lt170410_overlay.dtbo
apalis-imx8_atmel-mxt_overlay.dtbo display-edt5.7_overlay.dtbo
apalis-imx8_hdmi_overlay.dtbo display-edt7_overlay.dtbo
apalis-imx8_lvds_overlay.dtbo display-fullhd_overlay.dtbo
apalis-imx8_mezzanine-can_overlay.dtbo display-lt161010_overlay.dtbo
apalis-imx8_mezzanine_lvds_overlay.dtbo display-lt170410_overlay.dtbo
apalis-imx8_mezzanine_ov5640_overlay.dtbo display-vga_overlay.dtbo
apalis-imx8_ov5640_overlay.dtbo touch-atmel-mxt_overlay.dtbo
# vi /boot/overlays.txt
fdt_overlays=apalis-imx8_hdmi_overlay.dtbo apalis-imx8_ar0521_overlay.dtbo
# sync
# reboot
After the reboot, you can verify that the camera driver is starting correctly:
# dmesg | grep ar0521
[ 7.045228] ar0521 5-0042: Current Firmware Version - (1150CU96RKV1901110d381894XXXXXXX)
[ 11.646248] mx8-img-md: Registered sensor subdevice: ar0521 5-0042 (1)
[ 11.750804] mx8-img-md: created link [ar0521 5-0042] => [mxc-mipi-csi2.1]
To check which /dev/video* is a capture device by getting driver information, you need to use the video-for-linux control (v4l2-ctl) command from v4l2 utils. In this case, the capture device is on /dev/video0.
# ls /dev/video*
/dev/video0 /dev/video1 /dev/video12 /dev/video13 /dev/video2
# v4l2-ctl -d0 -D
Driver Info:
Driver name : mxc-isi-cap
Card type : mxc-isi-cap
Bus info : platform:58140000.isi:cap_devic
Driver version : 5.4.161
Capabilities : 0x84201000
Video Capture Multiplanar
Streaming
Extended Pix Format
Device Capabilities
Device Caps : 0x04201000
Video Capture Multiplanar
Streaming
Extended Pix Format
Media Driver Info:
Driver name : mxc-md
Model : FSL Capture Media Device
Serial :
Bus info :
Media version : 5.4.161
Hardware revision: 0x00000000 (0)
Driver version : 5.4.161
Interface Info:
ID : 0x03000014
Type : V4L Video
Entity Info:
ID : 0x00000012 (18)
Name : mxc_isi.4.capture
Function : V4L2 I/O
Pad 0x01000013 : 0: Sink
Link 0x02000021: from remote pad 0x100000e of entity 'mxc_isi.4': Data, Enabled
Note: Note that the video device can be in any of the listed video devices. So, check all of them to make sure to use the right one in the pipeline.
To enable the streaming, run a Gstreamer pipeline on the terminal:
# gst-launch-1.0 v4l2src device='/dev/video0' ! "video/x-raw, format=RGB16, framerate=30/1, width=1920, height=1080" ! fpsdisplaysink video-sink=waylandsink text-overlay=false sync=false -v
