M0040 Time of Flight sensor FPS

Darshit Desai

@Alex-Kushleyev Is the command to check the voxl-camera-server voxl-camera-server --version?

Just wanted to inform you that I am using VOXL SDK 1.1.2, which is the latest release on this website. Probably the version would be the one coupled with the latest SDK update. I haven't made any changes to the voxl-camera-server on top of the updated SDK.

Alex Kushleyev

@Darshit-Desai you can see by running voxl-version , it will print versions of all voxl packages

Darshit Desai

@Alex-Kushleyev Here's the version details of all packages, the camera-server version is 1.8.9

Alex Kushleyev

@Darshit-Desai OK, great so the version is 1.8.9 which came from skd-1.1.2.

I will experiment using that version so that you can test it directly. The latest dev version of voxl-camera-server on gitlab has some updates for the new TOF sensor and it's not yet officially "released".

Darshit Desai

@Alex-Kushleyev Thank you, but if I build and deploy the dev branch code, will that show the same error as shown in this post,

I was trying to find that error message in the code repo of voxl-camera-server but I didn't find this specific error line,

@Darshit-Desai said in M0040 Time of Flight sensor FPS:

@Moderator I found a way to increase FPS from older posts, Is there a way to increase FPS more then 15 for the ToF camera as in the data sheet it still says the FPS can go upto 45 Hz. I want to increase till atleast 25 Hz and if the CPU still has some power left upto 30 Hz. But when i do that the camera server has an error saying it can either take 5 or 15 FPS.

Alex Kushleyev

@Darshit-Desai the error is here : https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/voxl-sdk/services/voxl-camera-server/-/blob/dev/src/hal3_camera_mgr.cpp#L561

But you can't just modify the check condition. In order to switch to a higher FPS than 15Hz, the sensor needs to use a medium or short range mode (currently long range mode). So a few other things need to change.

So do you want me to use dev version or sdk 1.1.2 version as starting point? It may be easier for you, since everything will remain the same (no other changes in camera server).

this change will (eventually) make it to dev anyway, i could go directly to dev (in fact it will be simpler for me), but i am offering you a choice

Darshit Desai

@Alex-Kushleyev Presently I only require a bump in the FPS, so I suggest you do changes by taking sdk1.1.2 as the base. If you use the dev version there might be unaccounted bugs which I don't want in my build

Alex Kushleyev

@Darshit-Desai , yes that is exactly my thought. i will use sdk1.1.2 as the base.

Alex Kushleyev

@Darshit-Desai , to my own surprise, this was quick. I was able to test at 30, 45 and 60fps all of which will use the short range mode of the sensor. I have done minimal testing, but the depth, confidence and Ir images look good in voxl-portal

https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/voxl-sdk/services/voxl-camera-server/-/tree/sdk1.1.2-add-tof-fps-options

Just build voxl camera server from this branch, make package, install package on voxl2 and update your fps parameter from 15 to either 30, 45, 60 in voxl-camera-server.conf

Let me know how it goes!

Darshit Desai

@Alex-Kushleyev Thank you I am trying this out right now, Which option should I choose here for repo version

Also when I do git branch after cloning the repo it only shows master branch I had to manually write the branch name

Alex Kushleyev

@Darshit-Desai ,

git branch -a shows all the branches

for installing deps, use sdk-1.1 since we based this branch off sdk-1.1.2

Alex

Darshit Desai

@Alex-Kushleyev Thanks it worked it shows point cloud at 30 FPS when I set it to 30 in .conf file

I will try it out with other services like mpatoros2, tfliteserver in tandem see if there is a drop in frame rate or performance

Darshit Desai

@Alex-Kushleyev right now the FPS values need to be a multiple of 15 for some reason because I tried 35, and 20 FPS and the camera server refuses to start

Alex Kushleyev

@Darshit-Desai , i will double check the available FPS. Not all arbitrary FPS are possible.

Alex Kushleyev

If you run “voxl-camera-server -d 0”, you will see a lot of debug messages including all possible tof modes. If you see something you want to try, you can modify the code. Mode9 is long range and mode5 is short range.

Darshit Desai

@Alex-Kushleyev I dont see mode descriptions when I try this

voxl2:/etc/modalai$ voxl-camera-server -d 0
detected system image 1.7.1
using new imx214 defaults
=================================================================
configuration for 3 cameras:

cam #0
    name:                tof
    sensor type:         pmd-tof
    isEnabled:           1
    camId:               0
    camId2:              -1
    fps:                 20
    en_rotate:           0
    en_rotate2:          0

    en_preview:          1
    pre_width:           224
    pre_height:          1557
    en_raw_preview:      1

    en_small_video:      0
    small_video_width:   -1
    small_video_height:  -1

    en_large_video:      0
    large_video_width:   -1
    large_video_height:  -1

    en_snapshot:         0
    snap_width:          -1
    snap_height:         -1

    ae_mode:             off
    standby_enabled:     0
    decimator:           5
    independent_exposure:0

cam #1
    name:                hires
    sensor type:         imx214
    isEnabled:           1
    camId:               1
    camId2:              -1
    fps:                 30
    en_rotate:           0
    en_rotate2:          0

    en_preview:          0
    pre_width:           640
    pre_height:          480
    en_raw_preview:      0

    en_small_video:      1
    small_video_width:   1024
    small_video_height:  768

    en_large_video:      1
    large_video_width:   4208
    large_video_height:  3120

    en_snapshot:         1
    snap_width:          4208
    snap_height:         3120

    ae_mode:             isp
    standby_enabled:     0
    decimator:           1
    independent_exposure:0

cam #2
    name:                tracking
    sensor type:         ov7251
    isEnabled:           1
    camId:               2
    camId2:              -1
    fps:                 30
    en_rotate:           0
    en_rotate2:          0

    en_preview:          1
    pre_width:           640
    pre_height:          480
    en_raw_preview:      1

    en_small_video:      0
    small_video_width:   -1
    small_video_height:  -1

    en_large_video:      0
    large_video_width:   -1
    large_video_height:  -1

    en_snapshot:         0
    snap_width:          -1
    snap_height:         -1

    ae_mode:             lme_msv
    standby_enabled:     0
    decimator:           1
    independent_exposure:0

=================================================================
DEBUG:   Attempting to open the hal module
DEBUG:   SUCCESS: Camera module opened on attempt 0
DEBUG:   ----------- Number of cameras: 3

DEBUG:   Cam idx: 0, Cam slot: 0, Slave Address: 0x007A, Sensor Id: 0x003D
DEBUG:   Cam idx: 1, Cam slot: 2, Slave Address: 0x0020, Sensor Id: 0x0214
DEBUG:   Cam idx: 2, Cam slot: 3, Slave Address: 0x00E2, Sensor Id: 0x7750
GPS server Connected 
DEBUG:   Connected to cpu-monitor
DEBUG:   ------ voxl-camera-server: Starting 3 cameras

Starting Camera: tof (id #0)
DEBUG:   Checking Gain limits for Camera: tof
Using gain limits min: 54 max: 8000
DEBUG:   cam ID 0 checking for fmt:   38  w:  224 h: 1557 o:   0
DEBUG:   i:  0 fmt: 34 w: 176 h: 144 o:0
DEBUG:   i:  4 fmt: 34 w: 176 h: 144 o:1
DEBUG:   i:  8 fmt: 35 w: 176 h: 144 o:0
DEBUG:   i: 12 fmt: 35 w: 176 h: 144 o:1
DEBUG:   i: 16 fmt: 33 w: 176 h: 144 o:0
DEBUG:   i: 20 fmt: 37 w: 224 h:1557 o:0
DEBUG:   i: 24 fmt: 38 w: 224 h:1557 o:0
DEBUG:   i: 28 fmt: 32 w: 224 h:1557 o:0
DEBUG:   i: 32 fmt: 36 w: 224 h:1557 o:0
VERBOSE: Successfully found configuration match for camera 0: 224x1557
VERBOSE: Adding preview stream for camera: 0
DEBUG:   Converted gralloc flags 0x20900 to GBM flags 0x1400000
VERBOSE: Dumping GBM flags
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_CAMERA_WRITE_QTI	
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_HW_COMPOSER_QTI	
VERBOSE: Opened GBM fd
gbm_create_device(156): Info: backend name is: msm_drm
VERBOSE: Created GBM device
DEBUG:   Allocated BO with width=224 height=1557 stride=336 aligned_w=336 aligned_h=1557 size=524288 flags=0x20900 format=GBM_FORMAT_RAW12
DEBUG:   Converted gralloc flags 0x20900 to GBM flags 0x1400000
VERBOSE: Dumping GBM flags
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_CAMERA_WRITE_QTI	
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_HW_COMPOSER_QTI	
DEBUG:   Allocated BO with width=224 height=1557 stride=336 aligned_w=336 aligned_h=1557 size=524288 flags=0x20900 format=GBM_FORMAT_RAW12
DEBUG:   Converted gralloc flags 0x20900 to GBM flags 0x1400000
VERBOSE: Dumping GBM flags
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_CAMERA_WRITE_QTI	
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_HW_COMPOSER_QTI	
DEBUG:   Allocated BO with width=224 height=1557 stride=336 aligned_w=336 aligned_h=1557 size=524288 flags=0x20900 format=GBM_FORMAT_RAW12
DEBUG:   Converted gralloc flags 0x20900 to GBM flags 0x1400000
VERBOSE: Dumping GBM flags
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_CAMERA_WRITE_QTI	
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_HW_COMPOSER_QTI	
DEBUG:   Allocated BO with width=224 height=1557 stride=336 aligned_w=336 aligned_h=1557 size=524288 flags=0x20900 format=GBM_FORMAT_RAW12
DEBUG:   Converted gralloc flags 0x20900 to GBM flags 0x1400000
VERBOSE: Dumping GBM flags
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_CAMERA_WRITE_QTI	
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_HW_COMPOSER_QTI	
DEBUG:   Allocated BO with width=224 height=1557 stride=336 aligned_w=336 aligned_h=1557 size=524288 flags=0x20900 format=GBM_FORMAT_RAW12
DEBUG:   Converted gralloc flags 0x20900 to GBM flags 0x1400000
VERBOSE: Dumping GBM flags
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_CAMERA_WRITE_QTI	
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_HW_COMPOSER_QTI	
DEBUG:   Allocated BO with width=224 height=1557 stride=336 aligned_w=336 aligned_h=1557 size=524288 flags=0x20900 format=GBM_FORMAT_RAW12
DEBUG:   Converted gralloc flags 0x20900 to GBM flags 0x1400000
VERBOSE: Dumping GBM flags
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_CAMERA_WRITE_QTI	
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_HW_COMPOSER_QTI	
DEBUG:   Allocated BO with width=224 height=1557 stride=336 aligned_w=336 aligned_h=1557 size=524288 flags=0x20900 format=GBM_FORMAT_RAW12
DEBUG:   Converted gralloc flags 0x20900 to GBM flags 0x1400000
VERBOSE: Dumping GBM flags
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_CAMERA_WRITE_QTI	
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_HW_COMPOSER_QTI	
DEBUG:   Allocated BO with width=224 height=1557 stride=336 aligned_w=336 aligned_h=1557 size=524288 flags=0x20900 format=GBM_FORMAT_RAW12
DEBUG:   Converted gralloc flags 0x20900 to GBM flags 0x1400000
VERBOSE: Dumping GBM flags
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_CAMERA_WRITE_QTI	
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_HW_COMPOSER_QTI	
DEBUG:   Allocated BO with width=224 height=1557 stride=336 aligned_w=336 aligned_h=1557 size=524288 flags=0x20900 format=GBM_FORMAT_RAW12
DEBUG:   Converted gralloc flags 0x20900 to GBM flags 0x1400000
VERBOSE: Dumping GBM flags
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_CAMERA_WRITE_QTI	
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_HW_COMPOSER_QTI	
DEBUG:   Allocated BO with width=224 height=1557 stride=336 aligned_w=336 aligned_h=1557 size=524288 flags=0x20900 format=GBM_FORMAT_RAW12
DEBUG:   Converted gralloc flags 0x20900 to GBM flags 0x1400000
VERBOSE: Dumping GBM flags
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_CAMERA_WRITE_QTI	
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_HW_COMPOSER_QTI	
DEBUG:   Allocated BO with width=224 height=1557 stride=336 aligned_w=336 aligned_h=1557 size=524288 flags=0x20900 format=GBM_FORMAT_RAW12
DEBUG:   Converted gralloc flags 0x20900 to GBM flags 0x1400000
VERBOSE: Dumping GBM flags
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_CAMERA_WRITE_QTI	
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_HW_COMPOSER_QTI	
DEBUG:   Allocated BO with width=224 height=1557 stride=336 aligned_w=336 aligned_h=1557 size=524288 flags=0x20900 format=GBM_FORMAT_RAW12
DEBUG:   Converted gralloc flags 0x20900 to GBM flags 0x1400000
VERBOSE: Dumping GBM flags
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_CAMERA_WRITE_QTI	
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_HW_COMPOSER_QTI	
DEBUG:   Allocated BO with width=224 height=1557 stride=336 aligned_w=336 aligned_h=1557 size=524288 flags=0x20900 format=GBM_FORMAT_RAW12
DEBUG:   Converted gralloc flags 0x20900 to GBM flags 0x1400000
VERBOSE: Dumping GBM flags
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_CAMERA_WRITE_QTI	
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_HW_COMPOSER_QTI	
DEBUG:   Allocated BO with width=224 height=1557 stride=336 aligned_w=336 aligned_h=1557 size=524288 flags=0x20900 format=GBM_FORMAT_RAW12
DEBUG:   Converted gralloc flags 0x20900 to GBM flags 0x1400000
VERBOSE: Dumping GBM flags
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_CAMERA_WRITE_QTI	
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_HW_COMPOSER_QTI	
DEBUG:   Allocated BO with width=224 height=1557 stride=336 aligned_w=336 aligned_h=1557 size=524288 flags=0x20900 format=GBM_FORMAT_RAW12
DEBUG:   Converted gralloc flags 0x20900 to GBM flags 0x1400000
VERBOSE: Dumping GBM flags
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_CAMERA_WRITE_QTI	
DEBUG:   	Found flag GBM_BO_USAGE_HW_COMPOSER_QTI	
DEBUG:   Allocated BO with width=224 height=1557 stride=336 aligned_w=336 aligned_h=1557 size=524288 flags=0x20900 format=GBM_FORMAT_RAW12
DEBUG:   Successfully set up pipeline for stream: PREVIEW
VERBOSE: Entered thread: cam0-request(tid: 3925)
DEBUG:   Started Camera: tof
Starting Camera: hires (id #1)
ERROR:   Invalid TOF framerate: 20, must be either 5 or 15
ERROR:   Failed to construct request settings for camera: tof
WARNING: Thread: tof request thread Received ESTOP
VERBOSE: Leaving tof request thr
```ead

Darshit Desai

@Alex-Kushleyev I found where the code changes were done and technically all arbitrary frame rates should work if we remove the == comparison with a range based comparison, but before changing that is there a reason why it is kept discrete? Can this discrete values be made into multiples of 5?

if(configInfo.fps != 5 && configInfo.fps != 15 && configInfo.fps != 30 && configInfo.fps != 45 && configInfo.fps != 60) {
            M_ERROR("Invalid TOF framerate: %d, must be either 5 or 15\n", configInfo.fps);
            return -1;
        }

Because the settings selection for long_range or short_range is just a simple if else condition

Alex Kushleyev

@Darshit-Desai ,

First set the framerate to one that is currently supported, then run voxl-camera-server -d 0. Then you will see the possible tof modes.

The tof sensor does not support arbitrary fps

Darshit Desai

@Alex-Kushleyev I got it about the debug command.

On the topic of arbitrary fps, the sensor supports only 5, 15, 30, 45 and 60 according to the above code snippet. Nothing in the middle not even fps with multiples of 10 or 5. (Like 20, 25, 40, 50, 55)

Alex Kushleyev

@Darshit-Desai , this check i added quickly just to allow additional rates other than 5 and 15 originally supported.

Based on the output of the supported use cases (from voxl-camera-server -d 0 | grep usecase), here are all the supported modes:

Long Range: 5, 10, 15, 20, 30
Short Range: 15, 30, 45, 60

Based on this information, you can experiment with the short / long range and desired FPS by modifying the camera server code directly (including logic for checking fps and setting long/short range). In future we will most likely add a param for selecting the range mode.

Just to clarify, the use case information that lists range mode and fps is printed from the low level TOF driver, but the fps checks that you are referring to are in camera server high level code.