Two USB FLIR Boson cameras, one connected to J9 USB-C port...not working
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I am trying to run two FLIR Boson 640 USB cameras simultaneously on VOXL 2 Mini.
When I plug a camera into J9 USB-C port, I don't see it recognized as a USB camera device under lsusb. I can't seem to start voxl-uvc-server, etc. Normally when plugged into J3, I see the camera show up as ...FLIR Systems...
Is the USB OTG functionality on VOXL 2 Mini supposed to work automatically? That was my understanding based on my forum research.
Also, one interesting thing to note is that when I plug in the Boson to J9, I do actually see two more entries listed in lsusb, but they're not what I expect. The two entries are both "Linux Foundation root hub"
Any advice? Thanks.
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Hi @serviceberry
From a hardware perspective, this is not achievable with direct VOXL2 Mini power sources.
We do not provide enough 5V to power Qty-2 Bosons on VOXL 2 Mini. You will need a full sized VOXL 2 for this use case.
https://docs.modalai.com/voxl2-mini-connectors/#power-inputoutput-important-note
Or, you will need to make a custom adapter that allows you to power your Bosons from a external power source.
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@Vinny Thanks for the reply. We have a powered USB hub like this. One plan I had was to plug our powered USB hub into the MCBL-00022-2 and then plug the two Bosons into the USB hub. Do you think this would work? (We are just doing testing on a lab bench and would like to see if VOXL 2 mini with multiple USB cameras is viable, hence the possibility for this bulky/heavy setup.) We'd probably be able to make a custom adapter to power the Bosons externally in the future.
On the topic of the USB OTG functionality, let's say I just want to use one single Boson camera and plug it into the J9 USB-C port. Would you expect that to work?
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Hi @serviceberry
From a HW viewpoint (I am HW team) that sounds reasonable to use the hub the way you suggest. But I know for a fact from personal experience the Boson's are very dependent on VBUS rise times, and a very fast rising 5V supply may not allow it to enumerate properly. We have had an instance in the past where one particular VBUS port rose really fast, and the Boson did not enumerate until we slowed it down. It's one of those situations that may require testing to check. Our J3 10-pin host port has a nice moderate rise time that allows Boson to enumerate. So, when using a Hub, check the VBUS rise times compared to J3.
I do NOT expect J9 USB-C OTG port to work with Boson.
The Snapdragon SOC is very smart, and when in OTG mode, it will not provide more than 500mA to any device that enumerates as USB2 which I am lead to believe how the Boson enumerates. if the Boson could enumerate as a USB3 device and the drivers were all present in the Kernel for this, the Snapdragon will give it 900mA over VBUS letting it boot but I think this is a non-starter without the Boson being able to do that.
Our Boson kits use USB2 only and we provide 1A support to enable them to work without requiring enumeration to negotiate more current, hence why they work on the J3 ports and other expansion board ports that have more than 500mA: https://docs.modalai.com/expansion-design-guide/#usb-expansion-over-j3--j5
