Flir Boson+ Issues on VOXL2 Mini

jonathankampia

Set up is as follows: FLIR Boson+ with M0201 adapter board (red) connected to J1 port M0181 board plugged into J7 port of VOXL2 mini.

Steps taken:

Set up Boson+ camera using FLIR software, followed all steps detailed here: https://docs.modalai.com/M0153/
Was not able to run voxl-configure-cameras 51 or voxl-configure-cameras 52 as the documentation suggested, so instead added 'boson-fpv' to the J7_LOWER field of the custom config file located at /data/modalai/custom_camera_config.txt
Then ran voxl-configure-cameras and picked the 'C' option, which generated this camera config file:
(I also have an imx412 hooked up to the J6 connector on the mini)

	"version":	0.1,
	"fsync_en":	false,
	"fsync_gpio":	109,
	"cameras":	[{
			"type":	"imx412",
			"name":	"hires",
			"enabled":	true,
			"camera_id":	0,
			"fps":	30,
			"en_preview":	false,
			"preview_width":	640,
			"preview_height":	480,
			"en_raw_preview":	false,
			"en_small_video":	true,
			"small_video_width":	1024,
			"small_video_height":	768,
			"small_venc_mode":	"h264",
			"small_venc_br_ctrl":	"cqp",
			"small_venc_Qfixed":	30,
			"small_venc_Qmin":	15,
			"small_venc_Qmax":	40,
			"small_venc_nPframes":	9,
			"small_venc_mbps":	2,
			"small_venc_osd":	false,
			"en_large_video":	true,
			"large_video_width":	4056,
			"large_video_height":	3040,
			"large_venc_mode":	"h264",
			"large_venc_br_ctrl":	"cqp",
			"large_venc_Qfixed":	40,
			"large_venc_Qmin":	15,
			"large_venc_Qmax":	50,
			"large_venc_nPframes":	29,
			"large_venc_mbps":	40,
			"large_venc_osd":	false,
			"en_snapshot":	true,
			"en_snapshot_width":	4056,
			"en_snapshot_height":	3040,
			"exif_focal_length":	3.0999999046325684,
			"exif_focal_length_in_35mm_format":	17,
			"exif_fnumber":	1.2400000095367432,
			"snapshot_jpeg_quality":	75,
			"ae_mode":	"isp",
			"gain_min":	54,
			"gain_max":	8000
		}, {
			"type":	"boson-fpv",
			"name":	"boson",
			"enabled":	true,
			"camera_id":	1,
			"fps":	30,
			"en_rotate":	false,
			"en_preview":	true,
			"preview_width":	640,
			"preview_height":	512,
			"en_raw_preview":	true,
			"en_small_video":	true,
			"small_video_width":	640,
			"small_video_height":	512,
			"small_venc_mode":	"h265",
			"small_venc_br_ctrl":	"cbr",
			"small_venc_Qfixed":	38,
			"small_venc_Qmin":	15,
			"small_venc_Qmax":	50,
			"small_venc_nPframes":	29,
			"small_venc_mbps":	2,
			"small_venc_osd":	false,
			"ae_mode":	"lme_msv",
			"gain_min":	54,
			"gain_max":	8000,
			"ae_desired_msv":	60,
			"exposure_min_us":	20,
			"exposure_max_us":	33000,
			"exposure_soft_min_us":	5000,
			"ae_filter_alpha":	0.600000023841858,
			"ae_ignore_fraction":	0.20000000298023224,
			"ae_slope":	0.05000000074505806,
			"ae_exposure_period":	1,
			"ae_gain_period":	1
		}]
}

Restarted camera server & drone etc.

I am able to see the camera listed when running voxl-camera-server -l. However, when I try to view the stream via either voxl-inspect-cam -a or the portal, the VOXL just crashes. I don't know how to get any more verbose debug info, and I believe everything is set up correctly with regards to the camera & the software running on the VOXL.

jonathankampia

Just to update with some extra information, this is the exact camera: https://www.oemcameras.com/product/22640a032-htm/

Alex Kushleyev

@jonathankampia ,

(just FYI we just updated some more information about M0201 / M0153 here : https://docs.modalai.com/M0153/)

It seems that connection is not an issue in your case. However, the config file is not correct.

Please use the minimum config, as provided in the Hadron setup docs. We will update the Boson setup with a minimum config as well.

https://docs.modalai.com/voxl2-hadron/#minimum-config

What is happening is that the ISP is not liking the custom resolution of the Boson (640x512) and it causes a low level buffer overrun, causing voxl to crash. So disabling small and large streams should fix it. use preview stream only and enable raw preview.

Here is the config snippet from the above link:

{
          "type": "boson",
          "name": "boson",
          "enabled":  true,
          "camera_id":    0,
          "fps":  30,
          "en_preview":   true,
          "en_misp":  false,
          "preview_width":    640,
          "preview_height":   512,
          "en_raw_preview":   true,
          "en_small_video":   false,
          "en_large_video":   false,
          "ae_mode":  "off"
      },

(please note that after you run voxl-camera-server with this minimal config entry, the camera server will auto populate some additional fields). Also note that i did not paste the full config here, just the camera entry - a few more lines at the top and bottom (mostly braces) are misssing.

I am going to add Boson support in our MISP processing pipeline so you will be able to get h264/h265 encoded boson video feed as well, but meanwhile you could just use voxl-streamer to encode these relatively small frames.

Please let me know if the config update fixes your issue.

Alex