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Which FLIR Lepton breakout board

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  • H Offline
    H Offline
    hmlow
    Regular
    wrote on last edited by hmlow
    #1

    Hi devs

    I understand from the docs that in SDK 0.9, the voxl-lepton-server (if using SPI) and voxl-uvc-server (if using USB) both provides the means to stream video from the lepton to MPA and subsequently to be used by voxl-streamer for RTSP.

    For SPI-
    May i know if this breakout board would work (or alternatively, which one did you guys test with?):
    https://store.groupgets.com/products/purethermal-breakout-board

    The SPI interface to be used on the VOXL2 should be the J10 (SPI bus 14), right?

    For USB-
    Would this work? (https://store.groupgets.com/products/purethermal-mini-pro-jst-sr)

    Does it work on the J12 of the 5G modem addon board?

    Thanks!

    VinnyV 1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • H hmlow

      Hi devs

      I understand from the docs that in SDK 0.9, the voxl-lepton-server (if using SPI) and voxl-uvc-server (if using USB) both provides the means to stream video from the lepton to MPA and subsequently to be used by voxl-streamer for RTSP.

      For SPI-
      May i know if this breakout board would work (or alternatively, which one did you guys test with?):
      https://store.groupgets.com/products/purethermal-breakout-board

      The SPI interface to be used on the VOXL2 should be the J10 (SPI bus 14), right?

      For USB-
      Would this work? (https://store.groupgets.com/products/purethermal-mini-pro-jst-sr)

      Does it work on the J12 of the 5G modem addon board?

      Thanks!

      VinnyV Offline
      VinnyV Offline
      Vinny
      ModalAI Team
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      Hi @hmlow
      I'll let the SW team speak for how to use the Lepton, but yes, we have been evaluating the SPI unit from the Pure Thermal link you posted (1st one, I didn't even notice there was a USB one, that might be an easy one to try out).

      So, regarding SPI, there are a few notes/caveats about that interface.

      J10 has no INTERRUPT input and no I2C bus on it, so you can configure the Voxl2 to receive data in polling mode, but you cannot reconfigure the default settings of the Lepton (an I2C bus is needed).

      Because of that, we are in process of validating a new plug-in board that has a SPI + I2C port specifically tailored around Lepton that also has a dedicated INT input so polling would not be needed anymore and you could reconfigure it over I2C. I am not sure when we will have that product ready, probably a couple more months. However, if you already have some of our plug-in boards, you can possibly make it work better than J10 in the meantime.

      One final note, the PureThermal solution is on the edge of electrical performance for the I/O interface since it operates at 2.8V, whereas all Voxl2 JST's are 3.3V, so be sure you have a very clean cable solution and try to keep it short or noise can impact that interface and hurt the existing small noise margin (it still "passes" electrical analysis in both directions, but with very little margin).
      Our cable tech docs page will have an update soon showing the cable we are making for the PureThermal product. Clever eyes can see it listed in the file linked here as MCBL-00070:
      https://docs.modalai.com/cable-userguides/#comprehensive-modalai-cable-spreadsheet-and-examples

      Hope this helped.

      H 1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • Chad SweetC Offline
        Chad SweetC Offline
        Chad Sweet
        ModalAI Team
        wrote on last edited by
        #3

        Regarding USB, the docs call out "PureThermal Mini Pro" which does look like what is found here

        H 1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • VinnyV Vinny

          Hi @hmlow
          I'll let the SW team speak for how to use the Lepton, but yes, we have been evaluating the SPI unit from the Pure Thermal link you posted (1st one, I didn't even notice there was a USB one, that might be an easy one to try out).

          So, regarding SPI, there are a few notes/caveats about that interface.

          J10 has no INTERRUPT input and no I2C bus on it, so you can configure the Voxl2 to receive data in polling mode, but you cannot reconfigure the default settings of the Lepton (an I2C bus is needed).

          Because of that, we are in process of validating a new plug-in board that has a SPI + I2C port specifically tailored around Lepton that also has a dedicated INT input so polling would not be needed anymore and you could reconfigure it over I2C. I am not sure when we will have that product ready, probably a couple more months. However, if you already have some of our plug-in boards, you can possibly make it work better than J10 in the meantime.

          One final note, the PureThermal solution is on the edge of electrical performance for the I/O interface since it operates at 2.8V, whereas all Voxl2 JST's are 3.3V, so be sure you have a very clean cable solution and try to keep it short or noise can impact that interface and hurt the existing small noise margin (it still "passes" electrical analysis in both directions, but with very little margin).
          Our cable tech docs page will have an update soon showing the cable we are making for the PureThermal product. Clever eyes can see it listed in the file linked here as MCBL-00070:
          https://docs.modalai.com/cable-userguides/#comprehensive-modalai-cable-spreadsheet-and-examples

          Hope this helped.

          H Offline
          H Offline
          hmlow
          Regular
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          @Vinny said in Which FLIR Lepton breakout board:

          Hi @hmlow
          I'll let the SW team speak for how to use the Lepton, but yes, we have been evaluating the SPI unit from the Pure Thermal link you posted (1st one, I didn't even notice there was a USB one, that might be an easy one to try out).

          So, regarding SPI, there are a few notes/caveats about that interface.

          J10 has no INTERRUPT input and no I2C bus on it, so you can configure the Voxl2 to receive data in polling mode, but you cannot reconfigure the default settings of the Lepton (an I2C bus is needed).

          Because of that, we are in process of validating a new plug-in board that has a SPI + I2C port specifically tailored around Lepton that also has a dedicated INT input so polling would not be needed anymore and you could reconfigure it over I2C. I am not sure when we will have that product ready, probably a couple more months. However, if you already have some of our plug-in boards, you can possibly make it work better than J10 in the meantime.

          One final note, the PureThermal solution is on the edge of electrical performance for the I/O interface since it operates at 2.8V, whereas all Voxl2 JST's are 3.3V, so be sure you have a very clean cable solution and try to keep it short or noise can impact that interface and hurt the existing small noise margin (it still "passes" electrical analysis in both directions, but with very little margin).
          Our cable tech docs page will have an update soon showing the cable we are making for the PureThermal product. Clever eyes can see it listed in the file linked here as MCBL-00070:
          https://docs.modalai.com/cable-userguides/#comprehensive-modalai-cable-spreadsheet-and-examples

          Hope this helped.

          Great explanation.
          Thanks and i'll look into it

          1 Reply Last reply
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          • Chad SweetC Chad Sweet

            Regarding USB, the docs call out "PureThermal Mini Pro" which does look like what is found here

            H Offline
            H Offline
            hmlow
            Regular
            wrote on last edited by
            #5

            @Chad-Sweet said in Which FLIR Lepton breakout board:

            Regarding USB, the docs call out "PureThermal Mini Pro" which does look like what is found here

            Thanks! But are you able to advise which of the many USB interfaces on the VOXL2 would the purethermal mini pro (as a UVC camera source) work on?

            1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • Chad SweetC Offline
              Chad SweetC Offline
              Chad Sweet
              ModalAI Team
              wrote on last edited by
              #6

              Sorry, J12 on the 5G (M0090) add-on should work fine. Any host port from a VOXL 2 add-on should work.

              H 1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • Chad SweetC Chad Sweet

                Sorry, J12 on the 5G (M0090) add-on should work fine. Any host port from a VOXL 2 add-on should work.

                H Offline
                H Offline
                hmlow
                Regular
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                @Chad-Sweet said in Which FLIR Lepton breakout board:

                Sorry, J12 on the 5G (M0090) add-on should work fine. Any host port from a VOXL 2 add-on should work.

                ok thanks

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