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  3. Auto-Exposure Issue with Tracking Camera

Auto-Exposure Issue with Tracking Camera

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m500
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  • Michael HinckleyM Offline
    Michael HinckleyM Offline
    Michael Hinckley
    wrote on last edited by
    #1

    Hello, I am experiencing an auto-exposure issue with the tracking camera. The camera constantly flashes between bright and dim frames when it is exposed to sunlight. I recently flashed the drone with the VOXL 3.6.0 system image, but the problem still persists. Additionally, I tried sending the drone a manual gain and exposure, but the flashing continued after voxl-streamer was restarted.

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    • ? Offline
      ? Offline
      A Former User
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      Hi Michael,

      We're aware of the flickering issue and have fixed it on our dev branch which we're planning to do a full release of in the coming weeks.

      As for the failure to set manual exposure/gain, how are you sending these instructions?

      H 1 Reply Last reply
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      • Michael HinckleyM Offline
        Michael HinckleyM Offline
        Michael Hinckley
        wrote on last edited by Michael Hinckley
        #3

        Hi Alex,

        We were using:

        voxl-send-command tracking set_exp_gain <exposure> <gain>
        

        However, it seems that we were not setting the auto exposure mode to "off" before sending the commands.

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        • ? A Former User

          Hi Michael,

          We're aware of the flickering issue and have fixed it on our dev branch which we're planning to do a full release of in the coming weeks.

          As for the failure to set manual exposure/gain, how are you sending these instructions?

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

          @Alex-Gardner
          I'm looking forward to the fix as well.
          Which version will it be released on? Is fix applied to voxl-camera-server or voxl-qvio-server?

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          • D Offline
            D Offline
            david.moro
            Contributor
            wrote on last edited by
            #5

            Hi! It has been almost a year since the last response in this thread. I assume the change made it to the full release. I just flashed a board with SDK 1.0.0 and I see the problem when flying outdoors. Can you confirm this fix got pushed? DM and I can share a link to a video.

            Cheers!

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            • ModeratorM Offline
              ModeratorM Offline
              Moderator
              ModalAI Team
              wrote on last edited by
              #6

              The AE defaults are configured for OV7251. If you are using a different sensor, you'll need to tweak the PI values yourself to achieve your desired setup

              Details here:
              https://docs.modalai.com/voxl-camera-server/#camera-server-config-file

              If there is flicker, you could probably start by turning down the P gain. Here are the relevant parameters

              ae_k_p_ns: the desired p_ns for the exposure algorithm
              ae_k_i_ns: the desired k_i for the exposure algorithm
              ae_max_i: the desired max_i for the exposure algorithm

              D 1 Reply Last reply
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              • ModeratorM Moderator

                The AE defaults are configured for OV7251. If you are using a different sensor, you'll need to tweak the PI values yourself to achieve your desired setup

                Details here:
                https://docs.modalai.com/voxl-camera-server/#camera-server-config-file

                If there is flicker, you could probably start by turning down the P gain. Here are the relevant parameters

                ae_k_p_ns: the desired p_ns for the exposure algorithm
                ae_k_i_ns: the desired k_i for the exposure algorithm
                ae_max_i: the desired max_i for the exposure algorithm

                D Offline
                D Offline
                david.moro
                Contributor
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                @Moderator , I am using the standard OV7251 sensor. The Flicker does not happen indoors though. Happy to share a video.

                Regards,

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