Three concurrent camera support

Aaky

Hello community,
I am been using VOXL2 over my custom drones since long and now I would like to get my hands onto VOXL2 Mini. My system needs two M0149 tracking camera (AR0144) and one TOF sensor. So three concurrent streams are essential. Apart from that I guess J19 is same as VOXL2 so my GPS and VOXL2 IO would work out of the box over here. But please validate and confirm. Also on USB I need to connect my doodle labs modem. Does this architecture looks viable, especially the camera requirement before I go for purchase?
Also the new TOF sensor is in stock now for sale since I can see old TOF is sold out from long time?

Eric Katzfey

@Aaky I'll leave it to others on the team to comment on the camera configuration questions. For the VOXL 2 mini J19 is similar to J19 on VOXL 2. But instead of having a "spare" i2c port it has the ESC UART port. But, yes, GPS and VOXL 2 IO will work the same as they do on VOXL 2.

Aaky

@Eric-Katzfey Thanks Eric for clarification. Can you please tag someone who can answer my query on camera configuration part? Also does this board have no B2B ports for expansion? I can see it has USB3.0 JST connector on board. So I guess my doodle labs connection can go directly over that USB JST?

Vinny

Hi @Aaky
VOXL 2 Mini has insufficient power for a Doodle Labs radio over USB. You will need to make a special power splice cable from some other 5V source to power a doodle. But, the USB host port otherwise is the same.
Please see this post: https://forum.modalai.com/topic/3589/connecting-voxl-2-mini-to-doodle-labs-helix?_=1721511946216

Aaky

@Vinny Thanks Vinny for prompt response. I also read somewhere regarding external CAP's to be used for high speed USB3.0 datarate. Do I need to do that for doodle labs modem? My doodle would be powered externally and not from VOXL2 Mini board for sure. I just need D+ and D- connections. Also suggest connection pinout since USB on VOXL2 Mini seems to be USB3.0 and Doodle labs USB is 2.0

Vinny

HI @Aaky
As far as I know across a few generations of Doodle radios, they are USB2 only with D+/D-.
Our cables we make for Doodle are only using USB2 lines as well, for example: https://docs.modalai.com/cable-datasheets/#mcbl-00085

Aaky

@Vinny Thanks Vinny. This answers my query well.

@Eric-Katzfey Please tag someone to answer camera query.

modaltb

Hi @Aaky

Yes three camera streams are OK (you can do 4 on voxl2 mini with the interposers we sell, e.g. M0135).

We don't have an SDK camera config that works out of the box but it's not too hard to build one up, see:
https://gitlab.com/voxl-public/voxl-sdk/services/voxl-camera-server/-/blob/master/misc_files/usr/share/modalai/voxl-camera-server/custom_camera_config.txt?ref_type=heads

For example, check out these:
https://docs.modalai.com/voxl2-mini-image-sensors/#quad-tracking

And this, https://docs.modalai.com/voxl2-mini-image-sensors/#camera-configuration-summary:

Aaky

@modaltb Thanks for your inputs. So 1280x800 pixels streaming of two cameras (AR0144) over J6/J7 seems to be workable.

modaltb

@Aaky agreed - not an issue with camera pipeline at all to do that.

Aaky

@modaltb I also want to check the stock availability of new TOF sensor over here. Is this TOF camera available for shipping currently? I cant see that on website so wanted to check with you.