Camera not being identified on J7U

Idan Fiksel

I am trying to connect an IMX412 and an AR0144 to the VOXL2 with a M0084 cable on J7. Below is the custom configuration file I created. The issue I'm encountering is that neither sensor is being identified on J7U when I run 'voxl-camera-server -l'. Is there a hardware constraint regarding these cameras that I am not aware of?

J6_LOWER_SENSOR="pmd-tof-liow2"
J6_LOWER_NAME="tof-rear"
J6_LOWER_ROTATE="false"

J6_UPPER_SENSOR=""
J6_UPPER_NAME=""
J6_UPPER_ROTATE="false"

J7_LOWER_SENSOR="imx412"
J7_LOWER_NAME="imx412_sensor_front"
J7_LOWER_ROTATE="false"

J7_UPPER_SENSOR="ar0144"
J7_UPPER_NAME="ar0144_sensor_down"
J7_UPPER_ROTATE="false"

J8_LOWER_SENSOR="pmd-tof-liow2"
J8_LOWER_NAME="tof_front"
J8_LOWER_ROTATE="false"

J8_UPPER_SENSOR=""
J8_UPPER_NAME=""
J8_UPPER_ROTATE="false"

QSL

@Moderator could you help us on this? Thanks!

Alex Kushleyev

@QSL , are you using kernel variant 0 or 1?

you can check using voxl-version, whether you see mach var 1.0.0 or 1.0.1.

1.0.1 kernel is used with M0173 Starling Camera Front End due to I/O pin configuration specific to M0173.

If you are not using M0173, for example when you use M0084 connected to VOXL2 J7, you need to switch to kernel variant 0. by either re-installing the VOXL2 SDK or relfashing the correct kernel from the SDK.

cd voxl2_SDK_<voxl-sdk-version>/system-image
adb reboot bootloader

#flash variant 0
fastboot flash boot_a m0054-1-var00.0-kernel.img
fastboot flash boot_b m0054-1-var00.0-kernel.img

#or flash variant 1
fastboot flash boot_a m0054-1-var00.1-kernel.img
fastboot flash boot_b m0054-1-var00.1-kernel.img

#reboot
fastboot reboot

Alex

Idan Fiksel

Thank you @Alex-Kushleyev, for the response. The current kernel variant is #1. I will flash variant #0 onto the voxl2. Does this kernel allow me to place a PMD sensor on J8 and J6, and have both be used simultaneously?

Also can I connect two M0172 adaptors with a micro-coax as a way to connect the PMD to the VOXL2?
alt text

Alex Kushleyev

@Idan-Fiksel , yes two identical cameras (TOF in this case) should work on J6L and J8L. Two things to check in this case (I already verified):

make sure there is no CCI (I2C) slave address conflict, in other words the camera ports using different CCI busses. I verified this using https://docs.modalai.com/voxl2-connectors/ - J6L uses CCI0 bus (CAM0_CCI0) and J8L uses CCI1 bus (CAM4_CCI1)
make sure the camera driver is present for the camera slots you need (0 and 4):

ls /usr/share/modalai/chi-cdk/irs2975c
com.qti.sensormodule.irs2975c_0.bin  com.qti.sensormodule.irs2975c_2.bin  com.qti.sensormodule.irs2975c_4.bin
com.qti.sensormodule.irs2975c_1.bin  com.qti.sensormodule.irs2975c_3.bin  com.qti.sensormodule.irs2975c_5.bin

The last thing you may need to limit the maximum "exposure" of the TOF sensor (maximum emitted power) using voxl-camera-server.conf in order to prevent drawing too much current (in bursts. This will depend on other load on VOXL2's power supply, etc and will need testing to make sure that VOXL2's power supply is not affected by drawing too much current under full system load.

Please consult the following document for the power consumption and different operating modes of the PMD TOF sensor : https://docs.modalai.com/M0178/#currentpower-consumption

Alex

Idan Fiksel

@Alex-Kushleyev Thank you for the information.

I tried to flash the VOXL2 to variant #0 but i doesn't seem to flash it following your instructions.

idanfiksel@macbookpro system-image % adb reboot bootloader
idanfiksel@macbookpro system-image % fastboot flash boot_a m0054-1-var00.0-kernel.img
Sending 'boot_a' (17560 KB) OKAY [ 0.439s]
Writing 'boot_a' OKAY [ 0.118s]
Finished. Total time: 0.621s
idanfiksel@macbookpro system-image % fastboot flash boot_b m0054-1-var00.0-kernel.img
Sending 'boot_b' (17560 KB) OKAY [ 0.438s]
Writing 'boot_b' OKAY [ 0.093s]
Finished. Total time: 0.557s
idanfiksel@macbookpro system-image % fastboot reboot
Rebooting OKAY [ 0.000s]
Finished. Total time: 0.000s
idanfiksel@macbookpro system-image % adb shell

system-image: 1.8.04-M0054-14.1a-perf
kernel: #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Mar 24 21:47:11 UTC 2025 4.19.125
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
hw platform: M0054
mach.var: 1.0.0
SKU: TF-M0054-4-V1-C11
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
voxl-suite: 1.5.0

Is there a step I'm missing?

Alex Kushleyev

@Idan-Fiksel , it looks like it worked since your machine variant is now 1.0.0 . I assume it was 1.0.1. Sorry the numbering in the name of the kernel is 00.0 vs 00.1…