Running 4 Ar0144s on M0188

cbay

Hi Hope yall are well,

I am currently working on getting 4 Ar0144's connected to M0188 and running. As of now all 4 seem to be starting up in voxl Camera server, But ID0 and ID 6 (the ones that should be a combo of eachother) don't seem to be sending frames. If I change what cameras are on what port the new cameras on 2 and 3 start working and 0 and 6 still dont work (showing its a driver/board issue not connector or camera issue)

We had this working previously but cant seem to get it working again. Cameras are plugged into J0, J2, J3 and J6 as was previously recommended.

Here is our Custom Config

#!/bin/bash

################################################################################
#
# This file allows setting of custom camera configurations by defining what
# sensors are plugged into which port.
#
# There is no guarantee that any arbitrary configuration will work. Only the
# predefined camera configs at https://docs.modalai.com/voxl2-camera-configs/
# are supported.
#
# each slot can be one of the following sensors:
#
# pmd-tof
# pmd-tof-liow2
# ov7251
# ov7251-combo
# ov9782
# ov9782-combo
# ar0144
# ar0144-fsin (for use with m0173 and Starling 2 only)
# ar0144-fsin-combo (for use with m0173 and Starling 2 only)
# ar0144-12bit
# ar0144-12bit-fsin (for use with m0173 and Starling 2 only)
# ar0144-12bit-fsin-combo (for use with m0173 and Starling 2 only)
# imx214
# imx412
# imx412-fpv (low latency mode)
# imx678
#
#
# When using a combo mode pair, you must also add a JX_COMBO_MODE field which
# specifies is the pair is to be set up as either a stereo pair ordered
# left-right, right-left, or treated as two independent cameras. If you are
# using a combo-mode flex but only physically connect one of the two cameras
# then select "single" it does not matter which one you connect.
#
# For example:
# J6_LOWER_COMBO_MODE="left-right"
# J6_LOWER_COMBO_MODE="right-left"
# J6_LOWER_COMBO_MODE="independent"
# J6_LOWER_COMBO_MODE="single"
#
# when running "independent" combo mode, also add a NAME2 field for the second cam
# e.g J6_LOWER_NAME2="tracking_rear"
#
# for all sensors except TOF, you can specify a "rotate" flag to
# rotate the image 180 degrees e.g. J6_LOWER_ROTATE="true" or "false"
# for stereo pairs (e.g. ov7251 combo or ar0144-slave-strereo) you can specify
# "rotate-first-only" or "rotate-second-only" to only rotate one, other wise
# when setting the rotate option to "true" both will be rotated.
#
#
# Once configured, this file should live in /data/modalai/custom_camera-config.txt
# then run voxl-configure-cameras custom to load it in
#
#
# cp /usr/share/modalai/voxl-camera-server/custom_camera_config.txt /data/modalai/
#
# We also suggest changing your /data/modalai/sku.txt file to have a camera
# config term "CC" such as MRB-D0005-4-V2-CC
################################################################################


J6_LOWER_SENSOR="ar0144-fsin-combo"
J6_LOWER_NAME="tracking_0"
J6_LOWER_NAME2="tracking_6"
J6_LOWER_ROTATE="false"
J6_LOWER_COMBO_MODE="independent"

J6_LOWER_COMBO1_SENSOR="ar0144-fsin-combo"
J6_LOWER_COMBO1_NAME="tracking_6"
J6_LOWER_COMBO1_ROTATE="false"


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


J7_LOWER_SENSOR="ar0144"
J7_LOWER_NAME="tracking_2"
J7_LOWER_ROTATE="false"
J7_LOWER_COMBO_MODE="single"


J7_UPPER_SENSOR="ar0144"
J7_UPPER_NAME="tracking_3"
J7_UPPER_ROTATE="false"


J8_LOWER_SENSOR=""
J8_LOWER_NAME=""
J8_LOWER_ROTATE="false"


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

cbay

@cbay I got it working by swapping it to ID's 0-3 (2 on the hires lines).

Any known issues with doing this for use in VIO?

Alex Kushleyev

@cbay , yes this should work.

Whenever you add cameras of the same type, you should always check for possible I2C (CCI) conflicts. If you look here https://docs.modalai.com/M0188/#image-sensor-interfaces , the sensor IDs 0,2,3,6 (which is what you use) use unique CCI buses 0-3, so that is all good.

If you used ID 1, it would conflict with with another AR0144 on ID6 (both use CCI1)

One last thing to check is the sensor sync.

if you see fsin in the configuration of the sensor (and name of the sensormodule in /usr/lib/camera/), it means it is set up as a sync slave
currently you have the IDs 0 and 6 set up as sync slaves, but ID 2 and 3 as free-running

There are two issues enabling sync'ed drivers for AR0144 in ID 2 and 3:

the driver is provided only for ID2 in : /usr/share/modalai/chi-cdk/ar0144-fsin/ - this is easy to fix
ID1 and ID3 on M0188 do not have the sync line connected to the camera connector
- this is easy to fix by installing a 0-ohm resistor, which is DNI by default.

Depending on your requirements for VIO (which VIO are you using?), you may or may not need the cameras synchronized.

Please let me know your requirements and we can go from there..

Alex