Working with Raspberry Pi

This deserializer board only supports the Raspberry Pi 5 mainboard and the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5. The Compute Module 5 must be used with a carrier board that has a 22PIN MIPI-CSI interface.

Hardware Connection

• Note: When connecting the devices, you must power both the deserializer board and the Raspberry Pi. To ensure correct power-up sequencing, first connect the power to the GMSL board, then connect the power to the Raspberry Pi and boot. Always power off before connecting or disconnecting camera cables.

Software Configuration

• Tested using the official Raspberry Pi image 2024-07-04-raspios-bookworm-arm64.xz.

  • The download link for the corresponding version is provided here. You can click here to download the image package.

• Flash the image file and boot the Raspberry Pi.

  • Extract the .img image file from the downloaded package.
  • Use the Raspberry Pi Imager or balenaEtcher to write the image file to a TF card.
  • Insert the TF card with the flashed image into the Raspberry Pi mainboard, connect the hardware, and power on.

• Open a terminal on the Raspberry Pi and use the following commands to download and extract the driver package:

  wget https://files.waveshare.com/wiki/GMSL-Module-Board-4CH-A/gmsl-module-board-4ch-a.zip
  unzip gmsl-module-board-4ch-a.zip

• Install the drivers

  • Use the cd command to enter the driver package directory:

    cd gmsl-module-board-4ch-a/

  • Copy the device tree file to /boot/formware/overlays:

    sudo cp bin/6.6.31+rpt-rpi-2712/dtbo/max9296.dtbo /boot/firmware/overlays/

  • Copy the driver kernel module:

    • It is recommended to use the suggested system version.

        sudo cp bin/6.6.31+rpt-rpi-2712/ko/max9296.ko /lib/modules/6.6.31+rpt-rpi-2712/

• Configure the /boot/firmware/config.txt file

  • Edit the file:

    sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt

  • Depending on which interface is used, add the appropriate setting lines to the end of the file.

    dtoverlay=max9296,sensor-type=ISX031_MAX96717_2CH
    dtoverlay=max9296,cam0,sensor-type=ISX031_MAX96717_2CH
    #dtoverlay=max9296,sensor-type=ISX031_MAX96717_1CH
    #dtoverlay=max9296,cam0,sensor-type=ISX031_MAX96717_1CH

  • In the configuration lines, the csi1 interface is used by default. If you connect the hardware using the csi0 interface, add the cam0 parameter. sensor-type=ISX031_MAX96717_2CH sets the camera type, where 2CH means two cameras are connected, and 1CH means one camera is connected. The example above shows connecting four ISX031 cameras.

• After setting, save the file and reboot the system with sudo reboot

• After rebooting, load the driver:

  sudo depmod
  sudo modprobe max9296

Quick Test

• Install gstreamer1.0 tools:

  sudo apt install gstreamer1.0-tools -y

• Configure the CSI and CFE driver pipeline.

  • Set script execution permissions:

    cd ~/gmsl-module-board-4ch-a/
    sudo chmod a+x script/*

  • Configure the pipeline:

    ./script/aili_run_camera.sh all 1920 1536 2ch

  • The pipeline configuration command is ./aili_run_camera.sh csi_channel width hight deserdes_channel , where: csi_channel specifies which CSI interface to use. all means use both csi0 and csi1, csi0 means use csi0, csi1 means use csi1. width and height set the camera resolution. deserdes_channel sets the number of channels used. 1ch uses the LINKA channel by default, 2ch uses both channels.

• Run the preview script to display the preview window:

  ./script/aili_review_camera.sh all 1920 1536 2ch

  • Note: The preview script must use the same parameters as the pipeline link configuration.

• After the preview script runs successfully, a preview window will appear. When multiple windows preview simultaneously, they may overlap; you can manually drag the windows to view each one.