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.