Hi everyone,
I am trying to connect two cameras of the same type to the same CSI interface using an external I2C and MIPI multiplexer. The cameras are configured to be in trigger mode and only one camera will be active at the same time.
As I have control over the trigger of the cameras, my goal is to have a constant frame rate and be able to switch between the cameras on the fly.
Please note that in the end, I want to have this setup twice in order to support four cameras in total, but only 2 running at the same time.
Similar questions to this topic have already been asked:
- Is it possible to add and bring both the Camera UP if they are connected with single CSI Lane imx8mp
- bring up dual Camera under single mipi csi
- İ.MX8 Dual Camera Under Single MIPI CSI
- Integrating dual MIPI CSI interface in iMX8MP Processor
- Two different camera on MIPI-CSI using mux
Thread 1 and 2 belong together and discuss a solution where imx8-media-dev and mipi-csi2-sam are modified, so that depending on the loaded kernel module, a different camera is registered as input.
If I understand this correctly, two cameras of the same type are not supported and a camera switch would be very slow, as kernel modules must be reloaded each time.
Thread 3 is an improvement to 1 and 2, but from the shared information, I'm not sure if the solution could be used to exactly time the switch between the two cameras (I don't want to switch while a frame is captured or transmitted).
Thread 4 and 5 are more related to my topic, but unfortunately, a final solution has not been found.
A quick search has shown, that the video-mux driver is probably the best fit for my needs. While it is used by i.MX6 and i.MX7 based-boards, it is currently not supported for the i.MX8 (imx8-media-dev.c expects an I2C device as input).
Before I start digging deeply into this topic, I would like to ask if there is any advice what's the best approach for my use-case is.
Best regards and thanks for your support.
Markus
