OV5642 Raw Camera Output

[evankahn]

Hi all,

Does anyone have experience changing regster settings on the OmniVision OV5642 sensor? I am using the Boundary Devices SabreLite i.mx6 board as a host. I am trying to send raw sensor data, at full resolution, as fast as possible, across the parallel camera interface. I do not care about bit depth or color.

The OV5642 datasheet claims that it is rated for 15fps output when capturing a full-resolution image (2592x1944). However, when testing the interface with Gstreamer, I top out at exactly 7.5fps. Scoping the pixel clock on my sensor, I surmise that the output clock is running at 96 MHz. Additionally, one frame of data output captured from the sensor is a ~7.5 megabyte file, corresponding to 12 bits per pixel. Looking at the ov5642 driver source, I see that camera data is being packed as YUV422, confirming the 12-bit depth. Since I'm using an 8-lane parallel interface, I surmise that this means that it takes two clock cycles to send one pixel's worth of data.

Using the equations on page 7 of this document, I can calculate that such an interface running at 96MHz will top out at sending 9.52fps, meaning that 12-bit data at 15fps won't work. This suspicion is confirmed by the following line from the ov5642 datasheet: "96Mhz is for sensor RAW data output at 15fps or YUV output at 7.5fps. For higher speeds such as 5 Megapixel YUV @ 15fps, OmniVision recommends using the MIPI two-lane interface."

So, I figure that if I can convince the ov5642 to support an 8-bit image format, I should be able to double the throughput of the parallel interface, and finally get to that 15fps. To this end, I have two questions on implementation.

(1) I have begun implementing the patch instructions described here and here​ to enable 8-bit raw/grayscale support in the Freescale v4l2 driver stack. However, implementing the patches described in the second forum thread leads to a weird error: though no build errors pop up and I'm modifying neither the device driver itself nor any makefiles, the target driver (ov5642_capture.ko) is not included in the final build directory, although the corresponding .o file is created. I am not sure what could be causing this issue. Even more frustratingly, if I run one build which results in this and then roll back all of the patches, ideally to return to a stock image, the kernel module is still not compiled or included. In this state I am able to confirm that the source code generating the stock image successfully compiles the kernel modules by using "bitbake virtual/kernel -c compile_kernelmodules" - however, the drivers still do not appear in the final image. I have no idea why this happens or how to fix it.

(2) As far as I know, I need to patch two things in the device driver itself (ov5642.c): the registers controlling data format for the full-resolution capture mode, and the actual listed data output format, so the v4l2 platform drivers know what to do with the data. To this end I have changed the output format in ov5642.c to V4L2_PIX_FMT_GREY.

I am also modifying the camera registers that are set in the driver to support raw data output rather than YUV422. Based on this​ application note, which has a general set of registers to change for raw mode, and the datasheet, it seems that I need to be doing something with register 0x4300 and/or 0x501f. I am currently setting 0x4300 to 0xf8 (raw data, bypassing the formatter module) and register 0x501f to 0x03 (setting the format mux to ISP RAW). Is this a reasonable approach? If anyone has other advice on the most straightforward way to receive and process 8-bit data from this sensor, I would love to hear it - I'm not wedded to raw or grayscale by any means, but it seems to be the easiest approach to bringup.

Any and all suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated; thanks very much.

[raminf]

Hi Evan

Were you able to get ov5642 to output raw data? Did you get the proper registry values for this camera?

I tried the patches but the camera Test pattern is still corrupted.

somehow omnivision website does not allow me to submit request for technical support!

Thanks in advance.

[gusarambula]

Hello Evan Kahn,

I cannot comment much on this regard but as far as the camera registers go your safest best would be to contact OmniVision as only they have the exact information on the camera register values for your desired mode of operation. On the OV5642 drivers there are a couple of modes which were provided by OmniVision so they may be able to help. I hope you find what you need! Let us know of your findings!

Regards,