MX6 with dual MIPI CSI cameras

[JohnBirch]

Can we connect the MX6 up to two separate MPI-CSI cameras?   In this use case either one or the other will be operational, not both at the same time.

The interface support virtual channels but not sure if it can support two physical devices.

Thanks

  John

[YixingKong]

John, please click Correct Answer/Helpful Answer if you question has been resolved.

Thanks,

Yixing

[davemcmordie]

Short answer: yes in principle it is possible, at least on the i.MX6 Quad, but you will need an FPGA between the MIPI port and the two cameras in order to handle assignment of separate channel IDs to each stream in a MIPI protocol-compliant fashion.  This would require a fairly in-depth study of the MIPI protocol.

On the receiving end, the i.MX6 Quad contains two image processing units (IPUs), each of which can handle two streams simultaneously-- so the quad can support four streams at the same time.

The full discussion with official answers from Freescale FAEs is here:

https://community.freescale.com/thread/301812

Since you just want one camera at a time, this can probably be handled by switching the IOMUX and IPU control pads which control the assignment of IPU channels.

HTH,

Dave

[ilangoodman]

I'm trying to find this out too. My guess is you will need to switch between the cameras using a high speed switch designed for this kind of thing - e.g. Fairchild FSA642 - or mux the camera outputs using an FPGA. We're testing the Fairchild switch now since it would be a much simpler solution.