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A previous post of the same thing (via different URL) from 15 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32516826 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3251

A previous post of the same thing (via different URL) from 15 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32516826 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32516826

jhallenworld 4y ago
IMHO the key comment from that post is this from kkielhofner: "I worked on a embedded hardware application using Linux and "cameras". We (like many people) were using sensors from OmniVision[0] and there was a dedicated contractor who's entire area of focus (and life's work) was getting photons from the sensor of the camera into something usable by software. In our case that was an unholy combination of vendor software, custom code derived from very obscure NDA-only datasheets, and a bunch of custom plugins for gstreamer that could actually make use of the sensor, interfaces, and hardware encoding silicon. It was one of the more eye-opening "WOW, so that's how the sausage is made" experiences of my life." This matches my experience, bringing up a new MIPI camera on any of the big name SoCs is a nightmare. Actually I've seen a lot of fails with gstreamer, where for one reason or other gstreamer doesn't work, so the software just uses the image sensor driver directly (usually V4L2). But for many SoCs, this means that you get no IPU support, since it's only available as a gstreamer plug-in. (try to make a webcam using gstreamer: ffmpeg works better...)
- icelancer 4y ago
  Yeah, as someone in this space... what a nightmare it is. Even with off-the-shelf components with standard interfaces like USB3 or Gig-PoE. The supporting documentation, drivers, and software are... well, not so supportive.
  - immmmmm 4y ago
    i. can't. agree. more. been building sensors for research for 5 years with all kind of SDKs, even a 30k camera is a nightmare (that one got decent support tho).
    - icelancer 4y ago
      Michael Matter at Sanstreak is fighting against the lunacy. If high speed cameras with solid platforms are ever important to you again, I hope you check out his project. https://edgertronic.com/ https://edgertronic.com/
- immmmmm 4y ago
  a sheer nightmare yes: did this for a research project (3 mipi modules on jetson tx2) -> worked 6 months 80 hours per week getting the setup working. ah the joy of guessing device tree parameters (support from the sensor vendor was almost void)

A previous post of the same thing (via different URL) from 15 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32516826 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32516826

jhallenworld 4y ago

IMHO the key comment from that post is this from kkielhofner: "I worked on a embedded hardware application using Linux and "cameras". We (like many people) were using sensors from OmniVision[0] and there was a dedicated contractor who's entire area of focus (and life's work) was getting photons from the sensor of the camera into something usable by software. In our case that was an unholy combination of vendor software, custom code derived from very obscure NDA-only datasheets, and a bunch of custom plugins for gstreamer that could actually make use of the sensor, interfaces, and hardware encoding silicon. It was one of the more eye-opening "WOW, so that's how the sausage is made" experiences of my life." This matches my experience, bringing up a new MIPI camera on any of the big name SoCs is a nightmare. Actually I've seen a lot of fails with gstreamer, where for one reason or other gstreamer doesn't work, so the software just uses the image sensor driver directly (usually V4L2). But for many SoCs, this means that you get no IPU support, since it's only available as a gstreamer plug-in. (try to make a webcam using gstreamer: ffmpeg works better...)

icelancer 4y ago
Yeah, as someone in this space... what a nightmare it is. Even with off-the-shelf components with standard interfaces like USB3 or Gig-PoE. The supporting documentation, drivers, and software are... well, not so supportive.
- immmmmm 4y ago
  i. can't. agree. more. been building sensors for research for 5 years with all kind of SDKs, even a 30k camera is a nightmare (that one got decent support tho).
  - icelancer 4y ago
    Michael Matter at Sanstreak is fighting against the lunacy. If high speed cameras with solid platforms are ever important to you again, I hope you check out his project. https://edgertronic.com/ https://edgertronic.com/
immmmmm 4y ago
a sheer nightmare yes: did this for a research project (3 mipi modules on jetson tx2) -> worked 6 months 80 hours per week getting the setup working. ah the joy of guessing device tree parameters (support from the sensor vendor was almost void)