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Posted

Hi, I am very new to FPGAs, but I am assisting someone with a project of theirs and my hope was to figure out if the newest Zybo Z7-10 is compatible with other MIPI CSI-2 cameras and not just the Pcam 5C. Apologies if this sounds like a rudimentary question, but if its more complicated than just mere compatibility please do let me know as I am eager to learn. In case it's relevant, I hope to use the Zybo Z7-10 to control an Alvium 1500 C-210m camera from Allied Vision.

Posted

Hi @Robert Freeman,

So, the Zybo Z7-10 should be physically and electrically compatible with other MIPI CSI-2 cameras.

What board does not have though is an existing application that will be able to control and manipulate the various registers inside a different camera module at the correct clock frequencies and timings required by the camera's manufacturer. Because of these differences, it will not be a straight-forward process to get the camera you mentioned to work with the Zybo Z7-10.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,
JColvin

Posted

Thank you very much for your response. In that case, I was wondering if the same board would be capable of using a different interface such as USB 3.0 to communicate with a camera? If not, does Digilent provide a board that can?

Moreover, is there any benefit to using MIPI CSI-2 over another interface (USB 3.0, IEEE 1394 A/B, etc.)?

Sorry for all the questions, but I think the one I’m most curious about is if there is a board and an interface that would be more straightforward to use? To elaborate, does Digilent provide an FPGA that can more readily configure and set up a camera other than the Pcam? I can’t imagine that people solely rely on the Pcam for all of their projects, but I definitely could be wrong.

Posted

Hi @Robert Freeman,

I'll be up front in saying that I can't imagine these will be the answers you are hoping for, but here we go.

"I was wondering if the same board would be capable of using a different interface such as USB 3.0 to communicate with a camera?" -- The Zybo Z7-10 has a USB 2.0 Host interface, though the only real implementation of using this interface exists in Xilinx's Petalinux system (an operating system that can be loaded onto the ARM core processor that is on Zynq chips); you would need to find the appropriate camera drivers to work with Petalinux.

"If not, does Digilent provide a board that can?" -- There are a number of Digilent boards with USB host interfaces, including a 3.1 USB connection on the Genesys ZU, though my understanding is that you would still need to use Petalinux if you wanted pre-existing functionality out of that (the difficultly of it depends on how comfortable you are with Linux development and deployment in general).

"Moreover, is there any benefit to using MIPI CSI-2 over another interface (USB 3.0, IEEE 1394 A/B, etc.)?" -- This article I found online seems to answer this question nicely, https://www.rfwireless-world.com/Terminology/Advantages-and-Disadvantages-of-CSI-Camera-Serial-Interface.html. The short answer is that MIPI CSI-2 is designed to be fast (all the specs on the site list theoretical maximums), low power, low protocol overhead, and is common for cameras/mobile devices. But, it is tricky to develop proper drivers for.

Regarding the most "straightforward" board and interface to use with the camera you pointed out, the most straightforward option would be to use the boards that Allied Vision already developed drivers for: https://www.alliedvision.com/en/products/software/embedded-software-and-drivers/.
You might be able to use something like Petalinux and the provided OpenCV materials from AlliedVision to get it working on the Zybo Z7, but if you are just wanting 'plug and play' functionality, this is not the path I would recommend.

I'm not sure about your end goal for using this camera, but there are a number of existing resources for implementing embedded vision on a Digilent Zynq based board; link1, link2, link3, link4.

Thanks,
JColvin

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