(EXT) Re: [PATCH 0/8] imx7/imx8mm media / csi patches

[Alexander Stein]

Hi Laurent,

Am Samstag, 5. Februar 2022, 04:16:54 CET schrieb Laurent Pinchart:
> On Fri, Feb 04, 2022 at 01:15:06PM +0100, Alexander Stein wrote:
> > Hey everyone,
> > 
> > this is a set of patch for imx[7] media drivers based on next-20220203.
> > With this set I was able to capture video frames from a MIPI CSI-2 camera
> > in my TQMa8MQML + MBA8MX hardware. The actual camera used is a Vision
> > Components 'VC MIPI IMX327 C' camera. IMX327 is compatible to IMX290.
> > Patch 8 shows the DT overlay I'm using, not suitable for merging.
> 
> You may be interested in
> https://gitlab.com/ideasonboard/nxp/linux/-/commits/pinchartl/v5.17/sensors
> /

Thanks for your feedback. Working on imx290 driver for proper imx327 support 
is on my todo. For the records, there are also patches at [1].

> > Please ignore the FPGA part, this is mainly for power supply and GPIO
> > reset
> > line. This is currently a custom driver I'm working on, but I do not want
> > to focus on in this series.
> > 
> > Please note I tested this only on this imx8 platform.
> > 
> > First thanks to Dorota for the patchset at [1] (patches 1-4) which is
> > necessary to capture correct images. I integrated Hans' review into it. I
> > hope the I didn't make a mistake and the original author is kept along. I
> > used v4 for that patchset, it is v1 again in this set. I hope this is not
> > confusing.
> > 
> > Starting from patch 5 there are small fixes which allows me to configure
> > my
> > media device.
> > 
> > Device configuration:
> > ```
> > media-ctl -l "'imx290 2-001a':0->'csis-32e30000.mipi-csi':0 [1]"
> > media-ctl -V "'imx290 2-001a':0 [fmt:SRGGB10_1X10/1920x1080 field:none
> > colorspace:raw]" media-ctl -V "'csi':0 [fmt:SRGGB10_1X10/1920x1080
> > field:none colorspace:raw]" v4l2-ctl -d0 --set-fmt-video
> > width=1920,height=1080,pixelformat='RG10',field=none media-ctl -p
> > ```
> > 
> > The media-ctl topology is:
> > ```
> > # media-ctl -p
> > Media controller API version 5.17.0
> > 
> > Media device information
> > ------------------------
> > driver          imx7-csi
> > model           imx-media
> > serial
> > bus info        platform:32e20000.csi
> > hw revision     0x0
> > driver version  5.17.0
> > 
> > Device topology
> > - entity 1: csi (2 pads, 2 links)
> > 
> >             type V4L2 subdev subtype Unknown flags 0
> >             device node name /dev/v4l-subdev0
> >         
> >         pad0: Sink
> >         
> >                 [fmt:SRGGB10_1X10/1920x1080 field:none colorspace:raw
> >                 xfer:none ycbcr:601 quantization:full-range] <-
> >                 "csis-32e30000.mipi-csi":1 [ENABLED,IMMUTABLE]
> >         
> >         pad1: Source
> >         
> >                 [fmt:SRGGB10_1X10/1920x1080 field:none colorspace:raw
> >                 xfer:none ycbcr:601 quantization:full-range] -> "csi
> >                 capture":0 [ENABLED,IMMUTABLE]
> > 
> > - entity 4: csi capture (1 pad, 1 link)
> > 
> >             type Node subtype V4L flags 0
> >             device node name /dev/video0
> >         
> >         pad0: Sink
> >         
> >                 <- "csi":1 [ENABLED,IMMUTABLE]
> > 
> > - entity 10: csis-32e30000.mipi-csi (2 pads, 2 links)
> > 
> >              type V4L2 subdev subtype Unknown flags 0
> >              device node name /dev/v4l-subdev1
> >         
> >         pad0: Sink
> >         
> >                 [fmt:SRGGB10_1X10/1920x1080 field:none colorspace:raw
> >                 xfer:709 ycbcr:601 quantization:lim-range] <- "imx290
> >                 2-001a":0 [ENABLED]
> >         
> >         pad1: Source
> >         
> >                 [fmt:SRGGB10_1X10/1920x1080 field:none colorspace:raw
> >                 xfer:709 ycbcr:601 quantization:lim-range] -> "csi":0
> >                 [ENABLED,IMMUTABLE]
> > 
> > - entity 15: imx290 2-001a (1 pad, 1 link)
> > 
> >              type V4L2 subdev subtype Sensor flags 0
> >              device node name /dev/v4l-subdev2
> >         
> >         pad0: Source
> >         
> >                 [fmt:SRGGB10_1X10/1920x1080 field:none colorspace:raw]
> >                 -> "csis-32e30000.mipi-csi":0 [ENABLED]
> > 
> > ```
> > 
> > Note: MIPI CSI settle times are not calculated correctly right now and
> > need a manual overwrite:
> > echo 13 > /sys/kernel/debug/32e30000.mipi-csi/ths_settle
> > echo 2 > /sys/kernel/debug/32e30000.mipi-csi/tclk_settle
> 
> The reference manual isn't very prolix on tclk_settle :-S That's
> something I'd love to figure out one day.
> 
> For ths_settle, is the issue on the CSIS driver side, or the sensor
> driver side ?

I can't answer that yet, but during my work on a fslc linux-5.10 I noticed 
that the link frequency and/or some other clock was wrong, so the calculated 
value didn't match.
Anyway I get the impression that the final values might also be affected by 
the actual hardware. But I do not know any details regarding this.

> > I ignored the settings for xfer, ycbcr and quantization for now. I do
> > neither know how they will affect me nor what it should be.
> > Also I did not focus on v4l2-compliance tool, this is a further task as
> > well. IMHO imx7-mipi-csis.c should also create an immutable link to the
> > camera sensor.
> 
> That makes sense, but note that, while CSI-2 is meant to be a
> point-to-point bus, there are boards designed with multiple sensors
> connected to the same CSI-2 RX without any hardware multiplexer. They
> keep one of the two sensors in reset at all times and are lucky that the
> signal reflections don't mess things up.

Still, even if only one device is actually powered, it is a immutable link 
from v4l2 perspective. You don't switch the sensors on the fly, or do you 
really do that? In the end immutable links are only a minor issue (to me).

Regards,
Alexander

[1] https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/commits/rpi-5.10.y/drivers/media/i2c/
imx290.c