USB-C Camera on Tachyon

Tachyon
1

Hello,

I am trying to get a usb-c connected camera to work on the tachyon, but I can’t get it to work. Is this even possible, or am I only able to use the designated camera ports? Also, if the only way to get the camera to work is with those ports, is it possible to use the M1E enclosure with a camera?

Thanks!

2

I’ve had my USB webcams enumerate on /dev/video2, what do you see when running ls /dev/video* with the camera plugged in?

3

Hey Tct,

Thanks for the question!

Simply put - any web camera that supports V4L2 should work out of the box. You can plug it straight into the USB2 port on the device and it will show up automatically. To check, you can list connected cameras with:

v4l2-ctl --list-devices

Example output:

root@tachyon-515af5a9:~# v4l2-ctl --list-devices
msm_vidc_vdec ():
        /dev/video32
        /dev/video33

cam-req-mgr-devnode (platform:cam_req_mgr):
        /dev/media0

cam_sync_device (platform:cam_sync):
        /dev/media1


USB2.0 Camera: HD Webcam (usb-xhci-hcd.0-1.2):
        /dev/video1

Cameras typically enumerate a video1 and upwards!

To capture a single image:

v4l2-ctl --device=/dev/video1 --stream-mmap --stream-count=1 --stream-to=frame.jpg

You can absolutely use the M1E enclosure with a camera, but note that it was designed to be IP67 sealed without a camera port. If you want to mount one, the easiest approach is to drill an aperture to fit your camera and install a grommet over it. Alternatively, you could use an external IP67-rated camera and run the cable through the cable glands.

If there’s interest, we can also look into producing transparent or semi-transparent enclosure tops with a dedicated lens area. There’s some setup cost involved, but it’s doable. For our internal builds, we’ve mounted a V4L2-based camera through a small opening in the top of the case.

A quick, low-cost option, an M12 waterproof lens housing with a flat glass cover from ELP or Arducam - its easy to source and mount through a drilled hole in the M1E enclosure. For a more polished production fit, you could use a clear polycarbonate press-fit window kit from Hammond or Polycase.

If this is something a lot of people are trying to do, we could add a tutorial covering both internal mounting and external sealed-camera options - let us know!

Thanks,

Nick

4

Thank you, plugging the webcam into the second USBC port worked. I don’t know how I hadn’t tried that earlier.

5

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