Raspberry Pi Camera Module v3 Support

[WannesTacken]

Hello There,

I've built the SPIRO at the Laboratory of Nematology at Wageningen University & Research. Our interest is to image the Nematode infection site which requires a high definition image of the plant root. For this purpose I tried to install the raspberry pi v3 camera module but it turned out to be not compatible with the SPIRO script.

I received the following lines of error code:
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/spiro/spiro.py", line 143, in main
cam = initCam()
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/spiro/spiro.py", line 42, in initCam
cam = PiCamera()
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/picamera/camera.py", line 433, in init
self._init_preview()
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/picamera/camera.py", line 513, in _init_preview
self, self._camera.outputs[self.CAMERA_PREVIEW_PORT])
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/picamera/renderers.py", line 558, in init
self.renderer.inputs[0].connect(source).enable()
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/picamera/mmalobj.py", line 2212, in enable
prefix="Failed to enable connection")
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/picamera/exc.py", line 184, in mmal_check
raise PiCameraMMALError(status, prefix)

-- Logs begin at Thu 2023-01-26 10:35:00 CET, end at Thu 2023-01-26 10:35:22 CET. --

Jan 26 10:35:05 raspberrypi systemd[529]: Started SPIRO control software.
Jan 26 10:35:08 raspberrypi spiro[558]: mmal: mmal_vc_port_enable: failed to enable port vc.null_sink:in:0(OPQV): ENOSPC
Jan 26 10:35:08 raspberrypi spiro[558]: mmal: mmal_port_enable: failed to enable connected port (vc.null_sink:in:0(OPQV))0x2500020 (ENOSPC)
Jan 26 10:35:08 raspberrypi spiro[558]: mmal: mmal_connection_enable: output port couldn't be enabled. This is the raspberry pi error log

I updated the picamera library and legacy OS but still returned the same error. Do you have any idea what causes this and is there a workaround to make the raspberry pi camera module v3 work?

Kind regards,

Wannes Tacken
Msc student Wageningen University & Research
Laboratory of Nematology

[jonasoh]

Hi Wannes,
SPIRO uses the legacy camera stack whereas the v3 camera is only supported by the new libcamera-based stack (iirc). We're planning on updating the software to work with the new stack, which should improve a lot of things including supporting the v3 camera. I can't give a good estimate as to how long this might take unfortunately. We did get our v3 camera in the mail this morning though...

If you're in a hurry, I'd recommend getting one of the recommended cameras such as the Arducam module (you'll also need a Raspberry Pi v2 camera to use it).

Sorry for the inconvenience. I'll update this issue when I know more.

Best,
Jonas

[WannesTacken]

Hi Jonas,

Thank you for your reply, I have the arducam motorized camera installed at the moment and that will suffice for now. Looking forward to the update. Best of luck!

Regards,

Wannes

[WannesTacken]

@beniroquai, can you help maybe?

[jonasoh]

Hi,
just a brief update. I haven't had time to look into this yet, but will hopefully find the time to do so this weekend. It looks like it should be an easy task coding-wise.

More problematic is the issue with dealing with updates. If switching stacks, basically every SPIRO currently running would have to be upgraded to a current Raspbian in order to get the new camera stack. And we have no clue how many SPIROs there are, or who's built one, so we can't really inform everyone why their SPIROs are starting to fail. It's likely to cause headaches. So ideally, I'd want a solution which can detect whether libcamera or Picamera is available, and use the one it finds (and which works similarly for both stacks, and supports all currently supported cameras). That may require some more thought and testing.

Anyway, will try looking into it over the weekend and will report back.

[jonasoh]

I now have the live view functioning in a way which should be compatible with both new and old camera stacks. Unfortunately there is what seems to be a bug in Picamera2 which is holding back progress for now (raspberrypi/picamera2/issues/554). Hopefully it will be resolved, otherwise it can probably be worked around.

I will have very limited time to work on this issue over the coming two weeks though.

[beniroquai]

Thanks for the update and looking into this. Did you have the chance to create a new branch with the updated codebase? Also very interested to try this out! Thanks!

…

On Tue, Feb 7, 2023, 09:18 Jonas Ohlsson ***@***.***> wrote: I now have the live view functioning in a way which should be compatible with both new and old camera stacks. Unfortunately there is what seems to be a bug in Picamera2 which is holding back progress for now ( raspberrypi/picamera2#554 <raspberrypi/picamera2#554>). Hopefully it will be resolved, otherwise it can probably be worked around. I will have very limited time to work on this issue over the coming two weeks though. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#43 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABBE5ODJVYZGXNLFLYXD4ULWWIAL5ANCNFSM6AAAAAAUHMXYL4> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[jonasoh]

I haven't yet pushed the branch I am working on since it is in a quite messy state atm due to messing around with the new library... I'll try to upload it as soon as I've cleaned it up a bit.

[jonasoh]

BTW @WannesTacken, I am visiting Wageningen next week and never saw a real-life SPIRO outside of our lab. Do you think it would be possible to get a quick tour of your lab...? :)

[beniroquai]

Great! Thanks for letting me know! :-)

[beniroquai]

@jonasoh the setup of @WannesTacken is amazing! I have just seen it last week!

[WannesTacken]

@jonasoh It would be great to receive you at the laboratory of nematology! Let me know what day and time suits you.

[jonasoh]

@WannesTacken very cool! Do you have an email where I can reach you?

[WannesTacken]

@jonasoh, yes, you can email me at wannestacken@gmail.com.

[jonasoh]

Hi, here's an update on the progress. I now have basic functionality working, i.e., the web interface works and experiments can be run on it. I still need to fix focusing and zooming for it to be actually usable, and then I'll upload the code in a new branch for any v3 camera owners to try out.