Argus captureBurst() sensor I2C communications timing

Hello,

I am making use of the libargus burst capture functionality (through function ICaptureSession::captureBurst()) in my application and find it is working as expected 99.9%+ of invocations. However, I do occasionally (on <0.1% of attempts) see that some of the output image frames do not have the expected sensor exposure times and gains applied (set through ISourceSettings functions setExposureTimeRange, setGainRange), which I believe is a result of RGB sensor I2C communications occasionally occurring outside the required time window during the burst capture sequence.

Is there anything that may be adjusted in the system to improve the reliability of the I2C communications timing? Will increasing process priority of the nvargus-daemon improve reliability of communications?

Based on my observations with oscilloscope it seems I2C communications with the RGB sensor are triggered on MIPI start-of-frame, which usually provides adequate time margin to apply settings, however on occasion the I2C communications happen on or around the sensor vertical sync signal pulse (XVS), which I believe results in the incorrect application of per-frame sensor integration times/gains.

Thank you for your help or any insights to this issue

Did you boost the system by nvpmodel and jetson_clocks.

sudo nvpmodel -m 0
sudo jetson_clocks

Thanks for the feedback @ShaneCCC

We have our system configured for nvpmodel MAXN already.

Can you confirm whether increasing any process priority (like nvargus-daemon) can affect sensor I2C communication timing? Or is sensor I2C communication triggered through system interrupt handling?

Also, I notice that if I run

jetson_clocks

it changes the CPU IdleStates report, e.g. before running jetson_clocks, the --show option reports:

~$ sudo jetson_clocks  --show
SOC family:tegra210  Machine:NVIDIA Jetson Nano Developer Kit
Online CPUs: 0-3
CPU Cluster Switching: Disabled
cpu0: Online=1 Governor=schedutil MinFreq=102000 MaxFreq=1479000 CurrentFreq=1479000 IdleStates: WFI=1 c7=1 
cpu1: Online=1 Governor=schedutil MinFreq=102000 MaxFreq=1479000 CurrentFreq=1479000 IdleStates: WFI=1 c7=1 
cpu2: Online=1 Governor=schedutil MinFreq=102000 MaxFreq=1479000 CurrentFreq=1479000 IdleStates: WFI=1 c7=1 
cpu3: Online=1 Governor=schedutil MinFreq=102000 MaxFreq=1479000 CurrentFreq=1479000 IdleStates: WFI=1 c7=1 
GPU MinFreq=76800000 MaxFreq=921600000 CurrentFreq=230400000
EMC MinFreq=204000000 MaxFreq=1600000000 CurrentFreq=1600000000 FreqOverride=0
Can't access Fan!
NV Power Mode: MAXN

and after running jetson_clocks, the --show option reports:

~$ sudo jetson_clocks  --show
SOC family:tegra210  Machine:NVIDIA Jetson Nano Developer Kit
Online CPUs: 0-3
CPU Cluster Switching: Disabled
cpu0: Online=1 Governor=schedutil MinFreq=102000 MaxFreq=1479000 CurrentFreq=1479000 IdleStates: WFI=1 c7=1
cpu1: Online=1 Governor=schedutil MinFreq=102000 MaxFreq=1479000 CurrentFreq=1479000 IdleStates: WFI=1 c7=1
cpu2: Online=1 Governor=schedutil MinFreq=102000 MaxFreq=1479000 CurrentFreq=1479000 IdleStates: WFI=1 c7=1
cpu3: Online=1 Governor=schedutil MinFreq=102000 MaxFreq=1479000 CurrentFreq=1479000 IdleStates: WFI=1 c7=1
GPU MinFreq=76800000 MaxFreq=921600000 CurrentFreq=230400000
EMC MinFreq=204000000 MaxFreq=1600000000 CurrentFreq=1600000000 FreqOverride=0
Can't access Fan!
NV Power Mode: MAXN

can you help us understand what the

WFI=1 c7=1

report under cpu IdleStates indicates, and whether that might affect the I2C communication timing?

Anyway we can continue testing to see if this improves reliability.

Thank you again!

Sorry, I don’t understand the WFI and c7 could be the CPU state.
After running the jetson_clocks keep the CPU to service state to enter idle to reduce the CPU frequency to have any processes been service well.

Can you confirm if there is any service, like nvargus-daemon, that affects the timing of I2C communications?

Thanks

I don’t think so. The i2c driver should have higher priority due to it’s kernel driver.

This topic was automatically closed 14 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.