FMC cameralink board and FMC connector

[ashura]

Hello there

I am working on an image processing project that uses a camera with cameralink interface and  FMC CameraLink board (AD01249) to interface it with FPGA (ZedBoard). I had a difficulties when trying to connect the FMC board to the FPGA to stream the video recorded by the camera on the FPGA to do image processing on it. I have all the components listed above but I don't know how to program the FPGA to read the data stream coming from the camera through the FMC board. 

Can you help me with sources that explain how to do it in details or some documentation on the FMC connectors and how to read its content on a FPGA? I need that sort of information to start my work. I am new to the FPGA design and I search the internet but I couldn't find anything useful.

Thank you in advance.

[JColvin]

Hi @ashura,

It looks like you already posted on the Xilinx forum here. In terms of connecting the two physically, you will need to make sure the FMC pins in the Zedboard .xdc file are setup so that they match the appropriate direction dictated by the FMC CAMERALINK User Manual from Alpha-data. Then in terms of physical connection, you physically connect the two (making sure the VADJ voltage setting on the Zedboard is between 1.8V and 3.3V as mentioned in the user manual.

The hard bit is implementing the processing and communicating with the device over the cameralink interface, which Digilent does not have any designs for. You would either need to find a dedicated IP or follow some of the materials Xilinx posted in these threads I found here and here to create your own IP. Digilent's own FMC Pcam Adapter uses the MIPI D-PHY interface, which I do not believe is the same as CAMERALINK uses, though I do not know this for certain.

Thanks,
JColvin

[ashura]

On 1/31/2020 at 11:09 PM, JColvin said:

Hi @ashura,

It looks like you already posted on the Xilinx forum here. In terms of connecting the two physically, you will need to make sure the FMC pins in the Zedboard .xdc file are setup so that they match the appropriate direction dictated by the FMC CAMERALINK User Manual from Alpha-data. Then in terms of physical connection, you physically connect the two (making sure the VADJ voltage setting on the Zedboard is between 1.8V and 3.3V as mentioned in the user manual.

The hard bit is implementing the processing and communicating with the device over the cameralink interface, which Digilent does not have any designs for. You would either need to find a dedicated IP or follow some of the materials Xilinx posted in these threads I found here and here to create your own IP. Digilent's own FMC Pcam Adapter uses the MIPI D-PHY interface, which I do not believe is the same as CAMERALINK uses, though I do not know this for certain.

Thanks,
JColvin

Hi @JColvin,

I will try to follow the material you posted in your replay and see what will happen.

Thank you for your replay.

Ashura