Set up cameras¶

An nn camera streams its video to the media server over your Wi-Fi. It talks to the hub with its own keys, which it receives when you provision it. Every camera goes through the same three steps:

Add its image to the catalog, so the hub knows the firmware.
Flash the image: over USB for ESP32-P4 boards, onto a microSD card for the BeagleY-AI.
Provision and register it from the hub’s Add device wizard, over Bluetooth.

nn has two kinds of camera:

a FreeRTOS camera (for example the ESP32-P4) is a small microcontroller camera. It sends video, and the media server runs the detection;
a Linux camera (for example the BeagleY-AI) runs detection itself, updates its whole system safely over the air, and can also be a Thread gateway.

Choose the image for your sensor¶

Important

Each camera image is built for one board and one image sensor. An image does not detect the sensor: with any other camera module it fails to start the camera. Check both the board and the sensor before you flash.

Supported

Board	Image sensor	Image
Waveshare ESP32-P4-WIFI6 (chip rev. v3.1)	OV5647 (Raspberry Pi Camera v1.3 class)	`nn-app-camera-esp32p4-wifi6-sdio-ov5647`
Waveshare ESP32-P4-Module-DEV-KIT (chip rev. v1.3)	OV5647	`nn-app-camera-esp32p4module-sdio-ov5647`
BeagleY-AI	Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3 Wide NoIR (IMX708)	`nn-app-camera-beagleyai-imx708`

Experimental (not covered by this tutorial)

Board	Image sensor	Image
Waveshare ESP32-P4-Module-DEV-KIT	IMX708	`nn-app-camera-esp32p4module-sdio-imx708`
Waveshare ESP32-P4-WIFI6	IMX708	`nn-app-camera-esp32wifi6-sdio-imx708`

Note

The BeagleY-AI image is made and tuned for the Wide NoIR Camera Module 3. From release v0.0.2 on, the other variants (standard, Wide, NoIR) also start, since they use the same IMX708 sensor, but the colour tuning assumes a module without an infrared filter, so their pictures may show a colour cast.

Todo

Test a standard and a Wide Camera Module 3 on the BeagleY-AI, and tune colour for the modules with an infrared filter.

Add camera images to the catalog¶

The hub reads firmware from sources (see Set up the sensors for how to add a GitHub source in Factory › Sources). Add one source per camera image you use. Their release pages:

ESP32-P4-WIFI6 + OV5647: releases
ESP32-P4-Module + OV5647: releases
BeagleY-AI: releases, with the SD card image (byai_sdcard-*.img.xz), the A/B system image and the camera app bundle
Experimental IMX708 cameras: ESP32-P4-WIFI6, ESP32-P4-Module

Every release also carries release.json and SHA256SUMS, so you can check a download.

Open Factory › Catalog to check the images are listed. The catalog groups entries by the name the devices report, and marks each name’s active update target with ✓.

A GitHub source pointed at the BeagleY-AI repository lists all three of its images from release v0.0.2 on: the card image (byai_sdcard), the system image (byai_system) and the camera app (byai_camera). You can also write the card image with any SD-card tool.

Then set up your camera¶

FreeRTOS camera: ESP32-P4

Flash over USB from the hub, then provision over Bluetooth.

FreeRTOS camera (ESP32-P4)

Linux camera: BeagleY-AI

Write a microSD card from the hub, boot, then provision over Bluetooth. Runs detection on the camera itself, and can host a Thread gateway.

Linux camera (BeagleY-AI)

After that: Update cameras over the air.