Update cameras over the air

Cameras pull their updates. You set a target version on the hub, and each camera checks the hub about every ten minutes, downloads the target, installs it, and then checks itself. If the new version is not healthy, it goes back to the old one by itself.

See what a camera runs

Open the camera, then Device Status › Firmware. The panel shows:

  • running: the version and image name, and when the camera last reported;

  • target: the version the camera should run. It applies on the camera’s next 10-min tick, self-confirms or rolls back.

A BeagleY-AI camera also shows its system version, and which of its two system slots (a or b) it booted from.

Photo needed: The camera Firmware panel

Screenshot of a BeagleY-AI camera’s Device Status › Firmware panel showing running, system slot and target.

Update a camera

  1. Make sure the new version is in Factory › Catalog (sources sync every five minutes, or press Sync).

  2. In the camera’s Firmware panel, choose the version and press Set target.

  3. Wait. Within about ten minutes the camera downloads the version, restarts into it and confirms it. The panel’s running line changes to the new version.

Set target promotes that version for every camera with the same image, not only this one. Check Factory › Fleet to follow them: each shows behind until it has updated, then up to date.

BeagleY-AI: system updates and rollback

A BeagleY-AI card holds two copies of the system (slot a and slot b). An update is written to the copy that is not running, so the running camera is never touched:

  1. The camera downloads the new system from the hub into the idle slot and checks it.

  2. It restarts into the new slot.

  3. It checks itself: camera, network, the connection to the hub.

  4. Healthy: it keeps the new slot. Not healthy, or it fails to start three times: it goes back to the old slot and does not try that version again.

A full update takes 5 to 10 minutes from Set target to confirmed. The camera app and its container update the same way, but in place, without a second copy.

On a BeagleY-AI the Firmware panel has one selector per layer: app (the camera application) and system (the A/B system image). Pick the version in the layer you want to update and press its Set target.

ESP32-P4 cameras

ESP32-P4 cameras do not update over the air yet: Set target records the version on the hub, but the camera firmware has no agent that fetches it. Update an ESP32-P4 camera over USB, exactly as in FreeRTOS camera (ESP32-P4) step 2; its settings and keys are kept.

The Firmware panel of an ESP32-P4 camera therefore shows its version but no Set target.

Todo

ESP32-P4 camera OTA: an update agent in the camera firmware (the board already has two app slots).

Updating at a set time

Scheduling an update for later exists for sensors only (see Update sensors over the air). Cameras update at their next check after you set the target.

Next: Enable the Thread gateway.