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Is anyone else working with the DM8127 IP Camera Reference Design?

Allen Black
Intellectual 315 points

We received our camera from Appro Photoelectron Inc. several weeks ago. It was shipped with "an SDK disc" that is labeled version 1.4.0. The camera works fine using the factory burned-in firmware. And I have successfully installed their SDK and rebuilt the entire system (i.e. - make sysall). I am able to successfully boot and run the camera using a TFTP boot of the rebuilt kernel.

But when I attempt to take the next step and use the rebuilt root file system (via mounting it from an NFS share on our Ubuntu 10.04 Linux development workstation), I am getting a "memory management" kernel panic soon after the root file system is mounted and the "init" process starts running. I believe I have built the root file system correctly (i.e. - I started by untar-ing the file system provided by the SDK, then I let "make sysall" overwrite and install things into it, then I recursively "chown"-ed all the files to root:root). And I believe the NFS mount process is working correctly.

I noticed that just before the kernel panic, the SysLink version number is printed to the console and it shows version 2.00.00.78. And that makes sense as that version is what is provided on the Appro SDK disc. However when I look at the console output while running the factory default burned-in firmware it shows a SysLink version as 2.00.03.82. And I suspect that may be part of problem. And it also makes me wonder if other packages in the SDK do not match the factory firmware.

Has anyone else seen this problem?

Does anyone know why the SDK disc contains source code that does not match the factory burned-in firmware?

And does anyone know if there is a newer / better / more-well-documented version of the SDK for this DM8127 IP camera reference design?

Thanks!

P.S. - We have already sent emails asking these question to Appro Customer Support. We have not yet had a response. But it has only been 48 hours and hopefully we will hear something from them before too long.

  • 0
    Genius 3475 points

    Hi Alen,

    I am also using this camera, the last SDK version is 1.8.0. You can get it from Appro.

    First i also had problems runing it from NFS.
    The following bootargs works for me.

    setenv bootcmd 'tftpboot 0x81000000 uImage_ipnc_DM8127_1.8.0; bootm 0x81000000'

    (for DHCP)
    setenv bootargs 'console=ttyO0,115200n8 root=/dev/nfs rw mem=80M vram=4M notifyk.vpssm3_sva=0xBFD00000 nfsroot=192.168.1.33:/home/marko1/workdir/Appro/Appro_8127/DM812xIPNC_MT10/DM8127_Beta_Release_1.8.0/ipnc_rdk/target/filesys_dbg1,nolock eth=00:0C:0C:A0:08:B2 ip=dhcp earlyprintk'
    (for STATIC IP)
    setenv bootargs 'console=ttyO0,115200n8 root=/dev/nfs rw mem=80M vram=4M notifyk.vpssm3_sva=0xBFD00000 rootdelay=3 nfsroot=192.168.1.33:/home/marko1/workdir/Appro/Appro_8127/DM812xIPNC_MT10/DM8127_Beta_Release_1.8.0/ipnc_rdk/target/filesys_dbg1,nolock eth=00:0C:0C:A0:08:B2 ip=192.168.1.168:192.168.1.33:192.168.1.33:255.255.255.0:::off earlyprintk'

    I also have problems using some of POE switches(injektors) and NFS, but powering camera with adapter always works.

    If you still have problems running application, maybe it helps if you delete old parameters files.
    They are in /mnt/nand.  So try: "rm /mnt/nand/*" and restart camera.

    Regards.

  • 0 in reply to Marko Shink
    Genius 3475 points

    Allen,

    I checked again:

    IPNC 1.4.0 : Syslink_2_00_00_78
    IPNC 1.5.0 : Syslink_2_00_03_82
    IPNC 1.8.0 : Syslink_2_00_04_83

    So make sure you are using all components from same ipnc version :  bootloader, kernels, filesystem.

    I am not sure for 1.4.0, but versions 1.5.0 and 1.8.0 work from NFS.

    Regards.

     

  • 0 in reply to Marko Shink
    Intellectual 315 points

    Thanks Marko!

    Your information will be a great help. Now I know I shouldn't waste any more time trying to get IPNC version 1.4.0 to work. It's strange that Appro shipped us a camera running version 1.5.0 but the SDK they provided on disc is version 1.4.0.

    How did you get the more recent versions of the SDK? Does Appro have an FTP site or a git repository? As mentioned in my original post, they have not yet responded to any of my questions. Do they provide technical support over the phone? in English? Does the Texas Instruments website have a link to the latest version of the IPNC SDK?

    And also, is the DM8127 documented anywhere? I realize it's an application specific derivative of the DM814x chips (so most of the necessary information could be found in the documentation for those chips). But the only specific information I can find about the DM8127 is a very simple block diagram from Appro's website and other similarly simple block diagrams from several PowerPoint presentations on the TI website. Is that as good as it gets? Do you think there will be better / more specific DM8127 documentation provided by TI in the future?

  • 0 in reply to Allen Black
    Genius 3475 points

    I got ipnc from Appro by FTP. That is standard way of getting IPNC updates.
    Ask Appro for FTP account, and after TI approval you should get FTP access with IPNC version updates.
    I think you have few hours free email support from Appro, not sure about phone support.

    I think DM8127 is just subset of DM8147, they are pretty much the same.
    There is no DM8127 specific documentation, i am using  DM814x documentation.
    I also wonder whether TI will provide any specific DM8127 documentation.

     

    Regards.

  • 0 in reply to Marko Shink
    Intellectual 315 points

    Thanks Marko!

    What exactly is the process for gaining access to Appro's FTP site? As mentioned, we have sent them several emails but have not heard any response yet. And since next Sunday / Monday is the start of a National Holiday in Taiwan, I'm afraid we may not hear anything from them for another week.

    And after Appro does give us an FTP account, who do we contact at Texas Instruments to get "approval"? We purchased the DM8127 IPNC unit directly from Appro (and received it on 12/15), so I'm amazed and disappointed we were not given the FTP site information weeks ago. It would have saved us a lot of wasted time.

    If anyone from Texas Instruments or Appro is reading this post, is there any way we can expedite this process (i.e. - gain access to the current DM8127 IPNC SDK so we can continue our development, hopefully by early next week)?

  • 0 in reply to Allen Black
    Genius 3475 points

    Allen,

    If Appro didn't response via email, try to call them by phone.
    I think i also had to take one phone call to Appro to get FTP access.
    When I'd been  requesting for FTP account i only contacted Appro, then they had requested TI approval internally.

    Regards.

  • 0 in reply to Marko Shink
    Intellectual 315 points

    Marko,

    I just found out that our purchasing manager did get an email from Appro in early December. And that email had the information (and username and password) for accessing their FTP site. So I guess we had the information all along and I feel a bit embarrassed as I thought Appro had messed up by not giving us access. Sorry Appro.

    Thanks for all your help in getting us back on track! I'm currently downloading IPNC SDK 1.8.0 and I'm anxious to start working with it Monday morning. Hopefully it will solve our NFS root file system issue and have many other improvements as well.

    Thanks again!

    Allen