Contents

Expectations

The Valde Systems VS1501 image processing unit is designed to solve the solution of performance bottle necking often found in standard vision systems.  An initial goal of getting an image from a camera to a display is the first challenge with the VS1501. 

• Explore all provided examples developed by Valde Systems. 
• Create a "Hello world" example that displays an image onto a video monitor. 
• Implement a image manipulation and output result. 

Out of Box

The unit is a cleanly organized, self contained unit in a hardened metal enclosure.  It has a similar look and feel of car audio amplifiers which portrays a sense of ruggedness.  Helping to eliminate any user interfacing issues, all connections are clearly labeled and polarized.  It would be useful to include a informational card describing where to go to get downloads, informational documentation, etc. 

Test Rig

Before touching any hardware, the Hardware and Programmers manual were downloaded and reviewed.  A test rig was built up based on recommendations in the Software Manual.  The Firewire camera used is the 1st Vision MC-F433C.  A benchtop power supply set at ~12.0 V was used. 

Wiring interface for VS1501 testing.

Are You There?

Once the VS1501 was powered up and running based on the test rig setup, none of the status LEDs lit up.  The Firewire camera, was up and running as the standby LED was lit on the camera.  This initially made me wonder if there was any factory installed bootloader, or if all the appropriate connections were in place.  Once power was applied, the bench power supply indicated the VS1501, with a single camera attached, was using 0.48 Amps at 12.1V. 

The Programmers manual mentioned that when the VS1501 is connected to a DHCP network, it will grab an IP address and serve an image loading utility through a webpage.  The VS1501 IP address on the network was grabbed and pointed a web browser to it. 

Web page served off the VS1501 for uploading new applications to the system.

This page gave an impression that the VS1501 was up and running, even though no status LEDs indicated any activity.  With the knowledge that the module is up and running, the next steps of installing the development software from TI were begun. 

Software Development Configuration

Inside the V1501 is a TI DSP processor that is the main computer for developing vision applications.  The DSP development environment is download able from TI for free as a trial basis for 120 days. 

As recommended in the Programmers manual, the TI CCStudio development environment was downloaded.  At the time of this evaluation, the development environment is 568MB is size. 

Error message during installation stating that ActivePerl was not installed that allows CCStudio scripting.  This message was dismissed since there was no plans to do any scripting.  The installer finished.  Desktop icons were installed for "Setup CCStudio 3.3" and "CCStudio 3.3"

Once the CCStudio development environment was installed, the Valde development software was installed into "C:\Valdesrc". 

The "Setup CCStudio" application was launched.  The Valde Programmers Manual discusses setting up a configuration file for projects based on the emulator that one is using for developing with the VS1501.  Instructions indicated that one needs to Create a new board setup by clicking on the "Create Board" tab in the center panel.  This tab listed a handful of connections.  Since no emulator is currently being used, the TI Simulator was selected to try out.  The Connection Name was entered as VS1501 and use the "Auto-generate board data file".  Now, the available processor types were listed.  Programmers Manual recommended using the TMS320C6400 (tisimc6xxx_photon.dvr) type.  The GEL File was changed to C:\Valdesrc\VS1501\vs1501_062507.gel".  Save and Quit button was pressed and the CCStudio application was up and running. 

Upload Demo File

As a test of the boot loader, I tried uploading the demo file under the Valdersrc\VS1501\Out folders.  I selected the "cam0_mono_054.out" file.  Selected this in the menu box on the COFF web page and clicked the upload option.  The upload seems to take quite a while (few minutes) and I was getting a bit suspicious as to whether it was working or not.  Eventually, the upload completed.  The web page indicated a successful upload and only instructed that the page could now be closed.  No other instructions were given.  The VS1501 was power cycled. 

Either this step was either a really good idea or bad idea.  Now, the web page boot loader does not come back up, no device is found on the network, and no other signs of activity are present on the serial port.  I'm going with bad. 

This process has apparently corrupted the Flash boot loader during the example upload.  Valde Systems Inc.  recommends at this point to use an emulator and re-download "the original file" that should take 30 seconds.  Without an emulator, this process is not possible.  Also, there is nowhere in the documentation, or downloaded source code that specifies which file is the "original" file. 

Since there is no emulator in house to do this with, the board is basically bricked. 

Convolver Example Project

Using the CCStudio configuration for the simulator, the CONVOLVER example project was opened.  From CCStudio, I opened the file "Convolver.pjt" under the "Valdescr/VS1501/Examples" directory from the open project menu Project->open project. 

Once the project file was opened, a file dialog came up indicating the "convcfg.cmd" file was not present.  At the project directory, there was not any such file, but there is a "conv.cmd" file.  This file contains a short description of SECTIONS.  As a quick experiment, I created a clone of the "conv.cmd" file and renamed it to "convcfg.cmd".  Then browsing the CCStudio dialog box to this new file, it let me proceed. 

Then CCStudio indicated that the project is based on an older CDB configuration file.  According to the dialog box, this project must be converted to the new TConf Script format if one desires to edit the configuration and build the project.  Since the goal is to build the example project, this seemed like the best option.  I selected, Yes and the project was converted. 

A shell window popped up, running the cdb2tcf.bat file.  Apparently, the conversion was successful.  But, then a new dialog box popped up with the warning:

"Conversion of the CDB configuration file to TCF format successful.  The project has been updated, and a backup copy of the original project created.  So, in the main function in "conv.c", I added (after the TIMER_Config line):

Note: a generated CSL file has been added to your project.  You will need to add a call to cslCfgInit() manually to your main() function."

Next, tried to compile the project by going to menu Project->Build.  The compilation process began and a few warnings went by, but the process failed.  The log output is shown:

At this point, any further development effort with the CCStudio was stopped.  Example projects from Valde Systems should be able to compile without having to work through issues. 

Conclusion

This evaluation illustrates the VS1501 needs additional work and has significant issues that need to be addressed.  None of the expectations were met since the firmware has been compromised.  In particular, the outstanding issues are:

• LED board not attached. 
• Uploading of Valde Systems example image via web loader crashed system. 
• CCStudio 3.3 will not compile example projects. 
• System does not recover after reset in this test. 
• Reset button is undocumented. 
• Lack of CCStudio setup instructions when users do NOT have an emulator.  VS1501 PCB hardware documentation indicating what headers, buttons, etc.  are is weak. 
• Recovery methods are undocumented. 

Unless the firmware corruption issues can be addressed and the web based image up-loader become more reliable, it is highly recommended that an emulator will need to be purchased along with the VS1501.  This is unfortunate since the documentation only suggests this as an optional accessory.  Plus, having an emulator significantly increases the initial up front cost required to invest in the VS1501 as a vision processing solution.