Intro (unboxing)
- Sylvain Bernard
- Christian Wiche
First, thank you for buying an N6Cam!
This page will walk you through unboxing the kit and running the pre-loaded demo firmware.
Overview
The info below applies to the N6Cam RevA!
Notes: RevB only includes minor differences (so the same should apply.)
The N6Cam is composed of 3 connected modules:
Camera module hosts the Sony IMX335 5MP camera sensor
Compute module hosts the STM32N657 MCU and external memory (Flash & RAM.)
IO module exposes the IO & communication interfaces, such as the USB-C
Out of the box, the N6Cam comes preloaded with a demo firmware that runs a people detector model and outputs a video stream through the USB-C port.
The following paragraphs will take you through the easy steps to:
Connect the device’s USB for power & data.
use the supplied host Viewer to visualize the demo.
Connecting the N6Cam
The USB-C port (3) on the IO module is used for both power and data.
To run the preloaded demo, you should be able to connect the N6Cam to the host USB for power directly.
However…
We recommend using a powered USB Hub to avoid any power load issues!
Before you power the N6Cam, verify the boot mode…
Checking the Boot Mode
The switch (1) on the Compute board is used to select the MCU boot mode.
Facing the N6Cam from the front (camera):
Switch to the left => Development mode.
Switch to the right => Operation mode.
Ensure that the switch is positioned for Operation mode.
The boot mode is only evaluated when powering up the device!
As a result, you should first unpower the device, change the mode, and then power up.
Installing the Viewer
The preloaded demo uses the USB link to stream a video, which is compressed using the STM32N6’s H.264 encoder. To view the stream, you will need to install the N6Cam Viewer.
Running the demo
These instructions assume you have an N6Cam in operation mode loaded with the default demo firmware.
Connect the N6Cam to the host machine
Open the viewer
On boot, the N6Cam should be recognized as a UVC device by the host and the Viewer app should automatically display the video stream:
In the above snapshot (Windows 11):
N6Cam is being detected as a camera device
The viewer app is displaying the video from the device.
note: the frame shows a single detection from the people-detect model.
You’re all done! For development, check the Getting Started (development) page.