LATEST UPDATES FOR BOTTLENOSE
December 14, 2022
As we head into the holiday season, we’re excited to announce that Bottlenose (both stereo and monocular versions) is now in stock on Mouser.com!
A Bottlenose monocular camera.
We’d like to thank everybody for their support on this whirlwind adventure!
October 17, 2022
Great news! We have fixed the design issues related to the Ethernet PHY along with some other improvements. These were sent to the factory a few weeks ago. Fingers crossed. Test samples will be ready next week. The dev team will be at the factory testing.
We have also finalized our simple but functional packaging as we prepare for shipping!
September 2, 2022
This week we took Bottlenose to a Nemko lab to test inside an RF isolated chamber and ensure it’s not producing any harmful or disturbing radio waves.
Bottlenose being set up in the anechoic chamber.
Thomas and Martin configuring the camera to run some very intense stress testing firmware. This firmware runs all of the computer vision and AI accelerators at the same time. Since Bottlenose’s ASIC processor has a heterogenous architecture, its best to test all the clock frequencies, and make sure none cause harmful interference.
Bottlenose plugged into the test setup on a rotating turntable.
We also tested for conducted emissions that may show up on the ethernet or power cable.
We are excited to share that the testing was a success!
All of this is happening in parallel to our efforts in unblocking production. We are still solving our Ethernet PHY + ASIC design and supply related issue from earlier and hope to have production going again soon.
Hope you all have a great Labor Day long weekend!
AUGUST 25, 2022
Look how tiny AMPA is! This is the brain within Bottlenose!
AUGUST 24, 2022
Bottlenose development version undergoing bring-up and first firmware flash via an easy to use JTAG cable. We have designed the camera to be easy to repair. This also allows community members to openly modify the camera for their needs.
Undergoing open-frame thermal testing. Camera is running a stress test loop with as many image processing and computer vision tasks running in parallel as possible. Low power dissipation allows use cases in many industrial and robotics applications.
AUGUST 17, 2022
Our engineering team has been curating a playlist while building Bottlenose – click the image below to listen!
AUGUST 11, 2022
Very excited today to see the first ever pictures taken from the latest design iteration of the Bottlenose cameras! Great quality! They are compressed for this blog, but the camera outputs these in raw format.
Taken with a zoom lens (Theia SL1250). To view the original 4K image click here.
Taken with a wide-angle lens (Theia SL410). To view the original 4K image click here.
Understandably, Martin was super excited for this moment!
AUGUST 8, 2022
Welcome to the first post for following along with the build progress for Bottlenose. The original plan was to ship the cameras this month. The team is working very hard and we are very thankful to our partners and vendors who have done a tremendous job!
We would like to use this blog post to provide updates and some sneak peaks behind-the-scene.
The first batch of PCB’s arrived on Friday, the 5th of August 2022. These included our, soon to be released, AMPA™ SOM and the carrier boards that together form Bottlenose cameras. Boards look great and MCAD-ECAD integration works well.
Bottlenose monocular in 3D print and stereo in CNC machined aluminum with PCBs inside.
Reverse side of the stereo camera where you can see that care has been taken to make this camera easy to open and repair. JTAG access is provided from the back for advanced users.
Monocular board from the front, showing the IMX577 image sensor and AMPA underneath.
CS-mount lens housing (minus the threads), with IMX577 visible inside.
Bottlenose stereo version, fully assembled.
Stereo board with AMPA undergoing first boot-up. Power consumption looks very low as per design! In our stress tests we did not exceed 6.5W – this test included AI, depth, and other processing.
We realize soon that some of the connections in our schematics were reversed and that some other design errors will cause issues, and prepare a pizza for sustenance.
We had to add a patch fix to AMPA, but it’s super tiny and requires delicate work.
One of the patches will reverse two of the tiny pins you see here on this ethernet PHY. The clock and control lines got reversed.
Photo from microscope of the patch.
Its alive!! Once patched, Bottlenose shows up on our GigE Vision monitoring software.
Patch shows fully working ethernet.
Not so good news: AMPA and baseboard need some minor revisions. We could patch these as above and ship or we could do a design change and ship in a few weeks. AMPA is a very high-density board and requires special processes. Stay tuned for further updates!
Click here to read more about Bottlenose smart cameras.
What do you think? We would love to hear suggestions or feedback. Please let us know if you have feature requests by clicking the “Get in touch” button below.
Bottlenose is currently available for purchase on Mouser Electronics.
Related Posts
https://www.labforge.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/curioso-photography-pqN82ZS6OsI-unsplash-scaled.jpg
2560
2560
labforge
https://www.labforge.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/logo-2-300x212.png
labforge2022-07-04 15:48:482023-01-10 10:20:53Critical Mineral Identification Using Cameras
Nao Takabayashi
https://www.labforge.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/nao-takabayashi-strawberry-vertical-farm-unsplash.jpg
835
1250
labforge
https://www.labforge.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/logo-2-300x212.png
labforge2022-03-26 10:00:512022-07-27 08:09:343D Imaging in Agricultural Technology
Andreas Gücklhorn | Unsplash
https://www.labforge.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/andreas-gucklhorn-solar-panels-unsplash.jpg
835
1250
labforge
https://www.labforge.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/logo-2-300x212.png
labforge2022-03-25 18:50:222022-10-03 08:48:30Solar Panel Maintenance Utilizing IoT
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!