AE3 Frame capture has timed out

I’ve been working on AprilTag detection with an OpenMV AE3 and relaying the results over CAN, so I’m currently running the dev build.

I’ve been getting the following runtime error intermittently:

RuntimeError: Frame capture has timed out.

I went back to the automatically generated test script from creating a new file and found that I can reproduce the same error there occasionally.

The issue seems to occur primarily when I first try to start the sketch. If the sketch starts successfully, it appears to run normally for as long as I’ve tested it. The failure is also inconsistent: sometimes I can start the sketch successfully several times in a row, while other times it can fail repeatedly before eventually starting successfully.

In the attached picture, I’m running at VGA resolution, but I’ve also encountered the same issue at QVGA.

I’ve also tried different pixel formats and framebuffer configurations, including explicitly setting the framebuffer count to 1, but the behavior appears unchanged.

Has anyone encountered intermittent frame-capture timeouts on the AE3, particularly when starting a sketch? Is there anything specific I should check regarding camera initialization, the dev firmware, or the AE3 hardware?

Hi, what firmware are you running? Is it Tools->Install the Latest Dev release? Or v5.0.0?

I used Tools->Install the Lastest Dev release. It says it is running 5.0.1

Mmm, okay, I’ll debug the issue. Not sure why this is happening for you. We haven’t touched anything with the camera logic for a long time now.

Hi, I have Claude working on this issue from the bench. It found the problem and is working to resolve it. The issue is related to the CPI image capture hardware on the AE3 getting VERY unhappy if it’s stopped in a weird way. Once that happens it goes buck wild.

Claude is working on a fix now. Should have something soon.

Claude found it. But, wow. It took the AI all day. boards/OPENMV_AE3: Fix intermittent frame capture timeouts after sensor reset. by kwagyeman · Pull Request #3297 · openmv/openmv · GitHub

Like, it had to grind for 8 hours to get this one.

Awesome! To get this fix do I just need to wait until the change has been added to the lastest dev release and rerun Tools->Install the Lastest Dev release?

firmware_OPENMV_AE3_pr3297_a93b060.zip (12.8 MB)

Please see attached. It will be a while before it’s merged. So, just use this binary for now.

Load the firmware_M55_HP.bin file.

Perfect, I will work with this and let you know if I have any other issues! Thank you!

I did some testing using the basic sketch which looked good, but once I uploaded my code the camera started getting this distortion. It runs the code and there are no errors, but this effect just flashes on and off as the camera runs. I tried wiping the device and reinstalling the firmware then running the basic sketch again, and it persisted through that. These images are from after I reflashed the firmware.

firmware_M55_HP.zip (1.4 MB)

Try this out.

That seems to have fixed it. I will keep testing and let you know if anything else pops up, thanks!

firmware_OPENMV_AE3_61a0be1.zip (2.1 MB)

Okay, I fixed the issue with my original firmware post. This has an additional fix.

See: boards/OPENMV_AE3: Fix intermittent frame capture timeouts after sensor reset. by kwagyeman · Pull Request #3297 · openmv/openmv · GitHub