About MLX90620 thermal array sensor (IR sensor)

About MLX90620 thermal array sensor (IR sensor)

[Dongsoo Nathaniel Kim]

Hi folks,

I'm working on a 16x4 thermal array sensor from Melexis which parts
number is MLX90620.

Here is the datasheet of this device:
http://www.melexis.com/Asset/Datasheet-IR-thermometer-16X4-sensor-array-MLX90620-DownloadLink-6099.aspx

This device runs with 4 operation pins including I2C SCL and SDA,
other two are VCC and ground.

The IC alone cannot operate but needs some sort of resistors and
electrical parts in form of break out board.

*But there is no change in using I2C and 5V in*

I'd like to ask you for a pointer to make driver name which I want to
put in IIO framework.

The breakout board name is RM-G212 from RoBoard and the standalone IC
name is MLX90620.

Which one will be appropriate for the driver name?

rm-g212.c ? or mlx90620.c

Sorry to bother you with such a trivial thing, but I thought the
naming must be important when someone wants to try out his mlx90620
device on Linux and looking for the driver.
(And I'm also confused)

Cheers,

Nate

-- 
=
Dongsoo Nathaniel Kim
Linux kernel, media device S/W engineer / Ph.D Student
Dept. of Computer Science, KAIST
Real-time & Embedded Systems Lab.

Re: About MLX90620 thermal array sensor (IR sensor)

[Jonathan Cameron]

Hi Nate

Dongsoo Nathaniel Kim <dongsoo.kim@gmail.com> wrote:
>Hi folks,
>
>I'm working on a 16x4 thermal array sensor from Melexis which parts
>number is MLX90620.
>
>Here is the datasheet of this device:
>http://www.melexis.com/Asset/Datasheet-IR-thermometer-16X4-sensor-array-MLX90620-DownloadLink-6099.aspx
Interesting little device.
>
>This device runs with 4 operation pins including I2C SCL and SDA,
>other two are VCC and ground.
>
>The IC alone cannot operate but needs some sort of resistors and
>electrical parts in form of break out board.
>
>*But there is no change in using I2C and 5V in*
>
>I'd like to ask you for a pointer to make driver name which I want to
>put in IIO framework.
>
>The breakout board name is RM-G212 from RoBoard and the standalone IC
>name is MLX90620.
>
>Which one will be appropriate for the driver name?
mlx... If the breakout board does anything to change the operation it should be represented in terms of regulators or other
 similar parts with perhaps a device tree snippet that others can use.
>
>rm-g212.c ? or mlx90620.c
>
>Sorry to bother you with such a trivial thing, but I thought the
>naming must be important when someone wants to try out his mlx90620
>device on Linux and looking for the driver.
>(And I'm also confused)

Another interesting question is whether array sensors like this should be handled as cameras or whether IIO makes more sense.
If in IIO we need to think about how to handle the array coordinates.

What do others think?
>
>Cheers,
>
>Nate

-- 
Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

Re: About MLX90620 thermal array sensor (IR sensor)

[Peter Meerwald]

Hello,

> >Here is the datasheet of this device:
> >http://www.melexis.com/Asset/Datasheet-IR-thermometer-16X4-sensor-array-MLX90620-DownloadLink-6099.aspx
> Interesting little device.

indeed

> Another interesting question is whether array sensors like this should 
> be handled as cameras or whether IIO makes more sense.
> If in IIO we need to think about how to handle the array coordinates.

one could just expose 64 IR channels and the temperature and leave the 
(complicated) calculations to user space, shouldn't be too hard (hope iio 
can handle 64+ channels :)

I think it is not worth to expose the array layout / coordinates

channels scan masks (i.e. which channels can be combined in a buffered 
read) are not discoverable as well I think (except trial-and-error)

regards, p.

-- 

Peter Meerwald
+43-664-2444418 (mobile)

Re: About MLX90620 thermal array sensor (IR sensor)

[Dongsoo Nathaniel Kim]

Hi Jonathan,

On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 2:17 AM, Jonathan Cameron <jic23@kernel.org> wrote:
> Hi Nate
>
> Dongsoo Nathaniel Kim <dongsoo.kim@gmail.com> wrote:
>>Hi folks,
>>
>>I'm working on a 16x4 thermal array sensor from Melexis which parts
>>number is MLX90620.
>>
>>Here is the datasheet of this device:
>>http://www.melexis.com/Asset/Datasheet-IR-thermometer-16X4-sensor-array-MLX90620-DownloadLink-6099.aspx
> Interesting little device.
>>
>>This device runs with 4 operation pins including I2C SCL and SDA,
>>other two are VCC and ground.
>>
>>The IC alone cannot operate but needs some sort of resistors and
>>electrical parts in form of break out board.
>>
>>*But there is no change in using I2C and 5V in*
>>
>>I'd like to ask you for a pointer to make driver name which I want to
>>put in IIO framework.
>>
>>The breakout board name is RM-G212 from RoBoard and the standalone IC
>>name is MLX90620.
>>
>>Which one will be appropriate for the driver name?
> mlx... If the breakout board does anything to change the operation it should be represented in terms of regulators or other
>  similar parts with perhaps a device tree snippet that others can use.

Currently I attached this breakout VCC to my target board GPIO header
which gives out 5V. This breakout board provides only power indicator
LED and I2C pullup resistors and vcc in, ground, i2c scl, sda are all
on mlx device.

>>
>>rm-g212.c ? or mlx90620.c
>>
>>Sorry to bother you with such a trivial thing, but I thought the
>>naming must be important when someone wants to try out his mlx90620
>>device on Linux and looking for the driver.
>>(And I'm also confused)
>
> Another interesting question is whether array sensors like this should be handled as cameras or whether IIO makes more sense.
> If in IIO we need to think about how to handle the array coordinates.

I had in my mind to handle like a camera as a part of V4L2 but this
device doesn't give out data in any colorspace but just temperature
value per pixel.
It just works like a temperature sensor with 64 sensor heads.


>
> What do others think?
>>
>>Cheers,
>>
>>Nate
>
> --
> Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.



-- 
=
Dongsoo Nathaniel Kim
Linux kernel, media device S/W engineer / Ph.D Student
Dept. of Computer Science, KAIST
Real-time & Embedded Systems Lab.

Re: About MLX90620 thermal array sensor (IR sensor)

[Jonathan Cameron]

On 11/06/13 23:06, Dongsoo Nathaniel Kim wrote:
> Hi Jonathan,
> 
> On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 2:17 AM, Jonathan Cameron <jic23@kernel.org> wrote:
>> Hi Nate
>>
>> Dongsoo Nathaniel Kim <dongsoo.kim@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Hi folks,
>>>
>>> I'm working on a 16x4 thermal array sensor from Melexis which parts
>>> number is MLX90620.
>>>
>>> Here is the datasheet of this device:
>>> http://www.melexis.com/Asset/Datasheet-IR-thermometer-16X4-sensor-array-MLX90620-DownloadLink-6099.aspx
>> Interesting little device.
>>>
>>> This device runs with 4 operation pins including I2C SCL and SDA,
>>> other two are VCC and ground.
>>>
>>> The IC alone cannot operate but needs some sort of resistors and
>>> electrical parts in form of break out board.
>>>
>>> *But there is no change in using I2C and 5V in*
>>>
>>> I'd like to ask you for a pointer to make driver name which I want to
>>> put in IIO framework.
>>>
>>> The breakout board name is RM-G212 from RoBoard and the standalone IC
>>> name is MLX90620.
>>>
>>> Which one will be appropriate for the driver name?
>> mlx... If the breakout board does anything to change the operation it should be represented in terms of regulators or other
>>  similar parts with perhaps a device tree snippet that others can use.
> 
> Currently I attached this breakout VCC to my target board GPIO header
> which gives out 5V. This breakout board provides only power indicator
> LED and I2C pullup resistors and vcc in, ground, i2c scl, sda are all
> on mlx device.
Doesn't sound like there is anything on their that would need describing.
> 
>>>
>>> rm-g212.c ? or mlx90620.c
>>>
>>> Sorry to bother you with such a trivial thing, but I thought the
>>> naming must be important when someone wants to try out his mlx90620
>>> device on Linux and looking for the driver.
>>> (And I'm also confused)
>>
>> Another interesting question is whether array sensors like this should be handled as cameras or whether IIO makes more sense.
>> If in IIO we need to think about how to handle the array coordinates.
> 
> I had in my mind to handle like a camera as a part of V4L2 but this
> device doesn't give out data in any colorspace but just temperature
> value per pixel.
There are plenty of black and white optical cameras out there and there is
always the option of adding core support to describe that it is a temperature
'camera'.
> It just works like a temperature sensor with 64 sensor heads.
The issue I have is establishing precedence.  What happens when a 128x128 element
thermal camera comes up? At what point do we make the jump to deciding they are
actually cameras?
> 
> 
>>
>> What do others think?
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> Nate
>>
>> --
>> Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
> 
> 
>