Hi, I’m using the Arducam 4K USB Camera Bundle (12MP IMX477) on Windows. I bought it from UCTRONICS and I’m using it as a medical camera. I need some custom firmware changes:
(1) increase the upper and lower limits of automatic exposure, and
(2) change the camera device name. Is this something you can help with?
Thanks for reaching out. The upper and lower limits of auto exposure don’t have manual controls exposed by default, but we can adjust those in the firmware if you tell us the specific range you need. The target brightness for auto exposure can also be customized. For the device name, you can actually change that yourself using the tools we provide on our website. I’ll send you the link for that tool. What range did you have in mind for the exposure limits?
When I set the resolution to 1280x960, the exposure lower limit looked really good at -12. Can you set the lower limit to -12 in a custom firmware? I’d like to test it before I place a bulk order — I’m planning to buy about 10 cameras from Amazon. Also, I tried the first custom firmware you sent and it made the image too dark. I fixed it a bit by raising gamma to 130, but is there a way to make it brighter without messing with the auto exposure? And another issue — when the scene has a lot of red, the camera goes infrared-looking. I need that disabled.
Got it. For the brightness issue — in the auto exposure algorithm we can adjust either exposure lines or the sensor’s gain. If you just want gain adjusted to increase brightness, that’s doable. Otherwise we’d need to change the exposure limits. I’ve made two test firmware versions with 20% extra brightness for you: one where we disabled digital gain, and another where we disabled AWB (auto white balance). Can you test both and let me know which one fixes the red field issue? They’re up at this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pXb267G5bYvo3vD7_im6M5dbs9o-txbo/view
Thanks for testing. The red issue is caused by AWB — when we disable it, the problem goes away but then the camera isn’t usable with fixed settings. Looking back at the whole conversation, we’ve already done multiple firmware revisions for you which is beyond our standard support scope. If you need continued firmware customization (fixed white balance at 3000, 40% brightness, specific color temperature), please contact [email protected] to place a customization order. Once they process it, we can continue debugging. In the meantime, many customers have had good results using OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) which is free and handled the camera well on Windows.