Digilent Zybo Z7 + Pcam 5C

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To view the webinar recording, go here: Embedded Vision on Xilinx FPGA

 

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About

The Zybo Z7 is a feature-rich, ready-to-use embedded software and digital circuit development board built around the Xilinx Zynq-7000 family. This is the second generation update to the popular Zybo that was released in 2012. The Zynq family is based on the Xilinx All Programmable System-on-Chip (AP SoC) architecture, which tightly integrates a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor with Xilinx 7-series Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) logic. The Zybo Z7 surrounds the Zynq with a rich set of multimedia and connectivity peripherals to create a formidable single-board computer, even before considering the flexibility and power added by the FPGA. The Zybo Z7's video-capable feature set, including a MIPI CSI-2 compatible Pcam connector, HDMI input, HDMI output, and high DDR3L bandwidth, was chosen to make it an affordable solution for the high end embedded vision applications that Xilinx FPGAs are popular for. Attaching additional hardware is made easy by the Zybo Z7's Pmod connectors, allowing access to Digilent's catalog of over 70 Pmod peripheral boards, including motor controllers, sensors, displays, and more.

 

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The Pcam 5C is an imaging module meant for use with FPGA development boards. The module is designed around the Omnivision OV5640 5 megapixel (MP) color image sensor. This sensor includes various internal processing functions that can improve image quality, including automatic white balance, automatic black level calibration, and controls for adjusting saturation, hue, gamma and sharpness. Data is transferred over a dual-lane MIPI CSI-2 interface, which provides enough data bandwidth to support common video streaming formats such as 1080p (at 30 frames per second) and 720p (at 60 frames per second). The module is connected to the FPGA development board via a 15-pin flat-flexible cable (FFC) that is pin compatible with the connector found on the popular Raspberry Pi development board. The Pcam 5C comes with a 10 cm flat-flexible cable and a factory-installed fixed focus lens with M12 lens mount, so it is ready to use out of the box.

Important Dates

Enrollment Begin: Apr 10 2019

Enrollment Ends: May 13 2019

RoadTesters Selected:May 292019

Product Shipped: May 30 2019

RoadTesting Begins: June 5 2019

Reminder/Update Email: July 5 2019*

Submit Reviews By: August 5 2019*

*The element14 RoadTest Staff will send this reminder/update email.

**If a RoadTester is unable to meet the deadline, please notify the RoadTest Program Lead, , as soon as possible before the deadline.

RoadTesters

Terms and Conditions

RoadTest

Digilent Zybo Z7 + Pcam 5C

Terms and Conditions

These are the terms and conditions which govern the Digilent Zybo Z7 + Pcam 5C contest. This Contest requires participants to submit an application indicating their previous experience with this type of equipment/component, information on what they would do to test the equipment/component, and the applicant’s desire to post a thorough review of their experience with images, photos, or other supplemental materials. Participants will be required to meet the Conditions for Participation.  The winners of this RoadTest will receive the item(s) listed below. RoadTest Reviews are due no later than 60 days after the receipt of the item(s). No other prizes are offered.

The Principal terms of the Competition:

The following words and phrases are used in these terms and conditions and have the meanings given to them below.

(RoadTest or Contest)

Key dates:

Applications Close: midnight (GMT) on Apr 10 2019

Announcement of Winner (estimated): May 13 2019

Prize: Digilent Zybo Z7 + Pcam 5C

 

Competition Site: https://www.element14.com/community/groups/roadtest?ICID=menubar_resources_roadtest

Site or element14 Community: www.element14.com/community

Judges: members of the element14 community team chosen at the Organiser’s discretion.

Judging Criteria, All of the following which will have equal weighting:

· Demonstrated competence with the technologies including links or descriptions of past projects

· Qualifications as indicated by current job role and/or schooling/vocational training;

· A thorough description of how the prize would be tested;

· Likelihood that the Applicant will blog about the prize and provide a review on element14.com;

· Originality;

· Innovation.

Organiser: Premier Farnell plc (registered in England and Wales under company number 876412) whose registered office is at Farnell House, Forge Lane, Leeds, UK

Conditions for Qualification: in addition to meeting the requirements of these terms, all persons applying to take part in the Contest (each one an Applicant) must:

· Provide a RoadTest application describing what he/she would do if awarded the Prize including similar previous projects, product experience and qualifications

Terms: these terms and conditions which govern the Competition and to which the Organiser reserves the right to make changes from time to time and the latest version of these Terms from time to time will be posted to the Site.

  1. Eligibility
  2. Applications:
  3. Selecting Winners:
  4. Liability:
  5. General:

1.1 Save as set out in these Terms, the Contest is open to any natural or legal person, firm or company or group of natural persons or unincorporated body.

1.2 All Applicants must be aged at least 18 at the time of their application.

1.3 Applicants must not enter the RoadTest if doing so or taking part may:

1.3.1 cause the Organiser and/or themselves to be in breach of any agreement (including but not limited to any contract of employment) to which they are a party or in breach of any law, regulation or rule having the force of law to which the Organiser or the Applicant may be subject or any policy of the Organiser or the Sponsor;

1.3.2 Require the Organiser to obtain any licence, authorisation or permission to deal with the Applicant; or

1.3.3 Be in breach of any policy or practice of their employer. Some employers prohibit or restrict their employees from taking part in competitions such as these or receiving prizes under them and the Organiser respects those policies and practices.

The Organiser reserves the right to disqualify any Application made in breach of these Terms and to reject any Application which it reasonably believes may be or become in breach. The Organiser reserves the right to require evidence in such form as the Organiser may reasonably require of any Applicant’s compliance with any of these Terms and to disqualify any Applicant or Participant who cannot provide such evidence reasonably promptly.

1.4 Multiple applications are not permitted.

1.5 Applications may not be submitted by an agent whether acting on behalf of an undisclosed principal or otherwise.

1.6 The Contest is NOT open to:

1.6.1 Any person or entity who is a resident or national of any country which is subject to sanctions, embargoes or national trade restrictions of the United States of America, the European Union or the United Kingdom;

1.6.2 Any employee, director, member, shareholder (as appropriate) or any of their direct families (parents, siblings, spouse, partner, children) (“Direct Families”) of the Organiser and Sponsors; or

2.1 Each Applicant must fully complete and submit a RoadTest Application by the Application Close.

2.2 By submitting a Registration Form, each Applicant:

2.2.1 Authorises the Organiser to use his or her personal data (as defined in the Data Protection Act 1998) for the purposes of running and promoting the RoadTest;

2.2.2 Authorises the Organizer to copy, reproduce and publish their application should they be accepted as a Participant;

2.2.3 Will be deemed to have read, accepted and agree to be bound by these Terms. Applicants are advised to print and keep safe these Terms;

2.2.4 Authorises the Organiser to copy, reproduce and use the Application and/or Review for the purposes of the RoadTest and as otherwise contemplated by these Terms. The Organiser will not be responsible for any inaccuracy, error or omission contained in any reproduction or use of the Project Blogs.

2.2.5 Licenses the Organiser to use the intellectual property in the Project (IP) for the purposes of this Contest. As between the Applicant and the Organiser the IP remains owned by the Applicant.

2.2.6 Grants the Organiser the right to use his or her likeness, photographs, logos, trademarks, audio or video recordings without restriction for the purposes of Contest or the promotion of it or the Site;

2.2.7 Agrees to participate positively in all publicity surrounding the Contest;

2.2.8 Agrees to be responsible for all expenses and costs incurred by him or her in preparing for, entering and participating in the Contest (save for any expenses expressly agreed by the Organiser to be borne by it in these Terms);

2.2.9 Confirms that he or she owns all IP used in his or her application or Project or Blogs and indemnifies the Organiser from any claim by a third party that use of any material provided by an Applicant to the Organiser infringes the intellectual property rights of any third party;

2.2.10 Agrees not to act in any way or fail to act in any way or be associated with any cause or group which would have a negative impact on the reputation of the Organiser and/or the RoadTest.

2.3 All applications submitted to this RoadTest must meet the following criteria:

2.3.1 Applicants must be the author, creator and owner of the proposed review idea. Applicants must not submit someone else’s idea;

2.3.2 The proposed application must be reasonably achievable by the within the time constraints of the Contest;

2.3.3 Applications must not include or propose any of the following, the inclusion of which shall render any proposed application ineligible:

(a) Applications which relate to socially taboo topics, such as illicit drug use or sexual gratification;

(b) Applications that are or could reasonably be considered to be illegal, immoral, discriminatory or offensive as determined by the Organiser;

(c) Applications in relation to them which if accepted would infringe or breach any of the policies or terms of access or use of the Site.

2.4 No Application may contain any of the hazardous substances identified by Article 4 of Directive 2002/95/EC of the European Parliament on the Restrictions on the Use of Substances in Electronic and Electrical Equipment ("the Directive") or the use of such hazardous substances in the in any such Project must not exceed the maximum concentration values set out in the Directive.

3.1 Winners will be selected by the Organiser on the basis of the quality of his or her application and its adherence to these Terms.

3.2 The total number of Winners selected will be at least the minimum number set out above but the actual number is at the sole discretion of the Organizer and/or the Sponsor, if applicable.

3.3 The Organiser will use all reasonable efforts to announce the Winners via an update to the RoadTest page by the date listed above.

3.4 Winners agree to take part in all publicity which the Organiser or the Sponsor wishes to use to promote the RoadTest, the Products featured or other Contests with which the Organiser may be connected from time to time.

3.5 Details of the Winners may also be published in the media.

3.6 Winners are responsible for all applicable taxes, duties or other charges payable in relation to any prize.

3.7

4.1 The Organiser hereby excludes all and any Liability arising out of the Contest or the acceptance, use, quality, condition, suitability or performance of any Prize, even where that Liability may arise from the Organiser’s negligence.

4.2 Nothing in these Terms will affect any Liability of the Organiser for death or personal injury arising from its negligence, for breach of Part II of the Consumer Protection Act 1987 (in the event that any entrant is entitled to claim rights under the Consumer Protection Act 1987) or for any matter in relation to which it would be illegal for the Organiser to exclude or to attempt to exclude its Liability.

4.3 Subject to 4.2, neither the Organiser, any parent company nor any subsidiary of the Organiser or such parent company or any of their directors, officers and employees (together referred to in these terms and the ‘Associates’) makes any guarantee, warranty or representation of any kind, express or implied, with respect to this Competition or the Prizes potentially available under it. Neither the Organiser nor any of its Associates shall be responsible for any Liability that may arise out of or in connection with person’s participation in this Competition, the claiming, redemption or value of any prizes under it, the use or enjoyment of such prizes or any events or circumstances arising out of or in connection with any of them. Any implied warranties of condition, merchantability or suitability or fitness for purpose of any of them are hereby expressly excluded. Wherever used in these Terms, ‘Liability’ shall mean any and all costs, expenses, claims, damages, actions, proceedings, demands, losses and other liabilities (including legal fees and costs on a full indemnity basis) arising directly or indirectly out of or in connection with the matter concerned.

5.1 The RoadTest is organised and sponsored by the Organiser. The Organiser reserves the right to delegate all or any of its powers, rights and obligations arising in relation to the RoadTest to any Associate and certain such rights and powers are assumed by the Organiser on behalf of itself and each Associate. Reference to “Organiser” shall be deemed to include reference to each Associate.

5.2 The RoadTest may be terminated at any time if there are, in the sole opinion of the Organiser, an insufficient number of entries, or if the Applications are not of an appropriate standard for a competition of this nature. The Organiser has the right to cancel or suspend the RoadTest at any time due to circumstances outside its reasonable control.

5.3 The Organiser shall have the sole discretion to disqualify (without correspondence or right of appeal) any Applicant it considers to be adversely affecting the process or the operation of the RoadTest or to be in breach of these Terms or to be acting in a disruptive manner or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other Applicant or Participant.

5.4 The Organiser has the right to amend or add to these Terms from time to time. Revised Terms and Conditions will be posted on the Contest Site and it is a condition of entry to the RoadTest that Applicants agree to comply with these Terms and, if appropriate, such Terms as amended from time to time.

5.5 Headings are for convenience only and do not affect the interpretation or construction of these Terms and Conditions.

5.6 These Terms and the operation of the Contest shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English Law and any claim or matter arising under these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

RoadTest Reviews
Comments
Anonymous
  • I have not had any voucher before, so I don't know how you are supposed to redeem it (i.e. if you have to fill some online form, to obtain the 1-year license for the tool), hence being cautious about "porting" the Accessory kit from Zybo to Zybo-Z7. Did you have to provide details about the kit the voucher came with in order to activate it?

     

    Anyway, once you have the voucher active, I cannot see any reason why you should not be able to use the SDSoC with Zybo-Z7 rather than MiniZed, as long as you are within the 1-year validity. It would be interesting to know if you manage to use it though.

     

    Fabio

     

    ** UPDATE **

    I have just checked on Digilent forum, and looks like the 1-year validity only apply if you install new versions of the SDSoC tool: if you keep to the same version installed, on the same machine, the license is perpetual.

  • I believe the Voucher from the Accessory kit is for the Zynq processor rather than for the Zybo kit.  This does bring another question in that I already have an active voucher from a MiniZed kit which shows a license for SDSoC active including for the XC7C010 processor so I wonder if that would still work.

  • I'm in the same situation, I was planning to use the SDSoC for my project, and I thought it was included (the link to the "Buy Now" does mention the SDSoC, at least for the UK Farnell site). My kit will arrive on Wednesday, but I believe will be same as Jon's.

     

    The $20 kit is for the old Zybo, and I'm not sure can be used for the new Zybo-Z7 (Xilinx is very picky about what is licensed for what).

     

    Perhaps can shed some light on this.

     

    Fabio

  • My kit should arrive tomorrow, but I'm assuming it will be the same as Jon's. I was also planning to delve onto SDSoC as part of my road test. I'm not sure how much video processing can be usefully done without it. (Scratch that - as long as you have Vivado HLS then it should be fine. SDSoC looks like it makes it a lot easier though with regard to transferring the data between PS and PL.)

     

    The voucher is only $10 so that's not a big deal - except it seems to have been discontinued as a standalone purchase and replaced by a $995 Vivado license.image

    image

    Oops - the accessory kit that Jon mentioned is only $20 and sees to include the SDSoC voucher. I seem to be doing a lot of typing before thinking today!

     

    Obviously there's still plenty left to road test about the Zybo before you even get to the camera, so I'm still looking forward to the road test with or without SDSoC.

  • Ah, after further inspection, I see the Zybo Z7 that was sent is the Zybo Z7-10 (ZYNQ-7010) and not the Zybo Z7-20 (ZYNQ-7020) the Embedded Vision Bundle comes with.   That pretty much clarifies it for me, in that this is not the Embedded Vision Bundle.  I'll organize my Road Test accordingly. 

  • Very Cool.  Thanks for selecting my submission for this.

     

    The Zybo z7 and Pcam 5C has already arrived.

     

    For a bit of clarification, is this the Digilent Embedded Vision Bundle or just a Zybo z7 with a Pcam 5c?  The reason I ask is that the Embedded Vision Bundle on the Digilent site shows that it comes with a SDSoC Voucher where the Zybo z7 this is an option. I did not see a voucher in the packaging I received. They do offer a Zybo Accessory Kit that includes a Power Adapter, 8Gb SD card and SDSoC Voucher and I would be happy to purchase that on my own, but I just want to make sure this kit did not already have one before I do get the accessory kit.

  • Congratulations to the road testers. Lots of potential in this system to do interesting projects.

  • Important Dates Update

     

     

    Enrollment Begin: Apr 10 2019

    Enrollment Ends: May 13 2019

    RoadTesters Selected:May 292019

    Product Shipped: May 30 2019

    RoadTesting Begins: June 5 2019

    Reminder/Update Email: July 5 2019*

    Submit Reviews By: August 5 2019*

    *The element14 RoadTest Staff will send this reminder/update email.

    **If a RoadTester is unable to meet the deadline, please notify the RoadTest Program Lead, , as soon as possible before the deadline.

  • The following applicants have been selected as official roadtesters:

     

  • I read all the applications. I select 15 our of the 34 applications. In my next cut, I will select the final 5.

     

    Randall Scasny

    RoadTest Program Manager

  • Cheah,

    Thanks for the info! This is providing some great perspective to me as I try to learn more about the hardware side of vision solutions.

    Maybe I'll try one of these out.

     

    Thanks,

    Jordan

  • Have an application that needs to record video, analyse, detect objects, trigger a GPS/location and save the image/location and send back for analysis / classification. Initially the classification is likely to be manual and then trained so can be automatic.

     

    Requires aching learning/vision at the front end to identify objects and the send the object/location back for accurate classification.

     

    seems this could be a sensible front end solution (well the machine vision part, would need to integrate with a gps/location solution).

  • while i don't have zybo board, i have used some relatively alike board that can run pynq. with pynq, you can program in the easier Python in its jupyther notebook and makes your computer vision application easier. However, if you have the team to do lower level work (the device driver), it still let you go back to SDSoc to do it.

    for computer vision, the camera through the MIPI CS-2 here slightly better latency than the HDMI in on many pynq supported board.

     

    i have not seen an official pynq for this zybo z7 yet, but have seen some porting on the older zybo and some guide https://gist.github.com/PeterOgden/9a5054a06408d2bd711d6de563281930

    so i guess in no time it will have pynq too.

     

    Xilinx also has https://www.xilinx.com/products/design-tools/embedded-vision-zone.html for computer vision (which i haven't tried before) and it supports zybo https://www.xilinx.com/products/design-tools/embedded-vision-zone/hardware.html#service

     

    but in term of board size, i personally like the ultra96 credit card size however its miniDP output is very choosy. It is based on the zynq ultrascale+ MpSOC

    ultra96, however, is not on the revision support list

     

    i have used MATLAB based HDL coder for xilinx board, and it supports zybo (through some custom board support tutorial), so that's an extra advantage if you use MATLAB

    but nowadays the python based pynq is also impressive and intuitive enough for vision project

     

    hence, i think this board is a decent choice for your work. a second close choice is the pynq based board, in fact there is one on roadtest too - pynq z2 - PYNQ-Z2 Dev Board: Python Productivity for ZynqRegistered

  • This is a nice upgrade to the Zybo Z7, and along with the Pcam 5C camera module and rest of the Embedded Vision kit, it makes for a very flexible platform for both learning and implementing computer vision.  I'm working on a project that involves the Zynq FPGA and would use this as a means to both augment and expand my knowledge of the Zynq SoC. I could envision using the reVISION reference  material that includes OpenVX, OpenCV, Caffe and such, to create a self navigating bot that could also identify objects for both collision avoidance ("Not a Hot Dog") as well as task completion.  Considering this has a dual core ARM Cortex-A9, along with the FPGA assist, it should handle a fairly decent frame rate. This would be a nice platform to compare side by side with my JetBot.

  • Here's a great tip or two for learning about Programmable Logic Devices.

    (I've excluded ASICs for clarity.)

     

    Programmable Logic Device technology from SPLDs, CPLDs to FPGAs are designed to inefficient brute force methods of design synthesis to provide a very easy and fast method of creating bespoke logic.

    Designs are input as Hardware Descriptions to accomplish the designer's actual needs and the supporting software compiles, synthesizes and fits the design to the target device.

    Hardware Descriptions are input using a HDL (Hardware Description Language) such as VHDL, verilog or other format (even C/C++ has been morphed for hardware description).

    Ideally, the resultant HDL code is portable and can be fitted into any PLD with sufficient resources.

     

    My extensive experience shows that not all HDL compilers, synthesizers and fitters are optimal so the designer may need to resort to other simpler and often older HDLs for low resource devices such as SPLDs and CPLDs.

    For example: A 4 bit binary to seven segment LED display decoder written in VHDL when compiled, synthesised and fitted may be unsuccessful to fit into an SPLD like a GAL but it the equivalent code is written in PALASM or CUPL it will.

     

    It is also very important to write the supporting Test Vector documents to verify your designs so that WYDIWYG.  "What you described is what you get!"

    These test vectors are a combination of combinatorial and sequential input events and their expected outputs.

     

    When dealing with CPLDs and FPGAs one needs to build the necessary understanding of clock domains and handle the absence of asynchronous inputs.

    It is can be truly a quantum realm when everything happens upon a tick of a clock.

     

    As for FPGAs with inbuilt CPU cores - these were created to improve efficiency and performance by removing the inefficiency and degradation of performance of CPU cores that would have comprised of programmable logic elements and their interconnects.

  • Sorry to hear that Compact. You are right that a proper review would take quite a bit of effort, that's also the reason I haven't yet applied to an FPGA roadtest, not having any experience with FPGA would make it even more difficult properly review it. I got a PSOC though which I think could help as a stepping stone, before jumping into the FPGA world. Apparently most roadtests I've seen have never got past installing Xilinx IDE, running examples and visual programming through the connection of nodes.

  • Many thanks! I enjoyed making them.

    As for my illness it's incurable and terminal.

  • I liked your PSOC videos/blogs! Dunno what your illness is but its gotta be something really serious if you think you think you wont fully recover by the time the product is delivered to the roadtesters. I think it would be interesting to see some camera stuff too!

  • Thanks for your confidence in me but I haven't applied because due to my illness I know I can't demonstrate this product to its full potential.

     

    The most I could do these days is to hook up a seven segment LED and decode the state of the onboard slide switches into hexadecimal. (That could be done with the simplest SPLDs (or PSoC in a few minutes).)

     

    The ZYBO Z7 could be viewed as a PSoC on steroids with an incredible amount of UDBs.

    If I was well enough I would have turned it into a video game console, DSD audiophile DAC or DDS AWG (Arbitrary Waveform Generator).

     

    If you haven't looked into it already have a look into Direct Stream Digital (DSD) audio encoding - it's been around for a long time but only a few have ever adopted it.

    These days some are using 25.5MHz+ sample rates and reaching beyond 120dB to about 140dB of dynamic range.