Train your team

VIS-101 · Embedded Vision

MIPI CSI-2 & GMSL2 Camera Interfaces

The physical and protocol layers of embedded camera interfaces, and how to bring up a link that will not start.

Practitioner 3 days in person6 half-days online Max 14 in person

Who this course is for

Hardware and bring-up engineers responsible for getting a camera link running on a new board — and for diagnosing it when the receiver reports nothing but errors.

Prerequisites

Basic digital electronics: differential signalling, termination, reading a schematicLinux command line and comfort with register-level documentationOscilloscope experience is helpful but not required

Course outline

Day 1 — The CSI-2 protocol

  • Packet structure: short vs long packets, frame and line boundaries
  • Virtual channels and how one receiver serves several sensors
  • Data types: RAW8/10/12, YUV and embedded metadata lines
  • Lane count and data-rate budgeting for a given sensor mode
  • LP/HS state transitions and what the receiver sees when they go wrong

Day 2 — The PHY layers

  • D-PHY signalling: HS/LP levels, clock lane, lane skew and settling time
  • C-PHY: three-wire trios and symbol encoding, and when it beats D-PHY
  • Timing parameters the receiver must be told: settle, clk-prepare, termination
  • Layout and interconnect faults: impedance, length matching, stubs
  • Reading a sensor datasheet's output-timing table without guessing

Day 3 — SerDes links for long cables

  • Why CSI-2 stops at centimetres: serializer/deserializer pairs
  • GMSL2 architecture: forward and reverse channels, link training and lock
  • FPD-Link compared; I2C tunnelling to the sensor and its quirks
  • Power-over-coax design and its failure modes
  • Debugging with a scope and the deserializer's error counters

Hands-on labs

Labs follow the academy model — 35% principles, 20% guided investigation, 45% engineering studio. Every claim you make in a lab is backed by a trace, a counter or a measurement you captured yourself. How we teach

  1. Lab: Compute the lane-rate budget for three sensor modes (resolution, fps, bit depth) and check each against the receiver's per-lane limit
  2. Lab: Classify a failing link from receiver error counters alone — ECC, CRC, SoT and frame-sync errors — and match each to its physical cause
  3. Lab: Bring up a GMSL2 link from cold: verify PoC, link lock and tunneled I2C access to the sensor's registers
  4. Lab: Inject faults one at a time (lane swap, missing termination, over-long cable) and record the signature each produces in counters and on the scope

Capstone project

Take one camera link from dead to validated streaming: budget the mode, bring up the physical link (direct CSI-2 or over GMSL2), and deliver a debug log documenting every failure signature you hit — counter dumps and scope observations — with the evidence that identified each cause and the fix that cleared it.

What you leave with

  • A packet-level mental model of CSI-2 you can debug against
  • D-PHY vs C-PHY trade-offs and the timing parameters that matter
  • A link-debug playbook keyed to receiver error counters
  • A repeatable GMSL2/FPD-Link bring-up procedure including PoC and I2C tunnelling

How it runs

Every course follows the same model: 35% principles, 20% guided investigation, 45% engineering studio. You leave with working code, raw measurements and an evidence-based report — not a certificate of attendance. Read the methodology or see a full sample lesson.

Material is adapted to your kernel version, hardware and workload before a private delivery. For public cohorts, the environment is provided and configured.

Questions

Who is this course for?

Hardware and bring-up engineers responsible for getting a camera link running on a new board — and for diagnosing it when the receiver reports nothing but errors. It sits at practitioner level within the Embedded Vision track.

What do I need to know already?

Specific prerequisites for this course: Basic digital electronics: differential signalling, termination, reading a schematic; Linux command line and comfort with register-level documentation; Oscilloscope experience is helpful but not required. We confirm levels before the cohort starts and adapt if a group is stronger or weaker than expected.

Can this run privately for my team?

Yes. Any course runs on-site at your offices anywhere, or live online for a distributed team, with labs adapted to your hardware and codebase.

What is the difference between in-person and online?

In person is 3 full days with hardware on your desk, capped at 14. Online is 6 half-day sessions across about two weeks so you can keep working, capped at 20, with remote lab access.

Do you invoice companies?

Yes. Purchase orders are accepted and invoicing is available in USD, EUR, GBP, SAR and CAD.

Upcoming dates

DatesWhereSeatsEarly birdRegular
22 Nov – 24 Nov 20263 full days RiyadhIn person · KAFD Conference Centre 8 of 14 SAR 7,090until 23 OctSAR 7,880
29 Nov – 1 Dec 20263 full days Kuwait CityIn person · Al Hamra Tower 3 of 14 KWD 580until 30 OctKWD 650
29 Nov – 1 Dec 20263 full days MuscatIn person · Knowledge Oasis Muscat 8 of 14 OMR 730until 30 OctOMR 810
6 Dec – 13 Dec 20266 half-days Gulf bandLive online · 09:00–13:00 GMT+3 8 of 20 US$1,350until 6 NovUS$1,500
7 Dec – 9 Dec 20263 full days OttawaIn person · Kanata North Tech Park 3 of 14 CAD 2,570until 7 NovCAD 2,860
7 Dec – 14 Dec 20266 half-days Europe bandLive online · 09:00–13:00 CET 13 of 20 US$1,350until 7 NovUS$1,500
14 Dec – 16 Dec 20263 full days TorontoIn person · MaRS Discovery District 8 of 14 CAD 2,570until 14 NovCAD 2,860
14 Dec – 16 Dec 20263 full days LondonIn person · Shoreditch Works 3 of 14 GBP 1,480until 14 NovGBP 1,640
14 Dec – 21 Dec 20266 half-days Americas bandLive online · 13:00–17:00 ET 18 of 20 US$1,350until 14 NovUS$1,500
21 Dec – 23 Dec 20263 full days BerlinIn person · Factory Görlitzer Park 8 of 14 EUR 1,740until 21 NovEUR 1,930

Dates shown for the next few months. If nothing fits, tell us where and when — cohorts are added on demand, and private delivery can be scheduled any week.

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