v2.1.0

v2.1.0 ships bundled UVC webcam firmware, a connectivity-aware connect button, and a reworked WiFi/board settings dialog, alongside a refreshed example set and bundled firmware bumped to 3.2.0. This release stays on the Qt Creator 4.0.2 base. It reorganizes how on-camera WiFi/board settings are stored, so existing WiFi configuration will need to be re-entered (see Breaking changes).

Highlights

  • Bundled UVC firmware is now shipped for all boards so the OpenMV Cam can be flashed to act as a standard USB webcam.

  • Connectivity-aware connect button now shows distinct USB-only, WiFi-only, USB+WiFi, or disconnected states based on detected cameras.

  • Bundled camera firmware updated from 3.0.0 to 3.2.0 for the OPENMV2, OPENMV3, and OPENMV4 boards.

  • Reworked WiFi/board settings split storage into separate BoardConfig and WiFiConfig groups with longer password fields and an independent WiFi-debug toggle.

  • Thermopile Shield examples add MLX90621, MLX90640, and AMG8833 thermal-sensor demos.

  • LabVIEW integration (LabVIEWOpenMV) is now bundled with the installer.

New features

  • UVC webcam firmware: a bundled UVC (USB Video Class) firmware image is now shipped for all boards so the OpenMV Cam can be flashed to act as a standard USB webcam. New uvc.bin, uvc.dfu, and uvc.elf files were added for OPENMV2, OPENMV3, and OPENMV4 (3995eb570).

  • Connectivity-aware connect icon: the connect toolbar icon now dynamically reflects connectivity, showing distinct USB-only, WiFi-only, USB+WiFi, or disconnected states based on detected USB cameras and discovered WiFi cameras (8428d9823).

  • LabVIEW integration: a LabVIEW integration package (LabVIEWOpenMV) is now bundled with the IDE installer as a new data directory (0740fbb4b, 4c593eec9).

  • New example scripts were added covering USB HID mouse/keyboard, USB VCP image transfer on demand, VSYNC GPIO output, Motor Shield (TB6612 motor and stepper control), and selective-search feature detection (3995eb570).

  • 70-Math examples now bundle pure-Python linear-algebra and matrix libraries (ulinalg.py and umatrix.py) for on-camera math (3995eb570).

Other changes and improvements

  • WiFi/board settings dialog was reworked: settings are split into separate BoardConfig and WiFiConfig INI groups with new key names, password fields accept up to 64 chars, SSID/board name are capped at 32 chars, and a separate WiFi-debug toggle controls debug output independently of the client/access-point mode (1be001c7e).

  • WiFi connection handling was hardened with a 3-second TCP connect timeout and the WiFi-port retirement timeout tuned to 20 seconds (8428d9823), plus DTR/RTS control-line support in the serial-port abstraction (no-op over TCP) and DTR asserted on serial open (c39c9c880).

  • Deep sleep low-power example now also softsleeps and shuts down the image sensor (PWDN) and optionally bypasses the OV7725 regulator for lower power draw, with the RTC wake interval raised from 5 to 30 seconds (3995eb570).

  • Feature-detection examples dropped the old LeNet find_numbers.py number-recognition demo, which is replaced by the new selective_search.py example (3995eb570).

Bug fixes

  • Fixed WiFi camera discovery reliability: broadcast datagrams must now be null-terminated, addresses are compared as IPv4, duplicate WiFi ports are no longer added to the list, and WiFi ports are hidden when forcing the bootloader (47ed75b8d).

  • Fixed a blank board name in camera settings now defaulting to OpenMV Cam instead of saving an empty name (66f56c420).

Platform and tool support

  • Qt Creator base: 4.0.2.

  • Bundled firmware: OpenMV camera firmware updated from 3.0.0 to 3.2.0 for OPENMV2, OPENMV3, and OPENMV4 (3995eb570).

  • Thermopile Shield sensors: new examples add demos for the MLX90621, MLX90640, and AMG8833 thermal sensors (camera and overlay, with optional LCD), replacing the old generic fir.py/fir_lcd.py examples; the fir module reference docs additionally cover the MLX90620 (3995eb570, 57532428e, 65237a257).

  • Bundled UVC firmware and the LabVIEW integration package are now included with the installer (see New features).

Breaking changes

User-visible workflow break between v2.0.0 and v2.1.0. The on-camera WiFi/board configuration storage was reorganized: settings moved from a single BootSettings group into separate BoardConfig and WiFiConfig INI groups with renamed keys, the WPA (Modern WiFi Security) option was removed from the access-point security dropdown (the client dropdown still offers Open (No password), WPA (Modern WiFi Security), and WEP (Hexadecimal password)), and WiFi mode is now a simple client-vs-access-point choice rather than a combined bitmask. Existing on-camera openmv.config WiFi settings written by older IDE versions are not migrated and will need to be re-entered (1be001c7e, 66f56c420).