v2.9.0

v2.9.0 teaches the IDE to decode the new firmware pixel-format encoding, adds Arduino Nicla Vision support, and brings a set of command-line launch options for headless and kiosk-style deployments. The release stays on the Qt Creator 4.0.2 base. There is one user-facing behavior change to note: the default tab-navigation shortcuts were corrected to the conventional direction, so the next/previous-tab actions are now swapped relative to prior releases.

Highlights

  • New pixel-format decoding adds live framebuffer and recorded-file support for PNG, Bayer, and YUV422 images alongside the existing JPEG, RGB565, Grayscale, and Binary formats, auto-selected based on firmware version.

  • Arduino Nicla Vision is now fully supported, including connect and bootloader detection, bundled firmware, and DFU board mappings.

  • Command-line launch options (-auto_connect, -auto_run, -full_screen, -list_ports, -serial_number_filter) enable headless and kiosk-style startup.

  • Arduino touch-to-reset opens Portenta and Nicla boards at 1200 baud to reset into the bootloader before reconnecting.

  • Bundled OpenMV camera firmware updated to 4.2.3 across all boards.

New features

  • New command-line launch options let the IDE auto-connect to the first board, auto-run the opened script, and start in full-screen mode via -auto_connect, -auto_run, and -full_screen; the firmware-upgrade prompt is suppressed when auto-connecting (bd866e3b2).

  • Added -list_ports to print detected OpenMV and Arduino camera serial ports, and -serial_number_filter to restrict detection to a specific board serial number (b2068ea1e).

  • Added Arduino touch-to-reset, which opens Portenta and Nicla boards at 1200 baud to trigger a reset into the bootloader before reconnecting (0ac3c75af).

  • Added keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+Shift+L to run the bootloader (load firmware) and Ctrl+Shift+E to erase onboard data flash (d8b84ce61).

  • Added a TensorFlow Lite object detection example demonstrating net.detect() to locate and box multiple objects per class, alongside updates to the person-detection examples (3041c966d).

  • Added FrogEye2020 event-camera examples (basic and with-tracking) showing the 320x240 two-bit-per-pixel motion sensor running at 50 FPS with a color palette overlay (623fedcec).

  • Added RTSP video server examples in LAN and WLAN variants for OpenMV and Portenta-H7, replacing the single prior rtsp_video_server example (623fedcec).

  • Added an LSM6DSOX IMU Machine Learning Core (MLC) example for the Arduino Nano RP2040 that loads STMicroelectronics UCF models and runs in interrupt mode (623fedcec).

Other changes and improvements

  • The IDE now decodes the new firmware pixel-format encoding, adding live framebuffer and recorded-file support for PNG, Bayer, and YUV422 images alongside the existing JPEG, RGB565, Grayscale, and Binary formats, auto-selected based on firmware version (8f1ed1e82, 1feb603db).

  • The Help menu’s About OpenMV Cam item became a submenu offering per-board pinout diagrams (H7 Plus, H7, M7, M4, M4 Original) (04bc508ac).

  • Tab navigation shortcuts were changed to the conventional direction (Ctrl+PageUp selects the previous tab, Ctrl+PageDown the next, with matching Ctrl+Shift+PageUp/Ctrl+Shift+PageDown move-tab bindings), and the Ctrl+Alt+number tab-select shortcuts were disabled (04bc508ac, f87a2598b).

  • Refreshed bundled examples: the CAN example uses the corrected sample_point argument, the WiFi-shield firmware-update example points at WINC1500 firmware 19.7.6, and the imageio_memory recording example uses sensor.RGB565 and the new read(pause=True) playback API (1bf9f4015, 7ab03b5da).

  • Refreshed assorted bundled examples including WiFi scan and AP-mode scripts, image-transfer and popular-features remote-device examples, and the audio FFT and MJPEG streamer AP examples (623fedcec, 9f56381d8).

Bug fixes

  • Fixed the framebuffer and layout splitter sliders jumping when the window is minimized or maximized by persisting splitter state on the main window hide event (6e526403f).

  • Fixed a crash in firmware-update board name mapping for the legacy NANO33 and PICO (M0) bootloader paths (47ab8523a).

  • Increased serial guard timing by 100ms around script start and stop to make starting and stopping scripts more reliable (9981b8679).

Platform and tool support

  • Qt Creator base: 4.0.2.

  • Added full support for the Arduino Nicla Vision board, including connect and bootloader detection, a bundled NICLAV firmware and UVC firmware directory, and DFU board mappings (813101874, 629a760aa).

  • Added board detection for the MT9V0X2-C, MT9V0X4-C, and HM0360 camera sensors (b2068ea1e).

  • Added the MT9V0X2/MT9V0X4 global-shutter sensor chip IDs, replacing the old single MT9V034 mapping, so the IDE recognizes the updated sensor variants (bf0bbd7b4).

  • Added detection for the LEPTON thermal sensor sub-variants (LEPTON-1.0, -1.5, -2.0, -2.5, -3.0, -3.5) in sensors.txt (d0f5a2c05).

  • Added board detection for the FROGEYE2020 event-camera sensor (chip ID 0x2020) in sensors.txt (623fedcec).

  • Added a new Portenta H7 DFU board mapping (VID/PID 2341:035f, with CYW4343/cyw4343.bin WiFi flashing) to dfu.txt (623fedcec).

  • Bundled OpenMV camera firmware updated to 4.2.3 across all boards (H7, H7 Plus, M7, M4, Portenta, Nicla Vision, Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect, Nano 33 BLE Sense), stepping 4.1.0 through 4.2.0 to 4.2.1, 4.2.2, and 4.2.3 (825c11bdb, fa86edabe, 623fedcec, 9f56381d8, 7ab03b5da, 629a760aa, d0f5a2c05).

  • Bundled WINC1500 WiFi shield firmware updated to 19.7.6 (was 19.6.1), with the WiFi-shield fw_update.py example pointed at the new winc_19_7_6.bin (629a760aa, 1bf9f4015).

Breaking changes

  • Tab navigation shortcut direction changed. The default Ctrl+PageUp/Ctrl+PageDown (and Ctrl+Shift+PageUp/ Ctrl+Shift+PageDown) bindings were corrected to the conventional direction: Ctrl+PageUp now selects the previous tab and Ctrl+PageDown the next, the reverse of prior releases. Users who relied on the old defaults will see the next/previous-tab (and move-tab) actions swapped (04bc508ac). This is a corrective change; bindings can be customized under Tools > Options > Environment > Keyboard if you prefer the old layout. No existing projects or scripts are affected, and the release stays on the Qt Creator 4.0.2 base.