13.1. OpenMV IDE

OpenMV IDE is the desktop application for working with your OpenMV Cam. Everything in it serves one loop: edit a MicroPython script, run it on the camera, and watch the frame buffer and serial output stream back live while it executes. The IDE is built on the Qt Creator editor core, and the whole application is shaped around that loop – a script needs no project files, build configurations, or compiler setup. You write a script and run it on a camera; that is the whole model.

The main window has four working regions. The editor fills the left side and holds your open scripts, with the serial terminal below it showing everything the script prints. The frame buffer viewer sits at the top right and shows what the camera last captured, and the histogram below it plots the pixel statistics of whatever the frame buffer shows. A column of toolbar buttons down the far left edge holds the file, edit, connect, and run controls, and a status bar along the bottom edge reports what the connected camera is doing. You can collapse any pane when the script needs the room.

The main window with a script running: edit on the left, watch on the right.

Keyboard shortcuts in this chapter are written for Windows and Linux; on macOS substitute Cmd for Ctrl.

The main window

Seeing what the camera sees

Terminals

Maintaining the camera

Machine vision tools

Power tools

Wrap up