Driving method of vehicle-mounted camera module and automobile system

Abstract

The invention discloses a driving method of a vehicle-mounted camera module and an automobile system. The method comprises the following steps: S11, after a vehicle-mounted camera module is powered on, reading addresses of a serial chip and an image processing chip of the vehicle-mounted camera module and respectively taking the addresses as a first address and a second address; s31, based on the first address and the second address, determining a corresponding first target driving program from pre-stored serial chip driving programs; s51, if it is judged that the two first addresses are the same, setting a first virtual address for one vehicle-mounted camera module to serve as a first communication address, and using the first address as the first communication address for the other vehicle-mounted camera module, and S71, loading the first target drive program to a serial chip of the corresponding vehicle-mounted camera module for configuration based on the first communication address. According to the method, the driving programs corresponding to different vehicle-mounted camera modules can be more accurately determined and loaded based on the double addresses and the virtual address so as to complete driving.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the field of vehicle-mounted camera technology, and in particular to a driving method for a vehicle-mounted camera module and an automobile system. Background Art

[0002] Based on the needs of safe driving and intelligent driving, camera modules are increasingly being used in automotive systems. Before these camera modules are enabled, they need to be driven and configured through the ECU (Electronic Control Unit) of the automotive system.

[0003] like Figure 1 As shown, the existing automobile system generally includes an ECU and an on-board camera module, wherein the on-board camera module includes an image sensor, an image processing chip, a serial chip, and a power chip connected to the image sensor, the image processing chip, and the serial chip in sequence. The ECU of the automobile system is connected to the serial chip and the power chip of the on-board camera module via a coaxial line. The ECU has a preset driver program.

[0004] During the driver configuration, the ECU first controls the power supply (such as an external power supply) to supply power to the power chip, and controls the power chip to provide the required voltage to the serial chip, image sensor, image processing chip, etc. When all chips of the vehicle camera module are powered on, the ECU reads the preset driver and drives the serial chip of the vehicle camera module. After the configuration is completed, the image sensor begins to receive external light signals, and converts them into video signals and sends them to the image processing chip. The video signal is processed by the image processing chip and sent to the serial chip. The serial chip communicates with the deserializer of the ECU and sends the video signal to the MCU (Microcontroller Unit) of the vehicle system for use by the MCU.

[0005] In current automobile systems, the driver program preset in the ECU only supports one type of vehicle camera module originally installed in the automobile system by default. Therefore, the same automobile system cannot be compatible with multiple types of vehicle camera modules.

[0006] However, based on the needs of different users or with the further development of intelligent driving in the future, there will be more and more demands for setting up multiple types of vehicle-mounted camera modules on the same vehicle system. Therefore, how to realize the driver configuration of multiple types of vehicle-mounted camera modules is an urgent problem to be solved. Summary of the invention

[0007] The present application aims to solve at least one of the technical problems existing in the prior art. To this end, the present application proposes a method for driving a vehicle camera module and a vehicle system, which realizes the driving of multiple types of vehicle camera modules by the same vehicle system, so as to solve the problem that the same vehicle system is difficult to support multiple types of vehicle camera modules.

[0008] In a first aspect, the present application provides a method for driving a vehicle-mounted camera module, each vehicle-mounted camera module comprising a serial chip and an image processing chip, the method comprising the following steps:

[0009] S11: After the vehicle-mounted camera module is powered on, the addresses of the serial chip and the image processing chip of the vehicle-mounted camera module are read and used as the first address and the second address of the vehicle-mounted camera module respectively;

[0010] S31: Based on the first address and the second address of the vehicle-mounted camera module, determine the first target driver corresponding to each vehicle-mounted camera module from the pre-stored serial chip driver;

[0011] S51: If it is determined that the first addresses of two vehicle-mounted camera modules are the same, a first virtual address is set for one of the vehicle-mounted camera modules as the first communication address, and the other vehicle-mounted camera module uses the first address as the first communication address;

[0012] S71: Based on the first communication address, load the first target driver program into the serial chip of the corresponding vehicle camera module for configuration.

[0013] Based on the above-mentioned driving method of the vehicle camera module, different vehicle camera modules can be accurately identified according to the relevant addresses of the vehicle camera modules, so as to further determine the first target driver corresponding to the serial chip of different vehicle camera modules, so as to realize the driving of different types of vehicle camera modules on the same automobile system.

[0014] Considering that the same type of serial chips can be installed in different types of vehicle-mounted camera modules, and the driver corresponding to the serial chip is not only related to its own type, but also to the types of other chips that communicate and cooperate with it, especially the image processing chip, so that even the same type of serial chips may have different applicable drivers. In view of this, the present application innovatively proposes to determine the first target driver corresponding to the serial chips of different vehicle-mounted camera modules based on dual addresses (the first address of the serial chip and the second address of the image processing chip), thereby improving the accuracy of the determined driver. In the present application, accurate communication with the serial chip with the same first address is also achieved by setting a virtual address.

[0015] Furthermore, step S51 specifically includes:

[0016] If it is determined that two vehicle-mounted camera modules have the same first address and different second addresses, a first virtual address is set for one of the vehicle-mounted camera modules as the first communication address, and the other vehicle-mounted camera module uses the first address as the first communication address.

[0017] In this application, if the first address is the same and the second address is the same, the drivers corresponding to the serial chips are the same. At this time, the first address can be directly used for communication to send the same driver to the two serial chips for driving at the same time, without distinguishing the serial chips. Therefore, this application further limits the first virtual address to be set only when the first address is the same and the second address is different, avoiding the unnecessary operation of setting the virtual address only based on the same first address, thereby simplifying the operation.

[0018] Furthermore, the virtual address becomes invalid after the vehicle camera module is powered off.

[0019] In the embodiment of the present application, the virtual address becomes invalid after the vehicle camera module is powered off, thereby avoiding the adverse effect of the virtual address on the subsequent new driving process. For example, in the subsequent new driving process, the virtual address is misread as the first address of the serial chip, resulting in an error in the recognition of the vehicle camera module.

[0020] Furthermore, step S51 also includes: if it is determined that the first addresses of all vehicle-mounted camera modules are different, each vehicle-mounted camera module uses its own first address as the first communication address.

[0021] Furthermore, after step S11, the method further includes:

[0022] S21: When it is determined that the first address and the second address of at least one of the vehicle-mounted camera modules are valid according to the preset address range, the number of valid first addresses is calculated, and when the number is at least two, step S51 is executed.

[0023] Furthermore, step S21 further includes:

[0024] According to the preset address range, if it is determined that the first address or the second address of all the vehicle-mounted camera modules is invalid, the current process is terminated, and after the vehicle-mounted camera module is powered off, a request is made to the remote server to obtain the driver programs corresponding to the first address and the second address for storage.

[0025] In an embodiment of the present application, before setting the virtual address, the validity of the read address and the number of valid addresses are pre-judged to avoid subsequent operations on the invalid address read, and to avoid judging whether the start addresses are the same when there is only one first address, thereby simplifying unnecessary operations.

[0026] Furthermore, by recording invalid addresses and requesting the corresponding driver from the server after the vehicle camera module is powered off, the driver for the new vehicle camera module can be obtained and added to the vehicle system without affecting the operation of the current vehicle system, thereby improving the subsequent driving capability of the vehicle camera module.

[0027] Furthermore, step S11 specifically includes:

[0028] After the vehicle-mounted camera module is powered on, all I2C buses are traversed to read the first address and the second address of the vehicle-mounted camera module connected to the I2C bus, thereby realizing the reading of all vehicle-mounted camera modules on the I2C bus to avoid omission.

[0029] Furthermore, step S31 further includes:

[0030] Based on the first address and the second address of the vehicle-mounted camera module, determine the second target driver corresponding to each vehicle-mounted camera module from the image processing chip driver pre-stored in the vehicle-mounted camera module;

[0031] The step S51 also includes:

[0032] If it is determined that the second addresses of two vehicle-mounted camera modules are the same, a second virtual address is set for one of the vehicle-mounted camera modules as the second communication address, and the other vehicle-mounted camera module uses the second address as the second communication address;

[0033] Step S71 also includes:

[0034] Based on the second communication address, the second target driver is loaded into the image processing chip of the corresponding vehicle camera module for configuration.

[0035] In the embodiment of the present application, through the above configuration, the image processing core can be accurately identified based on the dual address to accurately determine its corresponding second target driver.

[0036] Furthermore, each vehicle-mounted camera module also includes a power chip, and the method further includes:

[0037] S01: Control the power supply to supply power to the power chip of the vehicle camera module, and supply power to the serial chip and the image processing chip through the power chip to complete the power-on of the vehicle camera module.

[0038] In a second aspect, the present application further discloses an automobile system, which includes a vehicle body, an on-board camera module installed on the vehicle body, and an ECU, wherein the ECU is used to execute the driving method of the on-board camera module described in any embodiment of the first aspect.

[0039] In this application, the ECU in the automobile system executes the above driving method, which realizes the driving of multiple types of vehicle-mounted camera modules in the same automobile system, so that the automobile system can be compatible with multiple vehicle-mounted camera modules. This can further meet the different needs of users and better match the needs of the development of intelligent driving.

[0040] Furthermore, the automobile body includes at least two camera module mounting interfaces, and at least two mounting interfaces are adapted to different types of vehicle-mounted camera modules.

[0041] Furthermore, at least two mounting interfaces have different mounting structures, and the vehicle-mounted camera module is detachably connected to the vehicle system via the mounting structure.

[0042] Additional aspects and advantages of the present application will be given in part in the description below, and in part will become apparent from the description below, or will be learned through the practice of the present application. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0043] The disclosure of the present application will become more easily understood with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is easy for those skilled in the art to understand that these drawings are only for illustrative purposes and are not intended to limit the scope of protection of the present application. In addition, similar numbers in the drawings are used to represent similar components, among which:

[0044] Figure 1 It is a structural schematic diagram of an automobile system in the prior art;

[0045] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the structure of an automobile system according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0046] Figure 3 It is a flow chart of the driving method of an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0047] In order to make the above-mentioned purposes, features and advantages of the present application more obvious and easy to understand, the specific implementation methods of the present application are described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the following description, many specific details are set forth to facilitate a full understanding of the present application. However, the present application can be implemented in many other ways different from those described herein, and those skilled in the art can make similar improvements without violating the connotation of the present application, so the present application is not limited by the specific embodiments disclosed below.

[0048] Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as those commonly understood by those skilled in the art to which this application belongs. The terms used herein in the specification of this application are only for the purpose of describing specific embodiments and are not intended to limit this application. The terms "and / or" or "and / or" used herein include any and all combinations of one or more related listed items.

[0049] Flowcharts are used in the present application to illustrate the operations performed by the system according to the embodiments of the present application. It should be understood that the preceding or following operations are not necessarily performed accurately in order. On the contrary, various steps may be processed in reverse order or simultaneously. At the same time, other operations may also be added to these processes, or a certain step or several steps of operations may be removed from these processes.

[0050] In this application, the term "automotive system" may be used to refer to movable machinery involved in the fields of land, water navigation, aviation, aerospace, etc., including but not limited to, small cars, passenger buses, large transport vehicles, trains, motor vehicles, high-speed railways, subways, ships, airplanes, manned spacecraft, etc. In addition, the term "automotive system" may be used to refer to the entire automotive system, or to refer to the automotive intelligent driving system, or to refer to the automotive cockpit monitoring system.

[0051] As described in the background technology, the existing automobile system can only support driving a set of original vehicle-mounted camera modules, which cannot meet the different needs of users and is difficult to match the needs of the development of intelligent driving. To this end, this application creatively proposes a new method for driving a vehicle-mounted camera module: by reading the address of the vehicle-mounted camera module to identify the type of the vehicle-mounted camera module, and based on this, from multiple preset drivers, the corresponding driver is matched for the vehicle-mounted camera module for driving. Based on this, the same automobile system can support driving multiple types of vehicle-mounted camera modules.

[0052] The driving of the vehicle camera module mainly drives the serial chip of the vehicle camera module. For this purpose, the first address of the serial chip of the vehicle camera module can be read in this application, and the type of the serial chip can be identified based on the first address, so as to determine the corresponding driver program.

[0053] However, in actual scenarios, the same type of serial chips can be installed in different types of vehicle-mounted camera modules, and the driver corresponding to the serial chip is not only affected by its own type, but also related to the types of other chips that communicate and cooperate with it, especially the image processing chip, so that even the same type of serial chips may have different applicable drivers. In view of this, the present application innovatively provides a better driving method, that is, based on dual addresses (the first address of the serial chip and the second address of the image processing chip) to determine the driver corresponding to the serial chip of different vehicle-mounted camera modules, so as to accurately determine the driver corresponding to each serial chip.

[0054] After the driver is determined, the first address of the serial chip will be used for communication to load the driver. Based on the dual-address determination strategy, there will be a situation where two serial chips with the same first address correspond to different drivers. When loading the driver, because the first address is the same, the communication cannot be distinguished. For this reason, the present application further innovatively proposes a method of setting a virtual address to replace part of the first address as the communication address to avoid communication errors.

[0055] The present application will be described in detail below through specific embodiments.

[0056] like Figure 2 As shown, a schematic diagram of the composition of the automobile system of the present application is shown. Figure 1 Different from the prior art shown in the figure, the automobile system of the present application includes two vehicle-mounted camera modules A20 and A22, and an ECU module A10. A20 and A22 are installed on the vehicle body (not shown in the figure) of the automobile system. The ECU module A10 is connected to the vehicle-mounted camera modules A20 and A22 respectively through coaxial lines.

[0057] In some embodiments of the present application, more vehicle-mounted camera modules can be installed on the automobile system. Figure 1 The components of the vehicle-mounted camera modules are the same or similar: the vehicle-mounted camera modules (A20, A22) respectively include their own serial chips (A201, A221), power chips (A202, A222), image processing chips (A203, A223) and image sensors (A204, A224). The serial chips (A201, A221) and power chips (A202, A222) of each vehicle-mounted camera module are directly connected to the ECU, the serial chips (A201, A221), image processing chips (A203, A223), and image sensors (A204, A224) are connected in sequence, and the power chips (A202, A222) are respectively connected to the serial chips (A201, A221), image processing chips (A203, A223), and image sensors (A204, A224) to supply power. Of course, in some embodiments, multiple vehicle-mounted camera modules may share some non-core components, such as a shared power chip, etc. This application does not impose specific restrictions on this.

[0058] In some embodiments of the present application, the chips of the same vehicle-mounted camera module are connected via an I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit) bus. I2C is a serial communication protocol for short-distance communication, which is not described in detail in the present application.

[0059] In order to install the vehicle camera module, at least two vehicle camera module installation interfaces need to be provided on the vehicle body to receive and install the vehicle camera module. To facilitate replacement of the vehicle camera module, the installation interface can be configured to detachably install the vehicle camera module on the vehicle body.

[0060] In the embodiment of the present application, the vehicle-mounted camera module may be a camera module at a rearview mirror of a vehicle, or may be a camera module of a cockpit device, and the present application does not impose any specific restrictions on this.

[0061] In an embodiment of the present application, multiple installation interfaces on the automobile body can be respectively adapted to different types of vehicle-mounted camera modules. In some of the embodiments, the external structure of the installation interface is the same, but the PCB adapted to the vehicle-mounted camera module on the interface is different. In a replaceable embodiment, not only the PCB adapted to the vehicle-mounted camera module on the interface is different, but the external installation structures of different interfaces are also different. This setting brings beneficial effects: 1. When subsequently identifying the type of vehicle-mounted camera module, there is no need to consider the situation where the vehicle-mounted camera modules are the same, simplifying the identification operation; 2. Reduce the probability of users installing the wrong vehicle-mounted camera module due to unfamiliarity with the operation. Of course, in this application, identification marks can also be set on different installation interfaces to facilitate user distinction.

[0062] In some embodiments of the present application, the ECU module A10 includes a deserializer A101 and an MCU module (Microcontroller Unit) A102, wherein the deserializer A101 is connected to a serial chip (A201, A221) and an image processing chip (A203, A223) for transmitting the acquired serial data to the MCU module A102. In other embodiments of the present application, the ECU module A10 can also be arranged in other structures, and the present application does not make specific restrictions on this. The MCU module and the deserializer can be connected via an I2C bus.

[0063] Based on the structure of the above automobile system, different types of vehicle-mounted camera modules can be installed thereon. Correspondingly, the ECU module A10 needs to support driving different types of vehicle-mounted camera modules. Specifically, Figure 3 As shown in the figure, the ECU module completes the driving of the vehicle camera module through the following steps:

[0064] S11: After the vehicle-mounted camera module is powered on, the addresses of the serial chip and the image processing chip of the vehicle-mounted camera module are read and used as the first address and the second address of the vehicle-mounted camera module respectively.

[0065] Specifically, after the vehicle camera module is powered on, the ECU module can traverse all I2C buses to read the first address and the second address of the vehicle camera module connected to the I2C bus, thereby realizing the reading of all the first addresses and the second addresses on the I2C bus to avoid omissions.

[0066] Specifically, the ECU module can read the current status values ​​of the status registers of the serial chip and the image processing chip of the vehicle camera module to obtain their respective corresponding addresses.

[0067] S31: Based on the first address and the second address of the vehicle-mounted camera module, determine the first target driver corresponding to each vehicle-mounted camera module from the serial chip driver pre-stored in the vehicle-mounted camera module.

[0068] As mentioned above, the driver corresponding to the serial chip is not only affected by its own type, but also related to the type of image processing chip, so even for the same type of serial chip, the applicable drivers may be different. Therefore, this application innovatively proposes to determine the driver corresponding to the serial chip of different vehicle-mounted camera modules based on dual addresses (the first address of the serial chip and the second address of the image processing chip). Compared with the method of determining the corresponding driver only by relying on the serial chip's own address, this application can more accurately determine the driver corresponding to each serial chip.

[0069] In the embodiment of the present application, the ECU module pre-stores the driver corresponding to the vehicle camera module supported by the ECU module. Specifically, an association table of multiple first addresses, multiple second addresses and multiple serial chip drivers can be set in the ECU module, and one first address plus one second address corresponds to one serial chip driver. When the first address and the second address are read, a query match is performed in the association table to determine the first target driver.

[0070] In the present application, a variety of query matching methods can be used to determine the first target driver. In some embodiments, the serial chip driver set corresponding to the first address and the second address are queried at the same time, and the intersection is calculated to determine the first target driver; in an alternative embodiment, the serial chip driver set corresponding to one of the addresses can be queried first, and then the first target driver corresponding to the other address can be determined from the set.

[0071] S51: If it is determined that the first addresses of two vehicle-mounted camera modules are the same, a first virtual address is set for one of the vehicle-mounted camera modules as a first communication address, and the other vehicle-mounted camera module uses the first address as the first communication address.

[0072] Based on the dual address determination strategy, there will be a situation where two serial chips with the same first address correspond to different drivers. When loading the driver, because the first address is the same, it is impossible to communicate with the two serial chips separately. The method of replacing part of the first address as the communication address based on the virtual address set in step S51 can avoid communication confusion.

[0073] To avoid the virtual address from conflicting with the first address of other serial chips, causing communication confusion. In some embodiments of the present application, all first addresses can be combined as a set, and the virtual address can be set outside the set. To simplify the operation, the encoding of some bits of all first addresses can be combined as a set, so as to take a different encoding from the set as the corresponding bit of the virtual address. For example, if all first addresses are 01, 02, 03, and 04, and the encoding set of the first bit is 0, then the first bit of the virtual address can be set to 1, and the remaining bits can be set at will, so as to quickly determine an available virtual address.

[0074] In step S51, the processing when the two first addresses are the same is limited. However, in combination with actual scenarios, when the two first addresses are the same, they can be further divided into multiple situations based on the settings of the automobile system itself:

[0075] 1. The first address is the same and the second address can be the same or different. If the installation interface of the automobile system can install the same type or different types of vehicle-mounted camera modules, the address of different types of vehicle-mounted camera modules may be read (the second address is different at this time), or the address of the same type of vehicle-mounted camera module may be read (the second address is the same at this time). When the first address is the same and the second address is also the same, the corresponding first target driver is the same, and there is no need to distinguish the serial chip. At this time, communication can also be carried out directly with the first address to simultaneously send the same driver to the serial chip for driving. For this purpose, step S51 is specifically as follows: if it is determined that the first addresses of two vehicle-mounted camera modules are the same and the second addresses are different, a first virtual address is set for one of the vehicle-mounted camera modules and used as the first communication address, and the other vehicle-mounted camera module uses the first address as the first communication address, avoiding the unnecessary operation of setting the first virtual address only based on the same first address, thereby simplifying the operation.

[0076] 2. The first address is the same and the second address must be different. If the installation interface of the car system can only install different types of vehicle-mounted camera modules, then the addresses of different types of vehicle-mounted camera modules must be read. If the first address is the same, the second address must be different. Therefore, when it is determined that the first address is the same, there is no need to further determine the second address. The first virtual address can be directly set for one of the vehicle-mounted camera modules as the first communication address, and the other vehicle-mounted camera module uses the first address as the first communication address.

[0077] In the present application, it can be determined whether it belongs to the first or second situation mentioned above according to the situation of the automobile system installation interface, so as to take corresponding steps.

[0078] The first address and the second address are addresses pre-set in the vehicle camera module and do not become invalid after power off. The virtual address is set only for this driving process and is not a pre-built-in address of the serial chip of the vehicle camera module. Setting it to become invalid after power off avoids the adverse effect of the virtual address on the vehicle camera module in subsequent new driving processes. In some embodiments of the present application, step S51 also includes: if it is determined that the first addresses of all vehicle camera modules are different, each vehicle camera module uses its own first address as the first communication address.

[0079] Step S71: loading a first target driver program into a corresponding serial chip of a vehicle-mounted camera module for configuration based on a first communication address.

[0080] In the embodiment of the present application, if step S51 is executed, that is, a first virtual address is set for the corresponding vehicle camera module, the first address and the first virtual address corresponding to the first address will be further synchronized in the ECU module and the serial chip of the corresponding vehicle camera module. The ECU module and the serial chip of the corresponding vehicle camera module will associate the first address with the first virtual address accordingly.

[0081] Specifically, step S71 includes: associating the first target driver with the first virtual address associated with the first address, and using this as the first communication address to load the first target driver into the serial chip of the corresponding vehicle camera module for configuration. In some embodiments of the present application, the MCU module of the ECU module sends a drive command to the deserializer, and the command carries the first communication address of the serial chip to be driven and the drive configuration information. After receiving the drive command, the deserializer will send it to all serial chips at the same time. After each serial chip receives the drive command, if it finds that the command contains its own first communication address, it will execute the drive configuration, otherwise it will not execute it. The unexecuted drive command will continue to be transmitted.

[0082] To simplify the operation, in a further embodiment of the present application, after step S11 and before steps S31 and S51, the method further includes step S21 of determining the validity of the address and calculating the number of addresses. Specifically, step S21 is: when it is determined that the first address and the second address of at least one vehicle-mounted camera module are valid according to the preset address range, the number of valid first addresses is calculated, and when the number is at least two, step S51 is executed.

[0083] The preset address range is the supported address range pre-stored by the ECU module. If the first address or the second address is not within the preset address range, it means that the ECU module does not support the vehicle camera module, and the address is invalid. In some embodiments of the present application, the validity of the first address and the second address can be judged successively. Once one of them is invalid, there is no need to judge the other. Only when it is judged that the first address and the second address of at least one vehicle camera module are valid, the subsequent steps are executed. That is, if at least one of the first address and the second address is invalid, the subsequent steps are not executed.

[0084] When the address is valid, the number of the first addresses is further calculated. If the number is less than two, there is no need to consider whether to set a virtual address, and the relatively complex step S51 can be skipped.

[0085] Considering the invalid address situation, step S21 also includes: according to the preset address range, if it is determined that the first address or the second address of all vehicle camera modules is invalid, the current process is terminated, and after the vehicle camera module is powered off, a request is made to the remote server to obtain the driver programs corresponding to the first address and the second address for storage.

[0086] Make a record of invalid addresses, and after the vehicle camera module is powered off, request the corresponding driver from the server. This can obtain the driver of the new vehicle camera module and add it to the vehicle system without affecting the operation of the current vehicle system, thereby improving the recognition ability of the vehicle camera module.

[0087] In some embodiments of the present application, in addition to the serial chip, the image processing chip also needs to be driven, and step S31 also includes:

[0088] Based on the first address and the second address of the vehicle-mounted camera module, determine the second target driver corresponding to each vehicle-mounted camera module from the image processing chip driver pre-stored in the vehicle-mounted camera module;

[0089] The step S51 also includes:

[0090] If it is determined that the second addresses of two vehicle-mounted camera modules are the same, a second virtual address is set for one of the vehicle-mounted camera modules as the second communication address, and the other vehicle-mounted camera module uses the second address as the second communication address; wherein the setting of the second virtual address may refer to the first virtual address and the second virtual address is also invalid after the module is powered off; step S71 also includes:

[0091] Based on the second communication address, the second target driver is loaded into the image processing chip of the corresponding vehicle camera module for configuration.

[0092] As mentioned above, after each serial chip receives a driving command, if it finds that the command contains its own first communication address, it will execute the driving configuration, otherwise it will not execute. The driving command that is not executed will continue to be transmitted. Similarly, when the image processing chip receives a driving command, if it finds that the command contains its own second communication address, it will execute the driving configuration, otherwise it will not execute.

[0093] In summary, in the embodiment of the present application, through the above settings, the driver corresponding to the image processing chip can be accurately identified based on the dual address to accurately determine its corresponding second target driver.

[0094] In an embodiment of the present application, the driving method also includes a power-on process of the vehicle camera module, specifically including step S01: controlling the power supply to supply power to the power chip of the vehicle camera module, and supplying power to the serial chip and the image processing chip through the power chip to complete the power-on of the vehicle camera module.

[0095] The driving method involved in the above embodiments is executed by the ECU module, and in alternative embodiments, it can also be executed by other types of processors on the automobile system.

[0096] In summary of the above embodiments, the specific driving process in the automobile system is described below by way of example, wherein different installation interfaces of the automobile system are adapted to different types of vehicle-mounted camera modules, and the driving process includes:

[0097] The ECU module controls the power supply to the power chip of the vehicle camera module to supply power to other chips to complete power-on;

[0098] Traversing the I2C bus, the deserializer of the ECU module reads the first address and the second address of each vehicle camera module;

[0099] Determining the validity of the first address and the second address of the vehicle camera module according to the pre-stored address range;

[0100] If the first address and the second address of at least one of the vehicle-mounted camera modules are valid, then the number of all valid first addresses is calculated;

[0101] If there are two or more valid first addresses, determine whether there is an identical valid first address;

[0102] If there are identical valid first addresses, one of the identical first addresses is used as the first communication address, and the remaining first addresses are set as the first virtual addresses as the first communication addresses;

[0103] If there is no identical valid first address, the first addresses of the serial chips are used as the first communication address;

[0104] If there are identical valid second addresses, one of the identical second addresses is used as the second communication address, and the remaining second addresses are set as second virtual addresses as the second communication addresses; if there are no identical valid second addresses, the second addresses of the image processing chips are used as the second communication addresses;

[0105] If the first address and the second address of at least one of the vehicle-mounted camera modules are valid, determining a first target driver and a second target driver based on the first address and the second address;

[0106] A first target driver is loaded to a corresponding serial chip for driving according to a first communication address, and a second target driver is loaded to a corresponding image processing chip for driving according to a second communication address.

[0107] When loading, the MCU module in the ECU module sends a drive command to the deserializer. The command carries the communication address of the chip to be driven and the drive configuration information. After receiving the drive command, the deserializer will send it to each serial chip at the same time. After receiving the drive command, if the serial chip finds its own communication address in the command, it will execute the drive configuration, otherwise it will not execute. The drive command continues to be transmitted. When the image processing chip receives the drive command, if it finds its own communication address in the command, it will execute the drive configuration, otherwise it will not execute.

[0108] It should be noted that the steps of the above driving method are not necessarily performed in the order described above. As long as the purpose of this application can be achieved, the order of the steps can be adjusted. For example, step S31 and step S51 can be processed at the same time, or any one of them can be processed first. This application does not make specific restrictions on this.

[0109] Corresponding to the above embodiment, the present application also discloses an electronic device embodiment. The electronic device includes a memory and a processor. The memory stores a computer program that can be executed by the processor, the memory is connected to the processor in communication, and the processor executes the computer execution instructions stored in the memory to implement the driving method of the vehicle camera module disclosed in the above embodiment. Specifically, the processor can be an ECU or an MCU in the ECU. The ECU communicates with the vehicle camera module to drive it.

[0110] In some embodiments, the memory may include Flash Memory, Random Access Memory (RAM), electronic memory, etc.

[0111] The embodiment of the present application further proposes a non-volatile readable storage medium on which a computer program is stored. When the computer program is executed, the driving method of the vehicle-mounted camera module described in the above embodiment is implemented.

[0112] In some embodiments, computer-readable storage media may include, but are not limited to, phase change memory (PRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), other types of random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory or other optical or magnetic storage media, which are not listed here one by one.

[0113] In the description of this specification, the description with reference to the terms "one embodiment", "some embodiments", "example", "specific example", or "some examples" means that the specific features, structures, materials or characteristics described in conjunction with the embodiment or example are included in at least one embodiment or example of the present application. In this specification, the schematic representation of the above terms does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment or example. Moreover, the specific features, structures, materials or characteristics described may be combined in any one or more embodiments or examples in a suitable manner.

[0114] In addition, the terms "first" and "second" are used for descriptive purposes only and should not be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of the indicated technical features. Therefore, the features defined as "first" and "second" may explicitly or implicitly include at least one of the features. In the description of this application, the meaning of "plurality" is at least two, such as two, three, etc., unless otherwise clearly and specifically defined.

[0115] Although the embodiments of the present application have been shown and described above, it can be understood that the above embodiments are exemplary and cannot be understood as limitations on the present application. Ordinary technicians in this field can change, modify, replace and modify the above embodiments within the scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A method for driving a vehicle-mounted camera module, wherein each of the vehicle-mounted camera modules comprises a serial chip and an image processing chip in communication connection, characterized in that: The method comprises the following steps: S11: After the vehicle-mounted camera module is powered on, read the addresses of the serial chip and the image processing chip of the vehicle-mounted camera module and use them as the first address and the second address of the vehicle-mounted camera module respectively; S31: Based on the first address and the second address of the vehicle-mounted camera module, determine the first target driver corresponding to each vehicle-mounted camera module from the pre-stored serial chip driver; S51: if it is determined that the first addresses of two vehicle-mounted camera modules are the same, a first virtual address is set for one of the vehicle-mounted camera modules as a first communication address, and the other vehicle-mounted camera module uses the first address as the first communication address; S71: Based on the first communication address, the first target driver is loaded into the serial chip of the corresponding vehicle camera module for configuration.

2. The driving method of the vehicle-mounted camera module according to claim 1, characterized in that: The step S51 specifically includes: If it is determined that two vehicle-mounted camera modules have the same first address and different second addresses, a first virtual address is set for one of the vehicle-mounted camera modules as the first communication address, and the other vehicle-mounted camera module uses the first address as the first communication address.

3. The driving method of the vehicle-mounted camera module according to claim 1, characterized in that: The first virtual address becomes invalid after the vehicle-mounted camera module is powered off.

4. The driving method of the vehicle-mounted camera module according to claim 1, characterized in that: The step S51 further includes: If it is determined that the first addresses of all the vehicle-mounted camera modules are different, each of the vehicle-mounted camera modules uses its own first address as the first communication address.

5. The driving method of the vehicle-mounted camera module according to claim 1, characterized in that: After step S11, the method further comprises the following steps: S21: When it is determined that the first address and the second address of at least one of the vehicle-mounted camera modules are valid according to the preset address range, the number of valid first addresses is calculated, and when the number is at least two, step S51 is executed.

6. The driving method of the vehicle-mounted camera module according to claim 5, characterized in that: The step S21 further includes: According to the preset address range, if it is determined that the first address or the second address of all the vehicle-mounted camera modules is invalid, the current process is terminated, and after the vehicle-mounted camera module is powered off, a request is made to the remote server to obtain the driver programs corresponding to the first address and the second address for storage.

7. The driving method of the vehicle-mounted camera module according to claim 1, characterized in that: The step S31 further includes: Based on the first address and the second address of the vehicle-mounted camera module, determining a second target driver corresponding to each vehicle-mounted camera module from the image processing chip driver pre-stored in the vehicle-mounted camera module; The step S51 also includes: If it is determined that the second addresses of two vehicle-mounted camera modules are the same, a second virtual address is set for one of the vehicle-mounted camera modules as the second communication address, and the other vehicle-mounted camera module uses the second address as the second communication address; The step S71 further comprises: Based on the second communication address, the second target driver is loaded into the corresponding image processing chip of the vehicle-mounted camera module for configuration.

8. The driving method of the vehicle-mounted camera module according to claim 1, characterized in that: Each of the vehicle-mounted camera modules further includes a power chip, and the method further includes the following steps: S01: Control the power supply to supply power to the power chip of the vehicle-mounted camera module, and supply power to the serial chip and the image processing chip through the power chip to complete powering on the vehicle-mounted camera module.

9. An automobile system, characterized in that: The automobile system includes an automobile body, an on-board camera module installed on the automobile body, and an ECU, wherein the ECU is used to execute the driving method of the on-board camera module according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

10. The automotive system according to claim 9, characterized in that The automobile body includes at least two vehicle-mounted camera module installation interfaces, and at least two installation interfaces are used to adapt to different types of vehicle-mounted camera modules.

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