I can now confirm I can stream from both cameras, though if I understand this correctly then this can’t possibly have been working for anyone for quite some time. How could this board claim to support dual IMX477 cameras if following the instructions to set it up don’t actually work?
It’s nice that the immediate problem is solved, and I’m thankful for Li Dayu for helping, but it still throws a massive shadow on Seeed’s documentation, quality assurance, and support.
It’s worth noting that none of the people I tagged or messaged got back to me, neither did the person you said you’d contacted via Discord. Mistakes happen, I make them all the time, so I don’t judge people or companies based on them. I do however judge them on how they respond to mistakes.
With the exception of Li Dayu, they have all failed me as a customer. I appreciate your help PJ, but they shouldn’t be relying on other customers to support each other without putting any effort in themselves.
I won’t be using this board beyond development, there’s just no way I can trust them to support us as a company if we build something on their hardware that has an issue after release. We need to be able to rely on our suppliers, and I’ve seen nothing to suggest I can rely on Seeed from this experience.
FWIW , li_dayu was who we reached out to … So I dunno what mistake you mean. the solution was provided via seeed. I’m sure you do understand this is emerging tech and when you’re on the bleeding edge there will be cuts. You asked how long it was NOT working for. I don’t see the relevance unless you’re making a case but I’m pretty sure since the previous beta release, there is a demo of it working at the show when it came out with 4 cameras. (may have had an additional board though) ? YMMV
Glad you got it working for sure and also brought it to the forum for others to follow along. I would disagree on any massive shadow on Seeed They do a WAY better job at documentation than others, Now Nvidia has a Higher Bar Granted this isn’t that. IMHO
I’m glad you don’t judge the people, thay are all trying hard to provide a good level of support. I don’t think they rely on customers helping each other as the only means of support either. being around here a while you see between time difference , language and culture differences and many, many products they have it’s a good day when one works.
thank you for your patients and contribution to the forum.
The mistakes are the poor documentation and consistent lack of response from official support people for almost two weeks. You also say things like this should be expected on the bleeding edge, looks like this board was released around two years ago. Even if it was bleeding edge I would expect far greater engagement as any feedback would be fed back in to any active development.
I only got traction on this issue after I raised the issue over on github and the fix Li Dayu provided was the same as over there so I falsely assumed it was the same person. I’ve no idea if they are also ackPeng who seems to have solved the issue, or if they just passed on their fix.
The reason I asked how long this hasn’t been working for is to get an idea of accuracy of confirming documentation, their own wiki claims that dual imx477 is supported. That means either it was working and tested at some point, since then there has been a regression in the driver, or it has never actually worked. There’s another post with a likely related question where the imx477 board isn’t working on cam0 on a different board, it’s likely the same issue. I see on that post you’d provided some feedback but no one else came forward to assist. That’s a definite pattern.
“Better than others” is relative, it’s also a moot point if that documentation isn’t actually valid. It’s like taking backups without testing them, just a false sense of security.
For reference, I used to be a Developer Support Engineer at Microsoft and worked with customers around the world in various time-zones and across countless cultures. It’s not an easy job but was a great learning experience, it’s also been the yardstick against which I measure others. When I was working there the documentation was dreadful too and I fixed it in the few places I had access to and also wrote up my case notes on a blog for others to find easier. Before you suggest they are able to provide a better support as they have more money, they consistently underfunded and understaffed all their teams and made our lives hell rather than helping us to help their customers. I learned as much about how not to treat people as I did about technical issues…
I can respect your loyalty and appreciate you reaching out to folks inside Seeed, that’s the only reason I stayed at MS as long as I did after all, but I don’t think you work for them so it shouldn’t be your job to do that on behalf of another customer. That isn’t how to run a support organisation that can be relied upon by another commercial entity.
Fair enough… I understand and agree somewhat. I too have a similar background on a global scale (" Link in the description" LOL always wanted to say that ) but more towards the hardware.
The line is becoming so blurry these days and THANK YOU for touching @Massar_sara on the info too.
You may also be correct about the issue as well for her board.
They are looking at it closer now, thanx to you. I dunno what happened and can’t speak for them AFAIK the previous revs worked well.
They (seeed) do need a better understood trouble ticket or escalator system for issues like yours. the “read the WiKi” isn’t going to cut it.
Again glad you got it going forsure
Aye, just hoping this comes across as constructive criticism as that’s how it’s intended rather than just moaning! Fingers crossed it all improves, they have a lot of great products on the roster.
You asked how long it was NOT working for. I don’t see the relevance unless you’re making a case but I’m pretty sure since the previous beta release, there is a demo of it working at the show when it came out with 4 cameras. (may have had an additional board though) ? YMMV
PJ 