Cameras
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The Nintendo DSi contains two cameras. The cameras can be used in the Nintendo DSi Camera application or DSi games that are compatible.
Specifications
- 0.3 Megapixel
- 640*480 VGA
- No zoom and no flash.
- Photos saved in JPG format (saved in DCIM/ folder on the SD/SDHC or in the internal memory)
Applications/Games compatible
Applications
Games
- Asphalt 4 : Elite Racing (DSiWare)
- Brain Challenge (DSiWare)
- Classic Word Games
- Cooking Coach
- Pop SuperStar : Road To Celebrity (DSiWare)
- Real Football 2009 (DSiWare)
- WarioWare : Snapped! (DSiWare)
- iCarly
- Pokemon Black,White (2010,JP)
- Castle of Magic (DSiWare)
- Photo Dojo (DSiWare)
Camera registers
The cameras are controlled and initialized with I2C. The below registers are accessed by the arm9.
| ADDRESS | WIDTH | NAME |
|---|---|---|
| 0x04004200 | 2 | REG_CAMRST |
| 0x04004202 | 2 | REG_CAMCNT |
| 0x04004204 | 4 | REG_CAMDATA |
REG_CAMRST
| BIT | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| 15-0 | ? |
Used for resetting cameras/DSP. Once cameras/DSP are reset by poking this register, all three 0x0400420X camera registers return all-zero on reads. This might mean the DSP fw bin was unloaded?
REG_CAMCNT
| BIT | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| 0-3 | ? |
| 4 | IRQ error flag |
| 5 | Resets cameras/DSP when set? |
| 7-6 | ? |
| 9-8 | Set to 2(bit9 set) during init, cleared to zero on shutdown |
| 10 | Set to 1 during init, 0 on cameras/DSP shutdown |
| 11 | Set to 1 during init, 0 on cameras/DSP shutdown |
| 12 | ? |
| 13 | Set during initialization? |
| 14 | Cleared during initialization? |
| 15 | Enable |
When the IRQ error flag is set when the cameras IRQ handler is executing, the cameras are shut off.
REG_CAMDATA
| BIT | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| 31-0 | RGB555 video data converted by DSP |
For retrieving camera video data, NDMA with arm9 startup mode 11(camera) is used with this src register. The NDMA frame transfer is started when the cameras IRQ was thrown. Supported DSP final resolutions are 256x192 and 640x480, the corresponding frame transfer lengths are 0x18000 and 0x96000.(The 256x192 final resolution is converted by the DSP from the camera resolution)
The DSP is a proprietary CEVA DSP, since this ISA is proprietary fw binaries can't be compiled for it. Thus homebrew can't use cameras unless it's possible to initialize cameras without poking REG_CAMRST,(which seems to unload the proprietary DSP fw bin) which might not be possible.