Raspberry Pi 5 Camera Control

This section describes how to run the camera control demo script for the Sony-EV9520L camera on the Raspberry Pi 5. The control script communicates with the camera over I2C via the SC16IS752 UART bridge and allows sending serial commands (VISCA protocol) during live video streaming.

Download the Control Script

Download the control_ev9520l.py script on your Raspberry Pi 5 or copy the full code below.

Download Link: control_ev9520l.py

Note:

If file is not able to download, go through Full Script section below.

Install Dependencies on Raspberry Pi 5

Before running the script, install the required libraries. Since Debian 13 (Trixie) enforces a PEP 668 externally managed environment, you can install the packages using apt or use the --break-system-packages flag with pip3.

Update Package List

sudo apt update

Install pip3

sudo apt install python3-pip

Dependency 1 — smbus2

pip3 install smbus2 --break-system-packages    # for i2c communication

Dependency 2 — pyserial

pip3 install pyserial --break-system-packages    # for serial communication

I2C Interface Enable

Open the Raspberry Pi configuration utility:

sudo raspi-config

Please follow the following steps to enable I2C interface:

Interface Options -> I2C -> Yes -> OK -> Finish

Run the Control Script

Once the dependencies are installed, navigate to the directory where the script was copied and execute it using Python3 in terminal

python3 control_ev9520l.py

Note

The camera is connected to CAM0 (CSI0), which uses I2C bus 6 (smbus2.SMBus(6)).

Script Overview

Function	Description
I²C Initialization	Opens I²C bus 6 (CAM0), connects to SC16IS752 at address 0x48 (A0=A1=0)
UART Configuration	Configures UART channel A — 9600 baud, 8N1 format, FIFO enabled (14.7456 MHz crystal)
TX Ready Check	Polls Line Status Register (LSR) until Transmit Holding Register (THR) is empty and ready
Zoom In Command	Sends 6-byte frame: `[0x81, 0x01, 0x04, 0x07, 0x27, 0xFF]` to camera via UART
Delay	Waits 4 seconds between the two command frames
Zoom Out Command	Sends second 6-byte frame: `[0x81, 0x01, 0x04, 0x07, 0x37, 0xFF]` to camera via UART

Full Script

Save the following code as control_ev9520l.py on your Raspberry Pi:

import smbus2
import time
 
bus = smbus2.SMBus(6)
I2C_ADDR = 0x48  # A0=A1=0
 
def write_reg(subaddr, data, channel=0):
    # Channel A: subaddr << 3 | 0x00
    bus.write_byte_data(I2C_ADDR, (subaddr << 3) | 0x00, data)
 
def read_reg(subaddr, channel=0):
    return bus.read_byte_data(I2C_ADDR, (subaddr << 3) | 0x00)
 
# Initialize UART A
write_reg(0x03, 0x80)  # LCR: Enable divisor
write_reg(0x00, 0x60)  # DLL: 91 (9600 baud, 14.7456MHz crystal)
write_reg(0x01, 0x00)  # DLH: 0
write_reg(0x03, 0x03)  # LCR: 8N1
write_reg(0x02, 0x01)  # FCR: Enable FIFO
write_reg(0x01, 0x03)  # IER: Enable TX holding
 
# Verify LSR (Line Status Register) for TX ready
while not (read_reg(0x05) & 0x20):  # Check THR empty
    time.sleep(0.01)
 
# Send data
data = [0x81, 0x01, 0x04, 0x07, 0x27, 0xFF]
data1 = [0x81, 0x01, 0x04, 0x07, 0x37, 0xFF]
for b in data:
    write_reg(0x00, b)  # THR: Write byte
    time.sleep(0.01)  # Small delay for stability
time.sleep(4)
for b in data1:
    write_reg(0x00, b)  # THR: Write byte
    time.sleep(0.01)  # Small delay for stability