About

This tool is used to load firmware onto a PS5 camera: https://www.playstation.com/en-us/accessories/hd-camera/

The main reason why you'd want to load custom firmware onto the camera is to be able to use it as a UVC device.

This is a Linux port of OrbisEyeCam for Windows. Kudos to @psxdev for the initial effort of reverse-engineering it.

Webcam setup

To use this as a webcam, we'll load a custom firmware onto the device. Download firmware.bin from here: https://github.com/Hackinside/PS5_camera_files/blob/main/firmware.bin

(Kudos to @Hackinside for the custom firmware)

Connect device

Connect your PS5 camera to your PC via USB.

Make sure you see the following in the dmesg log:

 usb 2-4.4.4.4: new SuperSpeed Gen 1 USB device number 7 using xhci_hcd
 usb 2-4.4.4.4: New USB device found, idVendor=05a9, idProduct=0580, bcdDevice= 1.00
 usb 2-4.4.4.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
 usb 2-4.4.4.4: Product: USB Boot
 usb 2-4.4.4.4: Manufacturer: OmniVision Technologies, Inc.

Keep the dmesg window open, we'll need it for later.

Setup permissions

libusb needs permissions to be able to write to USB devices.

0. Make sure your user is part of the plugdev group. Easiest way to do this is to check your /etc/group file.

1. Copy the udev rules (100-playstation-camera.rules) to /etc/udev/rules.d

2. Reload the udev rules by running:

$ sudo udevadm control --reload ; sudo udevadm trigger

Run the script

Build and run this project using CMake.

$ cmake CMakeLists.txt
$ make 
$ ./ps5_camera_firmware_loader <firmware-file-path>

Success :heavy_check_mark:

Go back to the dmesg window from earlier. You should see the following line:

uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device USB Camera-OV580 (05a9:058c)

Open your favorite webcam program and now you're all set. Note that you must reinstall the firmware every time the device power cycles.

Here's a test image:

If you're using the firmware that I linked to above, then these are the formats it supports:

ioctl: VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT
	Type: Video Capture

	[0]: 'YUYV' (YUYV 4:2:2)
		Size: Discrete 896x256
			Interval: Discrete 0.008s (120.000 fps)
		Size: Discrete 1920x1080
			Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
			Interval: Discrete 0.067s (15.000 fps)
			Interval: Discrete 0.125s (8.000 fps)
		Size: Discrete 960x520
			Interval: Discrete 0.017s (60.000 fps)
		Size: Discrete 448x256
			Interval: Discrete 0.008s (120.000 fps)
		Size: Discrete 1280x800
			Interval: Discrete 0.017s (60.000 fps)
			Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
			Interval: Discrete 0.067s (15.000 fps)
			Interval: Discrete 0.125s (8.000 fps)
		Size: Discrete 640x376
			Interval: Discrete 0.008s (120.000 fps)
		Size: Discrete 320x184
			Interval: Discrete 0.004s (240.004 fps)
		Size: Discrete 5148x1088
			Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
			Interval: Discrete 0.067s (15.000 fps)
			Interval: Discrete 0.125s (8.000 fps)
		Size: Discrete 3840x1080
			Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
			Interval: Discrete 0.067s (15.000 fps)
			Interval: Discrete 0.125s (8.000 fps)
		Size: Discrete 1920x520
			Interval: Discrete 0.017s (60.000 fps)
		Size: Discrete 2560x800
			Interval: Discrete 0.017s (60.000 fps)
			Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
			Interval: Discrete 0.067s (15.000 fps)
			Interval: Discrete 0.125s (8.000 fps)
		Size: Discrete 1280x376
			Interval: Discrete 0.008s (120.000 fps)
		Size: Discrete 640x184
			Interval: Discrete 0.004s (240.004 fps)

Troubleshooting

The UVC device is recognized, but all I see is a black screen

Try turning down the frame rate. I've noticed that sometimes the auto-exposure control doesn't seem to work.