I'm working on a 3D vision system using the Surveyor SVS (without the robot). I have two questions:
 
>>How can I receive images from the cameras that were taken at the same time?
I've noticed a few millisecond lag from camera 1 to camera 2. This makes sense considering they receive the 'I' command at slightly different times.
 
>>How can I receive images at a maximal rate?
I've read in the forums various tricks to speed up the transfer rate. I want to know what is the best setup.

Is it true that ad-hoc mode is slower than infrastructure mode?
 
Is it possible to adjust the exposure/white-balance of the cameras manually?

Diverging from the original topic of this thread...
 
I'm sending 'y' commands but the image is not flipping. Also I'm sending 'vax' (where x is a number) commands but only receiving '#x' back instead of the '##vax\n' reported in the protocol.
 
I suspect I might have a firmware problem. What do you think? (btw, thanks for your help)

I'm guessing your firmware is out of date.
 
With regard to 'y' flipping, are you using the OV9655 or OV7725 ?  The OV7725 doesn't support hardware flip, so we need to do it in software (and haven't yet written that code).

Actually, two different companies have designed OV7725 boards for us, and nobody ever realized the functionality of FSIN.  There is no description of FSIN in confidential data sheets, so I am interested to learn whatever details you might have about how FSIN signal works.  We will also investigate how this might be added to future version of OV7725 camera module.
 

I have forwarded your comments to one of the two suppliers of the OV7725 board.  Though the feature you describe is not documented, but I have verified that a sync function does exist, requiring connection of VSYNC from the "master" to FSIN on the slave, and XCLK input to master and slave must be shared.  The slave will then reset its VSYNC when rising edge in FSIN is detected.  There is still a small delay in the slave data output relative to master, but it is apparently only on the order of 6-7 pixel periods.
 
Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done to access this feature with either of the existing versions of OV7725 board, but we can request that the designers incorporate this in future production runs.  I expect this will happen within the next 2 months.