AR0234 Pivariety camera not detected – libcamera no cameras available on Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi Cameras
1

Hi, I’m trying to get an Arducam AR0234 Pivariety camera working on a Raspberry Pi by following the guide at AR0234 - Arducam Wiki , but the camera isn’t detected. Running libcamera gives:

ERROR: *** no cameras available ***

Environment:

  • uname -a: Linux raspberrypi 6.1.21-v8+ #1642 SMP PREEMPT Mon Apr 3 17:24:16 BST 2023 aarch64 GNU/Linux
  • libcamera v0.0.0+4367-ad9428b4

dmesg | grep -E “imx477|imx219|arducam” shows:

[ 0.080002] platform fe801000.csi: Fixed dependency cycle(s) with /soc/i2c0mux/i2c@1/arducam_pivariety@c
[ 10.639362] arducam-pivariety 10-000c: pivariety_read: Reading register 0x103 failed
[ 10.639405] arducam-pivariety 10-000c: probe failed

And ./arducam-camera-bug-report gives:

[0:04:08.576228859] [1671] INFO Camera camera_manager.cpp:297 libcamera v0.0.0+4367-ad9428b4
ERROR: *** no cameras available ***

I’ve done about 5 clean installs of Pi OS and followed the ‘Raspberry Pi Bullseye OS 6.1.21 and Later’ section each time. I’ve also tried two different cameras. I attached the full bug report file. Any idea what’s going wrong?

2

Thanks for the detailed report. From the logs, the important part is:

arducam-pivariety 10-000c: pivariety_read: Reading register 0x103 failed
arducam-pivariety 10-000c: probe failed

That means the driver is loading (so the overlay is present) but it can’t actually talk to the sensor over I2C. The ‘no cameras available’ from libcamera is the result of that failed probe. It points more toward a connection/wiring issue between the camera and the Pi than a software install problem, especially since you’ve already reinstalled and tried two cameras.

Could you post photos of the hardware connection at both ends — the Raspberry Pi CSI connector side and the camera board side? That’ll help us check the cable and orientation.

3

Here’s a first photo of the connection. I’ve tried both cameras, and the weird part is these were working on a colleague’s RPi 4 dev board before, but that colleague has left and I don’t know exactly what steps/setup they used.

IMG_3667.jpg

4

Thanks. Can you also get a clear shot of the Pi-side connector and a close-up of the cable itself? Sometimes the issue is the wrong cable type (15-pin vs 22-pin) or the contacts not fully seated.

5

Sure, here are a few more angles:

IMG_3666.jpg
IMG_3667.jpg
IMG_3668.jpg

6

Thanks, that’s clearer. One more thing — can you post a close-up of the camera board connector and the exact cable you’re using between the AR0234 and the Pi? The AR0234 Pivariety needs its own MIPI cable, and a cable meant for another module can cause exactly this kind of probe failure.

7

Here are the closer shots of the cable and connector:

IMG_3664.jpg
IMG_3665.jpg

8

Looking at the photos and the logs, I think the issue is the camera/dtoverlay combination, and possibly the cable.

These two cameras you’re testing use different drivers:

  • The imx219 module needs dtoverlay=imx219 in /boot/config.txt.
  • The AR0234 Pivariety needs dtoverlay=arducam-pivariety in /boot/config.txt.

If the wrong overlay is active for whichever camera is connected, the driver tries to probe the wrong chip, the register read fails, and libcamera reports no cameras.

Also, for the AR0234, make sure you’re using the MIPI cable that came in the AR0234 package. A mismatched cable (for example a 15-pin to 22-pin cable meant for another module) can cause the same failure.

What to do:

  1. Decide which camera is connected.
  2. Edit /boot/config.txt:
    • For imx219: add dtoverlay=imx219 and comment/delete dtoverlay=arducam-pivariety.
    • For AR0234 Pivariety: delete/comment dtoverlay=imx219 and add or uncomment dtoverlay=arducam-pivariety.
  3. Save the file and reboot the Pi.
  4. For the AR0234, use the cable packaged with the camera.

Reference for the correct cable type: Arducam 15cm 15 pin to 22 Pin Camera Cable for Raspberry Pi Zero&W

Give that a try and let us know if the camera shows up with libcamera --list-cameras.