Hi everyone, I’m having trouble getting my Arducam EK030 (the 108MP USB 3.0 evaluation kit with motorised focus) to work. I’m using it on a Raspberry Pi for a particle analysis prototype — I need to image a small area with about 47mm horizontal FOV at close distance. Color sensor is required for the application.
I downloaded the driver bundle from the Arducam website and used the config file that came with it, but the Arducam USB Camera Shield UI keeps throwing this error:
“USB camera USB timeout error”
The camera is connected via USB 3.0 and the Pi sees it, but the software just won’t talk to it properly. Anyone run into this before?
Thanks for the report. That timeout error with the 108MP is something we’ve seen a few times now. Could you fill out the technical details form I’ve sent you via private message? That’ll help our engineering team check your specific setup — firmware version, OS, that kind of thing. Once we have that, we can dig in properly.
Quick update — our engineer had a look at this and it turns out the config file bundled in the driver download on the website isn’t playing nicely with the 108MP camera, which is what’s causing your USB timeout error.
I’ve sent you a set of replacement config files via private message. Download those and swap them in place of the original config file, then restart the camera software and let me know how it goes.
Good news — the replacement config files you sent are working! The camera connects now and I can get a live preview.
But it only seems to work with what I’d call the “old software” — the previous version of the GUI. With the newer version it’s still acting up. Also, I can’t figure out how to save an image at full resolution in that older software. Is there a specific way to do that, or is it limited?
Glad the config files got things moving! On the software side — when you say “old software” versus the newer one, could you clarify which versions you’re referring to? If you go to the About section in the GUI, it should show you the version number. That would really help us narrow things down.
As for saving full-resolution images — let me know the GUI version first and I can give you the exact steps. The save behaviour differs between releases.
Quick update: I’ve tried both software versions again and the 108MP module is now actually running on both. Not sure what changed, but I’ll take it.
The bigger problem now is image quality. At my working distance of about 10 cm, I just cannot get a sharp image. I’ve adjusted the motorised focus to what looks like the best setting but everything is still a bit soft. I need to clearly resolve features down to around 25 µm.
I’ve taken some test images and shared them via private message:
A resolution test target (big lines 250 µm, small lines 25 µm in the centre — the 25 µm lines are visible, but not crisp)
A filter image (47 mm diameter filter showing particles and fibres, but again, not really sharp)
This is at the best focus I could achieve. Is this the best this module can do at ~10 cm? Would the 200MP camera module perform any better for close-distance imaging like this?
Also I had asked earlier about lens customisation for close-distance work (target max ~5 cm FOV). I was told the stock lens is complex to swap but might be doable with a focus ring. Has anyone here actually done a DIY lens change on these?
Thanks for uploading the test images — unfortunately the link you shared appears to be broken or expired, I can’t pull up the pictures on my end. Could you re-upload and send them again via private message? I really need to see those before I can comment on whether the sharpness is within expected range for this module or if something else is going on.
On the lens swap question — changing the stock lens on the EK030 is technically possible since you can remove it using the focus ring, but it’s not something we officially support and it’s quite fiddly. A few users have experimented with it, but there’s no straightforward drop-in replacement path.
Also — I still need that GUI version number from the About section when you get a chance. That’ll let me answer your full-resolution save question properly. Just haven’t had a chance to circle back to that yet.