Arducam 12MP IMX708 Quad Camera not detected on Jetson Nano Super

Nvidia Jetson Cameras
1

Hi, I’m trying to get the Arducam 12MP IMX708 Quad Camera Kit (CamArray HAT) working on my NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano. I’ve connected everything properly but I can’t seem to get all four cameras to show up. I tried using the default IMX708 drivers that come with JetPack but only the first CSI port seems to be recognized. Has anyone managed to get this working on Jetson?

2

Thanks for reaching out! Let me look into this for you.

A few quick questions first - are you connecting the CamArray HAT directly to the Jetson’s CSI connector, and have you tried any specific device tree overlays or modifications to the default IMX708 driver?

Also, did you find any setup guides on our website specifically for Jetson platforms?

3

Yeah, I’ve got the HAT connected to the 22-pin CSI port on the Orin Nano and powered separately. I went through the Arducam website and checked the documentation section, but I couldn’t find any guides or setup instructions specifically for Jetson platforms - only Raspberry Pi documentation. I didn’t try any custom device tree overlays though, I was hoping the default IMX708 drivers in JetPack 6.0 would handle it since they do support the IMX708 sensor. Here’s what I see when I run v4l2-ctl --list-devices:

imx708 6-001a (platform:15c10000.csi):
	/dev/video0
	/dev/video1

Only one camera detected instead of all four. Any ideas?

4

I see - thanks for the detailed info. After looking into this further with our engineering team, I need to give you a somewhat direct answer here. The Arducam 12MP IMX708 Quad Camera Kit (CamArray HAT) was specifically designed and developed for the Raspberry Pi ecosystem. It relies on a custom hardware multiplexing HAT and kernel-level drivers that are only compatible with the Raspberry Pi’s specific firmware and hardware architecture.

The default IMX708 drivers included in NVIDIA’s JetPack environment are intended for single-camera connections directly to the Jetson’s CSI port - they can’t interface with the multi-camera multiplexing hardware on this HAT. So the fact that you’re only seeing one camera is expected behavior unfortunately. Did you reach out because you needed quad-camera functionality specifically, or was there a particular use case you had in mind?

5

Ah, that’s disappointing but makes sense now why I couldn’t find any Jetson docs. So just to clarify - there’s no way to make this work at all? Not even with some custom driver work or modifying the device tree? I’m building a multi-camera stereo vision setup for a robotics project and this kit seemed perfect. Are there any plans to support Jetson in the future, or am I better off looking at a different solution?

6

I understand the frustration, and I appreciate you explaining your use case. To give you a straight answer: a custom driver and device tree overlay would theoretically be required to make this kit work on Jetson, but at this time, such a driver simply doesn’t exist and we don’t have one in development. The hardware multiplexing logic on the CamArray HAT is deeply tied to the Raspberry Pi’s GPU and ISP pipeline, so porting it to Jetson’s completely different architecture would be a significant undertaking.

Your best bet for a multi-camera setup on Jetson Orin Nano would be to either:

  • Use multiple single IMX708 cameras directly connected to each available CSI port
  • Or look into USB camera solutions for additional camera inputs

That said, your interest in Jetson support has been noted and added to our product development roadmap for future consideration. I’ll pass your feedback along to our engineering team as well. Sorry I couldn’t give you better news on this one!