Arducam 64MP camera hat not working on Raspberry Pi 4 with libcamera

Raspberry Pi Cameras
1

Hi everyone. I recently bought the B0402 “64MP Multi-Camera Kit” and I can’t get the camera hat to work at all. When I try to capture an image, libcamera-still just errors out with ‘no cameras available’. I followed the setup guide step by step but still nothing. Has anyone else run into this with this kit?

2

Hi, sorry you’re hitting this. Let’s gather some details so we can narrow it down. Can you tell me:

  • Which Raspberry Pi model and how much RAM?
  • Which OS and kernel version are you running?
  • Which guide did you follow, and what exact steps have you run so far?
3

Sure, here’s my setup:

  • Raspberry Pi 4, 8GB version
  • Raspberry Pi OS, fully updated
  • Kernel: Linux 6.1.21-v8+ #1642 SMP PREEMPT Mon Apr 3 17:24:16 BST 2023 aarch64 GNU/Linux

I followed this quick-start guide:
https://docs.arducam.com/Raspberry-Pi-Camera/Multi-Camera-CamArray/quick-start/#64mp-multi-camera-kit

4

Thanks. And after following that guide, what did you actually configure? For example, did you add the overlay to /boot/config.txt and pick a channel? What capture command did you run, and can you paste the full error output?

5

Yes. I added this to /boot/config.txt:
dtoverlay=arducam-64mp

Then rebooted. After that I selected channel 0 with:
i2cset -y 10 0x24 0x24 0x02

Then I tried to capture an image with:
libcamera-still -t 0

Here’s the full output:

Preview window unavailable
[0:03:35.892124688] [1850] INFO Camera camera_manager.cpp:297 libcamera v0.0.5+83-bde9b04f
[0:03:35.916093368] [1858] WARN CameraSensorProperties camera_sensor_properties.cpp:261 No static properties available for ‘arducam_64mp’
[0:03:35.916152312] [1858] WARN CameraSensorProperties camera_sensor_properties.cpp:263 Please consider updating the camera sensor properties database
[0:03:35.940660227] [1858] ERROR IPAProxy ipa_proxy.cpp:149 Configuration file ‘arducam_64mp.json’ not found for IPA module ‘rpi/vc4’
[0:03:35.940811559] [1858] ERROR IPARPI ipa_base.cpp:117 Could not create camera helper for arducam_64mp
[0:03:35.940843799] [1858] ERROR RPI pipeline_base.cpp:818 Failed to load a suitable IPA library
[0:03:35.940866244] [1858] ERROR RPI vc4.cpp:219 Failed to register camera arducam_64mp 10-001a: -22
ERROR: *** no cameras available ***

6

Thanks, that output is very telling. The important lines are:

  • No static properties available for ‘arducam_64mp’
  • Configuration file ‘arducam_64mp.json’ not found for IPA module ‘rpi/vc4’
  • Could not create camera helper for arducam_64mp
  • Failed to register camera arducam_64mp 10-001a: -22

Basically your installed libcamera can’t recognize or register the Arducam 64MP camera because it’s missing the ‘arducam_64mp’ sensor properties and the ‘arducam_64mp.json’ IPA configuration file. Before I point you to the right fix, can you grab a bug report so I can confirm the rest of the setup? Here’s how:

  1. Reboot the device.
  2. Download the bug report tool:
    wget -O arducam-camera-bug-report https://github.com/ketai-dhr/arducam-camera-bug-report/releases/download/tools/arducam-camera-bug-report
  3. Make it executable:
    chmod +x ./arducam-camera-bug-report
  4. Run it:
    ./arducam-camera-bug-report

It’ll produce an arducam-bug-report.txt file in the current directory. Please send me that file, and also a picture of the hardware connection, so I can check everything.

7

I’ve run the tool and it generated the arducam-bug-report.txt file. I’ve sent it over private message, along with a photo of the camera wiring. Let me know what you find.

8

Thanks, I’ve checked the bug report and the photo. It confirms the issue: your system has the stock Raspberry Pi libcamera, which doesn’t include Arducam 64MP support. That’s why the camera fails to register — there’s no arducam_64mp.json IPA config or camera helper available. The solution is to install libcamera from Arducam instead. Follow the ‘Getting Started’ section in this guide:

https://docs.arducam.com/Raspberry-Pi-Camera/Native-camera/Libcamera-User-Guide/#getting-started

That build includes the proper IPA library and sensor properties for the 64MP camera. After installing, reboot and try libcamera-still -t 0 again.

9

That worked, thank you for your help!