Hi, my B0205 1080P Day & Night Vision USB camera module’s auto IR-Cut switch has stopped working. In night vision I just get a black screen. The day/night sensor (the photoresistance) and the IR LEDs both seem to work fine. The camera ran for about a year without any problems and it’s connected to a Raspberry Pi 4B+. Any idea what’s going on?
Hey, sorry to hear that. Just so I’m reading you right — when you say the IR LEDs work fine, do you mean the IR LED lighting on the board is actually lighting up (you can see the glow), but the camera still shows a black screen? Or are you comparing against another camera that works well in the same setup? I want to be sure whether the photoresistance or the IR LED lighting on the board is what’s actually failing, because at this point I can’t tell which one it is.
Let me explain better. I made two videos. Video1 is the Arducam camera going from daylight to night vision — you can see the IR LED lighting is not visible. Video2 is a Eufy night vision camera, and in that video the IR LED light of the Arducam camera IS visible. Video2 was made directly after video1. So the photoresistance seems to be working and turning on the IR LED. But the Arducam camera itself gives a black screen while the street was previously visible. I uploaded both videos here: Unique Download Link | WeTransfer
Thanks, that helps a lot. Here’s a simple test I’d like you to try to narrow it down: put your finger over the photoresistance to trick the camera into “night mode” and listen closely — you should hear a small click/sound of the IR-Cut filter switching. That audible click is the key thing; it tells us whether the photoresistance is being read and whether the IR-Cut mechanism is actually moving. I’ve attached a reference video showing what the test looks like and what to listen for. If you hear the switch, the sensor and mechanism are fine and the problem is elsewhere; if you hear nothing, the IR-Cut is likely stuck or not being driven.
I tried the test from your video, covering the photoresistance like you showed. There is no sound — no click at all when I cover it. So no switching sound. For reference, same setup as before: Arducam B0205 1080P Day & Night Vision USB camera module on a Raspberry Pi 4B+, and the Eufy camera I used as a second reference camera. I also attached the recording of my test so you can see it: name
Got it, thanks for testing and for the recording. So to recap where we are: the photoresistance appears to be responding (the IR LEDs do come on when it gets dark), but there’s no audible IR-Cut switching sound when you cover it, and the image stays black in night vision. That points at the IR-Cut filter mechanism itself not switching, rather than the day/night sensing side. One more thing worth trying before we conclude anything: on the Raspberry Pi 4B+, can you check whether the camera is actually still streaming frames when the picture goes black (e.g. does the video device still report a valid resolution/frame rate, or does the stream error out)? That will tell us whether it’s purely the IR-Cut stuck in place or something in the stream itself.
I checked the stream on the Pi and it’s still capturing — the device reports normal resolution and framerate, it’s just a black image at night. So the camera is running, it’s the night image/IR-Cut that’s the problem. I do have a second new B0205 that I bought for another project, if that’s useful for comparison.
That’s a useful data point — the stream itself is fine, only the IR-Cut switching isn’t happening, which matches the missing click sound you noticed. Two things you can do to confirm the diagnosis: attach the reference test video again and, more importantly, swap in that second new B0205 on the same Raspberry Pi 4B+ and redo the same test (cover the photoresistance, listen for the click, check the night image). If the new unit clicks and shows a proper night image on the identical setup, then the issue is isolated to the IR-Cut mechanism on the original module rather than your Pi or cabling. Let me know how the comparison goes and we can go from there. For reference, here’s the same reference clip I sent earlier: name