Arducam B0332 Global Shutter cameras randomly die, no video on Raspberry Pi USB

USB UVC Webcams
1

Having a strange issue with some Arducam B0332 Global Shutter cameras. They seem to be dying at random. Several of them are no longer recognized at all and give no video output. The good cameras show up on other devices without any problem, but the bad ones just don’t appear no matter where I plug them in. Anyone run into this?

2

Thanks for the report. Could you give a bit more detail on the setup and what you’ve tried so far? Specifically, are these connected over USB, and what host are you running them on? Also, have you already tried anything like cable swaps or visual checks?

3

Sure. These are Arducam B0332 Global Shutter cameras used over USB on a Raspberry Pi. I’ve already done visual inspections of the cameras, changed the USB cables, and read through the camera datasheet. If there are more in-depth schematics, datasheets, or wiring documentation available, I’d really like to look at those too because I’m out of ideas.

4

Got it. Based on our experience, UVC cameras like these are plug-and-play and aren’t usually easy to damage, so I’d start with the basics on a PC. Take one of the bad cameras and connect it to a Windows PC, then use AMCap.exe to drive it. Steps:

  1. Connect the bad camera directly to the PC.
  2. Open AMCap.exe and check whether the camera is detected and producing video.
    If it doesn’t enumerate or stream there, that gives us a clearer signal that something else is going on.
5

Tried that. I connected the bad cameras to a PC and used AMCap.exe, but they still aren’t recognized and there’s no video. The previous troubleshooting didn’t resolve it. Are there any other troubleshooting methods you can suggest, or could you share the schematic sheets?

6

Since UVC cameras are plug-and-play and don’t need specific drivers, and you’ve already changed cables and tested with AMCap, I don’t have additional basic cable/driver steps to offer at this stage. To get a better picture of the scale and what might have happened, can you provide:

  1. The total number of cameras that are not functioning properly.
  2. A short video showing the malfunction clearly.
  3. Details of any other actions or configurations performed on the cameras that could potentially contribute to the malfunction.
    The root cause isn’t determined yet, so this info will help us diagnose further.