Hi all. Running into a compatibility question with my Arducam BO484 on a Raspberry Pi 5. The kit itself works fine — the included wide-angle camera comes up without issues when I follow Arducam’s instructions, so that part is solid. What I’m trying to do is swap in a CM3 non-wide camera, and I’m not sure if it’ll work with the BO484 HAT board. I also have the 200mm Sensor Extension Cable for Raspberry Pi Camera Module V2/V3 (the one that says it supports Raspberry Pi and Jetson Nano) and I want to know if that can be used with the HAT. Support replied to me with: ‘IMX708 camera modules from B0484 are slightly different from the ones provided by Raspberry Pi; CM3 provided by RPI cannot work with the HAT board from B0484.’ I’m trying to figure out what that actually means for what I’m planning.
Thanks for laying that out. Just to point you in the right direction: when you say CM3 non-wide, do you mean Arducam’s own CM3, or the official Raspberry Pi CM3? The reason I ask is that the IMX708 camera modules that ship with the B0484 kit are slightly different from the Raspberry Pi IMX708 modules, so which CM3 you’re trying to use matters a lot here.
Good question. The one I actually want to use is the Arducam CM3 non-wide — the kit came with a wide-angle and I need a narrower FOV. But I was also told the Raspberry Pi CM3 can’t be used with this HAT, so I want to understand that part too. Is the Raspberry Pi CM3 really incompatible with the BO484 HAT? And I still haven’t gotten a clear answer on the 200mm extension cable.
Right, here’s the hardware side of it: the CM3 provided by Raspberry Pi cannot work with the HAT board from B0484. It’s a genuine incompatibility, not a driver or config issue — the B0484 IMX708 modules differ slightly from the Raspberry Pi IMX708 modules. So for a CM3 on that HAT, you should be looking at an Arducam-provided CM3 module, not the Raspberry Pi one. On the extension cable, I’d be careful: because the B0484 IMX708 modules aren’t identical to the Raspberry Pi versions, don’t assume a V2/V3 cable will just work. You’d want to check the connector and pinout against the HAT before plugging anything in.
Okay, that clears up the Raspberry Pi CM3 part. So just to be sure about my actual plan — the Arducam CM3 non-wide should work with the BO484 HAT then, right? And is there anything I need to do differently when using the non-wide module compared to the wide-angle one that came in the kit?
To summarize where this lands: use an Arducam-provided CM3 module with the B0484 HAT — the Raspberry Pi CM3 is not compatible because the B0484 IMX708 modules differ slightly from Raspberry Pi’s. The support note says Arducam’s own CM3 variants are expected to be compatible, but it doesn’t explicitly confirm the non-wide Arducam CM3 is supported, so I’d get that exact variant confirmed before relying on it. There are no additional step-by-step instructions provided for that swap. For the 200mm extension cable, treat it as unverified until the connector and pinout are checked against the HAT. Short version: stick with an Arducam CM3, verify the non-wide variant specifically, and be cautious with third-party cables.