I’ve got three Arducam cameras — an IMX519 AF, an IMX519 NOIR, and a NOIR-mini (model numbers B0386, B0389 and U6248) — and all three work when I plug them straight into a Raspberry Pi 3B or 4B. But as soon as I connect them through the 15m cable extension hat, nothing works. The libcamera-apps preview just shows a blank screen, and even using -n for no preview it still won’t save any picture or video. This setup actually used to work and then just quit.
I also installed the low-speed kernel driver from this FAQ thread:
After that, the NOIR mini could actually preview on libcamera-apps, so I don’t think the low-speed driver is the issue. I also tried an autofocus camera from Cytron with the same result.
One odd thing: when the camera is connected through the extension hat, libcamera-still --list-camera still shows the camera as connected to the RPi. So the Pi sees it, but no frames come through.
Thanks for the details. The fact that --list-camera still detects the camera through the hat means the CSI link is at least partially up, but something is breaking the actual frame stream. To narrow this down, could you post clear photos of the extension kit — both front and back, as sharp as possible? And run libcamera-still (or libcamera-vid) while the camera is on the hat and paste the full terminal output from the run.
Agreed on the low-speed driver — if the NOIR mini previewed after installing it, that’s probably not your issue here. I’d rather look at the hardware photos and the run logs first.
Here you go. I’ve packed the extension kit photos plus part of the install logs into an archive — I sent the link over private message since it’s a big file. Let me know if you can’t access it.
Received the archive, thanks. I’m going through the photos and logs now. In the meantime, could you also grab a few photos of the actual physical connection — how the FPC cable is seated on the hat, and how the hat connects back to the Pi?
Done — I’ve sent another archive with close-ups of the hardware connection, including the cable seating on the hat and the Pi side.
While I was waiting, I also tried these same cameras on a different platform: a Jetson Xavier NX Dev Kit (the ReComputer one) running JetPack 5.1, without the cable extension hat, just the camera direct. I followed the Quick Start guide and ran:
Cannot find the corresponding deb package, please send the following information to [email protected]
Kernel version: 5.10.104-tegra-35.3.1-20230319081403
Jetson type: NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX Developer Kit
I almost edited “IMX519 download links.txt” to point at the Orin NX download link (kernel 5.10.104-tegra-35.xxxxx), but I stopped because I didn’t want to brick the device.
That Jetson error is expected, unfortunately. The imx519 driver is not compatible with JetPack 5.1.x on the Xavier NX right now. install_full.sh can’t find a matching deb package for the running kernel (5.10.104-tegra-35.3.1), and the GitHub release simply doesn’t include JetPack 5.1 support yet.
Good call not swapping in the Orin NX link — that’s a different platform, and it could easily leave the install half-broken or worse.
OK, so I reflashed the Xavier NX with NVIDIA SDK Manager down to JetPack 4.6.2 (kernel l4t 32.7.2), since that’s on the supported list. But the IMX519 driver install still fails — just with a different error this time:
An unknown error occurred while installing dtoverlays.
Same install command as before. I’ve attached the terminal log.
That’s strange. JetPack 4.6.2 / l4t 32.7.2 should be within the supported range, and the dtoverlay error is a different failure point from the earlier deb-package error — so it’s getting further through the install this time. I’m going through the terminal log you attached to see exactly where the dtoverlay install breaks.
I’ve also uploaded a folder of photos of the Jetson NX board — link sent via private message. Two things to note: I’ve added an NVMe SSD and a CR1220 battery to it. Also, the stuff that looks like water around the solder points is actually solid and non-conductive — I’m fairly sure it’s flux residue.
Looking at the photos, it looks like you’re running a third-party carrier board, not the official Jetson Xavier NX Developer Kit. That’s most likely the problem — some Arducam cameras aren’t compatible with certain third-party carrier boards, and I can’t confirm whether the failure is the camera or the board. Please test the cameras on the official NVIDIA development kit to confirm they work. If they don’t work there either, come back and we’ll go from there.
There’s a problem with that — the official Jetson Xavier NX Developer Kit has reached EOL and NVIDIA no longer sells it. Their get-started page doesn’t offer it anymore:
The Xavier NX modules themselves are still in production, but the official dev kits are gone. The remaining options are third-party carrier boards like the Waveshare Jetson Xavier NX Dev Kit or the Seeed Studio reComputer J2022:
NVIDIA themselves list Seeed Studio for the upcoming Orin NX dev kit. So “test on the official dev kit” isn’t really something I can do. Is there any chance of getting driver support for third-party carrier boards?
Right now we don’t have driver support for third-party carrier boards. We don’t have that same carrier board available in-house, and making the camera compatible with it would take significant time. So for the moment, the answer is no driver support for third-party carrier boards — sorry I can’t give a better outcome on that.