Arducam IMX519 "No cameras available" on Pi 4B Bookworm

Raspberry Pi Cameras
1

Hey folks, I’m trying to get an Arducam IMX519 working on my Raspberry Pi 4B. I went through the install process for the pivariety packages — installed libcamera_dev and libcamera_apps. Then I edited /boot/firmware/config.txt, set camera_auto_detect=0, and added dtoverlay=imx519 under [all]. Saved, rebooted, and… nothing. rpicam-still --list-cameras just says “No cameras available!” Any ideas?

2

Sorry you’re running into this! Let’s start troubleshooting. First — could you send over a couple of things?

  1. Photos of the ribbon cable connection at both ends — the camera board side and the Pi’s CSI port side.

  2. A diagnostic log — run these commands in terminal:

    sudo reboot
    wget -O arducam-camera-bug-report https://github.com/Dion4cen/arducam-camera-bug-report/releases/download/Tool/arducam-camera-bug-report
    chmod +x ./arducam-camera-bug-report
    ./arducam-camera-bug-report

This will create a file named arducam-bug-report.txt. Please attach that along with the photos.

3

Alright, I did the diagnostic steps. Here’s what I’ve got:

  • Rebooted, downloaded and ran the bug report script — attached the arducam-bug-report.txt file.
  • Also attached photos of the ribbon cable connections at the camera board and the Pi side.
  • I even grabbed my multimeter and checked continuity on the ribbon cable and the pins — no short circuits, no broken lines. Cable looks perfectly fine.

Really hoping we can figure this out because the hardware seems solid.

4

Thanks for all that detail — the logs and photos are very helpful. Looking at everything so far, the config and drivers look correctly set up, and you’ve confirmed the cabling is good. Let’s narrow it down further with two cross-verification tests:

  1. Test a different camera on this Pi — if you have another known-working camera (like an official Raspberry Pi Camera V2), plug it into the same CSI port on your Pi 4B and see if it’s detected.
  2. Test this IMX519 on a different Raspberry Pi — take the IMX519 and connect it to another Pi board to see if it works there.

This will tell us whether the issue follows the camera or stays with the board.

5

Good call on cross-testing. Here’s what I found:

I took the IMX519 camera and plugged it into a different Raspberry Pi board I had lying around — and it worked right away. No issues, camera detected, could take pictures.

So it looks like the camera module itself is fine. The problem seems to be on the original Pi 4B — the CSI camera input port must be damaged or broken somehow.

6

That’s unfortunate, but at least now we know exactly what’s going on. Based on your tests:

  • :white_check_mark: Camera works on another Pi → IMX519 module is fully functional
  • :white_check_mark: Ribbon cable tested with multimeter — no breaks or shorts
  • :x: No camera detection on the original Pi 4B despite correct config

Conclusion: The CSI camera port on your original Raspberry Pi 4B appears to be damaged. This could be a bent pin inside the CSI connector, a damaged capacitor near the port, or a broader hardware fault on the board.

Solution: You’ll likely need to replace or repair the Pi 4B board. Options:

  • If it’s under warranty, contact the retailer for a replacement.
  • If not, you can try reseating the CSI connector carefully (sometimes the latch doesn’t clamp evenly), but given your thorough testing I think it’s a hardware-level issue.

Alternatively, you can keep using the IMX519 on the other Pi that detected it fine. Sorry we couldn’t get it working on the original board!