Hi everyone. I’m using the Arducam 2.2MP Mira220 RGB Global Shutter USB3.0 Camera Evaluation Kit (EK037). I followed the Windows driver installation guide here: Windows-Driver-Installation and installed the Arducam program. The camera shows up in the Arducam program and I was also given a config file for the EK037, but Windows does not recognize the camera as an “Imaging Device” in Device Manager. Is that expected? I thought after installing the driver it would appear as an imaging device.
Thanks for the report. The short answer is yes, that’s expected — the EK037 is a USB 3.0 Camera Evaluation Kit, not a UVC camera module, so it won’t show up as a standard Windows “Imaging Device” even after the driver is installed. You access it through the Arducam GUI together with the provided config file. Please follow the quick start guide for this kit: 2MP Mira220 USB3 Evaluation Kit - Arducam Wiki and load the EK037 config file in the Arducam program. As long as the device is detected in the Arducam program, that’s the intended way to operate it.
Okay, that makes sense. I have it working through Arducam USB Camera Shield UI 2.0 now, but I’m running into an image quality problem. I’m testing it for a low-light NIR project and using the RGB-IR output format. The output is barely visible, and when I turn the lights off I see almost nothing — just a dark shadow form. I suspect this evaluation kit doesn’t have IR emitters. Am I missing a setting somewhere?
The dark image is expected in this case. The Arducam 2.2MP Mira220 RGB Global Shutter USB3.0 Camera Evaluation Kit does not include IR emitters. Even for NIR cameras, the sensor still needs external IR illumination to capture anything in low-light or dark conditions — without an IR light source reflecting off the subject, the output will be dark or near-black. To get usable images, add external IR emitters (e.g., 850nm or 940nm LEDs) aimed at your scene. The RGB-IR output itself isn’t the problem here; it’s the lack of IR illumination.
Got it, thanks. Do you have any recommendations for compatible IR accessories for this kit? And could you share some guidance on setting up a proper low-light rig? I want to make sure I get optimal results for this project.
To be honest, I don’t have much hands-on experience with IR accessories. For our own tests with non-IR camera modules I’ve only ever used the IR board from an old discarded surveillance camera, so I can’t give a solid recommendation on a specific IR emitter that’s compatible with the Mira220 kit. The key point still stands: you’ll need external IR illumination around 850nm or 940nm since the kit has no built-in emitters.
New issue now. I’m trying to integrate the camera into my own Visual Studio project. I downloaded and ran the demo from GitHub - ArduCAM/ArduCAM_USB_Camera_Shield_Cpp_Demo · GitHub and the camera works fine there. I copied the .lib, .dll, .cpp, and .h files into my own project and configured the linker directories. The project compiles with no errors, but at runtime I get: Error capture image, rtn_val = 65318. Also, in ArduCamlib.h some functions are underlined in green and show as “not found” in the editor. Any idea what’s going wrong?
Let’s narrow it down. Since the demo works with the same camera, the hardware, driver, and camera itself are fine. The rtn_val = 65318 means the capture call is failing at runtime inside your project, so something in your project environment differs from the working demo. The green underlines in ArduCamlib.h are usually just IntelliSense not resolving the include paths — not a build failure, since you said the project compiles. Things worth comparing against the demo: make sure you’re loading the EK037 config file, that the .dll matches the .lib you linked, and that the .dll and config file end up in the runtime output directory. So the current status is: the camera works via the demo and the Arducam GUI, but the 65318 capture error only appears in your own project, and that’s still under investigation. If you can share your include/linker settings and where the DLL and config file are placed in your output folder, that’ll help track it down.