Hi everyone, I’m running into a weird issue with my Arducam USB2 Rev.E (UC-391 Rev.E) USB Camera Shield with the IMX219 sensor. I bought it back in 2020 and it used to work fine with the SDK on Python 3.7. I recently reinstalled Windows 10 on my PC and now nothing works. The Arducam Windows GUI throws “failed to start the camera” and the Python SDK apps fail with “open fail, rtn_val = 65281”. I already followed the quick start guide here: Redirecting... but no luck. I also searched the Arducam forum for similar issues and couldn’t find anything. Anyone seen this before?
Have you ever installed the Windows driver? After a Windows 10 reinstall, the driver has to be reinstalled even if you already reinstalled the SDK and GUI. A missing or incorrect driver can cause exactly what you’re seeing - the “failed to start the camera” error and rtn_val = 65281. Take a look at the driver installation guide here: Windows Driver Installation - Arducam Wiki and let us know if that’s been done on the fresh install.
I went through the driver install. The output says:
“Driver package is up-to-date on device: USB\VID_52CB&PID_52CB\5&16bb5ae6&0&10”
“Total driver packages: 1”
“Added driver packages: 0”
“Driver installed successfully”
So it looks like the driver is there, but the camera still won’t start. I searched the Arducam forum again for anything similar and came up empty. Not sure what else to try.
The driver does look properly installed now, so this might not be a driver problem anymore - could be a GUI/SDK compatibility issue. Please have a try with the older GUI tool USBTest and see if your IMX219 shows up there: ArduCAM_USB_Camera_Shield/Windows/GUI/USBTest at master · ArduCAM/ArduCAM_USB_Camera_Shield · GitHub. The fact that the device enumerates as USB\VID_52CB&PID_52CB and the driver reports success, but the camera still fails, points toward the software side rather than the driver.
Okay so I tested a few combinations. The old USBTest GUI actually works with my IMX219. The new “Arducam USB Camera Shield UI” works with an OV5647 sensor I have, and the Python SDK also works with that OV5647. But for the IMX219, only the old USBTest works - the Python SDK still fails. When I try “import ArducamSDK” in Python I get:
“ImportError: DLL load failed while importing ArducamSDK: Kan opgegeven module niet vinden.”
(That last part is Dutch, roughly “The specified module could not be found”.)
That’s right. Your camera module is too old to be compatible with the new GUI “Arducam USB Camera Shield UI” and the associated Python SDK. If the old “USBTest” works, please use your IMX219 module on it as before. The DLL load failure when importing ArducamSDK is a symptom of that incompatibility rather than a missing driver. You can keep using the legacy tool from here: ArduCAM_USB_Camera_Shield/Windows/GUI/USBTest at master · ArduCAM/ArduCAM_USB_Camera_Shield · GitHub
Got it, thanks. That explains everything - the new GUI and Python SDK support the OV5647 fine, but this older UC-391 Rev.E board with the IMX219 only works with the legacy USBTest tool. I’ll just keep using USBTest as before. Appreciate the help!