Hi everyone, I’m hoping someone can help with an Arducam MEGA-5MP SPI camera (the Arducam Mini) that I’ve never been able to get working. I’m on Windows 11 and I’ve been following the getting started guide at Brief of Arducam Mega SDK — SPICamera documentation and using the ArducamMega GUI Tool. When I connect, I get ‘Port Connect Success’, then it sends Command:55 FF AA and Command:55 0F AA (both show Send Success), then after a few seconds I get a Parser timeout error and the port closes. Has anyone seen this before?
Thanks for the details. A couple of things would help narrow this down: which development board are you using (Arduino UNO, ESP32, etc.) and which baud rate do you have selected in the GUI tool? If you can paste the full output from the tool’s log window, that would also be useful.
Sure, here’s the log:
[13:29:27]: Port Connect Success
[13:29:29]: Command:55 FF AA, Send Success!
[13:29:29]: Command:55 0F AA, Send Success!
[13:29:29]: Command:55 0F AA, Send Success!
[13:29:29]: Command:55 0F AA, Send Success!
[13:29:29]: Command:55 0F AA, Send Success!
[13:29:32]: Parser timeout error.
[13:29:32]: Port Close Success.
I’ve tried 115200 bps and also several other COM speeds, but I keep getting the same ‘Parser timeout error.’ The board I’m using is a TTGO ESP32 development board.
Looking at that log, the host is sending 55 FF AA and 55 0F AA successfully, but the camera never sends back a valid parser response before the timeout. That pattern usually points to a baud rate or host/board compatibility issue rather than a dead camera.
For the MEGA SPI camera, Arducam only guarantees normal operation on the development boards they’ve tested and listed. The ESP32 they’ve verified is the one shown in the supported-platforms screenshot in the docs. A TTGO ESP32 board isn’t on that tested list, so it’s very likely the cause of the parser timeout you’re seeing.
Ah, that makes sense. So the TTGO ESP32 isn’t officially supported? Is there any way to get it working on this board, or should I try one of the boards from that screenshot?
Right, the TTGO ESP32 isn’t one of the boards Arducam has tested, so I can’t guarantee it will work with the MEGA camera. The best way to confirm the camera itself is fine is to try it with one of the supported/tested ESP32 platforms from the list. There’s a disclaimer about supported platforms here: Quick Start Guide - Arducam Wiki
To sum up: the commands are being sent correctly, but no valid parser response comes back before the timeout, which points to the unsupported TTGO ESP32 board/baud setup. If you can test on a supported ESP32, that should tell us whether the camera is good.