I’m running into timeout errors with the B0287 fisheye wide-angle lens when I use it with the B0186 300mm sensor extension cable. The camera is a Raspberry Pi v2.1 module on a Raspberry Pi 5 baseboard.
Some tests I’ve done:
B0180 lens + same extension cable: works fine
B0287 lens directly on the v2.1 camera module (no extension): works fine
B0287 lens + B0186 extension cable: only succeeds about 2 out of 10 tries, so roughly 80% error rate
I’m seeing these errors in the log:
[0:44:13.902589611] [4003] WARN V4L2 v4l2_videodevice.cpp:2095 /dev/video4[16:cap]: Dequeue timer of 1000000.00us has expired!
[0:44:13.902639148] [4003] ERROR RPI pipeline_base.cpp:1364 Camera frontend has timed out!
[0:44:13.902645315] [4003] ERROR RPI pipeline_base.cpp:1365 Please check that your camera sensor connector is attached securely.
[0:44:13.902649889] [4003] ERROR RPI pipeline_base.cpp:1366 Alternatively, try another cable and/or sensor. ERROR: Device timeout detected, attempting a restart!!!
Has anyone else seen this with the B0287? Not sure why the B0180 is fine but the B0287 is not.
Thanks for the detailed report. Before we dig in, can you confirm the OS/kernel version you’re running on the Pi 5, and roughly how the extension cable is routed? We’ll try to reproduce this on our side with the same B0186 + B0287 combination.
I’m on kernel 6.6.51. The cable routing is a bit tight because the lens sits at the tip of a device and has to bend more than 70 degrees. I’ll try to get some photos of the setup later today.
We ran reproduction tests here. Setup: Raspberry Pi 4 and Pi 5, Raspberry Pi Camera V2.1, B0186 extension + B0287 lens, kernel 6.6.51. I used a small stress script that repeatedly opens and closes libcamera in a loop. After multiple iterations on both Pi 4 and Pi 5, it stayed stable with no timeout errors. I’ve attached a screenshot of the test results.
So far we can’t reproduce the failure with just the B0186 + B0287 combo, which makes me think the issue may be mechanical/strain-related in your specific mounting. Can you share photos of how the cable and connector are bent/routed in your setup?
The disconnection is very sensitive to stress/strain on the cable. The lens sits on the tip of the device and that part has to bend more than 70 degrees. With the B0287, even 45-60 degrees of bending can jeopardize the connection. The B0180 is much more stable in the same position, it holds up at 60-90 degrees.
So it’s definitely worse with the B0287 than the B0180. Is there another Arducam wide-angle lens with more than 180 FOV that’s more robust for bending, or a better solution for this kind of mounting?
The bending is likely the root cause. These camera modules aren’t designed for bending at the connector area, and that part is quite delicate. Bending it can damage the connection or degrade performance, and the B0287 may just be more sensitive to that strain.
Instead of bending the module connection, I’d suggest one of these for flexible positioning:
