Having trouble getting the camera streamer service to run on my PiVistation 5 Series. I’ve got three units from a third-party reseller, all behaving the same way. The service just won’t start. I can see /dev/video11 which seems weird to me, and there’s a config file at .arducam_image_server.json that looks corrupted — can’t even open it manually. The script at /opt/arducam_camera_streamer/start-camera-streamer.py fails to run, presumably because it can’t parse the config. I’m running this on a Raspberry Pi. Any ideas?
Thanks for reaching out. Let’s start with some basics. Can you confirm if the camera and Pi are actually working together? Try running the test.sh script that came with the board — it’s usually in the home directory or in /opt/arducam_camera_streamer/. Let me know if that produces any output or a preview.
Good call — yes, the test.sh example actually works fine. I can ping the Pi over the network, SSH into it, and the camera captures images when I run that script. So the hardware seems okay. I followed the official docs too (Pivistation 5 Series - Arducam Wiki) but still no luck with the streaming service. Definitely something going on with that config file though — it’s unreadable, like it has encoding garbage in it. What should I try next?
Alright, that confirms the core hardware (camera + Pi) is working fine — the test.sh passing rules out any physical issues. The fact that the .arducam_image_server.json file has encoding problems and can’t be read manually strongly points to either file system corruption or an incomplete software setup. Before we go too deep into trying to replace individual files (which could lead to more inconsistencies), I think the most reliable approach here is to re-flash the microSD card with a fresh official PiVistation image. This will restore the entire software environment to factory defaults. Are you okay with wiping the card and starting fresh?
Yeah, I’m fine with that. I just want these units working. What’s the exact process? Do I need a specific image or can I use any Raspberry Pi OS?
You’ll want the official PiVistation 5 image, not the standard Raspberry Pi OS. Here’s the exact process:
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Download the latest OS image from the official SourceForge link: https://sourceforge.net/projects/pivistation-5/files/B0502_B0504/
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Use Raspberry Pi Imager (or balenaEtcher) to write that downloaded image to your microSD card. This will completely overwrite the corrupted installation.
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Insert the microSD card back into the PiVistation and boot it up.
After flashing, the camera streaming service should start automatically on boot. The test.sh working earlier confirms it’s purely a software/firmware issue — the hardware is fine. Starting with a clean image is the fastest way to get past that corrupted config file and have the streaming service up and running. Let me know how it goes!