Hi everyone, I’m trying to figure out if the Arducam AR0234 with the CamArray HAT dual setup (SKU: B0492N) is capable of producing colored images at all. I’ve got it hooked up to a Jetson Orin NX 8GB running Jetpack 6.2, and no matter what I try, the output always looks greenish — like a raw sensor feed with no proper color. Is color even possible with this kit, or is it purely monochrome/raw?
Can you share a bit more about your setup? Specifically, what image formats are showing up as available on your system, and how are you capturing the frames? That’ll help narrow down whether the pipeline you’re using even has access to color processing.
Sure. The only formats I can see are Y16 and BA10 — those are the two that v4l2-ctl reports. I’ve tried capturing with both. Y16 gives me what looks like a 16-bit grayscale image, and BA10 seems to be a 10-bit Bayer pattern as far as I can tell. Both have that greenish tint I mentioned. I’m using the standard V4L2 interface that comes with the Arducam drivers for Jetson.
Okay, that makes sense. So Y16 and BA10 are both raw Bayer formats — Y16 is essentially the raw Bayer data packed into a 16-bit container, and BA10 is the 10-bit Bayer variant. The greenish cast you’re seeing is totally normal for raw Bayer output, because the Bayer pattern has twice as many green pixels as red or blue. The key thing is: raw Bayer data needs to go through a debayering + ISP pipeline to get proper color. On the Jetson platform, that typically means having an ISP tuning file that matches your specific sensor and lens combination. Let me check something — does the driver package you’re using include any .isp or tuning files for the AR0234 / CamArray HAT combo?
I dug through the driver package and I don’t see any tuning files for this particular setup. There are some for other Arducam sensors in there, but nothing that references the AR0234 or the B0492N / CamArray HAT. Is that the problem? Do I just need the right tuning file?
That’s exactly the issue. Here’s the situation: the AR0234 sensor on the CamArray HAT kit (SKU B0492N / NJC-014) currently has no native ISP tuning files available for Jetson platforms — and that includes Jetpack 6.2 on the Orin NX. Without a proper ISP tuning file, the Jetson’s ISP can’t be calibrated for this sensor’s color response, white balance, black level, lens shading, etc. So the pipeline can only give you raw, unprocessed frames, which is why you’re stuck with the greenish Bayer output.
Got it. So just to confirm — there’s no workaround at this point? No way to do software debayering in OpenCV or something similar after capture, and no third-party tuning file floating around either?
You can definitely do software debayering with something like OpenCV’s cvtColor on the raw frames — that’ll give you a color image, but it won’t look great because you’re missing all the ISP corrections (white balance, gamma, color correction matrix, lens shading, etc.). The colors will be off and the image quality will be noticeably poor compared to a properly tuned pipeline. As for a tuning file, unfortunately there isn’t one available for this specific hardware combination right now. The AR0234 + CamArray HAT on Jetson is currently limited to raw/unprocessed output only. If color output becomes supported in a future driver release, the tuning files would need to come from Arducam directly.
That’s disappointing but at least I know what I’m dealing with now. I’ll try the OpenCV software debayer approach as a temporary measure and keep an eye out for any driver updates. Thanks for the clear explanation — the lack of ISP tuning files explains everything.
No problem. To summarize for anyone else who stumbles on this thread with the same setup: the Arducam AR0234 CamArray HAT dual kit (B0492N / NJC-014) on Jetson Orin NX with Jetpack 6.2 currently only supports raw output via Y16 and BA10 formats. The greenish image appearance is expected due to the raw Bayer pattern, and proper color processing requires ISP tuning files that are not yet available for this hardware combination. Software debayering (e.g., via OpenCV) can produce a basic color image but won’t match the quality of a hardware-ISP-tuned pipeline.