Hi everyone, I’m working on an upcoming project and I need a camera similar to the Arducam B0444. Key requirements are low-light performance, a wide-angle lens, and something that’s easy to integrate with a Raspberry Pi. I’ve used a few Arducam modules before, but I’m trying to figure out if the B0444 can be externally triggered for a specific use case.
Thanks for the details. Could you explain a bit more about what you mean by ‘externally triggered’? Are you trying to trigger a still capture from a hardware signal, or sync the sensor readout/frame timing to another device? That will change what’s possible on the B0444.
Good question. My setup already uses various Arducam cameras with a Raspberry Pi, and that part works fine. The additional requirement is that I need to sync the camera to an external flash. So ideally I’d fire the flash at the same time the camera exposes the frame. I need to know whether the B0444 can actually be triggered externally for that, rather than just free-running.
Understood. For most of these small Arducam MIPI/CSI modules, the sensor runs in a free-running mode driven by the Raspberry Pi’s CSI interface, and there isn’t a dedicated external trigger input exposed on the connector. Flash sync normally needs a hardware strobe/trigger signal from the sensor or the ISP. The B0444 is a low-light, wide-angle module, but the stock board doesn’t advertise an external trigger pin, so I’d want to check what you’re seeing on the board.
That’s what I was afraid of. Looking at the B0444 itself, I noticed it has several solder points on the board that look like they might be test pads or unused connections. Could any of those be used for triggering? I’m not sure if they’re signal pads, power, or just factory test points.
That’s the right thing to check, but those solder points are usually test pads or power/ground points rather than a documented trigger input. Without a schematic or datasheet confirming their function, wiring them up for flash sync would be risky. Right now the practical summary is: the B0444 is a good fit for low-light, wide-angle Raspberry Pi use, but it doesn’t have an officially exposed external trigger or flash sync line, and the solder points on the board aren’t confirmed for that purpose. If you can, I’d suggest probing those pads with a scope while the camera is capturing to see if any of them show a frame-related signal, and we can go from there.