Cannot get Arducam Mega 5MP working on Pi 5 via SPI, demos fail to build

SPI Cameras
1

Hey everyone, I’m struggling to get the Arducam Mega 5MP (10th anniversary edition) working on my Raspberry Pi 5. I’m trying to use it via Python and SPI but I can’t even get the demo code to compile properly.

Setup:

  • Raspberry Pi 5
  • Arducam Mega 5MP (10th anniversary)
  • Connecting via SPI
  • Python for the interface

The problem is the provided demos just fail to build. There’s basically no documentation outside of those demos either. Has anyone gotten this camera working on a Pi 5? I’m kind of stuck here.

2

Sorry to hear you’re having trouble. Let’s start with the basics — have you followed the official hardware connection guide in the Arducam Mega getting started docs?

Here’s the reference for Raspberry Pi hardware connections:
https://www.arducam.com/docs/arducam-mega/arducam-mega-getting-started/packs/example/Raspberry.html#hardware-connection

Double-check your wiring matches what’s shown there and let me know how it goes. If the wiring checks out, we’ll move on to the build issues.

3

Alright, I went through that guide and double-checked the hardware connections against it. Everything looks correct on the wiring side.

But when I try to build the examples, it’s still failing. I attempted both the capture example and the preview example from the demos, and neither one compiles. Both throw a bunch of make errors — I’m seeing things like undefined references and some header issues, though I didn’t save the exact output from my first few tries.

Is this a known thing with the Pi 5? Maybe some library compatibility problem? I know the Pi 5 has a different chipset than previous models, not sure if that matters here.

4

Thanks for checking the wiring. The Pi 5 does have some differences that could be relevant here, but let’s not jump to conclusions yet.

To diagnose what’s actually going wrong with the build, I’ll need two things from you:

  1. The full error logs from the failed make/build process — please run the build again and copy/paste everything that gets output to the terminal. Every line matters, even the stuff before the actual error.

  2. Photos of your hardware connections — specifically the jumper wire connections between the Arducam Mega and the Raspberry Pi 5. Sometimes a second set of eyes catches a misplaced wire that looks right at first glance.

Once I can see the exact errors and the physical setup, we’ll have a much better idea of what’s going on. Feel free to upload the photos somewhere and link them here, and paste the build output in your reply.