Cannot get four Arducam cameras to capture synchronously on Raspberry Pi 4 - i2c/video0 errors

Raspberry Pi Cameras
1

Hi everyone, I’m putting together a bullet camera rig with 40x Arducam 16MP camera modules and 10x Multi Camera Adapter Module V2.2 boards on a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B. The plan is to trigger all cameras at the same time, and I have 9 more Pis to program later.

I’ve been following this guide:

When I run the init script I get errors and can’t get past it. I’ve retried the commands several times and it has never worked. Here’s the output:

pi@raspberrypi:~/Documents/RaspberryPi-master/Multi_Camera_Adapter/Multi_Adapter_Board_4Channel/Multi_Camera_Adapter_V2.2_python $ sudo ./init_camera.sh
----Test i2c1
Error: Could not open file `/dev/i2c-1' or `/dev/i2c/1': No such file or directory
Error: Could not open file `/dev/i2c-1' or `/dev/i2c/1': No such file or directory
----Detecting the /dev/video0 device
Can't find video0 device, please check the hardware connection!

Any ideas?

2

Those errors mean the system can’t open /dev/i2c-1 and can’t find /dev/video0, so the Pi isn’t seeing the adapter/cameras on I2C and video. But before going deeper there, the guide you linked is the wrong quick start for your board. For the quad camera adapter board B012001 you want the Multi-Adapter Board quick start guide:

https://docs.arducam.com/Raspberry-Pi-Camera/Multi-Camera-CamArray/Quick-Start-Guide-for-Multi-Adapter-Board/#for-quad-camera-adapter-boardb012001

I’d start with that guide for init_camera.sh and see if the I2C/video detection errors change.

3

Thanks, I’ll go through that guide. One thing I need to confirm though: can the Multi Camera Adapter V2.2 actually run four cameras at the same time? My whole rig depends on all 4 cameras per adapter firing synchronously.

4

Good question, and this is an important hardware limitation. The multiplexer/multi-camera adapter switches between cameras sequentially, so four cameras on one adapter are not capturing at the same time. It can’t meet the synchronous requirement you described. For simultaneous capture, the Multi-Camera Kit is the direction to look at:

https://docs.arducam.com/Raspberry-Pi-Camera/Multi-Camera-CamArray/Multi-Camera-CamArray/#mutli-camera-kit

5

Got it. So what’s the recommended SKU if I want four 16MP cameras to capture synchronously on a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B?

6

For 16MP (IMX519) cameras on a Pi 4, the synchronized option is the 16MP synchronized quad-camera kit. UCTRONICS makes one that fits this use case:

To summarize: the multiplexer/adapter only does sequential camera operation, so it won’t work for simultaneous capture. For synchronized four-camera capture with 16MP cameras, use the synchronized quad-camera kit instead.