Cannot get picture from Arducam IMX219 camera module on Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye

Raspberry Pi Cameras
1

Hi all, hope someone can point me in the right direction. I’m trying to get a picture from an Arducam 8MP Sony IMX219 camera module (CS lens, Rev.D, SKU B0102) on a Raspberry Pi running Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye, but every attempt just errors out. I followed the official getting-started guide over at https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/camera_software.html#getting-started and still can’t get it to capture. Any idea what I might be missing?

2

Hi, that’s frustrating. Before we go down a rabbit hole, can you run the Arducam bug report tool so we can look at the actual config? First reboot the Pi, then run these:

wget -O arducam-camera-bug-report https://github.com/ketai-dhr/arducam-camera-bug-report/releases/download/tools/arducam-camera-bug-report
chmod +x ./arducam-camera-bug-report
./arducam-camera-bug-report

That will create an arducam-bug-report.txt in the current folder. Send it over (PM is fine) and I’ll take a look.

3

Done. I ran the tool after a reboot and it produced arducam-bug-report.txt. I’ve sent the file to you in a private message. Let me know what you find.

4

Got it, thanks. I checked the report and the overlay in your config is the problem. You currently have:

dtoverlay=imx219,cma-512

That cma-512 parameter isn’t correct for this module. Change that line to just:

dtoverlay=imx219

Reboot after the change and try capturing a picture again. If it still fails, send a new bug report.

5

I edited the overlay line to dtoverlay=imx219 and rebooted, but nothing changed - still can’t get a picture. I’ve generated a fresh arducam-bug-report.txt after the change and sent it over. Anything else I should check?

6

Thanks for the updated report. Since the overlay fix had no effect, I’m leaning toward a hardware/connection issue rather than a config problem. A bad or poorly seated ribbon cable is a very common cause with these modules. If you have another cable handy, try swapping the camera cable and see if it captures.

7

I’ve now tried two different cables and the IMX219 still won’t give me a picture. Both cables work without issue when I hook up my OV5647 camera, so the cables seem fine. Same error getting a picture.

8

Thanks for testing that - really helpful. So the overlay is now set correctly and two cables that are known to work with your OV5647 both fail with the IMX219. That pretty much rules out the cable and the overlay. Next step would be to check the IMX219 module itself - if you have a second Pi to test it on, that would help isolate it, and also inspect the ribbon connector contacts on the camera board. On our end we’re still looking into it, but right now everything is pointing at the camera module or its connector. I’ll follow up once I have more.