Hey everyone, I’m having trouble getting my multi-camera adapter board working with a Raspberry Pi 3B+ and IMX519 cameras. The cameras just won’t run.
Weird thing is, if I flip the ribbon cable direction going into the Pi, I get a completely different error. Neither orientation works, but the errors are different.
I’ve attached a text file with both error outputs and a copy of my config.txt. Anyone seen this before? Not sure if it’s a cable issue or something in the config.
Thanks for posting those logs. Before we dive into troubleshooting, could you grab a couple things for me?
First, can you take some clear, well-lit photos of:
Second, let’s get a full diagnostic dump. Run these commands in a terminal on the Pi:
Once that finishes, attach the generated file (arducam-bug-report.txt) along with those photos. That’ll give me a much clearer picture of what’s going on.
So something changed and I’m not sure why. After running that diagnostic tool, now the board doesn’t detect the cameras at all. Like, zero detection. Before, at least I was getting errors — now there’s just nothing.
I didn’t touch the board physically between when it was throwing errors and when it stopped detecting cameras. The only thing I did was run those commands and let the tool do its thing.
I’ve tried swapping in different ribbon cables too, but still no cameras detected. I ran the bug report tool again and I’m attaching the output. Haven’t taken the photos yet because now I’m wondering if the board itself is dead or something.
That’s actually pointing toward a physical connection issue. Those ribbon cable connectors on the multiplexer HAT board are known to be a bit finicky — they can loosen up over time or from slight bumps, and even a reboot could have nudged things enough to break contact.
Let’s go through a full re-seating of all the camera cables. Power down the whole system first, then:
Let me know what you see after that.
Okay, I went through this carefully — re-seated every single cable, all four camera connections plus the main one to the Pi. I’ve done it multiple times now, and I’m making sure those black locking tabs are pressed down all the way each time.
I even grabbed a different Raspberry Pi and tested with that, just to rule out the Pi itself. Same exact result — cameras still not detected.
I generated a fresh debug file reflecting the current state. Attaching it here. Something else has to be going on.
Alright, I’ve gone through your debug file and I think I found the issue — it’s a configuration conflict in your config.txt.
You have this line in there:
dtoverlay=imx519
That overlay is conflicting with how the multi-camera adapter handles the IMX519 cameras. The adapter board uses its own overlay/driver setup and having that line present is causing a clash.
Here’s what to do:
Give that a shot and let me know what changes.
Progress! I removed that dtoverlay=imx519 line from config.txt and now the situation is definitely better — the cameras are being detected again, which is a huge step forward from the “nothing detected” state I was stuck in.
But I’m still getting some errors. Not the same ones as before, but errors nonetheless. I’m attaching the updated error output here so you can see what’s showing up now after the config change.
Just checking in — any thoughts on what would cause these remaining errors after removing that overlay? Don’t want to go poking at things blindly and break the progress I’ve made.
Actually, my bad — I just realized I attached the wrong debug file in my last post with the error output. That was the old one from before the fix. I’ve got the correct files now, showing the real post-fix state after removing dtoverlay=imx519. Attaching the right ones this time. These reflect what I’m actually seeing right now.