Firmware update failed error when camera shorted

USB UVC Webcams
1

Hi everyone. I’ve got an Arducam Pivariety 16MP IMX298 Color Motorized Focus Camera Module on a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B. Before I attempt the firmware update, should the I2C bus be enabled on the Pi first? I want to make sure I’m not missing a step.

Also, I previously tried running the firmware update without shorting the camera board. The tool looked like it succeeded, but when I run dmesg | grep arducam it still reports that the firmware needs to be updated. So something clearly didn’t stick.

2

Good question. Yes, you need to short the camera board and keep the camera connected to the Raspberry Pi while updating the firmware. If the update is done without shorting the board, it can look like it succeeded but it won’t actually take effect or persist, which matches exactly what you’re seeing in dmesg.

3

That makes sense. While I’m at it, I’m also seeing this in the logs:

IPAProxy ipa_proxy.cpp:149 Configuration file ‘arducam-pivariety.json’ not found for IPA module ‘raspberrypi’

Is that related to the firmware issue, or is it a separate problem I need to fix?

4

The root cause here is the firmware update itself. The camera firmware (IMX298) needs to be updated, and since the earlier attempt was done without shorting the camera board, it didn’t persist. The IPAProxy message about ‘arducam-pivariety.json’ is a related symptom of the camera setup not being correctly in place after that.

To fix it, please follow these steps carefully:

  1. Power your Raspberry Pi off, and use a jumper wire to short the camera board as shown in the picture I sent you via private message.
  2. Power your Raspberry Pi back on. While it is restarting, you can remove the jumper wire from the camera board.
  3. Decompress the file I sent you via private message. You need to choose the file according to your kernel version (32 bit or 64 bit).
  4. After decompressing, enter the path imx298_lanes2_firmware, then use the update command. If you see ‘Firmware update successful, please reboot’, the update succeeded and you need to reboot the Pi to take effect. If you see the red hint instead, the update failed. In that case, re-plug the camera and start from scratch.
5

Okay, I followed the steps and this time I made sure the camera board was shorted. But now I’m getting a ‘firmware update failed’ error during the update. I’ve tried starting from scratch 2-3 times and it fails the same way every time. I’ve attached a screenshot of the result.

6

Thanks for the screenshot. That’s unexpected if the board is properly shorted. Let me grab some diagnostics so I can see what’s happening. Please run the bug report tool on the Pi:

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

This will produce an arducam-bug-report.txt in the current directory. Please attach it so I can review the details.

7

I ran the bug report tool and attached the arducam-bug-report.txt it generated. From my side, the firmware update still fails even with the camera shorted. I’ve retried from scratch a couple more times and the result is identical.

8

Thanks, I’ve reviewed the report. Since the firmware update keeps failing even with the camera board shorted, this needs a closer look. I’ve sent you the remote support details through private message. Please check your messages and we can schedule a session so I can look at the Pi directly.

9

One more thing I should mention: I recently formatted my Raspberry Pi OS. Right now there’s no Arducam IMX298 setup on the Pi at all. Do I need to reinstall the camera setup before we continue with the remote session?

10

Yes, since the OS was reformatted, the Arducam IMX298 software setup is completely gone and will need to be reinstalled. I’ve sent you the setup package and steps through private message. Please get that configured first, and then we can continue troubleshooting the firmware update remotely.

11

I’ve reinstalled the camera setup as instructed. I’m online now, but I haven’t received any connection request from your side yet. Let me know if you need me to resend anything.

12

I wasn’t able to reach that session. I’ve messaged you privately about an alternative contact method so we can coordinate. To summarize where we are: the firmware update initially appeared successful without shorting but dmesg still requested an update; after shorting the board, the update now fails consistently despite multiple retries. Your OS was also reformatted, so the Arducam IMX298 setup had to be reinstalled. We’re still working through the firmware failure remotely, and once we connect we’ll continue from there.