Hi, I’m running the Arducam 16MP IMX519 Autofocus Synchronized Quad Camera Kit on a Raspberry Pi CM4. One of the four cameras just won’t focus at all. The motorized focus mechanism doesn’t move, so the camera stays out of focus. The other three cameras seem to work fine. Anyone know what could cause this?
Hi there, thanks for posting. Can you share a bit more about your setup? Which board/platform you’re on, which guide you followed to get the cameras running, and which port the problem camera is connected to?
Sure. I’m on a Raspberry Pi CM4, and I followed the PiCamera2 User Guide from the Arducam docs. The kit is the 16MP IMX519 Autofocus Synchronized Quad Camera Kit. The problem camera was first connected to RX2.
Thanks. Since the other three cameras focus fine, this sounds isolated to that one specific camera. Can you try moving the problem camera to a different port and test focusing again? That helps us figure out whether the issue is with the camera itself or with the port.
Okay, so I already tried moving it around. It was on RX2 originally, then I switched it to RX3, and it still won’t focus. The focus motor just never moves. I recorded a couple of short gifs showing it on RX2 and then again on RX3 — no movement either way. I also swapped the problem camera out with another IMX519 autofocus module I had (the B0371 model), and that one focuses fine on the quad board, so I don’t think the board itself is bad. The catch is that replacement camera isn’t modified to work with the quad-camera board, so its feed gets corrupted after a while.
That’s really useful info. The fact that the replacement camera focused rules out the quad board and the port. And since the other cameras focus normally too, the issue is isolated to that one specific camera module. Just to note, the non-modified IMX519 corrupting after a while is expected, because it isn’t set up for the synchronized quad board.
I can’t confirm the root cause 100% just yet. If that camera still fails to focus after moving it to another port, then my main suspect is the focus motor on that camera itself.
To isolate whether the problem follows the camera or the port, move the defective camera from port RX1 to port RX2 and retest. If the camera still cannot focus after the port change, that points to a defective focus motor.
To summarize the steps: 1) Change the camera on port RX1 to port RX2. 2) Test focusing again. 3) If this camera still cannot focus, consider that the focus motor may be defective.
Just to explain why this test matters: it tells us whether the fault is in the camera module or in the quad-camera board/port. Since the other cameras focus fine and a known-good camera focused on this board, the remaining suspect is the camera’s focus motor.
Hi, just following up — any updates on the defective camera issue I reported earlier? I haven’t made any new attempts on my side since the port swap tests.
Thanks for checking in. Based on what we have so far, the issue is isolated to that single camera module — the quad board and port have been ruled out by the other cameras and by the replacement camera test. The current conclusion is that the focus motor on that specific camera is the likely culprit, since it still showed no movement after switching ports. If you get a chance, run the RX2 test from before and let me know if the motor still doesn’t move; that would basically confirm the focus motor is bad.