I’m trying to set up this camera with OctoPrint on a Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB, 3.5A power supply), but the Pi won’t detect it at all. When I run vcgencmd get_camera it returns supported=1 detected=0, so the Pi knows camera support is enabled but doesn’t actually see a camera. I’ve enabled camera support in raspi-config (only “Legacy Camera” was available), ran apt-get update and upgrade, and rebooted. Still the same. I’ve also reseated the ribbon cables multiple times and checked the direction against the instructions, and tried both the short cable that came attached to the camera and the longer one. The camera is this one: Amazon.com: Arducam for Raspberry Pi Camera with Motorized Lens, Adjustable Focal Length for Monitoring 3D Printer, 3.28FT/100CM Long Extension Flex Ribbon Cable for Raspberry Pi : Electronics
Thanks for the details. I’ve prepared a troubleshooting image for you to test with — I’ve sent you the download link in a private message since it’s specific to your case. Flash that image to your SD card, then we need to point the device tree overlay at the correct sensor. Run sudo nano /boot/config.txt and under the [all] section at the bottom, change the dtoverlay=imx219 line to dtoverlay=imx477. Reboot afterwards. The idea is that the overlay has to match the actual sensor chip on the camera board.
I downloaded the image and changed config.txt as described, but I’m still getting detected=0. I’ve now tried this on two different Raspberry Pi 4s and three different ribbon cables — both cables that came with the camera plus one from a genuine Raspberry Pi brand camera. Same result every time. At this point I’m wondering if the camera hardware itself is just bad. One thing I want to double-check: should the silver contacts on the ribbon cable point toward the HDMI connectors on the Pi, and toward the board on the camera side? That’s how I’ve been doing it, but maybe I have it backwards.
Good question — silver contacts facing the HDMI ports on the Pi and facing the board on the camera side is correct, so your orientation is fine. But I owe you an apology: I misidentified the sensor on that camera when I suggested the imx477 overlay. That board actually uses the OV5647 sensor. Let’s correct that. Go back into sudo nano /boot/config.txt and change the dtoverlay=imx219 line (or imx477 if you already changed it) to dtoverlay=ov5647 under the [all] section, then reboot. That’s the overlay that actually matches this camera.
Still no luck after switching to ov5647. Output is still supported=1 detected=0. I re-imaged my SSD from scratch with the provided image, reapplied the dtoverlay=ov5647 line, rebooted, and rechecked every physical connection. Nothing changed. Honestly starting to think this camera is just dead — is there anything else that could cause this before I give up on it?
One more thing worth checking before you write the camera off. That image I sent you is Bullseye OS, and on Bullseye you can’t always rely on vcgencmd get_camera — it reports info for the legacy camera stack. Instead, run ls /dev/video0. If the camera is detected by the system, the device node /dev/video0 should exist. If that path shows up, the camera is actually being seen and the remaining issue is more about how the app/stack is accessing it. If /dev/video0 doesn’t exist, that points more toward a hardware or connection fault given everything you’ve already tried.