Hi everyone. I’m trying to move my Raspberry Pi further away from the cameras — I need roughly 6 meters between them. Right now the setup works, except autofocus is a bit slow. My question: when I use the CSI-to-HDMI extension, does the Camera HAT Array still need to stay connected to the Pi’s 6 pins? And what’s the maximum length I can run for these cables / the HDMI?
Thanks for the details. For the B0091, it connects to the Raspberry Pi through the MIPI TX port on the HAT board — so it’s not a matter of keeping the 6-pin connection when using the extender. You run the camera/HAT side over the HDMI cable and connect the B0091 to the Pi via that MIPI TX port.
On cable length: the longest HDMI cable we’ve tested with this extender is 3 meters. That’s shorter than the ~6 meters you need, so I can’t confirm 6m will work reliably — 3m is the tested limit.
Got it, thanks. One more thing — when it’s connected using the HDMI extender, does the HAT board still need its own power supply, or does it get power over the HDMI cable?
The HAT board still needs its own power — HDMI does not carry power to it. You’ll need to connect an extra type-C power supply to the HAT board even when you’re using the HDMI extender.
The type-C input on the HAT takes standard 5V USB power. For the exact current rating, check the Quad Camera Array product page / spec sheet — the draw depends on the cameras connected, so you’ll want to size the supply to cover all four IMX-519s.
To summarize where things stand: the B0091 goes to the Pi via the MIPI TX port on the HAT, the HAT still needs separate type-C power (HDMI won’t power it), and the main open question remains your 6m distance — we’ve only tested up to 3m with this extender, so 6m is untested.
