Hey everyone, I’m trying to figure out if I can run 2 camera streams simultaneously on my setup. I currently have the Arducam IMX219 V3Link Camera Kit and I’m planning to add a second IMX219 8MP camera to the mix. Before I go out and buy the second camera, I want to confirm whether simultaneous dual-camera streaming is even possible with this kit.
My setup:
Raspberry Pi 3B+
Bookworm OS
Arducam IMX219 V3Link Camera Kit
I’m willing to swap the board or OS if needed, just want to know what my options are. Has anyone gotten two streams working with the V3Link kit?
Unfortunately, the IMX219 V3Link Camera Kit isn’t designed for that. It’s built for single-camera operation only — there’s a hardware limitation that prevents simultaneous streaming from both camera modules. It’s not something you can work around with software or OS changes.
The root cause is just how the V3Link kit is architected. It can only handle one stream at a time.
If you need synchronized dual-camera streaming, I’d suggest looking at the Arducam 12MP Synchronized Stereo Camera Bundle Kit instead. It uses dual IMX477 12.3MP modules paired with the Arducam Camarray Stereo Camera HAT, and the good news is it’s fully compatible with your existing Pi 3B+ and Bookworm OS — no hardware or OS changes needed.
You can find the details on the product page over at uctronics.com (search for “Arducam 12MP Synchronized Stereo Camera Bundle Kit”).
Thanks for the suggestion. Before I pull the trigger on that kit though — I have a concern. The Raspberry Pi 3B+ only has one physical CSI port. How is a stereo camera bundle supposed to stream two cameras simultaneously through a single CSI connector? That seems like it would be a bottleneck. Am I missing something here, or would I actually need a board with dual CSI ports to make this work?
Totally fair question — that single CSI port would seem like a dealbreaker at first glance, but it’s not.
The key piece is the Camarray Stereo Camera HAT included in that bundle. The HAT takes the two synchronized IMX477 camera streams and combines (multiplexes) them, piping everything through that one CSI interface on your Pi 3B+. So both cameras feed into the HAT, the HAT handles the synchronization and stitching, and the Pi sees it all over the single CSI ribbon connection.
No extra configuration needed — it’s designed to work out of the box with single-CSI-port boards like the 3B+. The single CSI port isn’t the limiting factor here because the multiplexing happens on the HAT before the data even hits the Pi.