Hi everyone. I’m using the B0278 Arducam CSI to USB UVC Camera Adapter Board with a Raspberry Pi HQ Camera (12.3MP IMX477) on Windows 11. The adapter board is supposed to let me use the HQ Camera as a webcam input in OBS.
Here’s the weird part: most of my adapter boards show a wide range of frame rate options at 1080p, but a few of them only let me select 60 FPS at 1080p. On the boards that only show 60 FPS, the picture is also much darker. Each camera is on its own Windows machine, no USB hub involved.
Has anyone run into this? Could a driver update fix it?
Thanks for the details. Before we dig in, can you confirm a couple of things? Are you using multiple cameras in one OBS scene, or is each camera on its own machine separately? And are any of them going through a USB hub?
Got it. Have you tried anything so far to narrow this down? For example, swapping the cameras between machines and checking what OBS reports for the FPS property?
Yeah, I’ve done some testing. I switched the cameras on the same machine and OBS reports a different FPS property depending on which board is connected. The board with the fewer FPS selections at 1080p is always the one producing the darker image. I also looked through the Arducam forum and was wondering if a driver update might help, but I haven’t found anything concrete yet.
Thanks, that’s useful. Given that the same camera behaves differently on the same machine, this doesn’t really point to a Windows driver issue. It points more toward firmware differences on the adapter boards themselves. Some boards are likely running firmware that only exposes 60 FPS at 1080p, which would also explain the darker image since the sensor is being forced into a mode with less exposure time.
I’d recommend re-burning the firmware on the affected boards. I’ve sent you the firmware package and the re-burning tool through private message. Please check your messages and try updating one of the problem boards first.
Okay, I’ll give that a try. Just to be clear, should I only re-flash the boards that show the 60 FPS-only behavior? And is there anything specific I should look for in OBS after the update to confirm it actually worked?
Right, start with one of the affected boards first and leave a known-good board as a control so you can compare. After re-burning, unplug and replug the adapter and reopen OBS, then check the video properties at 1080p. You should see the full range of frame rate choices again instead of only 60 FPS. If the frame rate options come back, verify whether the image brightness at 1080p also improves.
To summarize where we are: no confirmed root cause yet, but the current working theory is firmware differences between the adapter boards. The board that only exposes 60 FPS at 1080p is also the one producing the darker image, which strongly suggests the limited 60 FPS-only mode is tied to the reduced brightness. Re-burning the firmware is the next step to try. Let us know what OBS shows after you update one of the problem boards.