Let’s say you finally decided to buy the Raspberry Pi 5 after hearing good things about the newest member of the most popular SBC family. If you’re into creating DIY projects, you may have already exhausted most of the cool stuff you could pull off with just the SBC. The next step is to start looking into peripherals that you can equip onto the Raspberry Pi to expand your repertoire of projects.
Although camera modules are a fantastic addition to any Raspberry Pi setup, you’re likely to run into issues if you attempt to plug the typical ribbon connectors into the new MIPI ports on the flagship RPi board. Therefore, we’ve compiled a guide to help you connect a camera module to your Raspberry Pi 5.
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Why don’t normal ribbon cables work with the Raspberry Pi 5?
Up until now, most Raspberry Pi boards besides the Zero models included separate interfaces for the camera and display. The ribbon connectors from your camera would connect to the Camera Serial Interface (CSI) port, while those from a tiny LCD screen had to be plugged into the Display Serial Interface (DSI) socket.
However, the Raspberry Pi Foundation added a set of four-lane MIPI transceivers compatible with both CSI and DSI connections to the RPi 5. Unfortunately, this resulted in the typical CSI port shrinking to a MIPI socket that requires a ribbon cable with 22-pins instead of the usual 15-pins. Since most of the official Raspberry Pi camera modules are equipped with a 15-pin 1mm pitch ribbon cable, you’ll need to invest in either an adapter or a 22-way 0.5mm pitch cable to pair the module to your Raspberry Pi. The silver lining is that these cables are pretty inexpensive, so you don’t need to worry about spending even more money after buying a pricey Raspberry Pi 5 board.
Raspberry Pi 5 Display Cable
Plugging the ribbon cable into the camera module
Once you have the required cable, it’s time to disconnect the incompatible ribbon wire on your camera and replace it with the one you purchased.
1. Flip the camera module on its back and pull down on the plastic retaining clip that secures the ribbon cable in place.
2. Slide the old cable away from the camera module.
3. Insert the new cable with the gold pins on the same side as the camera lens.
4. Similarly, the colored portion of the cable should face the retaining clips.
5. Secure the retaining latch after double-checking the orientation of the cable.
Plugging the ribbon cable into the Raspberry Pi 5
With the cable connected to the camera module, you’re free to plug it into your Raspberry Pi 5.
1. Gently lift the retaining clip of either one of the MIPI connectors.
Be extra careful when handling the retaining latch. While it’s not as easy to break as the one on the Raspberry Pi Zero, you can still cause the clip to pop out of the socket if you put some extra strength into pulling it out.
2. Slide the cable into the MIPI port with the colored portion facing the micro HDMI slots.
3. Likewise, the gold pins should lie on the same side as the Ethernet socket.
4. Evenly press down on the retaining clip from both sides to secure the ribbon cable to your Raspberry Pi 5, and give it a slight tug to ensure it’s plugged in properly.
Testing the camera on the Raspberry Pi 5
If you’re using the official camera module, the Raspberry Pi OS should automatically detect it after booting up. So, unlike previous boards, you don’t need to enable the camera option via the Raspberry Pi Configuration tool. The raspistill package has been deprecated in the Bullseye variant of the Raspberry Pi OS, so you’ll have to use the libcamera library instead. To check whether the cable is working properly,
1. Open the terminal app.
2. Enter the Hello command from the libcamera library:
libcamera-hello
3. If a camera interface momentarily pops up, the procedure is successful.
(Optional) For those with more than one camera, you can use the — camera parameter followed by 0 or 1 to ensure both your cameras are in working order.
libcamera-hello --camera 0libcamera-hello --camera 1
But for those rocking an unofficial module, libcamera might not be able to detect it. So, you’ll have to make certain edits to the confix.txt file in the boot folder.
1. Inside the terminal, use the nano text editor to open config.txt:
sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt
2. Change the value of the camera_auto_detect variable from 1 to 0.
camera_auto_detect=0
This will prevent the Raspberry Pi OS from automatically loading the overlay for the official camera modules.
3. Add the dtoverlay variable followed by the name of your camera and the DIPI port where you plugged in said module to the config.txt file.
dtoverlay=camera_name,mipi_port-number
4. Press Ctrl+X to exit the file, tap Y when nano asks you to save the changes, and hit Enter to finally exit the file.
5. Reboot your Raspberry Pi.
6. After your Raspberry Pi restarts, you should be able to run the camera by entering the libcamera-hello command into the terminal.
If your camera still isn’t detected by the Raspberry Pi, there may be some problems with the physical connection. It’s possible that you may not have properly inserted the ribbon cable into the MIPI socket, so you should unplug it and try again by pushing down on the latch evenly.
Building cool projects with your newly set-up camera module
Now that you have configured the camera, you’re free to experiment with more Raspberry Pi projects. For beginners, I recommend building a time-lapse camera as it’s a fun project that’s quite simple to set-up.
If you want something more complex, you can attempt to create a security system with the SBC by installing the MotionEye package. A fair warning before you begin: some of the newer cameras, including the Camera Module V3, may not work with MotionEye due to compatibility issues with the legacy camera stack utilized by the app. So, you may need to look into alternate solutions, like an older camera module or a webcam, if you’re planning to turn your Raspberry Pi 5 into a surveillance camera.
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