Camera freezes

[retrodans]

I have come to a dead end now. I had the camera board working for all of one day this week. I then starting to get some errors coming up, but got rid of these by reconnecting both ends of the cable (pi and camera ends). But now, whilst I don't get an error, the thing completely freezes.

For example, I type in:

Code: Select all

raspistill -f

this causes the red light to appear on the camera, but nothing happens on screen (before I saw the live feed). The same happens if I try raspivi -f instead.

The only way to exit this is to ctrl+c in the terminal, and whilst this gives me my terminal back, the red light stays on for the camera board.

Not sure what to do now, no hints so far found on this forum. I have been doing the usual touch radiator before I touch any of the components, so shouldn't be that. The camera was delivered in a crushed box, but if that was an issue, then it wouldn't have worked for the first day.

Also to note, I am using NOOBS and have just completely reset it (to Raspbian) and it still wont work.

Are there any tests I can run to see what is causing all the issues?

Thankyou for any advice you can give to solve this annoying bug,
Dan

[jamesh]

What does

raspistill -v

give you?

[retrodans]

Code: Select all

raspistill Camera App v1.1

Width 2592, Height 1944, quality 85, filename (null)
Time delay 5000, Raw no
Thumbnail enabled Yes, width 64, height 48, quality 35

Preview Yes, Full screen Yes
Preview window 0,0,1024,768
Opacity 255
Sharpness 0, Contrast 0, Brightness 50
Saturation 0, ISO 400, Video Stabilisation No, Exposure Compensation 0
Exposure Mode 'auto', AWB Mode 'auto', Image Effect 'none'
Metering Mode 'average', Colour Effect Enabled No with U = 128, V = 128
Rotation 0, hflip No, vflip No
Camera component done
Encoder component done
Starting component connection stage
Connecting camera preview port to preview input port
Starting video preview
Connecting camera stills port to encoder input port
Enabling encoder output port
Closing down

At which point, it stops, terminal is not returned to me, and the red light on the camera board stays glowing red.

Not sure if this makes a difference, but I am typing this on another computer as the internet on my Pi is not working at present (awaiting a new wireless card through the post, as my other appears to be broken).

Thanks,
Dan

[RaTTuS]

1) remove the wireless
2) reseat the camera cables
3) boot up and see what happens
4) how are you powering it all ? powered USB hubs ? , GPIO , wet string ? , wall plug

[retrodans]

Have sadly head to pop into the city, but have already reattached the cables many times as mentioned in original post.

As for the power, I have a mains cable going inn using a kindle adaptor, and there is also a powered usb attached

[retrodans]

Also, as my usb wireless isn't working anyway, I do not have it connected

[jamesh]

Code: Select all

raspistill Camera App v1.1

Width 2592, Height 1944, quality 85, filename (null)
Time delay 5000, Raw no
Thumbnail enabled Yes, width 64, height 48, quality 35

Preview Yes, Full screen Yes
Preview window 0,0,1024,768
Opacity 255
Sharpness 0, Contrast 0, Brightness 50
Saturation 0, ISO 400, Video Stabilisation No, Exposure Compensation 0
Exposure Mode 'auto', AWB Mode 'auto', Image Effect 'none'
Metering Mode 'average', Colour Effect Enabled No with U = 128, V = 128
Rotation 0, hflip No, vflip No
Camera component done
Encoder component done
Starting component connection stage
Connecting camera preview port to preview input port
Starting video preview
Connecting camera stills port to encoder input port
Enabling encoder output port
Closing down

At which point, it stops, terminal is not returned to me, and the red light on the camera board stays glowing red.

Not sure if this makes a difference, but I am typing this on another computer as the internet on my Pi is not working at present (awaiting a new wireless card through the post, as my other appears to be broken).

Thanks,
Dan

Hmm, the code has almost run to completion - did you get any preview window with that? You should have done (providing you are not SSHing in to the machine - you'll need to be on it to seethe preview).

[retrodans]

Sadly no, I get no on screen preview. It's directly plugged into a monitor via hdmi so that should be fine, also I had this setup working fine the other day.

[jamesh]

so the following does NOT result in a file called fred.jpg being created? What is the text output?

raspistill -o fred.jpg -t 5 -v

[retrodans]

I did a similar test earlier and it resulted in no file, or preview, just the console freezing with the only way to continue being a ctrl+c which gave me back terminal, but left the camera light on

[jamesh]

I did a similar test earlier and it resulted in no file, or preview, just the console freezing with the only way to continue being a ctrl+c which gave me back terminal, but left the camera light on

What I don't understand is why, if you have specified a filename, the log doesn't say the file has been opened (or at least attempted to be opened). I'd like to see the log with a run specifying a filename.

[retrodans]

Sure, I can get on that first thing tomorrow morning. What sort of log would you like? A little bit new to the Pi, so not sure if the log you are after is in an ovious place (/var/logs/pi/ ?)

[jamesh]

Sure, I can get on that first thing tomorrow morning. What sort of log would you like? A little bit new to the Pi, so not sure if the log you are after is in an ovious place (/var/logs/pi/ ?)

Just what is output by the command above - a verbose version when attempting to save to a filename.

[retrodans]

Okay ran in the line:

Code: Select all

raspistill -o fred.jpg -t 5 -v

And as a result got back:

Code: Select all

raspistill Camera App v1.1

Width 2592, Height 1944, quality 85, filename (null)
Time delay 5000, Raw no
Thumbnail enabled Yes, width 64, height 48, quality 35

Preview Yes, Full screen Yes
Preview window 0,0,1024,768
Opacity 255
Sharpness 0, Contrast 0, Brightness 50
Saturation 0, ISO 400, Video Stabilisation No, Exposure Compensation 0
Exposure Mode 'auto', AWB Mode 'auto', Image Effect 'none'
Metering Mode 'average', Colour Effect Enabled No with U = 128, V = 128
Rotation 0, hflip No, vflip No
Camera component done
Encoder component done
Starting component connection stage
Connecting camera preview port to preview input port
Starting video preview
Connecting camera stills port to encoder input port
Enabling encoder output port
Opening output file fred.jpg
Starting capture 1

Once again this freezes my terminal window, it does create a file, but when I try to open it, I get the message:

Not a JPEG file: starts with 0xff 0xd9

Once again ctrl+c gives me back terminal, but the light stays on, and the jpeg file stays invalid.

[jamesh]

Weird. I think the camera i2c communications is working, but its failing to start streaming. Probably a bust camera module.

[retrodans]

Well that is quite disappointing, will have to get in the queue for another one then. Thanks for looking at the errors with me though.

Dan

[RaTTuS]

make sure that the little sunny connector is fully home

[retrodans]

What is a little sunny connector? I assume it's the ribbon, which I have removed and reconnected several times to test, although one more time later today can't hurt.

if this ribbon wasn't in properly wouldn't I get a communication error rather than this silence?

[jamesh]

What is a little sunny connector? I assume it's the ribbon, which I have removed and reconnected several times to test, although one more time later today can't hurt.

if this ribbon wasn't in properly wouldn't I get a communication error rather than this silence?

There's the ribbon, plus the tiny ribbon between the camera module and the camera PCB - it has sunny printed on it. Sometimes it can come lose from the board, but I thought you said you had already reseated it?

[retrodans]

Sorry no, I hadn't played with the sunny cable. Just both ends of the main cable. At a glance the sunny one looks fine, would it be obvious if disconnected (ie. Just hanging)?

Thanks,
Dan

[Mortimer]

I had a problem the other day when I thought the camera was freezing. I had done an rpi-update between the time it was working and when I started having problems. I found that I had to go into raspi-config and re-enable the camera.

[retrodans]

@Mortimer thanks for the tip, sadly though it was setup fine I think. I went into config anyway and reset to enable camera, but still get the freeze. Is there any feedback in the os that will confirm that it is enabled (just in case its failing on setup somewhere)?

[jamesh]

Sorry no, I hadn't played with the sunny cable. Just both ends of the main cable. At a glance the sunny one looks fine, would it be obvious if disconnected (ie. Just hanging)?

Thanks,
Dan

Might be worth pulling it off then reseating. Finger nail to remove, light pressure to re-engage - you should feel a slight click as it connects.

[RaTTuS]

where in the world are you as you may find someone close by to check their setup

[retrodans]

@jamesh disconnected the little block and pressed it back in, still no better sadly.

@RaTTus I am in the Twickenham area, UK

I looked at new boards, sadly no sign yet as to when new stock will be appearing.