RPi 4B 8GB & POE Hat electrical interference with HQ camera

Support Raspberry Pi
1

I have built an Allsky camera, and I recently decided to add the POE hat. However, I am now getting some strange pixelation in the images (examples attached). I did not have this issue prior to installing the POE hat and I’m wondering if there is any way to stop this from happening. I should add that it is only the odd frame here and there. Last night there were only 2 frames effected.

image-20230321204039
image-202303212040392028×1520 260 KB

image-20230319205439
image-202303192054391920×1439 91.9 KB

The RPi is running the Lite OS and a 64GB SD Card.

TIA
Lisa

1 Like
2

UPDATE
I tried rebooting the system and the camera is now dead and will not work at all.

3

Hi Lisa,

Sorry to hear you’re still having issues with that combination of parts. If the distorted frames are only present in some photos but other photos look fine I think the problem may be related to either a poor connection of the camera ribbon cable, or EM noise generated by the PoE HAT causing interference in the LVDS cable or camera sensor, which is being captured in some photos.

Does this mean if you take the PoE HAT out of the mix altogether and just go back to your previous setup you still get nothing from the camera? That would lean towards a hardware fault in the camera, or cable, possibly caused by the addition of the HAT.
Can you please test the setup with the PoE HAT removed from the system to see if the camera comes back to life?

4

Hi Trent,
I’ve removed the POE Hat but still can’t get the new camera to work.
I’ve also tried one of the spare ribbons I ordered as well.
Lisa

5

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for confirming, it sounds like some part of the hardware has failed. I’ll be in touch by email so we can arrange an RMA return and confirm what parts are faulty and what still works correctly.