BE-IIS Dual GMSL2 Camera HAT for Raspberry Pi 5 — MAX96716A, 2x FAKRA, 10m Cable Support

Specifications

Overview

The BE-IIS-2CAM from Brechel Electronic-Industrial Interface Systems adds two GMSL2 camera inputs to a Raspberry Pi 5 in the standard HAT+ form factor. The board is built around the Analog Devices MAX96716A GMSL2 deserializer and exposes two Rosenberger FAKRA connectors, each rated up to 6 Gbps with its own Power-over-Coax filter and protection, feeding dual MIPI CSI outputs into the Pi's CSI interfaces.

The practical advantage GMSL2 brings over the Pi's native CSI ribbon cabling is reach and latency. BE-IIS validated the board in a dual-camera configuration at 2304 x 1296 in RAW10 with two CSI-2 lanes per camera, and tested both cameras over 10-metre coaxial cables — distances ribbon cable cannot cover. The validation used the same Sony IMX708 12 MP sensors found in the Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3.

Integration is deliberately low-friction. The system runs on the stock Raspberry Pi OS Linux kernel without rebuilding or installing a custom kernel image; the required drivers install through a bash script, after which standard tools such as rpicam-hello work normally. Camera power is supplied either at 5 V through the GPIO header or 5 V through the USB-C port, with the camera supply voltage selectable by jumper at 5 V, 9 V, 12 V, 16 V or 24 V. On the far end of the coax, a MAX96717-based BE-IIS-GMSL2-SER serializer board connects a standard CSI-2 camera module to the GMSL2 link with I2C control, camera reset/enable signals and Power over Coax.

Key Benefits

Analog Devices MAX96716A deserializer with 2x FAKRA inputs at up to 6 Gbps each brings automotive-grade camera links to the Raspberry Pi 5. Validated over 10-metre coaxial cables at 2304 x 1296 RAW10 solves remote-camera placement that CSI ribbon cannot reach. PoC filter and protection on every connector with 5–24 V jumper-selectable camera power covers a range of industrial and automotive sensors. Stock Raspberry Pi OS kernel with script-based driver install avoids custom kernel maintenance. Single or dual HAT operation in a standard HAT+ footprint scales from stereo pairs to wider arrays.

Applications

Industrial machine vision with remote cameras, robotics perception heads, automotive camera prototyping, stereo and multi-camera depth systems, long-cable surveillance and inspection rigs, and GMSL2 evaluation for designers moving from CSI to automotive-grade links.

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