ESP32 Cam - working!

ESPHome
225

Whoo hoo !
Finally the pesky ESP32-CAM is working, after placing in a brand new $3 camera sub-module that arrived this week.

So, it wasn’t the board type selection, pin selection, or 5V power , or 3.3V power or anything else, just a dud camera on this example. It fired up and logged “got image” response immediately.

Sometimes you just have to back yourself, the error messages did say “Setup failed: Error” every time the board tried to configure the camera sub-module…
This is the third dud ESP module I’ve had this year. FIH, so much time wasted !

My working settings are EXACTLY as shown in the ESPhome example for ESP32DEV (ESP32-CAM from Banggood.com)…

capture%2028-Jun-19%2094429%20PM

226

Can you share you config, my CAM stays offline…

227

This thing looks very interesting to use for my DIY water/electricity meter (I would use a camera and do some OCR to figure out what numbers are shown as both are analogue).
How are people powering them? I have some NodeMCU’s laying around and their USB power is very easy to use as I have plenty of cables and adapters around.

228

I checked the token is changed from time to time.

Then, How can i input the token in the command below ? while i try this command you kindly recommend me lik below, the token was changed continuously.

ffmpeg -i http://ip_of_ha_instance:8123/api/camera_proxy_stream/camera.my_camera?token=YOUR_CAM_TOKEN -t 1 -vcodec copy /home/videos/recording.mp4

229

Hi, please look at the options,

  • Check if you have a film on your lense
  • 10 is the default quality also the worst :slight_smile: and highest can be up to 63
jpeg_quality: 10
  • Resolution is the next in line to look at, try making it higher:
resolution: 1600x1200
230

@mspinolo’s problem has been solved.

231

Hi folks, I got myself an ESP32 cam and with ESPHome, it works like a charm. I loaded everything using an FTDI adapter at 3.3v and all is good.

Then I went ahead and connected the 5v pins to an USB breakout board so that I can power it using a power supply for my permanent installation of this device.

When I plugged it in, the lamp shimmered continuously and the board did not do anything. I even connected the RX/TX from the FTDI adapter to assess if ESPHome was starting up via the logging, but no go at all. I then disconnected the 5v power source and connected the 3.3v power source from the FTDI adapter and all was good in the world again. ESPHome booted up and connected to Home Assistant and I could interact with the lamp and see the visuals from the camera.

Based on the continuous shimmering of the lamp, that would indicate that the board is not happy. Is there perhaps a jumper I needed to set before using 5v or anything that I might have missed? This board tends to be full of surprises because I found that the WiFi connectivity was non existent until after an extensive deep search online, I found that a jumper exists on the board to set between the on-board WiFi antenna and the external IPEX antenna connector and as luck would have it, the jumper was set to the IPEX antenna, so I had to purchase an IPEX antenna for WiFi to fully function. Not to mention that the jumper is so small, there is no way to actually solder it off and flip it.

So back to my question, is there something on this board that I need to do in order to supply 5v of power besides hooking the power to the 5v and GND pins?

I really don’t want to have to go and purchase another ESP32 CAM to discover that all I needed to do was change something on the board itself. I need to get this project done and dusted and this is keeping it from going forward.

I hope for a shimmer of light from you kind folks. excuse the pun

~Glen

232

What kind of board do you have?

233

Only 10 works for me, any different value and the camera is unavailable.

234

For those struggling with the clone AI Thinker boards, take a look at For those struggling to get ESP32 CAM (Clone AI Thinker module) working

After resoldering, both modules work again

235

It is known that Changing rez to high and quality to higher it creates extra heat and might need way to cool down the board.

236

I’ve heard about that. But my problem is probably due to using too much resources on the tt-go cam. I also use the same cam to connect to 3 different miflora devices. If I use any other value than 10 the device locks and the camera does not work. I just needed to clarify that, values beside 10 is possible on a tt-go.

237

Oh, sorry I have not used tt-go camera, I use esp32 cam you can see it here

BTW. you might notice next to antenna there is a switch between antennas, on my esp32 cam it was for external antenna as it is on the image:

980×880 569 KB

Without adding external antenna I could connect and switch on light but I could not get high-rez images.

238

Well after some tinkering I was finally able to get jpeg_quality: 63 to work with 640x480. But the image quality seems much worse. 10 seems to be the best quality for tt-go camera.

239

Are you using ESPhome? I can’t find a way to connect my cam to motioneye.

240

Yes I am using ESPhome. No idea about motioneye.

241

Finally got around to doing this and got it mostly working (it works but still powered via the serial cable)

Thanks to everyone in this thread for the examples this was my first time playing with ESPhome but I already have some node32s to make a few other sensors around the house.

1 Like
243

Got my esp32cam from Aliexpress working with ESPhome. Now i have an idea to use it as doorbell camera, so I have a question - can i add button to esp32cam?

244

Yes you can.

245

I also got a esp32cam. I flashed it with esptool.py and added the esp configuration in the yaml file afterwards.

Unfortunately it wasn’t possible to Upload.
I get this error:

INFO Successfully compiled program.
INFO Resolving IP address of cam.local
INFO  -> 192.168.1.140
INFO Uploading /data/cam/.pioenvs/cam/firmware.bin (914384 bytes)
Uploading: [=                                                           ] 1% 
ERROR Error sending data: [Errno 104] Connection reset by peer

So I downloaded the binary and reflashed it. Are you guys able to use OTA with the ESP32 cam?
I get a “video” now in ha, but it’s like one pic every 15 seconds? Is this normal?

BTW I read somewhere about the cam being in boot loop. I had that too, found out that my power connection of the FTDI module wasn’t enough, had add an external voltage supply after flashing (so was good enought for flashing but not for booting).