Yeah I know what you are thinking… Really, another sensor node project idea? And I can only say yes! I do have another spin to this which is why I am posting about it. We have seen may esp8266 based sensor nodes throughout this site, youtube etc. I found this ( I just found it, I know its been around for a while) esp32 and along with this software can make the cheap module a stream ip camera.
My thought is this. Can one use and idea similar to above but incorporate the normal sensor used in a sensor node? A good temp sensor, Humidity, Light sensor, Motion and addressable LED? Have all these work together with the camera streaming as a camera feed, and sensors MQTT controlled.
I have a few use cases that would be nice to have. Garage, Back porch ( enclosed) Front porch. ETC.
Any help would be appreciated with this idea or a link if someone has already dont this.
The answer is definitely “yes”. There are dozens of esp8266 like devices. I chose Particle devices because their web-based development interface (IDE) is simple to use and the the Particle Cloud allows me to easily and securely communicate with my devices via the Internet. I started working with HomeAssistant a couple of months ago and I am using MQTT to interface with these devices as well.
For example, My garage door controller is a Particle Photon. It monitors my garage doors via reed switches, and controls my garage doors via relays. For the past couple of years, we’ve been able to check door status and control the doors via HTML that that runs on the family cell phones and computers. This is a screen shot from my cell phone:
About two months ago, I started working with Home Assistant, and it was easy to update the Photon’s code to communicate with Home Assistant as well. The Photon sends an MQTT message whenever the door status changes, and Home Assistant sends an MQTT message to trigger door action. No extra wiring was involved. The Photon and the MQTT broker are both attached to our WiFi network, so the MQTT traffic never leaves the house.
My current Home Assistant user interface is very basic at this point, but my goal is to make it look identical to the HTML interface displayed above.
Oh, I forgot you specifically mentioned temperature, humidity and ambient light sensors. I have Particle Xenons attached to a variety of sensors, including those, and I just completed adding the MQTT code so that information is also displayed on Home Assistant.
There is code for various sensors attached to esp32 all over the web. I haven’t seen anything that covers all sensors and a camera. Maybe you will have to build your own.
Just noticed that the m5stack system may be the closest you’ll get. They do have a camera module with a grove connector, so you could add cheap sensors.
Installed that esp32cam yesterday and it is streaming indeed.
I used the following youtube tutorial and that works. The stream 192.168.2.xxx:81/stream appears in my HA front end.
There is no authentication however
I saw the following ESPhome announcement from last week. That may be the solution to solve your need for sensor data and my issues
Yes, I saw this also, thank you for link to the youtube video. 2 issues with the ESPHome version I have read but not tested is it will not Prob 1(stream continuously) as the prob 2(ESP chip gets “extremely Hot” ) can you confirm this? ESPHome will on stream when it is accessed.
I have not been able to flash it with ESPHome (add-on successfully installed but can’t reach it because of my SSL setup). That standard Espressif s/w from the video streams instantly to http://192.168.xxx.xxx:81/stream and the image quality it uses on reboot can be configured. That does not get hot when streaming.
Update: I flashed it with ESPHome successfully and it got recognized by Hassio, not getting hot but can’t test the camera until 0.91 (running 0.90.1 now). To be continued.
Not sure what is not working with your esphome. However esphome is perfect solution for setting up sensor nodes on esp’s. I am awaiting my esp-cam modules to try out the cam feature.
