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3. ESP32 CAM

ESP32 CAM: How to set it up, How to access the TF card, and how to Free up I/O! Why are all the pins connected to the Micro TF Card - meaning you can't use any external I/O. Find out what to do to get usable I/O pins as well as Micro TF Card operation!

ESP32 CAM:

• How to test the setup of Your board (connection test).
  
  
• How to setup the Webserver example and Stream Video.
  
  
• How to get more I/O pins by configuring the TF card in 1 bit mode.
  
  
• How to get an Extra Two More I/O (4 total) pins with minimal modification.
  
  
• Why your code Fails to Compile (sometimes!).

Obviously, since this is an ESP32, you get all the internet capability that it normally provides. You connect the camera module with the flexible PCB connection clip. Simply flip up the clamp (black bit), insert the flexible PCB and flip the clamp down.

Warning: You can buy the ESP32 CAM without a programming module.

You can buy an ESP32 CAM without a programming module, and whilst you can connect up a serial link and other required connections manually, it is far easier to buy a plug in programmer module that provides the serial chip, reset and program push buttons and the USB connection.

The disadvantage of using a development board programmer is that all the pins on the ESP32-CAM become inaccessible. So you will have to unplug the ESP32-CAM and place it into a development board if you want to develop a circuit.

Note: Using a development programmer board means you can't access pins.

The reason that you can buy them separately is that you can program the chip and then remove the programmer for deployment. Also the module can be programmed over WiFi if you are feeling particularly adventurous!

The image output format is jpg, BMP or grayscale, but you only get jpg output with an OV2640 camera module.

Note: jpg output is only available with an OV2640 camera module.

At the highest resolution (UXGA/SXGA) the ESP32 CAM (with OVO2640) is capable of a 15fps (Frames per second) which is quite respectable. Note that the camera is a 2Mpixel camera.

If you need a higher frame rate you can configure the CAM to operate in SVGA mode for 30fps and CIF for 60fps - with the consequent reduction in pixel width and height of the resulting images.

Also on the ES32-CAM PCB is a serial PSRAM, providing 8MBytes of RAM. This is in addition to the 520kBytes of SRAM already in the ESP32 and is needed for the highest resolution images.

Feature Summary

- Ultra-small volume 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi + BT/BLE SoC module.
- Uses low-power dual-core 32-bit CPU as an application processor.
- The main frequency can reach up to 240MHz, + computing power up to 600 DMIPS.
- Built-in 520KB SRAM and external 8MB PSRAM.
- Supports UART/SPI/I2C/PWM/ADC/DAC interfaces.
- Supports OV2640 and OV7670 cameras with built-in flash.
- Supports image WiFi upload.
- Supports TF card.
- Supports multiple sleep modes.
- Embedded Lwip and FreeRTOS.
- Supports STA/AP/STA+AP working mode.
- Supports Smart Config/AirKiss one-click network configuration.
- Supports serial port local upgrade and remote firmware upgrade (FOTA).

ESP32 CAM: Specification

Parameter	Value
Package	DIP-16
Dimensions	27*40.5*4.5 (±0.2) mm
SPI Flash	Default 32Mbit
RAM	Internal 520KB + External 8MB PSRAM
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 4.2 BR/EDR and BLE standards
Wi-Fi	802.11 b/g/n/e/i
Supported Interfaces	UART, SPI, I2C, PWM
Tf Card Support	Up to 4G
No of IO Ports:	9 - But see "The Schematic" below.
Default Serial Port Rate:	115200 bps
Image Output Format:	JPEG (only with OV2640), BMP, Grayscale
Wifi Frequency range	2400 ~2483.5MHz
PCB antenna gain	2dBi
Current used: flashLED off	180mA@5V
Current used: flashLED on	310mA@5V
Current used: deep sleep	6mA@5V
Current used: modem sleep	20mA@5V
Current used: light sleep	6.7mA@5V
Power supply	4.75 ~ 5.25V
Operating temp. range	-20°C to +70°C

Setup the ESP32 CAM

Setup ESP32 Board Support

If you have not used an ESP32 board before you'll need to tell Arduino IDE how to configure the ESP32 board. This is not specific to ESP32 CAM but allows use of any ESP32.

You do this by adding a line of code in the "Additional Boards Manager URLs" field of the File > Preferences Menu. This changes the Arduino IDE to allow it to know about ESP32.

Here are the installation steps:

1. Open the Arduino IDE.
2. Go to Menu >File > Preferences.
3. In the Additional Boards Manager URLs field, enter the following URL:

This is the .json text to enter into the Additional Boards Manager text field below:

DO NOT USE >>>

The above line is commonly found on the web!

The source for this json (which is maintained for now!) is located here:

    https://docs.espressif.com/projects/arduino-esp32/en/latest/installing.html

ESP32 Board Support Gotcha

If you set the "Additional Boards Manager" to the previous json file then it installs ESP32 but only to version 1.0.6 - a lot of code will appear to work. However I found this error when trying to use a file system to access the TF card; using this example:

https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/blob/master/libraries/SD_MMC/examples/SDMMC_Test/SDMMC_Test.ino

When compiled with ESP32 V1.0.6 this line fails:

The member function FS::path() is undefined.

The solution is to use the 2nd json line above (the one that is not struck through - with green background).

Note: If you already have other .json files specified, then hit the button on the right of the text box (see above image), and add the .json text to a newline.

1. Click OK.
2. Go to Tools > Board > Board Manager.
3. In the Board Manager window, search for ESP32.
4. Select the ESP32 by Espressif Systems board and click Install.
5. Once the board is installed, select it from the Board menu.
6. You are now ready to use the ESP32 with the Arduino IDE.

The main thing you will see in the IDE after adding the board, is that in addition to the standard boards ("Arduino AVR boards"), you will have an "ESP32" board entry as shown in the image below:

if you use an older IDE scroll down the boards manager to find "AI Thinker EDP32-CAM". It is, however, a loooooooonnnng way down (there is an easier way - see below):

You can see there are a lot of boards to choose from - the easiest way  to select the correct board is using the with the new search operation in the 2.x.x Arduino IDE - go back to the main IDE screen:

Select the drop down box under "Arduino Uno" that drops down a line labelled "Select other board and port":

...click it to pull up a convenient search box (in the image below). Just search for "Ai thinker" and select "AI Thinker ESP32_CAM" and click OK and the connected port.

Check the setup

Now lets use a very simple program to check that you can program the ESP32-CAM. Lets just turn on and off the LED used as the flashlight. This is on pin 4.

If you have now gone blind - you know its working! - 1s on and 1s off is too much!

If you want a less bright option : lets just use the built in LED!!!!! - actually I've turned on the LED for 100ms then off for 1s - still blinding so lets use 1ms, 999ms off. Right, thats still bright if you look at it (so don't!) but not too bad.

Note: To see the LED attached to GPIO33 look at the under side of the board.

Here is the code:

Copy Sketch

// By John Main - TronicsBench.com
//
const int ledPin = 4; // FLASH LIGHT LED on GPIO4
const int redled = 33; // Other LED on GPIO33

// #define TURN_OFF // uncomment this to turn off the LEDS

void setup()
{
  pinMode(redled, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
}

void loop()
{
  // LED is wired to 3V3 via 1k res so inverted
#ifndef TURN_OFF
  digitalWrite(redled, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);
#endif
  delay(1);

  digitalWrite(redled, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);
  delay(999);
}

Note the LED on GPIO33 is effectively the LED_BUILTIN that you use on other boards. The only problem is that the code for the AI Thinker ESP32 CAM  does not define the "LED_BUILTIN" word so you have to specify pin 33!

Camera Test program

Now use the provided example program to test out the camera's capabilities.

    Menu > File > Examples >
         (Examples for AI Thinker ESP32-CAM) > ESP32 > Camera > CameraWebServer
Add in your ssid and password and setup the camera model as below.

Select your specific setup

If you program the board thinking that everything is setup for you for the AI Thinker board and camera then you will get this message

No need to panic: Just edit the following definitions that you can find at the top of the file:

Also enter your ssid (wifi network name) and password (wifi network password )

Find out the network address

Program the ESP32-CAM and then open the serial monitor. The network address of your ESP32-CAM will be shown on the serial monitor. If nothing happens reset button on the programming board and wait for the screen to update.

..............
WiFi connected
Starting web server on port: '80'
Starting stream server on port: '81'
Camera Ready! Use 'http://192.168.0.62' to connect

Just enter the TCPIP URL address, as shown above into your web browser - the numbers will be different for you.

Resulting example control web-page for the ESP32-CAM:

The drop down box at the top controls the image size (Resolution), where you can change the screen size and view the resulting output.

ESP32-CAM Schematic Analysis

You can open the full schematic here.

Header pins

Looking at the schematic there are tons of pins used to control the camera and lots of pins used to connect to the Micro TF card. Virtually every pin has a label and the two header pins expose 10 of these pins - 6 are power or ground.

So that leaves 9 pins on the header that might be useful! This is probably where the specification gets the entry "No of IO Ports: 9".

The PSRAM is connected (mainly) the dedicated ESP32 serial interface. But CLK and CMD on this interface are not connected. Instead GPIO17 provides the PSRAM clock labelled PSRAM_CLK. This has probable been done so that bit banged pins are used, allowing more control over the interface.

U2RXD (also lablelled as IO16) is used as the PSRAM chip select going to header P1 pin 7.

Key concept for more I/O

For fast throughput the TF card uses SQI or Serial Quad Interface. It means there are four data lines instead of just the one for SPI. You can, however, configure the TF card to use less pins; either 2 or 1 bit, meaning that the other 3 are free for use (1 bit mode).

The only thing this affects is the data throughput to the TF card and the fact that HS2_DATA1 is connected to the FLASH LED.

Getting Extra I/O

The entries in green are the easiest pins to use as external I/O.

Those in violet require a small amount of soldering.

Those in blue have a dual function (the serial port) that are used during board programming. When not programming they can be used - but really only if you remove the programming board and insert the ESP32 CAM into a development board (or socket).

So you can get:

• 2 I/O for free - a programming change.
• 2 more I/O with a bit of soldering.
• 2 more I/O if you think about the serial port use.
  

Header pin assignments

The following table shows header pins that are not power or ground

Table showing Available I/O pins

Dual function pins

There are three dual function pins that have the potential to be used as GPIO.

Boot pin

The boot pin can be used after the boot timeout. But in this system, it is used for the CAM master clock - so it is not really available for use here!

Serial programming pins

If you use a programming development board and remove the ESP32 CAM after programming then these pins can be used as GPIO. U0TXD can be configured as GPIO1 and U0RXD can be configured as GPIO3.

U0TXD and U0RXD appear on header P1.

Extra pins using board modification

Extra pins that you could use for I/O (with a bit of work):

Expanding I/O using helper Chip

The other easy way to expand the I/O for this system is to use an MCP23017 and this chip only requires 2 wires as it is an I2C device. So you can easily expand the AI Thinker ESP32 CAM using the two easily available pins GPIO12 and GPIO13.

It is not essential but you should add an interrupt from the MCP23017. I would add it to the LED FLASH pin (removing the resistor as detailed above), as this pin is routed to the ESP32 header.

Easily setup 2 Free I/O pins

This is an easy software controlled way of changing the SQI interface. Instead of using all 4 data pins you use only one. It is very easy to do - just use the following inialisation code for the file system library:

    SD_MMC.begin("/sdcard", true)

The boolean flag 'true', indicates to the SD_MMC library to use 1-bit mode.

To use the other data lines as normal I/O just initialise them after the above line of code (See the example code below).

Arduino Sketch with 2 free I/O

The example code below uses the same example from here:

    Files > Examples > SD_MMC > SDMMC_Test.ino

...but modifies it for the one bit mode. It also sets two pins GPIO12 and GPIO13 as outputs and toggles them alternately.

You can use those pins as you want i.e. input, input pulled high or output.

Download the test file here. This is a .txt file - download and save as a .ino file for use in the Arduino IDE.