ESP32 CAM - 10 Dollar Camera for IoT Projects

Today we are working with the ESP32-CAM, an amazing 32-bit microcontroller module with a built-in camera and microSD card interface that retails for less than 10 dollars!
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Quick quiz - what has a camera, a microSD card socket, several GPIO pins, WifI and Bluetooth and costs less than 10 bucks? Answer - the ESP32-CAM module from A-Thinker!
We have already worked with the ESP32, it’s a 32-bit microcontroller from Espressif Systems that has a wealth of features. The ESP32 is a perfect choice to build WiFi-enabled or IoT projects, and it can be programmed using the familiar Arduino IDE.
There are many different modules that use the ESP32, and today we will look at one of the most popular ones - the ESP32-CAM. As its name would imply this module has a built-in 2-megapixel camera, as well as a microSD card and provisions for using an external antenna.
The demo sketch that comes with the module creates a full-featured Camera Web Server, complete with a control panel and advanced features like face detection. All you need to do to get it working is to add your WiFi credentials.
One thing that is missing from the ESP32-CAM module, however, is a USB connector. To program this device you’ll need to use an FTDI adapter, the same type you would use when programming an Arduino Pro Mini.
Today I’ll show you how to hook up that FTDI adapter and program the ESP32-CAM. I’ll also show you how to add an external antenna, and how to troubleshoot any “brownout condition” errors you might get when experimenting with this device.
Here is what we will be covering today:
00:00 - Introduction
03:23 - ESP32-CAM Introduction
08:18 - Using the FTDI Adapter
09:28 - Camera Web Server Example
15:44 - Resolving Brownout Problems
22:39 - Using an External Antenna
If you need more information or would like a copy of the Antenna Test Sketch head over to the DroneBot Workshop website where you will find an article that accompanies this video at dbot.ws/esp32cam.
If you want to discuss the ESP32_CAM or anything you see here on the DroneBot Workshop channel just head over to the forum at forum.dronebotworkshop.com. The Forum is also the place to go to suggest content for new articles and videos, and it’s a great place to meet new people who have similar interests to you.
I hope you enjoy the video!

[@MattDLD333]

He's the Bob Ross of electronics.

[@Slushee]

You nailed it. 100% True

[@chrisreeves5984]

@Magic Man ,-__-, so true

[@life-explorer]

true

[@life-explorer]

he will beat the brush anytime

[@cw4608]

@Magic Man hanks for the laugh

[@johnmcclain3887]

I'm in my sixties, getting back into electronics, and ran across "Arduino", and have found your tut's among the best I've watched. I especially enjoy the clarity of the sketches and explanations, you are very clear and exact with the pieces putting the program together, connecting the pieces with what they do. Thanks very much.

[@OrixMovies]

Its great👍🏻

[@qiangzhang9368]

Great!

[@jethrotull5847]

Hi John, 58 and me too. I’m integrating everything into home assistant. While I’m having flashbacks on my 20 year electronics career I’m having nightmares based on my last job ( network engineer ) regarding my paranoia with network security. It is a crying shame hooking anything to the internet is a invitation to a security breach. So every in house camera needs to be on a non inet wireless network. Even so the wireless signal is hackable. It leaves me insecure. Of course my kids think think internet is private. Oh well guess I’m just old.

[@jamescullins2709]

Nice to hear John, I will be 80 in June and still do electronics, CNC, 3d printing. This is a very good channel to subscribe to.

[@jamescullins2709]

@@_marlene Thank you for sharing, remember NEVER give up. I will pray for you.

[@trevorjanes1181]

I can't get over the quality of these videos. So much useful information presented clearly and thoroughly. So glad I found this channel!

[@gibsonsimpson]

I thought your videos were high quality tutorials. Then I went to your website. You have put a lot of work into making a polished written tutorial! Thank you for all your work.

[@4473021]

Absolutely fantastic introduction to the ESP32-CAM, thank you so much for pointing out all the small quirks like the brown-outs and the modifications you need to do to use an external antenna.

[@vilkspilks]

Thank you VERY much for this video. I had this exact module laying around for more than a month now, could not get it working. Now my project is moving on, thanks to your tutorial. Very precise, very interesting learning material, thank you for sharing!

[@peta1001]

I am impressed with this gentleman. I have seen lots of his videos in the past couple of years, but never had time to "like" them, never mind "subscribe". You cannot hear a single false info on his channel, as opposed to most of the similar videos on the same subjects. The verbal part is just perfectly proper...not too much, not insufficient. If he is not an engineer (or other post-graduate), he certainly thinks like one. I wish I had professionals like him working in my team.

[@OcenaSoft]

Hi Bill, I just received this in the post today and by the time I had watched your video I had this all working just fine. Thanks so much for these great videos...

[@talenthub5691]

I am a students of Robotics and AI, and believe me this video taught me literally everything about esp32 cam. Hats Off to you, sir

[@lwo7736]

I love.... LOVE.... your videos, youre so detailed, you dont make any assumptions on our abilities and explain everything Seriously, thank you

[@stephanemancini9445]

Thank you very much for these very clear explanations and for sharing your videos with passion. I'm from the south of France and now the ESP32 CAM has no secrets for me.

[@duncancampbell9742]

Got mine today (also in my sixties and getting back into electronics after many years away). A note quick note for anyone with issues getting the PC to even recognise (beep) that something's been plugged in. Double and even triple check your micro-USB cable. I say that because the 1st 2 cables I tried produced the same result ... no beep from PC when ESP32-CAM plugged in, so I had almost given up. I remembered another cable that I had in my travel kit that I had bought directly when I had forgotten a cable whilst on holidays ages ago. Bingo ... it worked. Turns out the 1st 2 were charging cables only and were probably provided with phones sometime in the past. Once that was sorted, everything worked perfectly. Brilliant video ... working through the examples now (it's only midnight ... plenty of time yet :) )

[@omaryanas435949]

I Just love your videos, you explain every detail in a very clear way.

[@hairlesshippy]

I've been waiting for the esp32 followup vids.. THANK YOU!!

[@EdsonDRojas]

Awesome! just what I was looking for. Amazingly organized and clear video, as always! thank you!

[@japienolte1289]

Thank you for this video! It helped me to get going with the ESP32-CAM. One note: I had to change the 3.3V power from the USB interface board to 5V and connected this power to the VCC pin of the ESP board and then the programming worked.

[@Timjstewart]

I really enjoyed this video about such a useful and affordable micro-controller. It's abundantly clear that you put a lot of hard work into developing your skills and your videos. I'm super impressed. Thanks!

[@bache2493]

Great video. I like your calm way of explaining things and your excellent English that makes it possible for me as a German to follow you. Stay healthy. 👍 👍 🙂

[@neilshobbyhq]

Great, I received one of these about two weeks ago and have been itching to give it a go, thanks for the info

[@markvreeken]

Once again very informative. Thanks a lot for the clear and concise explanations. It is greatly appreciated by everyone I'm sure

[@CodingScientist]

Hello Sir, I have seen 1000's of tutorial videos about Arduino, ESP, RasPi etc etc but being honest, your tutorial videos are THE BEST, Very Clear and Detailed with circuit, codes, troubleshooting etc etc. Please keep up the great work for the community. You should come up with more number of projects using ESP32 Cam for Robotics etc

[@TinFoot]

I am continually stunned by the clever introductions and how they accurately portray the coming attractions. "We're taking pretty pictures today...." I so look forward to your videos. Stay safe.

[@kennmossman8701]

I thought he said....dirty pictures!

[@Goman1244]

Thank you for your very well produced technical videos. They are excellent. Keep up the great work. It is much appreciated.

[@gregbowen617]

Excellent video....I got one of these last year and was able to get it operating but you have made it very simple and easy to understand...

[@penguinarium]

Thank you very much for the work you've been doing, I really like your presentation style, keeps me calm and clear headed. Gotta remeber to watch more of your stuff, or probably all of it!

[@erikderuiter7475]

THE most thorough tutorials AFAIK of... thank you very much!

[@guidovlaere]

Thanks a lot for all your work to help me and others arduino fans all over the world with your excellent tutorials!

[@onecncwest]

Thank you for all your excellent videos! Hope you are doing great and staying well.

[@buildfrom]

The tidiness and organisation of that workshop is amazing.

[@CDRClarisse]

dreamshop

[@omenechris4698]

You are just a father! I cannot wait to subscribe to your channel. In fact, i will go through all your videos, and not this alone. Live Long Father!

[@tonykempson4331]

Excellent video, and a very detailed explanation as always! Thank you!

[@placitas52]

Great video, nicely explained. Clearly pronounced, easy listening. Thanks.

[@tedthisius4778]

I received an ESP32 CAM Kit yesterday. It consists of the ESP32 CAM board, a camera, an external antenna and an adapter board. The adapter board contains a USB micro connector which can be used for programming and power. The adapter board includes its own ReSeT switch. I set my Arduino IDE to the board suggested above and tried loading the WiFi Scan example that Bill showed in an earlier video. This worked fine. I then loaded a known good working sketch that I have used with an ESP32 Dev board (not CAM). This used the ESP32 as an Access Point. This worked fine also. With the adapter board in place, there is no way to connect the GPIO 0 pin to ground but the adapter board must handle that as the sketch loaded right after being compiled. Things looked great. Next I removed the adapter board and installed the loose ESP32 CAM board on a breadboard. I tried using a breadboard power supply both at 3.3V and also at 5V from a battery. This was not successful. Also my camera was packaged separately and I haven't been able to connect it to the ESP32 CAM board. It appears that with the adapter board in place, I will not be able to access any of the GPIO pins which I need for my projects. This is why I planned on using the board loose to expose the pins. Any tips on my problems?

[@dakcn]

Fantastic video. You are very thorough and do a wonderful job of explaining. Thank you!

[@ShivamKumar-rp8kr]

Thanks for this video. Not much content is there on ESP32 "CAM" online specially. Thank you so much

[@deasafryda3619]

Your videos motivate me to stop laying on the bed, buy the tools and start to made something

[@PappenbergerApps]

This is the one of the best explanation videos I ever saw!

[@SpacePatriot]

Thanks for the video, very helpful. I feel like ill watch this a few times to really understand the ESP32 cam.

[@runtels]

This was much needed help, thank you

[@Teyros]

Perfect tutorial. Great job as always!

[@tpobrienjr]

Took a while to puzzle out the ribbon cable connection. Now that I know, I'm dangerous!! Ready to explore the face recognition stuff. Thank you for a super video.

[@zsoltibitter8761]

Let me drop a message here. I am hungarian and i handle written english well. But when it comes to listening and understanding i have difficulties. There are a lot of english speaking youtubers i cant fully understand (i cant even practice here in our country) Its very important how you speak when you are educating people. Your speech and style is clear, i believe that its understandable for people all over the world, and your voice is calming as well. You are a pro in education. Congratulations and thank you for the valuable videos. Keep the good work.

[@Hennie588]

Very clear and informative video. Just the motivation I needed to try out the ESP 32. Thank you for the video. You are a great teacher.

[@SincereFirstAiotVision]

SincereFirst branded camera modules is great.

[@postiemania]

Just ordered two of these, thank you for the tips.

[@KommaAchtKommaEins]

Thanks for the overview. I already considered getting a couple of them to monitor our chicken coop. And double thanks for using a free OS. :)

[@colinmarten5052]

Excellent video my setup went like clockwork!. Thank you very much!.

[@Omar.bin.khattab]

Thanks for your Time and Efforts

[@abelashenafi6291]

Explained, flawlessly

[@NewAgeDIY]

Once again a wonderful weekend project. I am using a number of Pi’s and MotionEysOS all thanks to one of your videos. Question. Are you planning to make a video on how you can use this board in a light weight security camera?

[@ahmedawny7236]

Great video. Thanks a lot, Bill !

[@AaronHolocker]

Can't wait for the next video!

[@JoseBatista-yx9sh]

Thank you a lot. You made things very clear here.

[@TheRainHarvester]

17:20 actually high gauge = thinner wire. Great video. I just got an esp8266 going last night to make an info center for my house. They are fun!

[@casemodder89]

@@douganderson7002 that AWG is a whole bunch of BS. Why would you call a thinner wire bigger ? Because we can ? Nonsense. At least the murrican V8 engines aren't called 1,5L because of their 6L displacement.

[@vjdav6872]

very nice! as always i like the perfection in details. thanks from users..

[@ugotit33x]

FANTASTIC AS ALWAYS THANK YOU

[@bruinflight1]

I LOVE THIS CHANNEL!!! Thank you!!!

[@klaymon03]

Another great video. Thanks for posting.

[@bitschips]

Nice video, thank you for teaching me! Best regards and be safe.

[@RhoTrepaan]

Exceptionally detailed 😱

[@geekchameleon]

I do some work for a dance school. I just ordered some ESP32s for a couple of WS2812 lighting projects I'm starting and just discovered the ESP32-CAM. They create a lot of videos of their classes and choreography for social media, and love cool lighting effects. They have TVs serviced by Ras Pis in the parent area (showing a lot of the previously mentioned videos) and it's been a wish list item to inexpensively put a live feed of classes for the littlest (2-4 y.o.) students on one or more of these TVs so the parents can watch without being seen through the windows which always distracts the littles. These ESP32-CAM modules are $19.99 for a three pack right now, and I'd be a fool to not give this a try. It appears that I can use omxplayer on a Pi to bypass the web interface for the stream. If so, it'd be so easy to keep dumb controls for the non-techie staff. I quickly thought about getting a carrier board made by Oshpark to carry the ESP32-CAM, a D2D so I can route 12v from an outlet to the module (not a short run for optimum perspective) as well as include a GPIO0 jumper point and a socket for an FTDI in case I need to reprogram it. Funny part is that the Oshpark board would probably cost more than the ESP32-CAM... It would make sense to put a hole in the board for easy access to the reset switch, and keep the area adjacent to the on board antenna free of copper to prevent blocking/interference.

[@octogames6823]

Thank you so much, what a great video! I was a little concerned if this was going to be a painful project. I see the hard part is making the enclose. :D

[@Satscape]

Re-visiting the video, as I just got one of these. Had to switch it up to 5v as I was getting brown-outs on 3.3 - Nice that it tells you it's browning-out on the serial output!

[@sharayuachar8326]

Wow! Thank you for such a great video

[@bluedutch01]

You are a great human being.... thank you!

[@solo2891]

Great work shop, thank you.

[@Dzonistekino]

Love your videos, thank you for sharing your knowledge

[@underlecht]

You are so smart. Your all videos are inspiring. Thank you a lot lot lot.

[@warrenking1815]

Love how he explains thing!

[@patricklepoutre]

Thank you for the video Bill

[@nerdwerx2292]

Great video!I like your instrutional approach on this subject.Hopefully in the future, you'll feature this Cam again in a cool project.Maybe something like a cam hidden in a birdhouse or garden gnome.That is the plan for my ESP cam.If so, all I ask is that you you name the project something ridiculously corny, such as "Operation Garden Gnome Sentry" 😂

[@MrPoloNord]

Excellent video, as it is usual from him. Just a point that had me stumped. He says to use the 3.3v settings. That was giving me issues because the board kept having brown-outs. A powered USB hub still was not solving the issue. I put the FTDI to 5v and powering the ESP31-CAM on the 5VDC pin. That has removed all problems.

[@neil2736]

Great video ESP32 looks a great device... more please

[@ertan1147]

Great explanation. Thank you

[@sboho]

Great as usual Thank you

[@akkaradechsrithongchai7766]

I am very poor english guy but I can understand everything what your teach. Thank you.

[@tlmoller]

A man in control of his tools. And as alsways a great video. Love it.

[@adrianantoci1187]

This video is so useful. Thanks so much sir!

[@Zarundo]

Still after 3 years, this is very helpfull! :D

[@JoseFernandez-yz1sf]

This video is excellent, many thanks. BTW, I'd like all Americans speak like you, excellent enunciation.

[@SyamAcademy]

Your Intro is superb big bro.

[@mohammadadil7763]

Excellent explanation. Thanks.

[@Nichetronix]

Good intro. One small thing: when subtracting two powers in dBm, the unit of the result is "dB" not dBm". I can explain further if anyone wonders why, but it's basically because dB is a logarithmic power ratio, while dBm is an absolute power expressed as a ratio to 1 mW (0 dBm).

[@varmint243davev7]

I was a little disappointed that he did not explain that for each 3db change, the power is either halved or doubled 30db = 1w and 33db =2w and 36db=4w (rounded)

[@philnewman1110]

Great video, really well explained, very interesting indeed. Thank you very much!!

[@deancyrus1]

You again! Ok I'm subscribing so i get more of these videos

[@thehappycoder3760]

Wonderful tutorial

[@mcneill64]

Thank you !

[@connecticutaggie]

I bought one of these and found having to use FTDI was inconvenient; so, I found another version of the board called the ESP32-CAM-CH340 that includes the USB and is only a couple of dollars more. Well worth it IMHO.

[@frankkante7850]

That is a very helpfull video. Thank you

[@DPTech_workroom]

Nice! Need to try it.

[@fermatensieg]

Thanks good tutorial easy to understand

[@robertwillemsen368]

thanks bill! I want to make a bird breeding house with a cam inside. I think this is a wonderfull camera for this application.

[@nematollahriazi208]

Thank you ❤

[@eslam_nagy]

Great video.. You are great man

[@MakerVn1]

i always like ur introduction.

[@iflnr978]

2 thumbs up. i love the subject and presentation. i watched this channel before and was critical of the presentation, but i no longer am. thanks for the great video! i'll be watching a lot more

[@kwisatzhaderach1458]

Drink that kool aid

[@iflnr978]

Kwisatz Haderach is this comment descriptive? Does it have a point? I am trying to derive meaning, but have nothing, yes I am aware of the James Town massacre and the use of cool aid, still, what does that have to do with this video?

[@donaldkormos5529]

Hi Bill ... just a thought. I was having problems programming an ESP32-CAM even with your super instructions ... but still had problems. I was using what looked like the same FTDI adapter as you. I measured the 3.3V output on several of the same ... all 3.1 volts. So I switched to another brand with the same FTDI chip. They measured just over 3.3 volts. No problems now. Just thought I'd mention cause you suggested some finicky power issues. Happy Holidays to all !!!

[@alfredcheung6704]

Thanks. Good teaching.

[@moldovanucalin8827]

great video, great product

[@rubialugattimoreira1978]

Very nice!

[@marketingcrescente]

Super, Thanks