ESP32 CAM - 10 Dollar Camera for IoT Projects

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@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!

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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 :) )

[@deasafryda3619]

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

[@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...

[@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. 👍 👍 🙂

[@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

[@buildfrom]

The tidiness and organisation of that workshop is amazing.

[@CDRClarisse]

dreamshop

[@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.

[@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!

[@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!

[@lwo7736]

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

[@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.

[@DIYElectronicCircuits]

its very good that u give so much info without acting all emotional and excited, i learned so much.

[@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)

[@akkaradechsrithongchai7766]

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

[@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!

[@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?

[@GoutamDAS-ls1wb]

Hi Bill, Thanks for the great video. I figured that the FTD driver needs to be installed on the pc first or else the adapter will not be recognized. After this, the program downloaded properly but I began to have brownout issues. Maybe my pc is old and so it did not right away recognize the FTD adapter and install the software right away. My next project is the brownout issue--will add external power. Hopefully everything will go well after that--It did NOT! Changing PC's or USB cables had ZERO effect In my case, the camera and program worked correctly ONLY after I switched the FTDI & ESP32 to run on 5 V instead of 3.3 V. My recommendation is therefore to set the jumper on the FTD to 5 V and power the ESP32 cam on the 5 V pin instead of the 3.3 V. I could have saved a lot of time if I had read the internet forums first!

[@cacaokingdom3122]

Some computers have high power USB ports that allow for better power output. These are ones that also work better for charging USB devices. Sometimes they are clearly marked as being high power but they might not be. If you can try other USB ports, you may have better luck on a different port.

[@geneh9210]

This was the situation with my FTDI adapter. I had to power the ESP32 with 5V vice 3.3V or it wouldn't program...received a fatal error. Thanks.

[@omaryanas435949]

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

[@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.

[@erikderuiter7475]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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!

[@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.

[@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!

[@SpacePatriot]

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

[@PappenbergerApps]

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

[@Teyros]

Perfect tutorial. Great job as always!

[@neilausten9404]

Further to my first comment. The ESPCam now working fine from a USB power supply. Original one I tried was faulty. Facial detection working - not such a bad little camera after all!

[@zk_6312]

So, I tried the ESP32-CAM out. The positive is that they do not cost much. The negatives are that they are hard to program and it took me quite awhile to figure it out, but I finally managed it by using an older version of the Arduino IDE as the programmer is not supported in the newer version. Then I kept getting a brownout failure which I solved by using an external 5v power lump to power it with. This thing is really power hungry. The quality of the image is not that great either. I prefer the raspberry pi camera. But it was fun playing around with it and I figured out how to use an Arduino UNO to program it with so that is a plus. All in all, I am not sorry I bought it, but I probably won't be using it for what I was going to be using it for which was as a security camera in my garage.

[@hairlesshippy]

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

[@neilshobbyhq]

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

[@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!

[@anonymoususer6448]

Great session, as always. Thank you for publishing this. When talking about potential problems, I'd want to mention the most important problem that I see: all of my esp32-cam boards stop sending camera signals after some time because they overheat. It seems that both the ESP chip on the board and the tiny camera sensor get too hot during continuous operation. I am still experimenting with heat sinks to fix this problem.

[@aha5888]

Any update?

[@anonymoususer6448]

@@aha5888 I noticed that, at least in Home-Assistant, the ESP32cam reduces it frame-rate when there is no browser watching the video stream. The cam is usable when not continuously watching the videostream (and it is not a hot, +30C, summer day) I have connected a motion sensor, a Dallas temperature sensor and small fan (via a FET) to the GPIOs. When the motion sensor sees motion, it sends a picture via Telegram (using a Telegram Bot). and when it gets too hot, it turns on the fan (controlled by Home Assistant) There are several projects on the internet that explain this.

[@aha5888]

@@anonymoususer6448 nice. Tnx

[@ShivamKumar-rp8kr]

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

[@octogames6823]

Update, That 0 ohm resistor was the biggest pain to move. I had to break out my magnifier just to see the darn thing. Had to use the 5v pin to upload my sketch, the 3v wasn't enough for the sketch maybe? other then that, what a fun project. Thank you again for all your help.

[@EdsonDRojas]

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

[@guidovlaere]

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

[@kattz753]

Suggestions for USB - Anker cables. These have solved many power issues for me and their customer service is excellent. The warranty is good and they replace the rare defective one promptly and without argument. If you buy from Amazon, you have proof of purchase using your order#. For hubs, not all are equal. Some have higher amperage than others. I buy Atolla since they work well for me. Check the specs on those and find your best deal with any brand. I run several 2.5" mechanical drives off of one without issue. EDIT - sometimes USB 2 is better than USB 3. Some USB 3 hubs throw off a lot of RF and can interfere with other devices. This post is still very relevant 2 years later so I thought that I would add my 2cents.

[@JoseFernandez-yz1sf]

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

[@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...

[@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. :)

[@placitas52]

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

[@frankkante7850]

That is a very helpfull video. Thank you

[@markvreeken]

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

[@Idontlikethisname-zy3zn]

For anyone who uses a esp32cam download board (dont know the technical name for it, but the serial on it is esp32-CAM-MB, it has 8*2 ports and you can directly plug in esp32cam into it and this download board has a usb port). When you upload code to your esp32cam, the download board can be connected to your computer through a use-hub or simply usb port, I select these parameters: (Board:AI thinker esp32-cam, available port, CPU Frequency:240MHz, core debug level: none, erase all flash: enabled, flash freq:80MHz, Flash mode: qio, partitian:huge app, programmer:esptool), I dont know if they make a difference, so just for your reference. Upload the code. And here is the important: 1. you dont need to unplug the esp32cam to connect to ftdi, just use this download board as power supply and data transfer. 2. most important: to provide enough power, this board needs to be plugged to a usb port from your laptop or pc, usb-hub will not work. Select correct com port, open the serial monitor and press reset. It will show '...', and after about 1-5 seconds, it will show wifi connected. For me I found all the problem comes from power supply. For some reason, ftdi does not work for me. I will try to solve this later, but for now I am happy esp32cam finally works.

[@tonykempson4331]

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

[@Zarundo]

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

[@khatharrmalkavian3306]

The thing that drives me nuts is that I very rarely come up with ideas for things to do with these kinds of things. Almost anything I can think up is already done better by something I either already have or could buy for cheap.

[@ohmslaw6856]

Lmao me too

[@dakcn]

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

[@Goman1244]

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

[@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?

[@davidd2661]

You can also simply remove the 0ohm resistor from the antenna connector and put a solder bridge over the external antenna connector, no need for the small non-resistor there.

[@DSaad]

He is the Bob Ross of electronics, indeed!

[@tlmoller]

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

[@minxythemerciless]

Minor correction. RSSI is not dBm. RSSI stands for Received SIgnal Strength Indicator and it is an arbitrary number set by individual manufacturers that varies somewhat like a true signal measurement, so a stronger sigal has a less negative RSSI than a weak signal.

[@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.

[@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

[@philnewman1110]

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

[@runtels]

This was much needed help, thank you

[@warrenking1815]

Love how he explains thing!

[@neil2736]

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

[@rianvankessel1433]

Geweldig. Goed uitgelegd. Ook ik had een probleem dat hij de camera niet herkende. Nadat ik een externe 5 volt had aangesloten werkte hij prima. De signaal sterkte meting ging ook goed. Weer een stap verder om de verschillende opties van de Arduino uit te testen. Bedankt.

[@abelashenafi6291]

Explained, flawlessly

[@postiemania]

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

[@deancyrus1]

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

[@linharesking]

How to use the gpio 16 of the esp32 camera as output, if it is used in the PSRAM?

[@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 !!!

[@onecncwest]

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

[@Dzonistekino]

Love your videos, thank you for sharing your knowledge

[@bruinflight]

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

[@colinmarten5052]

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

[@EricFontaineJazz]

a few others snags I discovered others might encounter: - @7:56 & @9:16 the GPIO 0 programming pin mentioned that needs to grounded to program needs to be grounded **prior** to applying power (or prior to pressing the reset button). And rather than using a jumper wire which I had to insert and remove everytime I wanted to reprogram the module, I found using a maintained switch (rather than a momentary button) for toggling the GPIO 0 connection to ground was easiest. - Although the reset button is hard to use when connected on a breadboard (which is why the workshop video suggests to not use a breadboard), however if I insert the module at the top of my breadboard then I can depress the reset button by sliding a small thin piece of plastic inbetween the top of the breadboard and the module and then use the edge of the breadboard as a lever to press the reset button. Only slightly cumbersome but this at least allows me to use the module in a breadboard. - To access the serial debugging feed in Arduino's IDE, I had to set the Serial Logger's baudrate to 115200. - If I used the external FTDI programmer for power, I got a lot of horizontal static lines on my video feed. Happend with both 3.3 V and 5 V settings. Looking on reddit I see others experienced this issue when powering through their FTDI programmer too. (I suspect maybe the serial messages cause fluctuations in the FTDI's power rails resulting in too weak of power for the camera's sensors, producing these static lines.) The solution was to simply use a more reliable power supply...and I found just using the power supply from another arduino board with the same voltage setting was reliable enough.

[@SyamAcademy]

Your Intro is superb big bro.

[@bluedutch01]

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

[@the1spyderryder]

Well Bill love your videos but could you make a video taking one step at a time programming the camera using the add on board for the esp32 to program it I have been struggeling with getting no core memory dump after attempting to program it with this program I have no Idea whats going on I changed the baud rate to 115200 and everything else that I could think of.

[@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.

[@h2oengineering558]

nice... Another knowledge, thanks for sharing. God bless

[@Omar.bin.khattab]

Thanks for your Time and Efforts

[@thomasweeks426]

On the PCB WiFi antenna polarization. If you are getting terrible signal strength, before adding an antenna, simple rotae the ESP32CAM 90 degrees (in the parallel plane) to your router to find the optimized polarization position. To "fix" without having a sideways image.. you may also rotate one of your WiFi router's antennas orientations to get optimized antenna gain (polarization matching).. or.. as you said.. install an external antenna on the ESP32cam.

[@ThemisTheotokatos]

Hello, thanx for the video.I have the ESP 32-CAM but with a shield on it. It looks like it already has an FTDI interface on it.

[@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" 😂

[@adrianantoci1187]

This video is so useful. Thanks so much sir!

[@ahmedawny7236]

Great video. Thanks a lot, Bill !

[@MakerVn1]

i always like ur introduction.

[@csselement]

I need this guy to help me organize my workshop lol

[@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?

[@Balvinderpaneser]

Can we use external battery to power the esp instead of connecting the power cables to the ftdi cause I am not able to find powered usb hub

[@RhoTrepaan]

Exceptionally detailed 😱

[@francisleesc]

Thank you for the sharing the steps.👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@MrDebug65]

as usual : EXCELLENT work -- thanks for sharing with us

[@1science100]

Sadly your excellent information video and instructions didn't work at all to show and establish a working IP connection with my AI Thinker CAM. Not even in the serial monitor! And no other ino example worked showing any IP address in the serial monitor or in my browser either although they only did show my SSID name and Password! I guess my ESP32-CAM module is defect somehow. Uploading the code was never a problem but none of them ever worked! After 2 days of wasteless trying I give up on this terribly bad made China product! That without the right Arduino help and correct information never will work! Too many questions are still unanswered on how to find the cause if it doesn't work!

[@MrDebug65]

@@1science100 you answered to a comment of me -- I'm unfortunatly not the author of the video...

[@billferner6741]

I got problem with uploading my code. Some suggested to use the 5V input instead of 3.3V. This solved my problem.