ESP32-Cam Basics (for timelapse, pet surveillance, nesting boxes, front door cameras etc.)

[@bradtarratt6931]

Thank you for having the only video I can find that shows how truly easy removing a front-mounted IR filter is. Every other video shows the back-mounted filters "look, just pop it out, poof you're done!" I was rather surprised at how easy it was to shave off the plastic. You've also inspired me to try detecting when my chickens lay eggs in their nest boxes, though I'll be doing it with micropython and tensorflow lite (it's only reinventing the wheel if you don't learn a generalizable skill from it!)

[@u2bist]

This is the best ESP32 CAM video I have seen! I've been looking for guidance that goes beyond loading and running the web server example. You sir, have delivered! The script examples were especially helpful. Thank you so much!

[@3DComputing]

10 / 10 No crap, fast paced, informative, THANKS

[@arifindobson]

This channel is a hidden gem

[@nil0bject]

also, "GreatScott!". accent made me double take

[@arifindobson]

@@nil0bject exactly, lol. I lost myself thinking that he is GreatScott, I wish this channel can grow 😁🙏

[@abdoun8214]

ur intro is so far the Coolest one i've ever seen on YT.

[@wasdaletimelapse7658]

This is a really great video. I have been trying, unsuccessfully, for 3 days to get my new ESP32-Cam modules working consistently. But now with your kind sharing of your code I have managed to get it working. I was having problems, that I now know were probably due to a weak WiFi signal, that the video stream was a complete waste of time. I now have the ESP32 connecting to a Pi4 that is running as a hotspot in close range and I use my iPad to browse to the output on that network. It all seems to be working great. My intention is to monitor a nesting Blackbird next year in my garden. Thank you very much for your efforts and keep up the great work. I have Subbed and look forward to more content from you in the near future.

[@MakerMeik]

I'm glad I was able to help you with my video. Since you are obviously interested in birds, I can recommend BirdNET-Pi. It's a very interesting project for tracking the bird calls in your garden with a Raspberry Pi: github.com/mcguirepr89/BirdNET-Pi

[@ShichaoChenhongyu]

i like this good job!

[@nemesis851_]

Can the sketch be written to look for 2 SSIDs? 1. Primary (home) 2. Mobile phone hotspot (away from home) And connect

[@christophers650]

Yes, this should absolutely be possible. You could just attempt to connect to the primary network and if that doesn't work, you try to connect to the mobile phone network. Keep flipping back and forth between those until it connects to one of them successfully.

[@CodingProgrammingAccount]

otta no where intro epic

[@prashanthwagle]

Wonderfully Explained Bro, Great Tutorial. Keep Crushing

[@RetroEcoChicken]

very good vcc tric for reset

[@Hal-Zuzzu_Model_Railway]

Excellet details in video but I am getting an error saying the sketch is too big for my ESP32. Same ESP32 as you have. Help?

[@ashutoshtechnology]

Sir, my COM port isn't available at the ide. I becomes available only if I give an external power supply.

[@MakerMeik]

Sometimes USB ports do not supply enough power. This is especially the case with notebooks. Maybe the solution with the external power supply is sufficient for you. A USB hub with external power supply can also be a suitable solution. You might even be lucky and it's sufficient to just replace the USB cable with another one.

[@samsonstrike]

Danke! 😎

[@mohsiniqbal2351]

Can we use ESP32CAM as a normal ESP32 without the camera but using the microSD card for data logging?

[@brendonwesley3698]

Yeah

[@bobbytables464]

About to start this build, thanks for the video. For the built-in LED, I'd probably try some kind of diffuser before I desoldered it and added external LEDs.

[@xcruell]

Man i love that intro :D

[@TheLostPig]

Hello. I have the following error: fd_forward.h: No such file or directory What does it mean and how do I solve it?

[@MakerMeik]

If you open the preferences in the Arduino IDE, you will find the Sketchbook location at the top. E.g. C:\Users\yourname\Documents\Arduino There you should find, besides your project folders, also the directories "library" and "hardware". If you installed the support for ESP32-boards, as described in the video, the file should be in the hardware folder. For me it is under: C:\Users\yourname\Documents\Arduino\hardware\esp32\tools\sdk\include\esp-face If this is not the case for you, you should repeat the steps I explain in the video starting at minute 2:20 kzbin.info/www/bejne/hZbSmIawgc2Fgs0

[@ERVE74]

Excelent! Thank you for your great job

[@thexht7927]

The timelapse at the end was really from the ESP32-CAM ? amazing!

[@MakerMeik]

No, unfortunately not. As I mentioned in the video, I use a Raspberry Pi HQ cam for this. But this is also quite affordable and well suited for a fixed installation on the window.

[@ivancorrea5110]

Great job! Hope to keep watching more videos from you! Cheers from Chile!

[@lokivision]

Gibt es das noch mal in deutsch für Kids?

[@RixtronixLAB]

Cool video, thanks :)

[@filledmug]

Was that time-lapse of sky-clouds captured by ov2640 ?

[@MakerMeik]

No, it is a Raspberry Pi High Quality Cam. I think for this use case you will get similar results with the normal Rapsberry Pi Cam as well. However, with an OV2640 it is hard to get good pictures, but I have heard that ESP32 cams with OV5460 are very good. Please let me know if you have your own experience with this.

[@John_Smile]

I managed to install the ESP32 camera software myself. But now I want to ask how do I set the camera to record something and how can I see what is on the card without removing the card ? Can I see online what is on the card?

[@604smit]

hello meik, copied and pasted your program in Arduino , but after compiling, and type / status I get two lines at the top of the screen, with all those words you have from top till bottom ( seperated by semicolon;). / capture works good! what could be the problem?

[@jeniflorance6029]

Hi, i am getting the "A fatal error occured:failed to connect to ESP32:timeout waiting for packet header error." I have tried with reset button clicking while uploading it is not working please help

[@John_Smile]

Can IR LEDs be controlled by ESP32 Cam? I mean, I want to ask if they'll start at night and stop during the day without me turning on and off with the microswitch.

[@MakerMeik]

You can connect (IR) LEDs via the GPIOs and switch them on and off as needed. But even for that you have to know a little bit of programming. You could control this time-dependently via a server that runs Node-RED and Mosquitto, for example.

[@John_Smile]

@@MakerMeik Good ! Thank you ! My questions were answered. You helped me a lot. I'm going to buy 4-5 ESP 32 cameras. But I didn't want to waste my money. We also bought surveillance cameras from us, from the intern market. I ordered online, but the camera I bought was of very poor quality. (I lost money. The camera can't film anything!) Thank you for help. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jqizh41rjbZkosk kzbin.info/www/bejne/iKnLoHxvjrp6pZo Goodbye !

[@John_Smile]

Hi ! If I don't have an arduino, can I make Cam ESP 32 settings? Is there an option for motion detection? If a thief enters my yard and steals my camera, can I see the recordings on my server / my cloud ?

[@MakerMeik]

I don't think I quite understand your question. As you can see in the video, I don't use an Arduino either. I only use the Arduino IDE software. It's free and you can use it without an Arduino. But what you need is an FTDI interface, also called a USB-UART interface. It is also possible to detect changes in the image, i.e. movements. But for that you would have to deal with the subject in depth. Maybe you can do some research on this topic on KZbin or on the web. If you send the pictures or videos via WiFi to your (secure) server, the thief will not find any pictures on the camera. If you don't have a server nearby, you could also store the pictures on an SD card that is plugged in, in which case the thief could of course read the card and see the pictures.

[@HaCkIsS2]

Very goog job, congratulations and thank you very much for sharing!

[@renderuthis]

What made the bokeh effect at 00:35 ?

[@MakerMeik]

That was a short rain shower. That always looks quite nice in the time-lapse videos.

[@jagarciaucedac]

Great man! thanks for the effort

[@ioanovidiuveres]

Hello. I want to know what is the RECORDING mode, if it detects movements of people and what is the duration of the recording?

[@bassamry]

although the module works on 3.3v why connected the 5v on the programmer?

[@budipriyatno5853]

Esp32 can handle both 3.3 and 5v

[@petrpetr1275]

Ahoj, pěkné video, ale mám problém s otočeným obrázkem o 90 stupňů a nemám tušení, jak otočit obrázek :-(

[@manfredbogner9799]

Very good wonderfull

[@johanwolbink1516]

Super nice Video !! Why do you cut open the IR filter with a knife ? You can open it by turning the lens cap ? And what exactly is the IR filter ? I want to do this but I don't know how . Can you give me more info about it ?

[@MakerMeik]

If you remove the entire cap, you no longer have a lens and get a blurry image. But if you only peel out the infrared filter, then you can still focus the lens. The advantage is that you can now also take pictures with infrared light. This means that you can illuminate your nesting box with IR LEDs, for example. The nesting box seems to be dark and hopefully the birds don't notice anything either. Your camera, which now no longer has an IR filter, will still be able to take photos or videos.

[@johanwolbink1516]

@@MakerMeik Thanks for your quick answher. Can I use anny OV2640 cam for it ?

[@MakerMeik]

The five or six OV2640 cameras I've had in my hands so far have all been the same.

[@johanwolbink1516]

@@MakerMeik Thanks a Lot. I let you know if it works..

[@petrpetr1275]

Ahoj, pěkné video, ale mám problém s otočeným obrázkem o 90 stupňů a nemám tušení, jak obrázek otočit :-(. Bohužel nemohu otočit celý ESP32, musím otočit obrázek v prohlížeči.

[@MakerMeik]

Unfortunately, this is not directly possible with the code shown in the video. However, there is an improved version of the ESP32 webcam server that adds 90° rotations of the image and many other good features. For example, OTA updates are then also possible. Here is the link to this project: github.com/easytarget/esp32-cam-webserver

[@akahige9626]

Awesome tutorial ! Can I use it to film 3D printer timelapses ?

[@MakerMeik]

Of course, why shouldn't that be possible? However, you should think about the placement. If you don't attach the cam to the (moving) print bed, you'll see a lot of fast movements. I think there are also solutions where the printer always moves to a certain position when the image is shot, so you only see the model growing, but don't have any fast flickering back and forth. But I don't have any experience with that.

[@adrienfehr47]

Thanks for the great tutorial. I want to put this camera in an underground manhole outside. I don't have WIFI, so how can I get the signal from the camera. I would like to use a wifi/Ethernet interface or directly from the ESP Camera module with ethernet. Do you have any idea how to do this? Thank you very much for your help.

[@MakerMeik]

If you are at least close to a wifi, you could try it with an external wifi antenna. Of course, the meter should not be too deep in the manhole. On KZbin you should find examples how to solder a proper antenna to the PCB antenna leads. I am not sure if there is a solution to store the data locally on the SD card in the ESP. Everything else is probably more complicated. The ESP has no LAN itself. So you would have to send the signal from the ESP via serial interface to another device, e.g. a Raspberry-Pi, which then processes it with a script and passes it on via LAN ... but that sounds like a lot of work and a rather high cost, compared to the low benefit. But it would be feasible. I did something similar with an Arduino and a Raspi. Do you have power in your manhole?

[@adrienfehr47]

@@MakerMeik Yes I have power but I agree with you I looks like complicated

[@jorgebelo6958]

Thank you very much for your video. Very good effort.. Hats off to you! How do you power the module in the bird house in the tree? with a battery? If so, how do you recharge it? That's what's bugging me the most from this type of projects. I cannot figure out how people keep a constant power source for the module. I noticed you 3D printed the module & LEDs housing. Hope you get "tenants", If you haven't already.

[@MakerMeik]

I'm sorry, but you will hardly get around a permanent power supply for the cam modules. And that's what I did in the case of the nesting box. For this purpose, however, I used a 12V power supply and then regulated the voltage in the nesting box down to 5V with the help of a buck converter. With 12 V or even 24 V it is easier to bridge 10 to 20 m cable length in the garden without the voltage loss at the device becoming a problem. At the same time, you avoid putting dangerous 230 V cables in the garden. Last season, by the way, I didn't have a tenant in my nest box. But the new season is just beginning and in fact there was an interested visitor in the meantime ... let's see if he moves in: twitter.com/meikdangmann/status/1506726338908016649/photo/1

[@jorgebelo6958]

@@MakerMeik, that is more or less what I had thought. Even probably 48V, like in some industrial electronics, but didn't look into a down converter (probably there is a component/unit for down converting 48V that is not too bulky).

[@jorgebelo6958]

There are 48V buck converters and their dimensions are 45 x 23 x 14 millimeters.

[@MakerMeik]

I can recommend the LM2596-converters. They cost less than 1,50 EUR incl. shipping and you can adjust the output-voltage with a little screw. That's quite handy.

[@jorgebelo6958]

@@MakerMeik, those are the ones I found. Thanks again.

[@DarkChasmGamers]

Awesome. Thanks so much

[@ClownWhisper]

The ESP 32 Cam module is the bug easiest most lucky sluggish slow quirky module that I've ever used in my life. It randomly loses Wi-Fi connection and you have to dig down into your router to find what new IP has been assigned otherwise assign a static IP address to it but it doesn't matter it'll lose connection anyway. When it does open randomly if you're lucky you get perhaps 10 frames a minute LOL. There is no way to feed at 3.3 wolves successfully it will not initiate if you don't feed it 5 balls the module will fail to activate. I put it I'm line with a great big giant lipo cell any drained it dry overnight doing nothing

[@thisoldjeepcj5]

Thanks. This helped me.

[@petr6067]

Hi, I'm starting with ESP32 and I'd like to use a CAM, but I need to rotate the image 90 degrees. Please advise where in the code and how to edit please? Thank you

[@MakerMeik]

Unfortunately, this is not directly possible with the code shown in the video. However, there is an improved version of the ESP32 webcam server that adds 90° rotations of the image and many other good features. For example, OTA updates are then also possible. Here is the link to this project: github.com/easytarget/esp32-cam-webserver

[@lone-eltemplodeltalento6196]

Good video 👍

[@lucaspanichella6747]

wooooow this is suuuuuper usefull thank you so much!, did you considered adding a microphone ?

[@MakerMeik]

Thank you for the kind words. The idea with the microphone actually came to me too. And of course it would be good to have a loudspeaker to use it as an intercom at the doorbell. But I haven't had the time yet and I don't have any idea how I would implement it.

[@anlpereira]

Very nice project. Can you make a project showing how to use these images to see them out of home? Using something like a No-IP functionality. Thanks a lot

[@peterlekkerkerker4482]

Has anyone tested the WiFi check inside the loop (6:05)? It seems to me that previousMillis never gets set this way, it should be outside the if statement. Also you probably want to set interval to a higher value than the delay in the loop. This will reset the ESP after Wifi is lost, but it does nothing with the interval check, unless I'm missing something.

[@MakerMeik]

Thanks for the tip, you're right. I have fixed the error. In the meantime, however, I would rather advise the "esp32-cam-webserver" project. It runs much more stable than the example project used here and has some additional features. github.com/easytarget/esp32-cam-webserver

[@necatitas7375]

How we can set the focus of the agv camera ?

[@walterblanc9708]

Great video but unfortunately only have PC :(

[@jebinshaju]

its not getting inside me

[@MakerMeik]

You shouldn't eat it either 😂

[@raymondmichael4987]

Subed, great content , hopefully you will think to combine gsm with this wonderful board, instead of using WiFi connection. Greetings from Tanzania 🇹🇿

[@awardfoto1]

My question as well. Great channel. Subscribed.

[@QuadDerrick]

i seen so many videos and heard so much about the esp32 chip this year, first NOW i learn you have to be a **** electro engineer and able to build your own computer with diodes and godknowswhatnot to run it,,, and its not even giving a cool shell... liked your script for making timelapse vidos out of pictures.

[@MakerMeik]

Haha ... I'm not sure if that means I explained it all way too complicated. I know the software/script part is difficult when watching a video like this for pure entertainment. But I think you can just build such beautiful things with it that it was important to me to share that with the world.

[@QuadDerrick]

@@MakerMeik i think it was the soldering of the ,, diode ? the thing., that scared me. i love electronics but, when i goto know stuff about ohm , volts and amps n stuff my brain short out. . my knowledge is rather limited. : red = ,,, i dont even know,, - ? and black is +... or the other way around,, and those make electic stuff work =) if it was just one of the ,, diode thing to soildier on , that might not be so difficult, i would not have to learn anything about it, but i suspect the moment i want to play with another device than the,,, you used the diode thing to deliver special power to the camera ? so if i want,, a ir - sending device attached instead, that needs a new diode with its own special power delivering config? seems like i have to learn more than i want to... i like computer,, not electonics? that makes little sence i guess but. maybe some =)

[@MakerMeik]

Thank you for your entertaining and detailed comments. Maybe it's really not the right thing for you. Microcontrollers are not plug & play, but rather for tinkering. And that's where things often go wrong. 😉

[@alainfrenois33480]

Hello, I never managed to get it to work and I bought several and each time it doesn't work on many videos you see that it's so easy but in truth it's not easy at all to ask yourself if the videos are real are stupid or a nice montage for idiots like me

[@davidpomper6207]

Try using 9600 baud rate, that helped me to get it recording

[@LuberthDijkman]

Flash from Browser kzbin.info/www/bejne/j32veHWDaM5ll7M

[@gamemak0r]

I managed to do this for 0.39 EUR... Love aliexpress

[@Gallardo6669]

Geil. But as usual, i buy the hardware and can't get it to run as a beginner, 1000 reasons to fail...

[@miro.s]

That timelapse is fake, it can never be achieved by OV2640 camera

[@MakerMeik]

As I said at 0:30, the timelapse video of the sky with the better quality image was taken with a Raspberry Pi HQ cam. But the timelapses of the turtle enclosure and the nesting box are actually from the ESP32-cams shown.

[@tomonohiroshi9711]

after tutorial

[@Manuqtix.Manuqtix]

Hmm you talk like g-man from Half-Life game

[@nil0bject]

ceramic="sir-ram-ick"

[@MakerMeik]

Hehe ... thanks for the tip. I will do better next time. I expected that the native speakers would be amused by my limited English ... but maybe I'll learn a bit more this way. Even though I think I am a hopeless case ;-)

[@vonbayernDE]

@@MakerMeik im vergleich zu english, deutsch ist sehr sehr schwirig. Gruß aus Malaysia.

[@larrybud]

Why do people do things the hard way? Get the esp32-cam-mb board for programming, and dump this god-awful arduino ide and get VScode with PlatformIO. All free. Your lives will be made much easier!

[@MakerMeik]

In fact, I also mainly use PlatformIO and VScode. For beginners, however, I think the ArduinoIDE is easier. The topics port selection, uploads and serial monitor alone are less intuitive in VScode. And the programming board for the ESP32 cams is only worthwhile if you want to program many ESP32 cams. But most users will hardly order more than two to four modules. With the FTDI board, on the other hand, you learn that you can communicate with a wide variety of boards. That's why this decision was closer for me ... after all, the video is clearly addressed to beginners. But as always, there are many ways. So thank you for your suggestions for improvement.