*Insanely Tiny* Camera Dev Module (with ESP32-S3)

Look at this. The size is crazy.  I've never seen such a small MCU  development board with a camera module.  If you know anything, please leave it in  the below comment. I'd like to check it out. Officially, its dimensions are a length of  17.5mm, a width of 21mm, and a height of 15 mm. It's made very small. Also, since the  USB Serial chip is included inside,  there is no need for a separate  debugging board for flashing.  This is really good. In the case of ESP32-CAM AI Thinker board, we always connected to  Serial Port through FTDI Programmer. I believe everyone agrees with how annoying this is. It uses two boards stacked.  The camera board extends  over their ESP32-S3 board. The camera board and the main ESP32-S3 board  are connected by a Board-to-Board Connector. There is a 24-pin connector for attaching a  DVP image sensor. Officially it supports the OV2640 and OV5640. I'll test the OV5640 when I  get a chance. It's gonna be very interesting. ESP32 boards usually include a built-in antenna.  Since this requires making the PCB larger,   in these small devices, the antenna can be  connected externally to reduce the PCB size.  This is not a bad choice as it can have better   transmit and receive rates  than the built-in antenna. Since the micro SD Card is also included in the  camera board, you can use it for any purpose. After connecting the SD card, if  you attach the OV2640 over it,   it seems to be fixed and  doesn't seem to be rattling. Overall, it's very good. Let's compare it with ESP32-CAM  AI Thinker board here.  Less than half of it. Oh, man. Even  ESP32-CAM does not include USB Serial Chip.  Just because there is no built-in antenna, it's  inconvenient to connect an external antenna,   but I don't think it's a big deal because it  can be put inside the enclosure if you have it. Looking at this again, the size  of this device is truly amazing. If there is a camera board smaller  than this that can be developed,   please let me know. I really wanna compare them. Let's have the operation  test using Camera Web Server,   which is tested when we use  ESP32-CAM for the first time. The resolution is set to VGA, 640x480,  and it keeps streaming images.  Of course, you can set it to 1600x1200, which  is the maximum resolution of the OV2640,   but I think 640x480 is the best  one for the general streaming test. You can check the quality of images transferred  over the network on the left screen.  It is original and has not been modified anything. The main screen in the middle  is currently shot at 4K 30FPS. Since they are shooting a highway, we  can check the movement of the subject. You can see images are being  acquired without any lag. Seems Noise-free image acquisition is possible   because of a stable power supply  and smooth network environment. It's working very well without any problems. Since this device is made very small,   I thought the system could be slowed down by  heating up if it is continuously operated. The reason is that everything including the  regulator is tightly packed inside one main chip.   So this is because ESP32 can get hot more easily  and that will eventually slow down the system. On the right, I'm taking a system  temperature measurement while it's working.  I expected the regulator on the main board to  be the hottest, but the OV2640 was the hottest. Currently, the maximum load  condition is continuing.  the temperature of the main board is  kept at around 55 degrees. It's Celsius.  The OV2640 is also still working, it  doesn't seem to go over 80 degrees. It may be different in the situation where you  make an enclosure and put this device in it,   but this is definitely a good enough device. This new device reminds me  of my old TicTac Camera. I packed the ESP32-CAM board, battery, and  wireless charging module into the TicTac case.  I tried to make it small, but this  was the best I could do at the time. If I ever do a project like a spy camera again, I think I'll make it the smallest  by connecting a battery to  this new ESP32-S3 Sense board. Also, since the new board includes a  microphone, I think I can try acquiring   video and audio data at the same time.  It's gonna be something different project. Anyway, that's it for today. Thanks for watching. See you on the next project.

Channel: That Project

Views: 18,710

Keywords: ESP32CAM project, That Project, Arduino Project, Camera module, Embedded systems, Computer vision, Internet of Things, Motion detection, Object recognition, Facial recognition, Surveillance, OCR, Time-lapse photography, Portable scanner, Video streaming, Face recognition, Attendance system, Object detection, Traffic monitoring, License plate recognition, Raspberry Pi, Prototyping, Maker culture, Hackathon, Open source, STEM, Small form factor, Spy Cam, OV2640, OV5640

Id: 8h0iweM5Ngo

Length: 5min 52sec (352 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 26 2023