Use a ESP32-CAM Module to Stream HD Video Over Local Network

this tiny board can stream HD video over your Wi-Fi accessible from any locally connected browser hey gang Tim here at core electronics and this is the esp32 chem development board by DF robot today I'm going to demonstrate how to set one up and I'm even going to run a I face recognition with it as well at this size it almost feels like science fiction [Music] esp32 boards are the current iot gold standard for getting Wi-Fi connectivity onto your projects the esp32 cam Dev board that I have in front of me Sports an inbuilt 2 megapixel camera a Micro SD card holder for recording video 2 a Micro SD indicator LED a inbuilt antenna a socket for a beefier external antenna and a reset button on the table before me is everything needed to get our video stream up and running naturally we will need an esp32 cam development board we will also need a USB to uart programmer to connect the programmer to the module we will utilize some male to male jumper cables and a breadboard finally we're going to need a power supply for the module which needs to be at least 2 amp output at 5 volts a DC Barrel jack adapter with screw terminals we will need to get our esp32 board set up so that it can receive Ur data the esp32 camboard also comes pre-soldered with these headers so we can mount it to a breadboard like so when arranging your esp32 cam onto the breadboard make sure that you can access and press the rst reset button on the bottom of it we will need access to this button later start by plugging in the red 5 volt wire connection from the converter into the 5 volt pin as written on the esp32 cam PCB next plug the black ground wire to a ground pin on the esp32 cam board next grab the white RX wire and connect it to the TX pin labeled as uot as written on the PCB then place the green TX wire to the RX pin labeled as uor on the PCB finally to force our esp32 cam into bootloader mode we will add one more wire in this case I've chosen a blue jumper wire this must go between a ground pin and the io zero pin on the esp32 cam board with that completed and double checked feel free to plug in the USB side to your desktop computer now let's set up our computer so we can quickly program our esp32 cam exactly how we want use the link found in the description to jump to this official software download location with it installed and running on your desktop computer it's going to look like this first we will need to add the esp32 board library to our fresh Arduino IDE installation to do this focus on the top toolbar and click on file and then go down to preferences click on it in this setting menu you're going to find the additional boards section it's right here we're going to copy and paste the following into this section I'm copying and pasting it from the main article and I'm going to have this exact URL down in the description to make it easier for you having done that press ok if you already have something written here separate each URL with a comma then Focus back to the top toolbar Click On Tools hover down the board and click on board manager then in the search bar type esp32 when the library of the same name pops up click on the install button having done this we have all the functionality required to make our esp32 camboard work with the Arduino IDE with that complete let's focus back to the top toolbar and click on tools we have some settings here to adjust and we want these settings to match exactly what I have over here to start we're going to change to the esp32 Rover module having done that our speed is correct our flash frequency is correct a flash mode is correct I'll default four megabyte with spliffs is correct hold on guys there's one thing here to fix that I forgot we got to select huge app as the partition scheme this will accommodate for our large image with that done you'll be sorted everything seems great the one thing here to note is the only setting that may be slightly different is the port number just be sure to select the one the esp32 can board is connected to with our programming environment setup and complete we now just need those programming scripts to tell our microcontroller what to do you can find these scripts at the bottom of the written up article or from expressive's Main GitHub repository so here I am back at the main writer download section it tells me this is at the bottom so that's where I'm gonna go link down below once you have the scripts downloaded and unzipped to your computer open up the code in Arduino IDE by clicking on the file button at the top toolbar and then hovering down and clicking on open using the newly opened window jump to where you unzip that file and then jump deeper into the directories like so esp32 examples camera then select camera web server and camera web server.ino we will need to customize the camera web server script by adding your particular Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi password credentials this section can be found in the main code from line 33 onwards make sure to enclose those details with quotation marks and save the script after doing so so if you got into this stage it is time to flash we're going to click the upload button found on the top left of the interface this will then start compiling your code and sending it through your USB to uart converter which sends that message directly into your esp32 cam microcontroller as soon as you see a loading bar which is represented by these orange dots slowly traveling along in the bottom terminal of the Arduino IDE you must press the reset button on the bottom of the esp32 cam board to force it into bootloader mode you're going to know that that button is being pressed as the LED indicator is going to illuminate uart is literally ones and zeros which means it is machine code with a little prefix and addendum to confirm the start and end of transmission this process will take less than five minutes and it's going to display this message once it's complete if you're not fast enough at clicking that button this is the message you're going to receive before progressing any further let's now figure out exactly what IP address our esp32 cam is going to be provided by our router Focus once more to the top toolbar and click on tools and then hover down and click on serial monitor make sure that the board rate is set to 115200 now focusing back to the hardware we're going to remove that blue jumper wire that connects ground pin to the io zero pin from the esp32 camboard and press the restart button on the esp32 for approximately one second and here is our website to connect to so if we type into the URL of any locally connected device we will be able to see what the camera is saying now with the software flashed our esp32 cam it's time to play we're going to hook up this esp32 camboard 2 a 5 volt 4 amp power supply by utilizing a female power jack the red 5 volt wire connects to the positive screw down terminal and the 5 volt pin on the esp32 cam board then the ground wire connects to the negative screw down terminal and any ground pin on the esp32 then we're just going to plug in our power supply I'm going to take this side and switch it on now on any locally connected device let's open up a web browser Chrome Safari or Edge are perfect candidates and type in that IP address you figured out from before straight into the browser you're going to be welcomed by the graphical user interface that the esp32 cam automatically creates on boot scroll down and select start stream as soon as you do your esp32 cam development board is going to start a live stream of a video feed of exactly what the camera sees all through your Wi-Fi as you can see there's heaps of fantastic options here every dial that you could want to toggle with a camera module is here and ready to go you can also lower the resolution and use different forms of video stream encoding to increase the frame rate there is also a simple face recognition AI system built into this software too you will notice a big dip in the frames per second when doing this even when using a lower pixel density however it is remarkable that this will work on Hardware this stripped back and here it is running on my mobile phone as well you can see I've typed in the same IP address and if we scroll down to the bottom and Press Start stream there I am this has to be the easiest way to get eyes on the ground for your projects to have a complete video streaming package that starts as soon as 5 volts is provided is just phenomenal allow me to demonstrate with this tracked Zumo 32u4 robot I added 5 volt and ground to the esp32 cam from the battery powered pinouts on the top of the Zumo robot now when I drive it around using this little IR remote I can see exactly what the Sumo robot sees I have also 3D printed several esp32 cam cases to figure out which one was the best the application that these cameras will usually be used for is for security cameras so the one that I settled on was a simple clean design something understated but will provide enough protection from everyday indoor life if you want to 3D print the same case check the links down below and that's that you now have a HD Wi-Fi streaming camera in a minuscule form factor with a very small powered drawer that feels like it comes from a cyberpunk feature be safe and be respectful with this power we are full-time makers and we are always happy to help so until next time snakehouse foreign [Music]

Channel: Core Electronics

Views: 73,913

Keywords: ESP32-CAM DFROBOT, esp32 camera development board, how to set up a esp32 board with camera, how to use camera and ESP32 dev board, 3D printed case ESP32, Get eyes onto a project Quick and fast, procedure to flash esp32-cam board, arduino IDE and ESP32, UART to USB Converter, serial breakout, how to stream WIFI Camera Stream, hook up guide, schematic, Zumo 32U4 Robot, getting eyes onto a Zumo Robot, Getting Camera Stream onto a Robotic Project, Web Cam, Security Cam, Spy Cam

Id: g1J_7lx5QEU

Length: 12min 21sec (741 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 24 2022