ESP32 camera

For this week I worked with the ESP32 camera.

Since i was working on a Sunday and no one was around I couldn't ask anyone what the parts soldered onto the board were. (I did ask people later on but was not given a definitive answer). So i looked up online tutorials on how to programme it. I used this tutorial )

(i later learnt this image is not entirely correct because I had to use the 5v instead of the 3.3v) Using this image i was able to connect the FTDI and the ESP32 together. It did take me a while to figure out exactly which wire from the FTDI was connected to which port on the board. So finally when the light came on I was very happy.

I used this tutorial to set up the board for programming. I think went back to Neil's video to make sure i was on the right path.

  • - Add the boards manager URL
  • - tools > boards manager > install the ESP32 into Arduino
  • - Select the board + settings according to niels video
  • - select ESP32 > camera > Camera web server
  • - make sure the AI THINKER is 'selected' by removing the //
  • - remove the ssid and pswd pin
  • - reboot
  • - RUNNNNN

    • seems straight fwd. However, i got this:

    I checked and re-checked my connections and the FTDI connection (3.3v or 5v?) and still nothing worked. I then fixed a meeting with Teja, who was able to point out immediately that my grounds were grounded. There are three ground pins in the ESP32 and they all required grounding i has left one open. One ground was to be connected to the Io0 pin as shown in the pic above. Teja said it is easier to connect all three grounds to a breadbox and connect that to the FTDI. (one stone four mangoes)

    Teja also told me to connect the power to the 5v and not the 3.3v. When i explained to him that the board lights up when I connect to 3.3v and not 5v, Teja told me to go meet Brian Mayton. Brian first checked if all the connections were good, and if the board was recieving and giving power. With all that okay, brian added a line of code that would ask the ESP32 Cam to recognise its LED light

    With this in place, it fianlly worked!!!!

    But when I went to the serial monitor (after removing the VCC-ground and rebooting) i got this:

    meaning i got a Camera init failed with error 0x20002 instead of searching for WiFi according to Neil's screen. At this point when i asked Brain what to do he told me to use a new ESP board since the back and forth between 3.3v to 5v may have caused some damages.

    so now, the whole thing again.