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ESP32-CAM is a very small camera module with the ESP32-S chip that costs
approximately $10. Besides the OV2640 camera, and several GPIOs to connect
peripherals, it also features a microSD card slot that can be useful to store images
taken with the camera or to store files to serve to clients.
Features
Image
source – Seeed Studio
There are three GND pins and two pins for power: either 3.3V or 5V.
GPIO 1 and GPIO 3 are the serial pins. You need these pins to upload code to your
board. Additionally, GPIO 0 also plays an important role, since it determines
whether the ESP32 is in flashing mode or not. When GPIO 0 is connected to GND,
the ESP32 is in flashing mode.
The following pins are internally connected to the microSD card reader:
Follow the next steps to build a video streaming web server with the ESP32-CAM
that you can access on your local network.
Important: Make sure you have your Arduino IDE updated as well as the latest
version of the ESP32 add-on.
1. Install the ESP32 add-on
In this example, we use Arduino IDE to program the ESP32-CAM board. So, you
need to have Arduino IDE installed as well as the ESP32 add-on. Follow one of the
next tutorials to install the ESP32 add-on, if you haven’t already:
GND GND
5V VCC (5V)
U0R TX
U0T RX
GPIO 0 GND
To upload the code, follow the next steps:
4) When you start to see these dots on the debugging window as shown below,
press the ESP32-CAM on-board RST button.
After a few seconds, the code should be successfully uploaded to your board.
Now, you can access your camera streaming server on your local network. Open a
browser and type the ESP32-CAM IP address. Press the Start Streaming button to
start video streaming.
Troubleshooting