ESP32 CAM w/ ftdi board

Ok I got this ESP32-CAM module to work with the web server example. Although it does not say "AI-THINKER" on the board, it does work with that board designation on the Arduino IDE.

One foilble was no matter what version of Linux I use, I cannot get the cut and paste to work from the web to the Arduino IDE. Consequently, I had to paste the web link to the .json file into the preferences.txt file in the Arduino15 folder. There is a blurb about it on the preferences page of the Arduino IDE.

Hey Dual - I haven't mucked with the ESP32Cam, and the last time I touched Linux, it was called UNIX, lol. Glad you got the web server working. Sounds like there are some "isms" in the interaction with the IDE re: cut and paste, which seems odd, as that's a pretty basic function. What's the blurb on the preferences page?

I think you might have misunderstood the instructions. You don't paste a file into the Arduino folder, or paste the URL directly into the preferences file. You open the preferences window from within the Arduino IDE and add the URL.

See https://mytectutor.com/esp32-cam-module-programing-using-arduino-ide-getting-started/

In particular:

I found the ESP32cam to be very sensitive to input voltage; it needs to be sufficient and stable. The picture quality wasn't that good and video was far too slow to be useful. Personally I think it's best left as an experiment, but others may disagree.

Cheers

Thank you for the responses to my posts. It remains to be seen how useful the ESP32-CAM will be. I did get a streaming video out of it. One of its interesting features is the fact that I can add an external antenna. Because I am a ham, and I'm using an open frequency, I believe I can add a dish to the espy board similar to what I saw on a YouTube video. The video showed a 10 km range which is incredibly far for what the board power output seems to be.

Speaking to the failure, to cut and paste, problem, the screenshot that was posted previously shows the verbiage directly below "Additional Boards Manager URLs:"

It says "More preferences can be edited directly in the file" and then below that, is the file pathway.

I was able to paste the URLs into the preferences.txt file, but unable to paste into the "Additional Boards Manager URLs:"

Not a show stopper, but when forced to type in the URL by hand, my bad eyes and memory caused repeated failures. 

Today finds me loading a WRT54GL with dd-wrt for use as an AP for the ESP32-CAM board.

My ESP32-CAM module sings! The lines in the feed seem to match the sound it makes. 

The Arduino IDE seems to want to phone home, but I took all my devices over to the airgapped network and it still worked. I got some errors, but everything worked. This begged the question...can one get a full IDE download plus the relevant .json files?

@dualfuel I have played with the ESP32-CAM module, worked first time, no issues. I have no idea what you mean by the following.

1 - Sings

2 - Arduino IDE seems to want to phone home

3 - can one get a full IDE download

4 - relevant .json files

The only .json files (NO idea what they are) I have seen are pre-populated in the preferences, or in specific instructions to add probably from a DBWS video. I don't recall touching mine more than once.

Just like in HAM radio, the Arduino world has it's jargon, acronyms etc. As a newbie I am constantly learning what those are and am handicapped in communicating without them. Maybe a more senoir member will have a quick answer, but I am stymied by your description.

@ronalex4203 

Hi, thanks for your post.

1. Sings...the unit makes a hissing high pitched note when it's operating.

2. Arduino IDE wants to phone home....like in The Extraterrestrial...ET phone home. When I start the IDE, and compile the webserver example, I get an error at the bottom of the screen saying that some of the files couldn't be found. They must have been stored on the hard drive, tho as the sketch worked. It's like the sketch would have checked the internet for updates had it been able to access it. Phone home.

3.full IDE download. The early Arduino IDE versions came as a complete downloads, with all the libraries installed on the hard drive. You didn't need the internet to write a sketch.

4.  "JSON is an open standard file format and data interchange format that uses human-readable text to store and transmit data objects consisting of attribute–value pairs and arrays." -Wikipedia

Before we could use the ESP32-CAM, we had to tell the IDE to look at the espressiff .json and get some data that was not in the native Arduino IDE libraries

The jargon must be suffered through and learned. It's the nature of education. I am glad you are open to learning. I know it's hard.

I suspect the ESP32-CAM in the form I have, must be a very light duty unit. Judging from the noise it makes when operating. Hopefully, without it's cam it can hold up a bit longer. I am going to try to use it to receive wifi and judge it's strength (as per the sketch).

@dualfuel The 'unit' ? Do you mean the ESP32-CAM? I have a bunch of them, a few different makes and can't say I noticed that.

If some of the files can't be found that means you have not got all the libraries installed. Can you take a screen snap so there is no misinterpretation of the symptom. Also which sketch, is it from the samples that come in the IDE? The more details the better.

There are 3 different libraries, one set is in the IDE, one can be installed from the Library Manager and one is the Sketch>Include library>Add .ZIP library which is normally downloaded from github as a zip file.

Most of the time you do not need the net, but obviously github requires it and probably even library manager, I never noticed since we are mostly all connected to the net 24/7 now.

The reason for the espressif reference is it is a different company than Arduino.

This is the entry in my additional boards manager. I think I got that info from DBWS (Bill).

http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.json
https://dl.espressif.com/dl/package_esp32_index.json

IIRC you don't want to use the camera, so why not use a non camera board? What is it you are trying to build?

@dualfuel I should explain, I recently did a complete tear down and re-build of all my source code libraries so any experiments I was doing are gone to the big bit bucket in the sky. Otherwise I would run the same sketch as you and we could compare notes. Maybe you can tell me where you got the sketch from so I can play along too?

BTW, I was in electronics (tubes) in HS, started out in grade 7 building a crystal radio set. I never worked in radio, got sidetracked by the computer bug in 1959 and never looked back.

@dualfuel I just found the CameraWebServer sample in the Samples Menu, and it compiled ok. That only happened after selecting the right board, my first try failed because I had a different board selected. I don't have any board attached to my computer, but board selection determines libraries used. Look at the compiler output for some insight as to how the development environment works. I provided a couple of incomplete examples. I hope that helps you, it is difficult to know how much stuff to dump in case it overwhelms, but I am a poor judge being that I am on the spectrum, my 'gift' is computers.

@dualfuel Wasn't positive which IDE you were using so I downloaded the new Arduino IDE 2.0 and it compiled the ESP32-Cam Web Server clean in about 3 clicks (select board, select sample, compile)

@ronalex4203 

How do you like that new IDE?

@dualfuel It is closer to the last IDE I worked with in the Msft world about 15 or 20 years ago. PlatformIO offers even more but at a steeper learning curve and more intrusive. I find some of the 'cute' features actually get in my way. I like being able to check things like types of arguments and highlight any obvious syntax errors, but inserting parens especially without the ending ; is just disrupting my very fast two finger typing. I should probably look into how to turn off some of that stuff but a quick check doesn't show me any

WeMos D1

and an ESP8266 development board, with detachable antenna. 

Pretty excited to see if my SEEED breakout shield can be made to work on the D1.