HackSpace_-_October_2019

‘https://dl.espressif.com/dl/package_esp32_index.json’
to the Additional Board Manager URLs box – this is a
comma-separated list, so add a comma before it
if you already have any URLs in the box. In the
Tools > Boards section, you should now have an
ESP32 Arduino section. In that section, you should see
an entry for AI Thinker
ESP32-CAM. However,
we weren’t able to
program the board using
this. Instead, we used
the definition for another,
similar board: the ESP32
Wrover Module.
Once you’ve selected this, you should find the web
server example sketch, which is a great test to make
sure everything’s connected properly. This is in Files >
Examples > ESP32 > Camera > CameraWebServer.
You’ll need to make a few changes to this sketch.
First, add ‘//’ to the start of the following line to
comment it out.

#define CAMERA_MODEL_WROVER_KIT

Then delete the // at the start of this line to enable it.

//#define CAMERA_MODEL_AI_THINKER

Finally, you’ll need to enter your WiFi details in the
following lines:

const char* ssid = “”;

const char* password = “”;

You’ll also need to set the Partition Scheme to Huge

App and the Upload Speed to 115200 (these are in

the Tools menu). That’s the software side of things

set up for this board, so

let’s now take a look at

the hardware.

You may notice that

there’s no USB port

on this board, so you’ll

need a USB to serial

adapter to program it.

Any USB to UART adapter should work, and they

are available for a few pounds. We used a Particle

Debugger because we happened to have one with

us, but this is overkill for this project.

You’ll need four connections between the UART

adapter and the ESP32 Camera: 5 V (this may be

labelled VUSB) to 5 V, GND to GND, TX on the USB

adapter to U0R on the ESP32-CAM, and RX on the

adapter to U0T on the ESP32-CAM. Also, you’ll need

to connect IO0 on the ESP32-CAM and GND – this

puts the board into flashing mode, and we’ll remove

this once we’ve programmed the board.

With that set up, you can plug your USB to UART

adapter into your computer’s USB port, and now you

should be able to select a Port from the Tools menu in

the Arduino IDE. Press the upload button (the

Above

The Camera example

works out of the

box, but isn’t easy

to read for beginner

programmers

Any USB to UART adapter

should work, and they are

available for a few pounds

”

”

FIELD TEST