2 Pack ESP32-CAM WiFi Bluetooth Camera Module Development Board ESP32 with Camera Module OV2640

While the camera can capture UXGA frames and write them to an SDCARD at a reasonable frame rate, the ESP32 cannot deliver them over the network. Great for little camera projects but not if you need high-ish resolution video. Was easy and cheap to get up and working.

EDIT: Contacted the seller and they refunded me the amount for the non functional board. I've changed my rating to reflect that.Only one of the boards has a functional camera connection. The ESP32 chip itself works fine on both boards; however, with one of the boards, the camera can't be accessed, causing a reboot loop for any code that tries to use it.

Most instructions online say to connect the ground of the USB/serial module to the pin next to UOT. But that didn't work for me. Everything started working when I connected the module to the ground pin next to the 5V pin.

Cameras are 90 deg off set compared to other more expensive versions. This can be important if you are not really able to make the proper adjustments in the end visualization product or if you are looking to have the aspect ratio for the larger formats in the orientation you would like. For my use case which is as a camera to mount on a 3d Printer.. Many of them. I have a case and mount for that case that orients the camera in the expected way. Flipping the image is easy and most of the example code sets out there have that but few have a way to do a native on board 90 deg shift. So what I get in OctoPrint, I can rotate it 90 but since the cameras aspect ratio is not rotating with is, you have a tall image in place of a wide image. Not optimal.I suspect that this is due to some defect in manufacturing and that is why the price is as low as it is. Likely only the camera it self but I bought the package and the cost is only increased if i have to get a new camera to make this right.All that said, if you know this up front or it does not affect your overall design / expected use case, you should have good success with this.

The package contained two ESP32-CAM controllers with cameras, and both worked - unlike some reviewers who got duds. Here is a quick way to see if your unit works:First you must attach the camera's ribbon cable to the controller board. To do this, lift the black plastic locking bar (see photo) and lay the cable in as far as possible - so that when you push the locking bar down to lock the cable in place, the bar covers the white line on the cable connector.Following some other reviewers, I used a powered USB hub to deliver power to a USB-to-TTL converter.I connected the 3.3 v pin on the converter to the 3.3 v pin on the ESP32-CAM, and GND to GND. Did not bother (yet) with RCV DATA or TX DATA pins; for this quick test you just need power.The ESP32-CAM comes pre-flashed with a demo firmware that runs a web server and creates a WiFi access point named CAM-aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff (with some other hex digits, probably a MAC address, filled in).Use your smart phone or computer to connect to this access point (no password) then type 192.168.4.1 into your browser. This will bring up the demo firmware, which lets you set all sorts of camera parameters, and stream video and take snapshots. Now you know if your device is alive or DOA. Mine worked with 3.3 v or 5 v (supplied to the appropriate board pin, of course).Of course your true goal is to write new firmware, or hack a published one, and flash that onto the device. Don’t worry that the product doesn’t come with instructions - just search “ESP32-CAM” and you’ll see many web pages and videos that cover It. Now you’ll need to hook the USB-serial converter’s TX data to the chip’s RX data, and vice versa. I successfully used the Arduino dev software running on a Raspberry Pi.

This product does not come with any documentation whatsoever, I had to contact the seller who just sent me a link to a personal website of a guy in Europe doing experiments with this product. I was expecting the seller to provide the manufacturer documentation so I would understand what this product can and cannot do. There is no engraving on the chipset shield other than ESP32-S, so you would better look the internet for AI-Thinker ESP32-CAM to get some infos.Of the 2 modules I received, one of them did not work properly when flashed according to the instructions: the only results I could get in the console was a reset in loop. After struggling for many hours, I finally could make it working by using the ESP32 DEV board and setting the flash frequency to 40 MHz and enabling the PSRAM in Arduino IDE and it worked in the end. I don't know why but the other module was working very well straight away with no tinkering at all.Indeed, given the price of this product, you should not expect 4K video and you will not get this resolution anyway. The maximum resolution is quite decent for such a small thing but the image quality is mediocre at best, not to mention the lag due to the size of the frames when in high resolution. If you just need to monitor something just to see something is happening, go for it, if you need a surveillance camera, this is not the product you need and there is no night vision at all.

Great little device, you want a simple web cam with sd writing, face tracking, this does it, WARNING to those that want to do more, like have I/O with the features above, it's going to be tough. Most of the pins available get used by cam/SD and I/O 4 is the built in light. You'll also note that I/O 0 determines rather the unit boots to run or program mode. I think I was only able to use 2 pins as I/O with generic web cam server with SD storage for images from camera. I would get these again, even with the limited I/O options ... there are work arounds ... software serial to another pic as expansion. These are also found cheaper other places if you're willing to wait for shipping.