A Super Easy Security Camera With the ESP32 CAM

If you have done any IoT project, you may know that everything almost all the time consist on sensors measuring physical magnitudes, sending them through the internet and controlling devices with the I/O ports.

But today we are going to learn how to use the ESP32 CAM, that is an ESP32 Development board that has a Built-In camera.

This board can help us on developing projects that can see, and some interesting aplications are:

Security Camera.
Longs Time Lapse Shots.
3D Printer Monitoring Camera.
Door bell camera.
Etc.

If you are a visual learner I know that a video worth more than 1000 words, so here is a Tutorial video. (I am a Spanish speaker, so please consider turning on English subtitles):

Hope you to enjoy the project.

Step 1: Skills Needed.

As you can noticed, nothing looks very difficult on this project, but you will need some basics knowings about:

-Using the Arduino IDE.

-3D printing or Handcraft (for the enclousures).

-Welding.

Step 2: Components and Parts List.

Here is the list of materials and tools you will need to do the project yourself.

-ESP32 CAM: https://www.banggood.com/custlink/GGvhrjV0tY
-USB to TTL: https://amzn.to/2EBbIiX
-Hot Glue gun.
-Soldering Iron.
-Some jumper Wires.
-USB cable.
-Enclosure.

NOTE: If you want to create a PCB to place your ESP32 CAM more professionally you should design your PCB and manufacture it with JLCPCB.

Cheap PCBs and SMT Assembly from $2 USD + (2 Coupons).

Step 3: Programming Conections:

The ESP32 is board from the ESP family developed by Espressif and if you have used one of their boards, mainly the ESP-01 (ESP8266), you may know that the GPIO0 (Pin) is the one that decide on the boot mode of the Chip, so for this case you need to connect a jumper between the GPIO0 and Gnd.