Dumb But Great Point and Shoot Camera With ESP32 CAM
Introduction: Dumb But Great Point and Shoot Camera With ESP32 CAM
Hey everyone what's up, so here's something cool, an esp32 cam-based point and shoot camera.
So the idea here was to take this very useful esp32 cam board and flash it with a sketch that lets us take an image and save it on the memory card.
kinda like a proper point-and-shoot camera but this setup won't have any kind of display on it.
which is a bummer but it works.
To be honest, images captured by this esp32 cam are pretty bad but the camera itself works, we have a camera at our disposal that is handheld and can take images which is a cool thing.
In this Instructables, I'm gonna show you guys how you can make this setup in few easy ways.
Let's get started
Supplies
these are the stuff that I used in this project.
* ESP32 cam board
* Custom PCB
* Lithium Cell 3.7V
* USB Micro Port
* IP5306 Power management IC
* 10uF 0805 Capacitor
* 2R 0603 Resistance (I didn't have the same package so I used 0805 Resistors)
* SMD LEDs 0603
* 1uH inductor
* Battery JST connectors
* Female Header pins
* Tick Tack switch
* 3D Printed body
Step 1: PROLOGUE
ESP32 CAM is quite a useful development board, it is equipped with a 2MP OV2640 camera module and an SD Card Reader on the bottom side of the board.
Also, It cost around 10$ which is a pretty sweet price tag for such a capable Microcontroller.
The WIFI module used in this Version is ESP-32S which has a built-in 32Mbit of Flash and 512KB Internal plus external 4M PSRAM.
It's five volts tolerant which means we can power the ESP32 Cam with a voltage less than 5V, if you provide it a voltage greater than 5V, it will get destroyed.
Here's a fun project for this Board, a point-and-shoot camera that will capture an image and save it into the SD Card. Previously, I have made a Security Cam concept with this ESP32 Cam board and it worked.
I've placed it outside my home and it's still working.
https://www.instructables.com/DIY-ESP32-Security-C...
My point here is, ESP32 CAM can handle all sorts of stuff, from streaming a video to capture images and stuff. It does heat white streaming live footage which is a flaw but for a setup like a video recording cam, a cooling fan can be added to decrease the temp of the module.
Step 2: Basic Structure
* Before making a PCB Edition of this project, I first flash the ESP32 Cam with the main sketch of this project, I made a temporary setup on a perf board just for testing
* then I added this setup with a 5V power source which is this LiPo boost module that you can buy online.
* After connecting the 5V and GND of Boost module with ESP32 Cam's 5V and GND, we can power this board reliably.
* For capturing a picture, we just press the reset button and this camera setup will capture an image with a delay of 3 seconds.
Now let's move on to the next step or next variant which is the PCB edition of this ESP32 Cam setup.
Step 3: PCB Edition- IP5306 Setup- Schematic
Now to make the PCB of this ESP32 Camera Setup, I really don't have to do the whole R&D thing in this project as this setup is just an ESP32 Camera powered by a LiPo boost converter circuit.
So what I did was, I first got the IP5306 IC which is a Power management IC that has an inbuilt LiPo-Lithium cell charging feature inbuilt with low cut and high cut both available, it also boosts their voltage up to 5V 2A which is a lot.
I studied its datasheet and then prepared a schematic in my PCB CAD Software.
The Schematic is relatively simple, there's a minimal IP5306 Setup.
the output of IP5306 goes into the 5V and GND of ESP32 Cam breakout pins.
I have also added a separate switch to the PCB, it's not connected to the board or anything, it is completely isolated with only two connectors. that's because I will manually solder wires from both terminals of the reset button on ESP32 to these pads.
After completing the Schematic, I then converted it into a PCB design.
Step 4: PCB Design
After completing the Schematic, I then converted it into a PCB design. 382