MicroPython: OV2640 camera module extended (M5Camera, ESP32-CAM, etc.)

Table of contentHide Show

Hardware and Software
DIY: Instructions
Application Example

I've just upgraded the MicroPython camera module for ESP32. The OV2640 uses I2S and two months ago, I wrote/updated the I2S connector to support more boards (check the hardware and software section below).

This time with the help of @joerggollnick, the driver was extended to include the following camera settings: frame size, white balance, saturation, brightness, contrast special effects, image quality, vertical flip, and horizontal flip.

Hardware and Software

DIY: Instructions

I've included a compiled MicroPython firmware that supports camera and BLE (check the firmware folder). The firmware was compiled using esp-idf 4.x with hash version 4c81978 and MicroPython with hash version 836bca9.

To flash it to the board, you need to type the following:

esptool.py --chip esp32 --port /dev/ttyUSB0 erase_flash
esptool.py --chip esp32 --port /dev/ttyUSB0 --baud 460800 write_flash -z 0x1000 micropython_836bca9_esp32_idf4.x_ble_camera.bin

More information is available in this tutorial.

If you want to compile your driver from scratch follow the section DIY (from Scratch) from this article: MicroPython: Support for cameras: M5CAMERA, ESP32-CAM etc..

Application Example

I've included an application to test the camera and its settings. To deploy the app on your ESP board, follow these steps:

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/lemariva/uPyCam.git

Rename the file config.py.sample to config.py and configure: a. Your WI-FI credentials, b. The camera that you have (M5CAMERA/ESP32-CAM). If you have another camera, you need to configure the pins in the file webserver.py.
Upload the code using VSCode and the PyMark extension. If you need the instructions, follow this article for more information: MicroPython: Visual Studio Code (VSCode) as IDE
Open a browser and type the URL that your board publishes in the terminal:
```
I (4380) network: GOT_IP
network config: ('192.168.178.165', '255.255.255.0', '192.168.178.1', '192.168.178.1')
```
In my case, it is http://192.168.178.165 and you will get something like Fig. 1.

Fig. 1: Camera webserver.

The new camera settings are the following:


Setting	Description	Values
`camera.saturation(int value)`	image saturation	from `-2` to `2` (`0` default)
`camera.brightness(int value)`	image brightness	from `-2` to `2` (`0` default)
`camera.contrast(int value)`	image contrast	from `-2` to `2` (`0` default)
`camera.quality(int value)`	image quality	from `10` (high) to `63` (low)
`camera.flip(int value)`	vertical flip	`0` or `1`
`camera.mirror(int value)`	horizontal flip	`0` or `1`
`camera.framesize(int value)`	image size	`FRAME_96X96` `FRAME_QQVGA` `FRAME_QCIF` `FRAME_HQVGA` `FRAME_240X240` `FRAME_QVGA` `FRAME_CIF` `FRAME_HVGA` `FRAME_VGA` `FRAME_SVGA` `FRAME_XGA` `FRAME_HD` `FRAME_SXGA` `FRAME_UXGA` `FRAME_FHD` `FRAME_P_HD` `FRAME_P_3MP` `FRAME_QXGA` `FRAME_QHD` `FRAME_WQXGA` `FRAME_P_FHD` `FRAME_QSXGA`
`camera.speffect(int value)`	color effects for the image	`EFFECT_NONE (default)` `EFFECT_NEG` `EFFECT_BW` `EFFECT_RED` `EFFECT_GREEN` `EFFECT_BLUE` `EFFECT_RETRO`
`camera.whitebalance(int value)`	white balance	`WB_NONE (default)` `WB_SUNNY` `WB_CLOUDY` `WB_OFFICE` `WB_HOME`

That's all you need. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comment section below! :)

Comments

Aleem Ahmed Bin Ghous 01.02.2021

Hi there, I have read your previous posts and this one too, but I couldn't able to make it work. I read your blogs and implement it, by directly flashing firmware you mentioned, and then tried to clone uPyCam repository. But deploying through vscode the whole code is not able to pass through as I am getting a timeout error, don't know why. I have used jumper from IO0 to GND, still it is not working. hope you can help me regarding this.

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Dirk Schlage 08.17.2021

Hi. I did not verify this yet, but the camera's reset signal might not be connected to a GPIO-Pin of the ESP32. The software does not show an image. Ony options there?

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Himakar 08.29.2021

Hi, I am unable to write flash to the board. Please advice.

#MicroPython: OV2640 camera module extended (M5Camera, ESP32-CAM, etc.)