efifi asked 5 years ago
EDIT: SUCCESS…. SORT OF
After all this trouble, I gave up on the serial monitor and used flashing leds to see what progress the code is making. Turns out – if i attach the desktop power to the ESP32-CAM at 5.2V, it works. Impossible with serial monitor.
FYI – thanks
i bought your es32-cam tutorial book and bought two esp32-cam ai-thinker modules.
not making progress – i cannot bypass the brownout issues.
You have a troubleshooting list as follows
- Poor quality USB cable;
- USB cable is too long;
- Board with some defect (bad solder joints);
- Bad computer USB port;
- Or not enough power provided by the computer USB port.
I have addressed each of these.
- no usb cable
- no com port
- desktop power supply 5V
i added flashing lights to see if the ESP32 booted while powered by the desktop and not connected to the serial monitor port.
I was working on your first project – CAMERAWEBSERVER. I chopped this up to discover that the problem is on the WIFI.BEGIN statement.
Other things i have tried
- setting Static ip address
- soldering a 10mf capacitor between + and –
- disabling brownout – getting a guru meditation error
- reading 1000 google articles
i have spent untold days on this and tried different cables, leads, 2 ESP32-cams (from same supplier)
I have run out of ideas….. only thing left to do i purchase a different ESP32-CAM from a different supplier? really?
My program is – static IP and brownout disabled included
https://pastebin.com/embed_js/KJ6Xg6gN
and the serial monitor reads….
https://pastebin.com/embed_js/D6MxpQZm
any ideas?
thanks
PS – Love your work.
efifi answered 5 years ago
sorry first time with pastebin – trying options
https://pastebin.com/embed_js/KJ6Xg6gN
https://pastebin.com/embed_js/D6MxpQZm
cant embed the code – need to click on the link – must be doing something wrong?
Even the WIFI.CONFIG crashes the ESP32 with a brownout
Steve Mercer answered 5 years ago
Which pins are you using on the FTDI adapter.
I get brownouts when I connect a servo to the power pins on the ESP32. It just draws too much power. For that I connect a 5V supply to the V and GND pins on the servo and signal to the ESP32. Perfect.
Brownouts on WIFI.CONFIG should not happen and point to not enough power being supplied.
See if https://dronebotworkshop.com/esp32-cam-intro/#Resolving_ESP32-CAM_Power_Issues helps. It helped me. I use the 5V pin on the ESP32.
Sara Santos Staff answered 5 years ago
Hi.
I’m sorry but I only see your question after the edit.
I’m not sure if you already solved your problem?
The error you’re getting is many times related with problems with power supply.
How are you exactly powering your board? Can you provide more details?
Regards,
Sara
efifi answered 5 years ago
thanks steve and sara
problem solved – sort of. Power using external power source – it is working.
The question now is – how to debug without a serial monitor? I am flashing the red LED and the white LED at different times to see if the code makes it past various points. But it makes for difficult debugging without a serial monitor.
the power is sooooo tight – 4.87V from the serial port is not enough – 5.0 from the desktop power supply is fine.
thanks for your input
Steve Mercer answered 5 years ago
This gets tricky. You need a reliable 5V supply to the ESP32. Then another supply for anything external to that. Connect the grounds together to eliminate any signal degradation.
The ESP32 with its own supply via FTDI on USB should have enough power for both WiFi and serial monitor. Anything else? Who knows. That’s when experimenting with external supplies comes in.