Richard Simon asked 5 years ago
Greetings. I have been following your tutorials successfully and find them very useful. I would like to adapt my esp32 cam for night vision using IR LEDs. Basically I want to see what has been trashing my garden at night on a regular basis and I don’t want to buy a commercial (and expensive) game cam. My understanding is that all cameras have an IR filter for color balance or something. Can I remove this filter. Is there a camera I can use with esp32 cam that has no IR filter? I am presently using a fisheye OV2640. Can other OV cameras work with esp cam? Thanks for any assistance. Keep up the good work
rls
Sara Santos Staff answered 5 years ago
Hi Rihcard.
At the moment, I don’t think there is an OV2640 camera for night vision.
I’ve found this article about removing the IR filter that might be useful: http://marksbench.com/electronics/removing-ir-filter-from-esp32-cam/
Regards,
Sara
Richard Simon answered 5 years ago
Greetings Sara,
Thanks for your quick response. I looked at the article and it seemed straightforward so I performed surgery on my fisheye OV2640. It actually was a bit easier than the article suggested. The lens assembly was lightly tack-glued so I easily removed it. The filter was right there and took some carving to remove but no problem. I expected threading the lens assembly back on would be difficult because I cut into the threads removing the filter. However it just went on easily and I was almost done. After assembly I had to adjust the focus by turning the lens assembly. I used the web server code from the ESP32 cam book you just published and I finally got it focused. It appears to be fine. I have to rig up some IR leds to test it in the dark. Thanks again for your assistance. Keep up the good work.
rls
Sara Santos Staff answered 5 years ago
Hi Richard.
That’s great! I’m glad you found the article useful and remove the filter successfully!
Then, tell us if you were able to capture images in the dark.
Regards,
Sara
Richard Simon answered 5 years ago
Will do. For a quick test today I am trying to rig up the IR LEDs from a Raspberry Pi Noir camera. I assume I will buy some IR LEDs and make some kind of lamp. My ultimate goal is to build a standalone device to monitor the garden night and day (and whatever else I need monitoring) and save to micro SD card. Since this area is remote (for Cape Cod, Massachusetts anyway) and off grid it will be battery powered. The area has cell service but no wifi so for now saving to micro SD card will be fine. I anticipate using the charging system from a previous tutorial of yours. A tutorial I found very useful and interesting.
I will let you know if I get any night images and keep you informed if you are interested.
Thanks again,
rls