howard lewis asked 5 years ago
I have followed the first module in your new ESP32-Cam book. It seems like everything is working, serial monitor says camera is working, I get WiFi connection. But when I open the page in any browser, I only have the controls on the left side. When I hit start streaming or get still, the serial monitor shows things happening, but I only get a broken icon and an X like to close the stream.
I am sorry if this has been asked and answered, I did not find anything. I have the AI-thinker “clone” from KeeYees.com.
Really I have no idea what to check or do next to troubleshoot this.
howard lewis answered 5 years ago
More info:
the things happening look to be mjpg frames streaming somewhere. If I hit the get still button, serial monitor shows a jpeg
Sara Santos Staff answered 5 years ago
Hi Howard.
I’m sorry you’re getting that issue.
Are you using an ESP32-CAM with external antenna? We’ve found that the ESP32-CAM works much better with an external antenna. Otherwise, you need to be very close to your router to get the web server working properly.
However, you’re getting the messages on the Serial Monitor, so it should be working fine.
What web browser are you using?
Sometimes, if you reset the ESP32-CAM, it starts streaming without any problem. Press the RST button several times and see if it solves the problem.
Also, make sure that you don’t have any other web browser tab opened on that same IP address.
Regards,
Sara
howard lewis answered 5 years ago
Hi Sara, thanks for the help on this, I have tried it with chrome, firefox, an safari. same on all of them. The serial monitor seems to show streaming. when I press “start streaming” on the web page, lines of data start streaming in the monitor. I am using the built in antenna as I have no way to move the resistor at home. I am about 10 feet from the router. I would attach a pic of the serial if I could figure out how to post pics here.
I have reset several times. It always seems to work, just no pic on the browser.
Sara Santos Staff answered 5 years ago
Hi.
That is very weird.
I’ve found this discussion with people that have the same problem: https://github.com/espressif/esp32-camera/issues/24
However, I haven’t found a clear answer. Some people said that happened with some boards and with others, it worked ok. But I’m not really sure if it is an hardware problem or something else.
Can you try another project with video Streaming? Experiment project on page 219 and see if you get the video streaming.
I have no idea what might be wrong :/
Regards,
Sara
Stuart Hunter answered 5 years ago
I was having a similar issue to your first where i would just get a blue square with a question mark when trying to get a still and nothing at all from streaming – this was while I still had my ESP32-CAM powered via the Uno I was using to program it (FTDI is not working for me). When I powered the ESP32-CAM via an actual separate power supply on my breadboard it worked just fine.
Sara Santos Staff answered 5 years ago
Hi Stuart.
Yes, having a good power supply is essential to get the ESP32-CAM working properly.
Why your FTDI programmer doesn’t work? What FTDI programmer do you have?
Regards,
Sara