Use this ESP32 touch the DIY digital camera of the cam module and live through Wi-Fi. You can also play retro games on this module.
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Hardware components:
Arduino 101 × 1
Software applications and online services:
Arduino IDE
In today's project, we will make your own digital motion camera with a capacitive touch screen. We use ESP32 CAM to make a similar DIY camera, but returns some projects, but there is no touch screen on the module. You can check the project here and check its video description from this.
We will use Makersfab's ESP32 CAM touch screen module, which is based on the ESP32 WROVER module. We will also use it to play some fun games, and finally, we will also make a screenshot receiver. We also have Makerfabs's A9G modules and SIM808 modules, but we will work with them in the future.
This will be very fun. So let's get started.
About ESP32 touch cam module
ESP32 Touch Cam Module is an exquisite 3.5-inch touch screen display based on ESP32-WROVER, built-in 2M pixel OV2640 camera, making it an excellent platform for ESP32 projects. This is a very beautiful appearance module that can be used in several different display-based projects. It is equipped with a built-in MICRO SD card slot because the SD card needs to be used to capture and stream transmission. Its back is equipped with an on-board CP2102 programmer and other displays and capacitive connectors.
It has ILI9488 as a 3.5-inch 320x480 TFT LCD driver that communicates with ESP32 using SPI. The SPI master clock up to 60m ~ 80m, which makes the video display enough smoothing. The OV2640 camera of 2 m can be used in applications such as remote photography, facial recognition. The module also has a GPIO pin, we can use it with the divided connector to connect the ESP32 display to the sensor / actuator. ESP32 TFT Touch supports Arduino or Micropython programming. The modules we use here have capacitive touch, you can also have the module to have a resistive touch.
In addition to other components on the module, we have a NS2009 touch screen controller, which is a 4-wire controller with an I2C interface. In addition, we have an FS6232 two MP motherboard clock generator IC, which generates all the clocks required for single and two multiprocessor platforms.
Some important specifications of the module are as follows:
3.5-inch display, 320x480;
Capacitive touch
ESP32-WROVER controller
2 megapixel OV2640 camera
WiFi / Ble connection.
Onboard USB2UART converter for ESP32 programming
Onboard SD card slot
USB connector TYPE-C
ESP32 camera construction
Here, we will build a DIY digital camera using the MakerFabs ESP32 touch cam module. To do this, we don't need to do any additional connections. We only need to connect the module to our PC, then upload the code to use it. In order to make a camera, we need to follow the following simple steps:
First, connect the touch screen camera module to the PC using a USB C cable. After that, go to the GitHub repository of the project.
In the GitHub repository, you will see a folder called Touch Camera. You only need to download the folder and download the folder. You need to open the Camera_v2.ino file. This is the Arduino code you need to upload on the module.
When the code is turned on in the Arduino IDE. You need to go to Tools and select the correct board, ie "ESP32 WROVER module". After that, we need to choose the correct partition scheme, ie "huge app (3MB NO OTA)". Once this is done, you need to select the correct COM port and click the upload button.
After loading the code, you will see the screen will completely whiten, and upload the code, the screen will start displaying all the contents of the camera. You will see "stream" on the lower left corner of the screen, and 3 options will be seen on the right side of the screen, which is "shooting photos", "Previous Photo" and "Start". Take a photo button will click on a photo and save it in the SD card. The "Last Photo" option displays the last photo clicked, "Start Flow Transfer" option will start streaming. This way, you can click on the photo or transfer camera data through WiFi. Therefore, in this way, you will be able to create a digital camera yourself. Now let's try some other applications of the module.
Screen receiver using the ESP32 Touch Cam module
In the last step, we built a digital camera using the Touch Cam module, in which we will try another interesting application of the ESP32 Touch Cam module, which is ScreenShot Receiver. The scope of the screen screenshot is to capture the data on the PC screen, and then send it to the ESP32 module via Wi-Fi and display the same data on the display of the module. Therefore, we must build, we need to follow these steps:
Connect the ESP32 module with a PC, then go to the GitHub repository of the project.
In the GitHub repository, you will see a folder called Screen Shot Receiver. Download this folder and open the "Screenshot Receiver.ino" file in Arduino IDE. It is a project code file.
Once opens the file, you need to enter your Wi-Fi credentials in your code. Once you have finished, you can choose the correct COM Port and click the upload button.
After loading the code, a message will be seen, prompt "Wi-Fi", under it, you will see an IP address, the address is the local IP address of the device.
After getting this IP address, you need to turn to the repository again. There, you will see the ScreenShot Sender application. You need to open the app and enter the obtained IP address on the module display, and then click the Connection button.
After connecting the module, you will see a single box on the display that will also be visible on the module display on the screen overwritten. You can move the box on the PC screen, and the content on the module display will also change at the same time. All data transfer in the screenshot is performed by WiFi, and there is no wired connection for transmission between modules and PCs. Therefore, in this way, we built a ScreenShot Receiver and tested it.
Other applications of the ESP32 touch cam
Therefore, in this way, we understand the ESP32 touch camera module of Makerfabs. It is very compact and is suitable for use in some items. We have also completed two such projects, which are WiFi-based screenshot receivers and ESP32 digital cameras, but the possibility of making projects with these projects is unlimited. An example I can give you is an ESP32 game.
You can upload code of classic games (such as 2048, angry birds, etc.) and use this code very easy to play them. You can also use it as a touch-based drawing board and can draw on them with the help of the fingertips. The code for these applications can be obtained from the GitHub repository of the project.
GitHub repository fast channel
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