Board with integrated USB serial adapter, ESP32-CAM-CH340, No FTDI needed

[easytarget]

OkiDoki.

I just ordered one of the above modules (google it, I got mine from aliexpress) which is basically a AI Thinker board with a CH340 usb-serial converter onboard.

• looking at the ads I have a horrible feeling that it will still need GP0 to be held low for programming.
• But at least the FTDI board can be dispensed with, and power supply can be done with a spare USB-micro cable
• If I get this working I intend to add an affiliate link for it to the main page and make sure it gets written up in with equal importance as the AI-Thinker board.

I'll let you know... It wont arrive until the new year so I'll see what can be done with the code in the meantime

If you want to support my work, you can try the Affiliate Link

[easytarget]

I have the board now; it works! hurrah, and it does not need any additional hardware to program!

No FTDI board is needed, No messing around with connecting wires while programming

• There are two buttons underneath the board next to the usb mini socket; reset and flash.
• reset does exactly what it says, resets and reboots the board.
• Holding the flash button while pressing reset will put the board into programming mode; after which you can simply upload from the IDE/programmer.

Also Note:

The board came with a really simple cam server already programmed; creating a simple passwordless AP and serving a stream and images via two URI's.

• Look at the default serial output (115200 baud) to see the camera startup log and connection details; AP name, and the URL's for the stream and image.
• This is good since it let me test the camera before I put any of my code on it.
• It is a very simple camera server, no control page etc, and fixed at a low resolution.

However..

This board shows isues with high XCLK speeds;

• Setting #define XCLK_FREQ_HZ 3000000; (3 MHz) on the last line of myconfig.h was needed to make the camera start and serve high resolution images without errors and visual artefacts.
• This is something that seems to be bugging a lot of recent boards.
  • my original AI-THINKER board runs with Xclk set at 20MHz, and the later boards I have needed this reduced to 16MHz, but I have seen reports that much lower speeds are needed with some recent clones.
  • The effect of this is to limit how fast the camera can send images to the module ready for sending via the network. It affects the absolute maximum frame-rate you can get.
  • The frame rate is still reasonable and acceptable for most uses; certainly good enough for a general-purpose webcam.

[jouellnyc]

I literally have this board am interested in your experience. I could not really find these online apart from ebay - https://www.ebay.com/itm/185476432256 - they say "... press the FLASH button (always press), and then connect the module's MICRO USB port and computer's USB port through the USB cable. " no mention of RST but it seem that was the success point for you. Did your board respond / light up when you held the flash button while pressing reset?

I have tried all sorts of ways to flash this w/o success.

I have flashed many ESP32-CAM-MB's (w/oFTDI) but this is the first ESP32-CAM-CH340 thus far...

[80stech]

Press and hold the flash button,, connect the USB cable, start the download and when connecting......... appears let go of the flash button.

[sonofcy]

I have a dozen or more of these boards from Aliexpress. I upload without touching any buttons. Sounds like you have fake boards.

[jouellnyc]

oh. Wow. That is completely wild / awesome at the same time. I let go just at the point when Thonny said "starting". Sure enough, it worked! Thanks for the very quick reply!

[rediculum]

For all Germans, Elektor Store offers it as well:
https://www.elektor.de/parts/development-boards/esp32-cam-ch340-development-board

[MioukiSan]

I can't understand the procedure, do I need to open the arduino IDE and then connect the esp32 cam while pressing flash and when the download is starts I'll let go the flash button?