Surveillance Camera

DIY Surveillance Camera

Learn how to make a DIY surveillance camera using an ESP8266 microcontroller, an Arducam OV2640 2MP camera, and jumper wires. The camera can be accessed through a web browser within the same WiFi network. Total cost is 37€. Follow the step-by-step instructions to install the required software and libraries, and upload the code.

Materials:

ESP8266 microcontroller: $5

Power bank or wall adapter: free

Arducam OV2640 2MP camera: $30

Female-female jumper wires: $2

Box: free

Micro USB cable: free

Total cost: $37

Software needed:

Arduino IDE

Files needed:

Zipped folder with code file and required libraries

Instructions:

1. Connecting the ESP8266 and Arducam

Pin mapping:

2. Installing the Arduino IDE

3. Installing the ESP8266 board files

In Arduino IDE, go to File > Preferences.

In Additional Boards Manager URLs, enter “http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.json”.

In Arduino IDE, go to Tools > Board > Boards Manager.

In Boards Manager, search for “esp8266” and install the package.

4. Installing the required libraries

In Arduino IDE, go to Sketch > Include Library > Add .ZIP Library.

Select the downloaded zipped folder, and click “Open”.

In Arduino IDE, go to Sketch > Include Library, and select “ArduCAM”, “UTFT4ArduCAM_SPI”, and “ESP8266-Websocket”.

5. Opening the code

In Arduino IDE, go to File > Open.

Select the code file from the downloaded zipped folder and click “Open”.

6. Editing the WiFi credentials

In the code file, find the ssid and password arrays.

Replace the default values with your own WiFi credentials.

7. Uploading the code

In Arduino IDE, go to Tools > Board and select “NodeMCU 1.0 (ESP-12E Module)”.

In Arduino IDE, go to Tools > Port and select the port to which the ESP8266 is connected.

In Arduino IDE, click the Upload button.

8. Connecting the power source

Connect the ESP8266 to a power source using a micro USB cable.

9. Accessing the camera

Connect to the same WiFi network as the ESP8266.

Access the camera’s video stream at **http://192.168.23.12/video**.

Access the camera’s photo capture at **http://192.168.23.12/capture**.

Additional notes:

The camera’s video stream and photo capture can only be accessed within the same WiFi network as the ESP8266.

The ESP8266 can be powered by a power bank or a wall adapter.

The code file can be modified to add more WiFi credentials or to change the static IP of the camera.

The code file can be found in the downloaded zipped folder, inside the “src” folder.

The required libraries can be found in the downloaded zipped folder, inside the “libraries” folder.

The Arduino libraries folder is usually located in Documents/Arduino/libraries. If you have trouble installing the libraries, you can copy the “ArduCAM”, “UTFT4ArduCAM_SPI”, and “ESP8266-Websocket” folders from the downloaded “libraries” folder into the Arduino libraries folder.