Hi, I am having trouble with my WiFi RC car project. I am a beginner and would appreciate any clarification or help.
I want to have a POV camera attached to my DIY RC car. There are many versions of this project online, but I could not find guides with the components I have. I have a ESP8266 that controls my DC motors, servo, and hopefully my camera (https://www.ebay.com/itm/1000TVL-1-3-CC … 2749.l2649).
I read the SparkFun tutorial here (https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/wi … ifi-camera) but could not manage my connections between the ESP8266 and FPV camera. There are only 3 wires connecting to the camera (power, ground, and digital output?). I am also not sure where to start with the coding (Arduino) specifically with the camera.
In regards to using the ESP8266, I have managed to connect to my WiFi, spit out an IP address, open a Web Server, and have a shabby HTML page with some buttons controlling DC motor movement. I assume the camera’s feed needs to connect to the ESP8266 and live upload its contents to the Web Server/HTML page?
The camera you’re using is an analog camera and won’t work with a digital microcontroller like the Thing. Even if it were a digital camera, I’m not sure the Thing has the processing capability to handle digital video.
The camera we used in the tutorial is a stand alone WiFi camera that you can pickup online and it’s not connected to the Thing but it is connected to a battery on the bot. You’re going to need to source one of those online.
When picking a WiFi camera, keep a few things in mind:
- Power supply voltage: Ideally the camera can be powered from USB, so that the ESP32 and camera can share the same 5V rail.
- 2.4GHz WiFi connection: So that the ESP32 and camera can share the same network.
- Framerate: Higher is better. The best we were able to find was 30 frames per second, but due to real world conditions, expect it to be around half of what is outlined in the technical details.
- Accessible with an HTTP link: For this you'll have to do some googling, but if you type in the manufacturer and model number followed by "URL" (e.g. "Wansview 1080p URL") you should find a link that will show you what to put in the address bar of your browser to view the video stream.
