For an index to all my stories click this text.
As you will know by now I
have been playing with the ESP32-cam module lately. I build a programming
board for it, which makes life a lot easier. You can read that story here: http://lucstechblog.blogspot.com/2021/12/esp32-cam-programming-board-revisited.html
And there was a modification for that board which in certain circumstances makes sending pictures a lot faster: http://lucstechblog.blogspot.com/2021/12/esp32-cam-programming-board-revisited.html
And here is a small experimenting board for the ESP32-CAM: http://lucstechblog.blogspot.com/2021/10/esp32cam-experiment-board.html
For those who have no clue on what this is about: the ESP32-cam board is an ESP32 with an OV2640
camera which gives a decent picture (for a board of a few dollar anyhow) and I
have a few plans for this.
My 3D printer is controlled by
Octoprint. I have an USB camera attached and Octoprint will send a
notification to my phone when a print has finished. Besides that I can watch
proceedings on my phone or tablet from the Octoprint web-page whenever I want.
The USB webcam has a low resolution (640 x 480) but it does the job. The
ESP32-cam has a better resolution but is wireless and I wondered how difficult
it would be to use that.
It took time.
Actually it took me some time before I had the wireless ESP32-cam
working with Octoprint. Not that is was difficult to get it working, but there
is few documentation on this subject and you have to use the right settings in
Octoprint. Finding the settings was the time consuming part. So you will find
them here a bit further on.
Installing the ESP32-cam in Octoprint.
First thing to do is to get the ESP32-cam working. If it works
you can see the picture on a web-page in your PC.
To find the IP adress
of the ESP32-cam just look into your router. My router shows all IP adresses
of all attached (wired and wireless). I have demonstrated in previous stories
on how to do that. You can read an example here:
http://lucstechblog.blogspot.com/2020/01/sending-data-from-esp-to-domoticz.html
In my particular case the ESP32-cam has the IPnumber 192.168.1.84
If
you know the IP-number we can go on to the next step.
Open Octoprints web-page and press on the wrench at the top-right
side of the page that will open the settings page.
First enable the web-cam support with the radio button.
In
the Stream URL enter: http://192.168.1.84:81/stream
Replace
the 192.168.1.84 with the IP-number of your ESP32-cam. Add :81 after the
IP-number and then /stream.
So in your case the command should be:
http://YOURIPNUMBER:81/stream
Finding
the port number (81) took me a considerable time. So this makes it easy for
you.
Press the test button and a small screen should open that shows
the webcam stream.
It does not work.
Well it did not work on my end either at first until I realised
something.
I had the ESP32-cam webpage still open on my PC. And there was
the pitfall. The ESP32-cam can only stream to one device. So it streams to
Octoprint or it streams to your PC. Not both at the same time.
When
I closed the webpage on the PC everything worked as it should.
And there it is. The picture of my printerbed.
All in
all a very cheap solution if you need a webcam for checking your 3D
printer.
Till next time.
Have fun
Luc Volders
