FreeRTOS camera (ESP32-P4)

The ESP32-P4 camera is a FreeRTOS camera: a small Wi-Fi camera whose firmware runs on FreeRTOS (ESP-IDF) rather than Linux. The ESP32-P4 captures and encodes H.264 video, and an ESP32-C6 beside it provides Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Detection runs on the media server.

What you need

Part

Notes

Waveshare ESP32-P4-WIFI6 or Waveshare ESP32-P4-Module-DEV-KIT

the ESP32-C6 radio is on the board

OV5647 camera module (Raspberry Pi Camera v1.3 class, 15-pin)

must be the OV5647: see Set up cameras

camera cable

ESP32-P4-WIFI6: a 22-to-15-pin cable (sold as the Raspberry Pi Zero camera cable); ESP32-P4-Module-DEV-KIT: a straight 15-pin cable (in the kit)

USB-C cable

to flash it from the hub, and to power it later

1. Connect the camera module

Power off the board. The two boards have different camera connectors:

Board

Camera connector on the board

Cable for the 15-pin OV5647 module

ESP32-P4-WIFI6

22-pin, 0.5 mm (Raspberry Pi 5 style)

22-to-15-pin (“Pi Zero camera cable”)

ESP32-P4-Module-DEV-KIT

15-pin (Raspberry Pi v1 style)

straight 15-to-15

Open the connector’s latch, insert the cable fully and evenly, and close the latch. A ribbon that is not seated straight often still lets the board find the camera but gives no picture.

Photo needed: OV5647 ribbon cable in the ESP32-P4-WIFI6

Close-up of the ESP32-P4-WIFI6’s MIPI-CSI connector with the OV5647 ribbon inserted: which side the contacts face, and the latch closed. Label the connector.

Photo needed: OV5647 ribbon cable in the ESP32-P4-Module-DEV-KIT

The same for the ESP32-P4-Module-DEV-KIT: the connector, the ribbon orientation, the latch.

Todo

Write the ribbon orientation in words for each board (which side the metal contacts face), from a photo of a working camera: Waveshare’s pages show it only in pictures.

2. Flash it from the hub

  1. Plug the board into the hub with a USB-C cable.

    Photo needed: Which USB-C port to use on each ESP32-P4 board

    Both boards from above with the USB-C port used for flashing circled. On the ESP32-P4-WIFI6 it is the UART port (the USB-to-serial chip), not the P4’s own USB port.

  2. Open Factory › Flash device.

  3. Pick the image for your board (see Set up cameras) and the board’s port. Press Rescan if it does not show. Ports the gateway uses are locked and marked never flash this.

  4. Press Flash, and wait for it to finish.

The camera releases carry a flash script from release v0.0.2 on. It writes the whole flash (bootloader, partition table and application), so it brings up a blank board as well; the camera’s settings and keys are outside those regions and survive a re-flash.

Todo

Walk these steps on a factory-blank ESP32-P4 board, and document flashing the ESP32-C6 co-processor (its own release, nn-app-media-network) when it needs an update.

After flashing, the camera has no Wi-Fi settings, so it starts in setup mode and advertises over Bluetooth. Unplug it and power it where you want to mount it.

3. Provision and register

  1. Open Devices and press + Add new device.

  2. What are you adding? Choose Wi-Fi camera (ESP32 · BLE setup).

  3. Find the device: the scan starts by itself. Your camera appears within ten seconds.

  4. Details:

    • Name: for example Front door.

    • Wi-Fi network and Wi-Fi password: the 2.4 GHz network the camera will use. The hub fills in everything else (the stream address and the keys).

    • Camera slot: keep new camera, unless you are replacing a camera you unregistered.

  5. Press Start setup.

  6. Register: wait for provisioning Front door and camera joins Wi-Fi and registers.

The camera restarts, turns its Bluetooth off, joins your Wi-Fi and registers. It then appears on Devices and in Pipelines, and its live view starts.

Photo needed: A newly registered camera

Screenshot of the camera’s page right after registering, with the live view playing.

Tip

No registration in 3 min — a wrong Wi-Fi password is the usual cause. Unregister the camera (see below) and run the wizard again.

Unregister or move a camera

On the camera’s Device Status tab, Unregister device resets the camera. It wipes its settings, and its records move to the archive. After 30 to 60 seconds it is back in setup mode. Use Force archive only when the camera is unreachable.

Next: Update cameras over the air.