DIY ESP32-CAM Intruder Photo Capture and Alert System

Let's start with this innovative IoT tutorial, where you'll learn how to build your own security system that will help you keep an eye on your home while you're away and will notify you if an intruder tries to enter. It will also send you a photo of the intruder on your smart phone. So that you may take the right action. An additional feature is also been added to this project where a user can also trigger the camera to capture photo from his/her smart phone remotely. In this project you will learn to program ESP32-CAM Wi-Fi module without using FTDI programmer and interfacing PIR sensor with ESP32-CAM.

Components Required

• ESP32-CAM Development Board
• NodeMCU/ Arduino board
• Connecting Wires
• PIR Sensor
• Power Supply
• Bread board

What is ESP32-CAM development board?

The ESP32-CAM is a small camera module that runs on the ESP32-S microprocessor and costs around 650 INR. Aside from the OV2640 camera and various GPIOs for connecting peripherals, it also has a micro-SD card slot for storing photos captured by the camera or files to offer to clients.

Feature of ESP32-CAM:

• The smallest 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi BT SoC module
• Low power 32-bit CPU, can also serve the application processor
• Up to 160MHz clock speed, summary computing power up to 600 DMIPS
• Built-in 520 KB SRAM, external 4MPSRAM
• Supports UART/SPI/I2C/PWM/ADC/DAC
• Support OV2640 and OV7670 cameras, built-in flash lamp
• Supports image WiFI upload
• Support TF card
• Supports multiple sleep modes
• Embedded Lwip and FreeRTOS
• Supports STA/AP/STA+AP operation mode
• Support Smart Config/AirKiss technology
• Support for serial port local and remote firmware upgrades (FOTA)

Because the ESP32-CAM lacks a USB port, you'll need an FTDI programmer to upload code via the U0R and U0T pins (serial pins). But in this tutorial you will learn to program it using  Arduino/ NodeMCU board.

ESP32-CAM Pinout

In this ESP32-CAM project, You will create a motion sensor camera with ESP32CAM and a PIR Motion Detector sensor. The micro-SD card connected to the ESP32-CAM will store all of the photos.
Because we'll be using the ESP32CAM's Deep Sleep mode, the circuit will require very little power. You can also utilize the circuit indefinitely without any issues. As a result, this is a really useful electronics project.

Connect the ESP32-CAM board to your computer for uploading the program code using an ESP8266 development board as shown in following the schematic below