Dev board question

[welshi32]

Hello. I ordered a second dev board from AliExpress, and I'd like to figure out how to work with this thing beforehand. Does anyone have this kind of dev board?

Does this use the Freenove S3 pinout? Correct me if I'm wrong.

[welshi32]

I wrote down the pinout from the board's ali page

Signal	Pin
CAM_XCLK	GPIO15
CAM_PCLK	GPIO13
CAM_SIOD	GPIO4
CAM_SIOC	GPIO5
CAM_VSYNC	GPIO6
CAM_HREF	GPIO7
CAM_Y2	GPIO8
CAM_Y3	GPIO9
CAM_Y4	GPIO10
CAM_Y5	GPIO11
CAM_Y6	GPIO12
CAM_Y7	GPIO14
I used this image for reference

[s60sc]

looks like Freenove S3 type

[welshi32]

yeah, i'm just documenting stuff for others not to suffer with these

[welshi32]

i even call them freenove clone, to me by myself when i'm alone

[francwalter]

Do you have some experience with that Ali-ESP32-Cam-Board now?

I think I have bought the same and spent many hours to find a working configuration and still havent found.
That board (when flashed as ESP32-S3 Dev Board at least) is not able to save settings with that firmware, especially the "Motion detect" and "Save Capture" is not possible to activate so that it saves anything. Despite of the message "...Configfile saved".
Also saving the resolution seems not to work properly, it is always shown VGA on start but might be another resolution.
Changing and saving anything could easily disturb the ESP and then the system is maybe not answering, but there is no error message, so its always a long try and error with it.

I am on the search for a board, which just works out of the box with any firmware from s60sc but I doubt there is any.

[welshi32]

I currently don't have access to it since i'm resoldering the IC, mine had an antenna issue

[welshi32]

wait.... that's the same i ordred. like the exact same listing

[welshi32]

Select
#define CAMERA_MODEL_ESP32_S3_CAM
NOT
#define CAMERA_MODEL_FREENOVE_ESP32S3_CAM

[francwalter]

That's what I selected, thanks!
And as board in Arduino IDE I use ESP32S3 Dev Module.

The board is now working with a OV3660 camera.
The beginning setup (AP and pwd) is always difficult till the board has the WiFi login. The ESP is so sensitive, a little change and the system freezes but that's often firstly invisible.

But I have it now and this time the changes in resolution etc. are saved and working. Not with that OV5640 and the same board, flashed same system with same settings.
Could be a precompiled AP and password in appGlobals.h

[francwalter]

What nearly never works is the playback of a recorded stream, maybe only 2 MB. I select a Playback file and hit 'Start Playback' and likely it starts and after one second the ESP32S3 hangs, the video stops and also the ESP. That is in the log then (e.g.):

...
[14:50:49.307 showPlayback] Playback enabled (SD file selected)
[14:50:49.307 openSDfile] Playing /20251209/20251209_144202_VGA_10_6.avi
..................................................
..........
[14:51:20.356 getNextFrame] ******** AVI playback stats ********
[14:51:20.356 getNextFrame] Playback /20251209/20251209_144202_VGA_10_6.avi
[14:51:20.367 getNextFrame] Recorded FPS 10, duration 6 secs
[14:51:20.367 getNextFrame] Playback FPS 1.9, duration 31 secs
[14:51:20.377 getNextFrame] Number of frames: 60
[14:51:20.377 getNextFrame] Average SD read speed: 1291 kB/s
[14:51:20.378 getNextFrame] Average frame SD read time: 33 ms
[14:51:20.388 getNextFrame] Average frame processing time: 0 ms
[14:51:20.398 getNextFrame] Average frame delay time: 1 ms
[14:51:20.399 getNextFrame] Average http send time: 514 ms
[14:51:20.409 getNextFrame] Busy: 99%
[14:51:20.409 checkMemory] Setup Free: heap 146572, block: 94196, min: 98696, pSRAM 4546752
[14:51:20.420 getNextFrame] *************************************

[14:51:42.057 WARN wsHandler] closing connection, as newer Websocket on 54
[14:51:42.058 wsHandler] Websocket connection: 54

I guess even a small avi file is just too big for the small memory of the ESP32-S3. So I wonder what it is for, that 'Start Playback' Button.