Extremely poor performance on ESP32-CAM board

[UnforeseenOcean]

Hardware:

Board: ESP32-CAM (Generic, using ESP32-S module)
Core Installation version: 1.0.4
IDE name: Arduino IDE
Flash Frequency: Default
PSRAM enabled: Unsure (most likely yes, IPS6404LSO)
Upload Speed: 115200
Computer OS: Windows 10 / Android 10

Description:

• Extremely poor performance on any setting
• Black screen after few seconds
• Many dropped frames
• Long delays between frames
• Stream does not even reach 15FPS
• Stream gets stuck
• Sluggish response
• Connection is unstable

Sketch:

#include "esp_camera.h"
#include <WiFi.h>

#define CAMERA_MODEL_AI_THINKER

#include "camera_pins.h"

const char* ssid = "ESP32CAM";
const char* password = "88888888";

void startCameraServer();

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);
  Serial.setDebugOutput(true);
  Serial.println();

  camera_config_t config;
  config.ledc_channel = LEDC_CHANNEL_0;
  config.ledc_timer = LEDC_TIMER_0;
  config.pin_d0 = Y2_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_d1 = Y3_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_d2 = Y4_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_d3 = Y5_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_d4 = Y6_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_d5 = Y7_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_d6 = Y8_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_d7 = Y9_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_xclk = XCLK_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_pclk = PCLK_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_vsync = VSYNC_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_href = HREF_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_sscb_sda = SIOD_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_sscb_scl = SIOC_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_pwdn = PWDN_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_reset = RESET_GPIO_NUM;
  config.xclk_freq_hz = 20000000;
  config.pixel_format = PIXFORMAT_JPEG;
  //init with high specs to pre-allocate larger buffers
  if(psramFound()){
    config.frame_size = FRAMESIZE_UXGA;
    config.jpeg_quality = 10;
    config.fb_count = 2;
  } else {
    config.frame_size = FRAMESIZE_SVGA;
    config.jpeg_quality = 12;
    config.fb_count = 1;
  }

#if defined(CAMERA_MODEL_ESP_EYE)
  pinMode(13, INPUT_PULLUP);
  pinMode(14, INPUT_PULLUP);
#endif

  // camera init
  esp_err_t err = esp_camera_init(&config);
  if (err != ESP_OK) {
    Serial.printf("Camera init failed with error 0x%x", err);
    return;
  }

  sensor_t * s = esp_camera_sensor_get();
  //initial sensors are flipped vertically and colors are a bit saturated
  if (s->id.PID == OV3660_PID) {
    s->set_vflip(s, 1);//flip it back
    s->set_brightness(s, 1);//up the blightness just a bit
    s->set_saturation(s, -2);//lower the saturation
  }
  //drop down frame size for higher initial frame rate
  s->set_framesize(s, FRAMESIZE_QVGA);

#if defined(CAMERA_MODEL_M5STACK_WIDE)
  s->set_vflip(s, 1);
  s->set_hmirror(s, 1);
#endif

  WiFi.setHostname("ESP32_CAM");
  delay(500);
  
  WiFi.begin(ssid, password);

  // Start AP mode
  WiFi.softAP(ssid, password);

  startCameraServer();
}

void loop() {
  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
  delay(10000);
}

Debug Messages:

[Jason2866]

This is a known behaviour when power supply is to weak and/or cooling of the ESP32 is not good enough

[raduprv]

A lot of people including me are having this problem. It's a hardware issue. Good power makes no difference. Cooling shouldn't be an issue.

[Jason2866]

@raduprv How should software solve a hardware issue?

[raduprv]

No idea how it could solve it in this case, since no one seems to know what the hardware issue is. Some hardware issues can be fixed in software, some not.

[MJavad]

I also have this problem with TTGO T-Camera Plus.

It also shows signs of temperature dependence (If I set camera resolution low and cool the board almost all problems go away) and I get good results when switching from station to AP. It’s worth mentioning that I had to disable WiFi persistence (#2025) for AP to work.

I tried with esp-idf iperf example and had bad performance (1 to 5mbit) with station mode. AP had good speeds (15 to 30mbit).

[raduprv]

I have a m5stack timer camera, and the wifi works perfectly (not so the USB drivers for the pc though).
My room temperature is constant, around 21-25c, and the board's wifi doesn't work properly even right after I start it.

[MJavad]

Also there seems to be some correlation (not sure) between the performance and the temperature of the board at the startup. Could be some calibration problem (I think with persistence disabled, ESP32 does full calibration at startup)

[MJavad]

@raduprv yes I usually have bad performance when I start the board cool, but in my tests I sometimes had better performance after cooling when board is hot but just marginal.

I’m going to continue testing and check if there is really good evidence for this.

[raduprv]

Some people reported (and I can confirm with the esp32 cam board) that when you stream video with the default test program, if you hold your fingers on certain parts of the board (towards the antenna) it gets much better.

[MJavad]

Then I will test an external antenna soon. Can you post link of the “finger method”? :)

[raduprv]

https://www.reddit.com/r/esp32/comments/c4iy1j/aithinker_esp32_cam_slow_video_stream_try/
https://forum.sparkfun.com/viewtopic.php?t=46563

Someone reported somewhere else that they still have wifi issues even with an external antenna, but if you are willing to try that, please let me know if it works. Don't forget to reposition the zero ohm resistor to the correct position.

[MJavad]

Thanks I will.

[FedericoBusero]

When I try to run the example code ESP32 > Camera > CameraWebServer it runs perfectly on my ESP32-CAM when choosing

#define CAMERA_MODEL_AI_THINKER

But you seem to have changed some lines of code in the setup, to run it in softAP mode. When I replace the wifi-code in the setup with

  WiFi.setHostname("ESP32_CAM");
  delay(500);

  // Start AP mode
  WiFi.softAP(ssid, password);

  startCameraServer();

  Serial.print("Camera Ready! Use 'http://");
  Serial.println(WiFi.softAPIP());
  Serial.println("' to connect");

it runs perfectly on 25 fps. I am running esp32 version 1.0.4 and using the module ESP32-CAM-MB.

Please notice that I removed following line of code:
WiFi.begin(ssid, password);
as this is not necessary when running in softAP-mode.

But when I insert the line, in order to reproduce your problem, I indeed notice freezing issues, althoug not as bad as yours.

[MJavad]

I'm currently testing with an external antenna, and I have great results.

I get 50 fps on lower resolutions (with xclk set to 10mhz), 25 fps on SVGA and 6 fps on UXGA without any jitter!

There is one issue that when I move the antenna cable over some components on the board, it seems to revert back to bad performance (tests with iperf show 1 to 3mbit maximum data rate) which is very similar to the on-board antenna.

With this in mind, I assume there is either some unexpected interference problem within hardware, or they just didn't properly tune the on-board antenna when designing the boards, at least in my case.

[raduprv]

That's good to know. I don't think the antenna design is a problem, because not everyone is having this issue.

Can you test a ftp program to upload images to a ftp server, by any chance?
If not, can you try to NOT put the board in AP mode, and try the station mode?