ESP32CAM: Control motors and servo and send a video stream from a mini Blimp/Zeppelin to your browser using ESP32CAM or XIAO ESP32S3 Sense. The motors are controlled by one slider and one joystick.
- Check box: switch on camera (default off, so that zeppelin can still be controlled in case of low battery)
- camera view
- slider: control up motor
- Joystick: controls
- left/right: servo and/or h-bridge
- up: forward motor. Note that only the upper part is used, the zeppelin can only move forward (not backward)
- WifiPoint / SoftAP
- SSID = BlimpCam- + 4 last hexadecimal values of the Wifi-MAC address of the ESP32 chip
- Wifi-password: 12345678
- App: browser (Chrome, Firefox, safari, ...)
- URL : http://192.168.4.1 of http://z.be
It has been developed and tested on following platforms, but it is easy to adapt for other chips:
- AI-Thinker ESP32CAM
- XIAO ESP32S3 Sense
Motors
- 1 motor to go up (1-directional)
- 1 motor to go forward (1-directional)
- To turn you can choose between
- a motor using h-bridge (2-directional) and/or
- a servo
Shopping list used in ESP32-S3 setup:
- motors: 4 * 8mm Coreless DC Motor : https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32871146089.html
- h-bridge : DRV8833 : https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000051647999.html
- Propellers : 30mm For 0.7mm shaft Tail Rotor Spare Parts Propellers : https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000108963651.html
- battery: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001860198745.html
- connector for battery: JST 1.25mm 2 Pin Micro Connector: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33027366342.html
- balloon: character I from the alphabet: https://www.ballonsupermarkt-onlineshop.de/folienballons/folienballons-ungefullt/luftballons-aus-folie-grosse-buchstaben-100-cm/buchstaben-luftballons-aus-folie-silber-100-cm.html
The parts for ESP32CAM are similar, but note that powering the ESP32CAM is more difficult.
| Pin name | GPIO | |
|---|---|---|
| fwdPin | 2 | Motor forward |
| upPin | 15 | Motor up |
| hbridgePinA & hbridgePinB | 13 & 14 | H-bridge for left/right steering motor |
| turnPin | 12 | Left/right steering servo |
In case you want to test on an ESP32 chip without camera, remove the definition of USE_CAMERA
Here you can see the wiring, the components are not identical but the concept should be clear.
| Pin name | Pin | |
|---|---|---|
| fwdPin | D0 | Motor forward |
| upPin | D1 | Motor up |
| hbridgePinA & hbridgePinB | D4 & D5 | H-bridge for left/right steering motor |
| turnPin | D10 | Left/right steering servo |
- ESP32 Arduino board version 2.0.8 or later
- Select PSRAM: OPI PSRAM
- Install following libraries in the Arduino IDE Library manager
- AsyncTCP: version 1.1.4 by dvarrel
- ArduinoWebsockets version 0.5.3 by Gil Maimon
- ESPAsyncWebSrv, version 1.2.6 by dvarrel
This project has been created in collaboration with MasynMachien who has lots of experience in building light weight blimps/zeppelins.
More info: https://www.instructables.com/member/masynmachien/