The main aim of this repository is to help my friend build this camera.
A standalone, wireless point-and-shoot camera — built from scratch on an ESP32-CAM module.
CLICKY is a DIY digital camera that captures full-resolution JPEG photos to a microSD card, shows a live preview on a small TFT screen, and lets you browse, download, or delete your photos from any phone or laptop browser over WiFi — no app, no internet, no cables required. Firmware can be updated over the air too.
- What it does
- Hardware you need
- Wiring guide
- Software setup
- Partition scheme — important
- Libraries to install
- Flashing the firmware
- How to use CLICKY
- Button behaviour at a glance
- The progress bar explained
- File naming on the SD card
- EEPROM — remembering your settings
- Web gallery features
- OTA update workflow
- Troubleshooting
- Technical details
- Prototype and Final Project Images
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Live preview | Real-time viewfinder on a 160×80 TFT display |
| Photo capture | Full UXGA (1600×1200) JPEG saved to SD card |
| Video recording | QVGA video clips saved as AVI (Motion-JPEG) to SD card — no live preview while recording |
| Grayscale mode | Hardware-level B&W toggle, persists across reboots |
| WiFi gallery | Browse, download, and delete photos from any browser |
| OTA updates | Push new firmware wirelessly — no USB cable needed after first flash |
| No internet needed | Everything runs as a self-contained WiFi access point |
| Part | Notes |
|---|---|
| ESP32-CAM (AI Thinker) | The main board — includes the OV2640/OV3660 camera |
| FTDI USB-to-Serial adapter (3.3 V) | Only needed for the very first flash |
| 0.96 inch ST7735 TFT display (160×128) | Small colour screen for the viewfinder |
| MicroSD card | FAT32 formatted, 4 GB or smaller recommended |
| Tactile push button | Momentary normally-open button |
| Jumper wires | Male-to-female or male-to-male depending on your setup (Just for prototyping) |
| Breadboard | For assembling everything (Just for prototyping) |
| 1000 mah lipo battery | Not necessarily 1000 mah is required |
| 5V 2A Step-Up Boost Converter with USB Charger | This project uses fm5324ga ic board and is recommended |
| Switch | To turn the setup on and off |
| Blank/Prototyping PCBs | This project uses prototyping PCBs to make the casing; one can use MDF boards, cardboard, 3D printing, etc |
The TFT uses SPI. The ESP32-CAM shares SPI pins with the SD card slot, so the CS (chip select) pin is what separates them. As the SD card and display share the same pins, only one of them can be active at any given point. Because of this, video recording works but without a live preview — the screen shows a static "● REC" indicator for the whole clip, since the SD card needs exclusive access to those pins to keep up with continuous frame writes.
| TFT Pin | ESP32-CAM GPIO | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| VCC | 3.3 V | Power |
| GND | GND | Power |
| SCL (CLK) | GPIO 4 | SPI clock |
| SDA (MOSI) | GPIO 13 | SPI data |
| RES (RESET) | GPIO -1 | Display reset |
| DC (A0) | GPIO 2 | Data/command select |
| CS | GPIO 12 | TFT_CS — defined in code |
| BLK (backlight) | 3.3 V | Tie to 3.3 V for always-on |
The pin numbers above must match your
User_Setup.hfile inside the TFT_eSPI library. See the Software Setup section for details.
GPIO 4 on the ESP32-CAM is connected to the onboard flash LED by default. Since this pin is required for the project, the transistor controlling the onboard LED has been removed to free GPIO 4 for display. Refer to the image below.
| Button pin | ESP32-CAM GPIO | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| One leg | GPIO 3 (RX0) | Defined as BUTTON_PIN in code |
| Other leg | GND | Internal pull-up is enabled in code |
GPIO 3 is the RX0 serial pin, so we cannot use the serial monitor to send commands to the ESP32-CAM. However, we can still receive data from the ESP32-CAM on the serial monitor for debugging
Battery → Boost/Charger Module
| Battery | Boost Converter Pin | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Positive (+) | B+ | Battery positive input |
| Negative (−) | B− | Battery negative input |
Boost/Charger Module → Switch → ESP32-CAM
| Boost Converter Pin | Goes to | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| GND (output) | ESP32-CAM GND | Direct connection, no switch |
| 5V (output) | Slide switch — leg 1 | Positive side of the switch |
| Slide switch — leg 2 | ESP32-CAM 5V | Switch in series on the positive line only |
Why only the positive line goes through the switch — it is standard and safe practice to break only the positive wire. The GND stays permanently connected between the module and ESP32-CAM, which is fine and actually helps avoid floating ground issues.
USB port on the boost module — plug any USB-C (or micro-USB depending on your module) cable into it to charge the battery. You do not need to disconnect anything to charge — the module handles charge and output simultaneously.
The SD card is built into the AI Thinker ESP32-CAM module — you do not need to wire anything for it. Just format your microSD card as FAT32 and insert it.
Download and install Arduino IDE 2.x from arduino.cc. I have tested the code on Arduino IDE 2.3.6
- Open Arduino IDE → File → Preferences
- In the "Additional boards manager URLs" field, paste:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/gh-pages/package_esp32_index.json - Click OK
- Go to Tools → Board → Boards Manager
- Search for
esp32and install the package by Espressif Systems (version 3.x recommended). I have tested the code on version 3.3.8
Go to Tools → Board → ESP32 Arduino and select:
AI Thinker ESP32-CAM
This is the most important setting and it is easy to miss.
The default partition scheme does not have space for OTA updates. You must change it:
Tools → Partition Scheme → Minimal SPIFFS (1.9MB APP with OTA)
This creates two equal app slots so the board can hold a running firmware and a new one at the same time, swapping over safely when an update completes.
If you skip this step, the board will still work but OTA updates will fail silently or corrupt the firmware.
Other board settings to check:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Board | AI Thinker ESP32-CAM |
| Upload Speed | 115200 |
| Flash Frequency | 80 MHz |
| Flash Mode | QIO |
| Partition Scheme | Minimal SPIFFS (1.9MB APP with OTA) |
| Core Debug Level | None |
| Port | Your FTDI COM port |
Go to Tools → Manage Libraries and install each of these:
| Library | Author | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| TFT_eSPI | Bodmer | Drives the ST7735 TFT display (version 2.5.43) |
| esp32-camera | Espressif | Camera driver (usually included with ESP32 board package) |
The following are part of the ESP32 Arduino core and do not need separate installation:
WiFi.hWebServer.hDNSServer.hUpdate.hEEPROM.hSD_MMC.hFS.h
After installing TFT_eSPI you must edit its configuration file, otherwise the display will not work.
- Find the library folder. On Windows it is usually:
C:\Users\YourName\Documents\Arduino\libraries\TFT_eSPI\ - Open the file
User_Setup.hin any text editor - Comment out all driver definitions and uncomment only:
#define ST7735_DRIVER
- Set the colour order as:
#define TFT_RGB_ORDER TFT_BGR
- Set the display dimensions:
#define TFT_WIDTH 128 #define TFT_HEIGHT 160
- Set the type of display (If the below option does not work, try the others):
#define ST7735_REDTAB160x80
- Set the pin definitions to match the wiring table above:
#define TFT_CS 12 // Chip Select #define TFT_RST -1 // Reset #define TFT_DC 2 // Data/Command #define TFT_MOSI 13 // SPI Data #define TFT_SCLK 4 // SPI Clock
- Save the file
You only need the FTDI adapter for this first flash. After this, everything is wireless.
| FTDI pin | ESP32-CAM pin |
|---|---|
| GND | GND |
| VCC (3.3 V) | 3.3 V |
| TX | GPIO 3 (RX0) |
| RX | GPIO 1 (TX0) |
To put the ESP32-CAM into flash mode, connect GPIO 0 to GND before powering on. You can use a jumper wire. Once flashed, remove that wire and reset the board.
- Wire up the FTDI as above and connect GPIO 0 to GND
- Plug the FTDI into your computer
- Open the project
.inofile in Arduino IDE - Select the correct COM port under Tools → Port
- Click Upload (the arrow button)
- Once you see "Connecting...", press the RST button on the ESP32-CAM if the upload does not start automatically
- Wait for "Done uploading"
- Remove the GPIO 0 to GND jumper wire
- Press RST to restart the board normally The TFT should light up and show a live camera preview.
As soon as the board starts, the TFT display shows a live viewfinder from the camera. The preview runs at QQVGA resolution (160×120) to keep it smooth. No button press is needed — it just runs. One important thing is that the display has a resolution of 80×160, while the live preview is at QQVGA (120×160). Due to this mismatch, 40 lines of data are not visible in the live preview but are still captured and saved on the SD card. In landscape mode, 20 lines of data from the top and 20 lines from the bottom are removed, and the preview is centred.
Press the button briefly (less than 2 seconds) and release it. The display will show "Capturing..." and the board saves a full-resolution JPEG to the SD card, then restarts and returns to the live preview. The capturing process takes approximately 6 seconds because the camera deinitialises from the QQVGA (160x120) resolution and reinitialises to UXGA (1600x1200). Photos are saved as pic1.jpg, pic2.jpg, and so on — the board finds the next available number automatically.
To start recording, quickly double-press the button — release the first press like a normal short press, then press it again within half a second, like a rapid double-click.
The screen switches to a red "● REC" indicator along with the current colour/grayscale mode, and there's a short ~2 second pause before recording actually begins — this is when the camera reinitialises for video and the SD card switches into a faster write mode.
There is no live preview while recording. The TFT display and SD card share the same SPI pins, and video needs continuous, uninterrupted access to the SD card to keep up with incoming frames in real time, so the display just stays on the static REC screen for the whole clip.
To stop recording, press the button once — a normal short press is enough. There's a brief debounce window right after recording starts, so the press that started the recording can't accidentally be read as the press that stops it.
When you stop, CLICKY finalises the video file (writing the real frame count and size into the file header) and restarts automatically, returning you to the live preview.
Videos are saved to the SD card as vid1.avi, vid2.avi, and so on, alongside your photos. Recording is at QVGA (320×240), Motion-JPEG compressed, targeting ~20 fps, packaged in a standard AVI container — playable in VLC and most video players.
CLICKY supports a hardware grayscale mode using the OV2640/OV3660 camera sensor's built-in effect engine. This means the grayscale conversion happens inside the camera chip itself before the image is even processed — it costs nothing and works at full resolution.
To toggle grayscale on or off:
Press and hold the button until the progress bar on screen turns blue (between 2 and 5 seconds), then release. The board will restart in the new mode.
- If you were in colour mode, it switches to grayscale
- If you were in grayscale, it switches back to colour The selected mode is saved to EEPROM (a tiny persistent memory chip on the board) so it survives power cuts and restarts. Every time CLICKY boots, it reads the saved mode and applies it automatically.
When grayscale is active, the live preview on the TFT and all captured photos will be in black and white.
Press and hold the button for 5 seconds or more (until the progress bar turns green), then release. The board starts a WiFi access point.
To access your photos:
- On your phone or laptop, open WiFi settings
- Connect to the network named CLICKY (no password)
- Open any web browser
- Type
192.168.4.1in the address bar, or just try opening any website — the captive portal will redirect you automatically - The gallery page will load showing all photos on the SD card
Once in the gallery:
- View — all photos load as thumbnails on the page
- Download selected — tick the photos you want and tap "Download selected"
- Delete selected — tick photos and tap "Delete selected" to remove them from the SD card
- Delete all — removes every photo from the SD card in one go (asks for confirmation)
- Stop WiFi — exits WiFi mode and restarts the board, returning to camera mode
Note: On iOS devices, the gallery page may open automatically when connected to Wi-Fi, but the download feature might not work. In this case, close the gallery page, open a browser like Google Chrome, and manually enter the IP address mentioned above to download the images.
When in WiFi mode, you (and only you, with the password) can push new firmware wirelessly.
- Connect to the CLICKY WiFi network
- Open your browser and go to
http://192.168.4.1/update - Your browser will ask for a username and password:
- Username:
admin - Password:
changeme123(change this in the source code before flashing)
- Username:
- Drag your new
.binfirmware file onto the page, or click to browse for it - Click Flash firmware
- A progress bar shows the upload. When done, the board restarts automatically with the new firmware
Where to get the
.binfile: In Arduino IDE, go to Sketch → Export Compiled Binary. It saves a file ending in.ino.binin the same folder as your sketch. That is the file to upload — not the.merged.binor.bootloader.bin.
Critical rule: Every firmware version you flash must include the OTA code. If you flash a version without it, you will lose the ability to do wireless updates and will need the FTDI cable again.
| Press duration | What happens |
|---|---|
| 0 – 2 seconds | Short press — takes a photo |
| Quick double-press (two short presses within 0.5s of each other) | Starts video recording — one more press (any length) stops it |
| 2 – 5 seconds | Toggle press — switches grayscale on or off, then restarts |
| 5+ seconds | Long press — starts WiFi gallery mode |
When you press and hold the button, a progress bar appears on the TFT screen. The colour tells you which action will trigger when you release:
| Bar colour | Time range | Release action |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow | 0 – 2 seconds | Capture photo |
| Blue | 2 – 5 seconds | Toggle grayscale |
| Green | 5+ seconds | Start WiFi mode |
The text label above the bar also updates:
- "Hold for toggle..." — in the blue zone, release here to toggle grayscale
- "Hold for WiFi..." — in the green zone, release here for WiFi mode If you release the button while the bar is still yellow (under 2 seconds), the photo is taken immediately.
Video recording isn't tied to how long you hold the button — it's triggered by a quick second press right after you release the first yellow-zone press, so you won't see it represented on the progress bar itself.
Photos and videos are saved in the root directory of the SD card as:
pic1.jpg
pic2.jpg
pic3.jpg
...
vid1.avi
vid2.avi
vid3.avi
...
Photo numbering uses a stored counter so each capture is instant with no scanning, and it normally keeps climbing without reusing numbers from deleted photos — unless the most recently saved photo gets deleted, in which case the counter rolls back automatically. Video numbering works differently: each time you start a recording, the board scans for the lowest free vid*.avi name, so deleting an earlier video does free up that number for reuse next time you record.
The board uses 1 byte of EEPROM to store the active camera effect:
0= normal colour mode2= grayscale mode (value2matches the OV2640/OV3660 sensor's effect index) Every time you toggle grayscale, the new value is written to EEPROM address 0. Every time the board boots, it reads this address and applies the effect before starting the preview. This means your preferred mode is always preserved even if the board loses power.
The gallery page is a self-contained single-page app served directly from the ESP32's flash memory. It requires no internet connection and works in any modern browser, such as Google Chrome.
Features:
- Responsive grid layout — works on phones, tablets, and desktops
- Lazy loading thumbnails — images load as you scroll
- Multi-select with checkboxes — tap a photo to select it
- Batch download — selected photos download one by one
- Batch delete — removes selected photos from SD with confirmation
- Delete all — one-tap wipe with confirmation dialog
- Toast notifications — brief on-screen feedback for actions
- Dark mode aware — follows your system preference automatically
Here is the complete workflow for pushing a code change without a cable:
- Make your changes in Arduino IDE
- Go to Sketch → Export Compiled Binary — wait for compilation
- Find the
.ino.binfile in your sketch folder (not.merged.bin) - Power on CLICKY
- Hold the button for 5+ seconds → connect to CLICKY WiFi
- Go to
http://192.168.4.1/updatein your browser - Log in with your credentials
- Drag the
.binfile onto the page → click Flash - Wait for the board to restart
- Confirm the new firmware is running (check serial output or test new features)
1) Display shows nothing / stays black
Check your User_Setup.h pin definitions in the TFT_eSPI library. The most common cause is the CS, DC, or RST pins being wrong. Also confirm your wiring matches exactly.
2) Camera FAILED!" on screen at boot
The camera failed to initialise. This can happen if the board loses power during a previous frame capture. Restart the camera. If it persists, check that the camera ribbon cable on the AI Thinker module is fully seated.
3) SD card not detected during capture
Make sure the SD card is FAT32 formatted and is 4 GB or smaller. ExFAT and NTFS are not supported. Try reformatting the SD card.
4) WiFi network "CLICKY" does not appear
Confirm the board has fully booted (display shows WiFi mode screen). The AP can take a few seconds to appear after the board starts.
5) OTA page asks for password but won't accept it
Make sure you are typing the credentials exactly as defined in the source code (OTA_USERNAME and OTA_PASSWORD). Some browsers cache a failed login — try an incognito/private window.
6) OTA upload fails halfway
The .bin file may be too large for the partition scheme you selected. Confirm you are using "Minimal SPIFFS (1.9MB APP with OTA)" and that the sketch size is under 1.9 MB (check the output panel in Arduino IDE after compiling).
7) Photos are all black or very dark
This can happen if auto-exposure has not had time to adjust when the capture is triggered. The code already discards two warm-up frames before saving. If it persists, try capturing in better lighting.
8) Button does nothing
Check the button wiring — one leg to GPIO 3, the other to GND.
9) Double-press doesn't start a recording
The second press has to land within half a second of releasing the first one. If you pause too long between the two presses, the board treats them as two separate photo captures instead of a recording trigger.
10) Recorded video looks stretched or the wrong shape in some players
CLICKY records frames at QVGA (320×240), but the AVI file header currently advertises a fixed 160×120 frame size. Most modern players (VLC and similar) read the actual JPEG dimensions inside each frame and display the video correctly regardless, but a strict player that trusts the header literally may stretch it. This is a known quirk in the AVI header generation and doesn't affect photos.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Microcontroller | ESP32-S (dual-core 240 MHz) |
| Camera sensor | OV2640/OV3660 |
| Preview resolution | QQVGA 160×120 RGB565 |
| Capture resolution | UXGA 1600×1200 JPEG (with PSRAM), SVGA fallback |
| Video resolution | QVGA 320×240, Motion-JPEG frames in an AVI container, ~20 fps target |
| Display | 0.96 inch ST7735 160×128 TFT via SPI |
| Storage | MicroSD via SD_MMC — 4-bit mode for photo capture and video recording, 1-bit mode for WiFi gallery browsing |
| WiFi | 802.11 b/g/n, AP mode only |
| AP IP address | 192.168.4.1 |
| OTA method | HTTP multipart upload via ESP32 Update library |
| EEPROM usage | 1 byte at address 0 (camera effect index) |
| Flash size | 4 MB |
| PSRAM | 4 MB (used for large frame buffers) |
| Partition scheme | Minimal SPIFFS — two 1.875 MB OTA app slots |
Important
When prototyping on a breadboard, use short jumper cables and ensure all connections are secure. Poor-quality wires or loose connections can cause the display to render incorrectly, often showing distorted colors such as green or yellow across the image. Soldering the connections as shown in the above image is recommended.
A photo is forever.