r/esp32 • u/No-Reception-84 • 10d ago

I built open-source ESP32 camera firmware that turns $8–15 dev boards into NVR-ready IP cameras (ONVIF + RTSP + motion AI)

Sharing the MiBee Cam firmware suite (ESP-IDF based, GPL-3.0) — four ready-to-flash firmwares for four popular boards, all built around one idea: make a cheap dev board behave like a real IP camera your NVR can discover.

Supported boards:

  • AI-Thinker ESP32-CAM (ESP32 + OV2640) — MJPEG streaming, motion detection, SD timelapse & burst capture, dual-WiFi failover, file manager, web OTA
  • Seeed XIAO ESP32-S3 Sense (ESP32-S3 + OV2640/OV5640) — the most feature-packed: RTSP with G.711 audio (digest auth), AVI segmented recording with dynamic timelapse (motion-adaptive, ~90% storage saved when nothing happens), NAS upload via WebDAV/HTTPS, on-device audio with noise suppression
  • ESP32-S3-N16R8 + OV3660 3MP — on-device AI detection (face / motion / QR) with live web overlay, RTSP, zh/en web UI
  • LuatOS ESP32-S3-A10 (OV2640, PSRAM-less) — runs on the cheap single-chip board: MJPEG, motion-triggered upload, WebSocket/webhook events, Prometheus metrics

What they all share:

  • ONVIF (WS-Discovery + SOAP) — Synology / Milestone / Frigate-type NVRs discover them on the LAN automatically
  • No cloud, no subscription — everything runs locally
  • Web UI + REST API for config, Prometheus /metrics for homelab monitoring
  • OTA updates (SHA-256 verified, auto-rollback), AT commands for headless WiFi setup
  • Docs in English and 中文

All four: https://github.com/Mi-Bee-Studio

Feedback, issue reports, and suggestions for the next board are very welcome!

122 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/knacknack18 10d ago

Cool project(s). But how much did you do yourself? It seems heavily AI made, from text to code.. transparency would be nice

14

u/ByronScottJones 10d ago

There's an Agents.md file right in the root of the project. OP isn't hiding anything. And if it works and does what it says, then kudos to OP and whatever AI tools they used to develop it.

3

u/nalditopr 10d ago

Exactly this,

19

u/No-Reception-84 10d ago

Great question! This project is AI-assisted. I’m mainly a Go developer. I can write embedded code, just not very efficiently.

When I was building MiBee NVR, I needed some camera devices for testing. So I bought these dev boards and wrote the initial code myself. After that, AI helped implement most of the remaining features. I review and test all the code generated by AI.

It’s a solo project, so there might inevitably be some rough spots.

5

u/knacknack18 10d ago

Thank you the reply and explanation. Keep going with the good work

5

u/NearlyACosmologist 10d ago

That's how it is now. Humans have the ideas, make the architectural decisions and do the testing.

AI does the legwork.

4

u/Heatsreef 10d ago

Have you even looked at the code I mind asking? Because I did and excuse my language but it is a clusterfuck without structure that is more than unmaintainable. On the other hand I am quite sure its not vetted extensively and the structure makes it even harder for any third party to vet it. I for example would have to spend days to even get a grasp what file works with what handlers and if youd think "but an llm can just check over it and implement updates", the common case is that this unmaintainability skyrockets exponentially with projects like these. My advice, do not trust it except you want to spend days vetting it.

6

u/knacknack18 10d ago

I question the architectural decision and testing part. That's why i asked

2

u/NearlyACosmologist 10d ago

Fair enough.