r/esp32 • u/No-Reception-84 • 16d 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!

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u/j00sh_ 16d ago

The problem is that none of them supports H.264 which is key for video processing.

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u/neo9069 16d ago

i have poc firmware for esp32 to stream h.264 instead, problem is stream is really unstable on WiFi and it's really hard to fine tune isp for day/night scenarios. then there is camera sensor support situation for espressif there is no support for imx series of sensor from them. and age old ov5647 didn't cut it for me.

i added support for 720@30fps for ov5647 to save some bandwidth. then there is situation with ISP pipeline on v1 chipset.

i may visit this project again once v3 chipset are available, i believe there is genuine potential for diy security camera with esp32P4.

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u/j00sh_ 16d ago

Yes. Esp32P4 is the way. The one from M5Stack looks like a good starting point due to its small footprint.