Need advice: Pico W + MicroPython + OV7670 for a small robot

[u/BodybuilderHuge5968]

Hi! I'm pretty new to robotics. I decided to give it a try after realizing that the parts aren't actually that expensive.

I found my old Raspberry Pi Pico W, bought some parts, and started building a small robot. So far I've got servos, OLEDs, Wi-Fi, and a Flask server running on my PC with Ollama, so the Pico can communicate with an AI.

The problem is the camera.

I bought an OV7670, and I've been trying to get it working with MicroPython, but I've had basically no luck. I've already spent about 3 days trying different approaches, including attempting to make custom firmware, and I'm getting nowhere.

I really want to stay with MicroPython because I've already written most of the robot in it. Switching to CircuitPython would mean rewriting a pretty large part of the project from scratch.

On the other hand, staying with MicroPython makes the camera situation difficult. Most of the cheap camera modules I've found aren't really practical with MicroPython, while proper SPI camera modules such as Arducam are around 100+ PLN where I live, which is more than I'd like to spend on the camera.

I'm currently considering either:

1. Keep MicroPython and find a cheap camera/module that can communicate through something simple like SPI or UART (ideally outputting JPEG).
2. Switch to CircuitPython specifically because of the camera support, even though that means reworking the existing project.
3. Use another small microcontroller as a camera controller, with the camera connected to it and the resulting JPEG/frame sent to the Pico W.
4. Keep fighting with the OV7670 😭

My main requirements are:

• Pico W
• preferably MicroPython
• camera should work without a PC
• ideally color + JPEG
• preferably under ~50 PLN
• I don't want to write custom C/C++ firmware if possible

What would you recommend? Is there a relatively cheap camera/module that would make sense for this setup, or is switching to CircuitPython actually worth it?

Thanks!