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NE101 Arduino Development Guide

This document guides you on how to use the Arduino IDE to develop applications adapted for the NE101 camera, using the CameraWebServer example as a reference.

0. Why Choose Arduino?​

Developing for NE101 using the Arduino platform offers the following advantages:

  • Rapid Prototyping: Arduino greatly simplifies low-level hardware configuration, allowing developers to light up screens, drive cameras, or connect to WiFi in minutes. It is very suitable for quickly validating product ideas.
  • Rich Ecosystem: It has a massive amount of libraries. Whether connecting sensors, displays, or accessing various IoT cloud platforms (such as AWS, MQTT, Home Assistant), you can usually find ready-made libraries to call with one click, without reinventing the wheel.
  • Ease of Use: Compared to the professional ESP-IDF, Arduino shields complex build systems and operating system details. The syntax is simple and intuitive, making it suitable mainly for beginners but also significantly improving development efficiency for professional developers.
  • Cross-platform Compatibility: The same code usually requires only minor adjustments to be ported between different hardware, making it convenient to utilize existing ESP32 community resources.

1. Environment Preparation​

1.1 Install Arduino IDE​

If not installed yet, please visit the Arduino Website to download and install the latest version of the Arduino IDE.

Note: The version verified by our team is Arduino IDE 2.3.6.

1.2 Install ESP32 Board Support Package​

  1. Open Arduino IDE, go to File -> Preferences.
  2. Add the following link to Additional Board Manager URLs: 
    https://espressif.github.io/arduino-esp32/package_esp32_index.json
  3. Click OK, then go to Tools -> Board -> Boards Manager.
  4. Search for esp32 and install the esp32 package published by Espressif Systems.

Note: The version verified by our team is 3.2.1.

2. Hardware Configuration (Critical Step)​

NE101 is based on the ESP32-S3 chip, with 8MB Octal PSRAM and 16MB Flash. You must correctly configure the following options in the Arduino IDE, otherwise, the camera cannot start or be recognized.

Select in the Tools menu:

  • Board: ESP32S3 Dev Module
  • USB CDC On Boot: Enabled (This allows viewing serial print output via USB)
  • CPU Frequency: 240MHz (WiFi)
  • Core Debug Level: Info (Or Verbose, for debugging)
  • Erase All Flash Before Sketch Upload: Disabled (Recommended Enabled for the first time, then Disabled)
  • Flash Mode: QIO 80MHz
  • Flash Size: 16MB (128Mb)
  • Partition Scheme: Huge APP (3MB No OTA/1MB SPIFFS) (CameraWebServer is large, standard partition might not be enough)
  • PSRAM: OPI PSRAM (Very Important! Choosing wrong will cause PSRAM initialization failure, and the camera will not work)

2.1 SD Card Configuration Instructions​

The NE101's SD card slot has an independent power control pin. You must pull GPIO 42 HIGH before using it.

  • Power Control (TF_PWR): GPIO 42 (Active High)
  • Communication Mode: Must use 1-bit Mode (MMC Mode), SPI mode is not supported.
  • Pin Definitions:
    • CLK: GPIO 39
    • CMD: GPIO 38
    • D0: GPIO 40
    • CD (Detect): GPIO 41

Note:

  1. Pin Conflict: GPIO 42 also connects to the Status LED. When powering the SD card, the status light will be on, which is normal.
  2. Module Conflict: SD card pins conflict with Cat.1 / WiFi HaLow modules, cannot be used simultaneously.
  3. Power-on Sequence: Be sure to pull GPIO 42 high and delay before initializing the SD card object (SD_MMC.begin), otherwise initialization will fail.

Before initializing the SD card, be sure to add in setup():

pinMode(42, OUTPUT);
digitalWrite(42, HIGH); // Power On
delay(100); // Wait for power to stabilize

2.2 Camera Configuration Instructions​

NE101's camera power is independently controlled by GPIO 3. Before using the camera (i.e., before calling esp_camera_init), you must pull this pin high first, otherwise the camera cannot initialize.

  • Camera Power (CAM_PWR): GPIO 3 (Active High)

3. Code Adaptation​

We will modify the CameraWebServer example we provided as an example.

3.1 Open Example​

In Arduino IDE, click File -> Examples -> ESP32 -> Camera -> CameraWebServer.

3.2 Modify Pin Definitions​

The NE101 camera pin definitions are as follows. Please replace the camera_pins.h in the example code or the pin configuration part in the main program with the following content:

// NE101 Camera Pins
#define PWDN_GPIO_NUM    -1
#define RESET_GPIO_NUM   -1
#define XCLK_GPIO_NUM    15
#define SIOD_GPIO_NUM    4
#define SIOC_GPIO_NUM    5

#define Y9_GPIO_NUM      11  // D0
#define Y8_GPIO_NUM      9   // D1
#define Y7_GPIO_NUM      8   // D2
#define Y6_GPIO_NUM      10  // D3
#define Y5_GPIO_NUM      12  // D4
#define Y4_GPIO_NUM      18  // D5
#define Y3_GPIO_NUM      17  // D6
#define Y2_GPIO_NUM      16  // D7

#define VSYNC_GPIO_NUM   6
#define HREF_GPIO_NUM    7
#define PCLK_GPIO_NUM    13

3.3 Modify Main Program CameraWebServer.ino​

  1. Find where camera_pins.h is included.
  2. In the macro definition selection part, comment out other models and add NE101:
#include "esp_camera.h"
#include <WiFi.h>

// ===================
// Select camera model
// ===================
//#define CAMERA_MODEL_WROVER_KIT // Has PSRAM
//#define CAMERA_MODEL_ESP_EYE // Has PSRAM
//#define CAMERA_MODEL_ESP32S3_EYE // Has PSRAM
//#define CAMERA_MODEL_M5STACK_PSRAM // Has PSRAM
//#define CAMERA_MODEL_M5STACK_V2_PSRAM // M5Camera version B Has PSRAM
//#define CAMERA_MODEL_M5STACK_WIDE // Has PSRAM
//#define CAMERA_MODEL_M5STACK_ESP32CAM // No PSRAM
//#define CAMERA_MODEL_M5STACK_UNITCAM // No PSRAM
//#define CAMERA_MODEL_AI_THINKER // Has PSRAM
//#define CAMERA_MODEL_TTGO_T_JOURNAL // No PSRAM
//#define CAMERA_MODEL_XIAO_ESP32S3 // Has PSRAM
// **** Add this line ****
#define CAMERA_MODEL_NE101 

#include "camera_pins.h"
  1. You also need to add the NE101 definition block at the end of the camera_pins.h file, or directly copy the above pin definitions to the .ino file and comment out #include "camera_pins.h".

Recommended Practice: Define pins directly at the head of the .ino file (Keep it simple):

#include "esp_camera.h"
#include <WiFi.h>

// ===========================
// NE101 Pin Definition
// ===========================
#define PWDN_GPIO_NUM    -1
#define RESET_GPIO_NUM   -1
#define XCLK_GPIO_NUM    15
#define SIOD_GPIO_NUM    4
#define SIOC_GPIO_NUM    5

#define Y9_GPIO_NUM      11
#define Y8_GPIO_NUM      9
#define Y7_GPIO_NUM      8
#define Y6_GPIO_NUM      10
#define Y5_GPIO_NUM      12
#define Y4_GPIO_NUM      18
#define Y3_GPIO_NUM      17
#define Y2_GPIO_NUM      16

#define VSYNC_GPIO_NUM   6
#define HREF_GPIO_NUM    7
#define PCLK_GPIO_NUM    13

// ===========================
// WIFI Credentials
// ===========================
const char *ssid = "YOUR_WIFI_SSID";
const char *password = "YOUR_WIFI_PASSWORD";

void startCameraServer();

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);
  Serial.setDebugOutput(true);  
  Serial.println();

  // 1. Turn on Camera Power (Very Important!)
  pinMode(3, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
  delay(100);

  // 2. (Optional) Turn on SD Card Power
  // pinMode(42, OUTPUT);
  // digitalWrite(42, HIGH);
  // delay(100);

  camera_config_t config;
  config.ledc_channel = LEDC_CHANNEL_0;
  config.ledc_timer = LEDC_TIMER_0;
  config.pin_d0 = Y2_GPIO_NUM; // Note: esp32-camera library naming sometimes differs from schematic, just match D0-D7
  config.pin_d1 = Y3_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_d2 = Y4_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_d3 = Y5_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_d4 = Y6_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_d5 = Y7_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_d6 = Y8_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_d7 = Y9_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_xclk = XCLK_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_pclk = PCLK_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_vsync = VSYNC_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_href = HREF_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_sccb_sda = SIOD_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_sccb_scl = SIOC_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_pwdn = PWDN_GPIO_NUM;
  config.pin_reset = RESET_GPIO_NUM;
  config.xclk_freq_hz = 10000000; // NE101 recommends 10MHz or 20MHz, reduce if stripes appear
  config.frame_size = FRAMESIZE_UXGA;
  config.pixel_format = PIXFORMAT_JPEG; 
  config.grab_mode = CAMERA_GRAB_WHEN_EMPTY;
  config.fb_location = CAMERA_FB_IN_PSRAM;
  config.jpeg_quality = 12;
  config.fb_count = 1;

  // ... (Subsequent code remains unchanged)

Note: In the original main/camera.c code:

#define CAMERA_PIN_D0 11     // D0
#define CAMERA_PIN_D1 9      // D1
#define CAMERA_PIN_D2 8      // D2
...

While in the Arduino example, Y2-Y9 naming is usually used. The correspondence is as follows:

  • D0 -> Y2
  • D1 -> Y3
  • ...
  • D7 -> Y9

Please pay attention to this correspondence. The mapped code block above handles this, but when assigning, I used the intuitive config.pin_d0 = 11 method (using GPIO numbers directly) in the recommended config below, which is the safest.

Corrected Recommended Configuration Code:

  config.pin_d0 = 11;
  config.pin_d1 = 9;
  config.pin_d2 = 8;
  config.pin_d3 = 10;
  config.pin_d4 = 12;
  config.pin_d5 = 18;
  config.pin_d6 = 17;
  config.pin_d7 = 16;
  config.pin_xclk = 15;
  config.pin_pclk = 13;
  config.pin_vsync = 6;
  config.pin_href = 7;
  config.pin_sccb_sda = 4;
  config.pin_sccb_scl = 5;
  config.pin_pwdn = -1;
  config.pin_reset = -1;

4. Flashing​

  1. Connect NE101 to the computer using a USB cable.
  2. Select the corresponding COM port in Tools -> Port.
  3. Click the Upload button (right arrow) in the top left corner of the Arduino IDE.
  4. Wait for compilation to complete and flashing to finish.

5. Verification​

  1. After flashing is complete, open Tools -> Serial Monitor.
  2. Set the baud rate to 115200.
  3. Press the reset button on the device (if any) or re-plug the USB.
  4. Observe the serial output, you should see WiFi connection info and camera startup info: 
    WiFi connected
    Camera Ready! Use 'http://192.168.x.x' to connect
  5. Access the displayed IP address in a browser to see the camera control interface.

6. Resources​

FAQ​

  • No Serial Output: Check if USB CDC On Boot is set to Enabled.
  • PSRAM Initialization Failed: Check if PSRAM option is set to OPI PSRAM.
  • Camera Initialization Failed: Check if pin definitions are correct, or try reducing xclk_freq_hz.