First open-source end-to-end emulation of the AI-Thinker ESP32-CAM
in QEMU, paired with a browser webcam → firmware bridge so users can
develop camera sketches without hardware. Status: esp_camera_init()
returns ESP_OK; OV2640 chip-id verifies (PID/VER/MIDH/MIDL exactly
match the datasheet); GPIO 25 VSYNC NEGEDGE interrupt enabled by
the upstream driver. Final piece (cam_task accepting frames) is in
progress — descriptor walker fix landed in this commit.
Backend (Python/FastAPI):
- simulation.py: camera_attach/frame/detach WS handlers
- esp32_worker.py: ctypes binding to velxio_push_camera_frame +
feature-detection fallback for older DLLs
- esp32_lib_manager.py: forward camera commands to the worker stdin
- esp-idf-template/main/CMakeLists.txt: esp32-camera headers added
via add_prebuilt_library + REQUIRES driver (resolves i2c_master_*
symbols). LED_BUILTIN=2 fallback for sketches that hardcode it.
Frontend (React/TS):
- EditorToolbar.tsx: ESP32-CAM (and the rest of the ESP32 family)
added to isQemuBoard list — Run button now starts the QEMU bridge
for these boards instead of falling through to the AVR path
- useWebcamFrames.ts: getUserMedia → OffscreenCanvas →
toBlob('image/jpeg') → base64 → WS at ~10 fps
- CameraToggle.tsx: header button with status colors + frame counter
- SimulatorCanvas.tsx: render CameraToggle for esp32-cam boards
- Esp32Bridge.ts: sendCameraAttach/Frame/Detach + chunked btoa
- useSimulatorStore.ts: diagnostic log on compileBoardProgram
- components-metadata.json: regen including esp32-cam component
Submodule pointer:
- wokwi-libs/qemu-lcgamboa → ff8eee0 (camera devices commit on
davidmonterocrespo24/qemu-lcgamboa branch picsimlab-esp32)
Investigation + tests in test/test-esp32-cam/:
- 13 autosearch markdown docs (overview, SOTA, OV2640 spec, DVP/I2S
spec, build blueprint, blockers resolved, descriptor walker fix)
- 5 sketches (camera_init, sccb_probe, dma_smoke, frame_roundtrip,
webcam_demo) + 8 live + WS regression tests
- README with the user-facing flow
.gitignore:
- libqemu-*.dll.{pre-camera,new,bak} (rollback points, regenerated)
- wokwi-libs/esp32-camera/ (clone consumed by arduino-esp32 path,
not part of this repo)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Replace arduino-cli with ESP-IDF 4.4.7 for ESP32 compilation — Arduino-compiled
firmware crashes in QEMU (9-28 reboots) while ESP-IDF boots cleanly (0 reboots).
The new espidf_compiler translates Arduino WiFi/WebServer sketches to native
ESP-IDF C code, compiles with cmake+ninja, and merges into 4MB flash images.
Key changes:
- ESP-IDF compiler: translates WiFi.begin/WebServer to esp_wifi/esp_http_server
- ESP-IDF project template with QEMU-optimized sdkconfig (DIO, 40MHz, no WDT)
- WiFi status parser for ESP-IDF serial logs (wifi_status, ble_status events)
- IoT Gateway HTTP reverse proxy for ESP32 web servers
- WiFi/BLE auto-detection from sketch content + visual status icons
- Static IP 192.168.4.15 matching slirp DHCP first-client range
- Docker: new espidf-builder stage with ESP-IDF 4.4.7 toolchain
- 157 tests covering WiFi/BLE for both ESP32 (Xtensa) and ESP32-C3 (RISC-V)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
David Montero Crespo