Comments on: ESP32-CAM AI-Thinker Pinout Guide: GPIOs Usage Explained

By: Daniel Samuel

Daniel Samuel — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 17:14:55 +0000

In reply to nour. Asking again. Did anyone find a solution for working mpu6050 and the cam at the same time?

By: Eoin Abastar

Eoin Abastar — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 12:36:53 +0000

In reply to Graham Johnston. Thank you for the clarification.

By: yorrrick

yorrrick — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 13:55:34 +0000

If you’re using the MicroSD card in SDMMC mode then you can’t use GPIO 2, 4, 12 and 13 but also not GPIO14 and 15 which are the CLK and CMD lines for SDMMC.
If you use the SD card in SPI mode then you can use GPIO 12 and GPIO 4 for other stuff but 13, 14, 15 and 2 are still used for CS, CLK, MOSI and MISO. SPI mode is slower than SDMMC but if you’re only writing text files you won’t notice the difference.

By: Graham Johnston

Graham Johnston — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 10:33:21 +0000

It doesn’t really matter what you are writing to the SD card, those pins should not be used for any other purpose if you are using the SD port.

By: Eoin Abastar

Eoin Abastar — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 13:35:29 +0000

Hello, I’d like to clarify a certain aspect of the ESP32-CAM. When the microSD card slot is in use, this means that gpio 2, 4, 12, and 13 are used. Does this mean that I could not connect any wirings to these pins in any case at all if I use the microSD card slot? *In the context of my project, the microSD is not used for images but for text in a csv format.

By: nour

nour — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 13:03:50 +0000

In reply to Senel Canik. hi did you find a solution ?

By: Graham Johnston

Graham Johnston — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 20:58:39 +0000

It appears that GPIO 2 needs to be low on power up if you want to be able to program the board in circuit. I have been using it as an input for a DS18B20 with a 4k7 pull up. When GPIO 0 is held low on power up the board does not go into program mode. The board works fine but can not be programmed in circuit. Just another quirk to be aware of.

By: Graham Johnston

Graham Johnston — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 16:11:06 +0000

In reply to Chris. I have come across this problem too. I have two types of board both called AI thinker boards. If the 5V is pin 1 then pin 9 is Gnd on some boards and Gnd/R on others. The problem is that if you connect the Gnd/R pin to 0V, the board sits in a RESET state. It wont do anything. I have been using a little 'programmer' module bought off Amazon and it works fine with the Gnd/R version but not with the Gnd version. I have built a little programmer that avoids connecting anything to that pin and everything works fine. Obviously configuration control is not a strong point when it comes to these boards.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 18:24:26 +0000

The comment:
If you’re not using the microSD card, you can use these pins as regular inputs/outputs.
could have a note saying that these pins have 47K pull-ups on them and may need further consideration on how you use them.

By: yorrrick

yorrrick — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 12:40:29 +0000

In reply to loub. Don't understand why the display pulling GPIO12 high would be a problem during boot. I thought only pins 0, 2 and 15 affect how the ESP32 boots.