ESP32CAM fails to initialise camera with error 0xffffff

Question

There is a simple PlatformIO sketch (arduino format) that has the following main.cpp file:

#include <Arduino.h>
#include "esp_camera.h"
#include "camera_pins.h"
#define CAMERA_MODEL_AI_THINKER
#define LED_BUILTIN 33 // Define LED_BUILTIN for ESP32
void setup()
{
    pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);
    Serial.begin(115200);
    delay(500);
Serial.println(&quot;Camera initialising...&quot;);

camera_config_t config;

// Declaring pins in the config
{

    config.ledc_channel = LEDC_CHANNEL_0;
    config.ledc_timer = LEDC_TIMER_0;

    config.pin_d0 = Y2_GPIO_NUM;
    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; // Replaced `sscb` with `sccb`
    config.pin_sccb_scl = SIOC_GPIO_NUM; // Replaced `sscb` with `sccb`
    config.pin_pwdn = PWDN_GPIO_NUM;
    config.pin_reset = RESET_GPIO_NUM;
    config.xclk_freq_hz = 20000000; // Can be set to 10000000 for slower refresh rate but could lead to stable (slower) execution
    config.pixel_format = PIXFORMAT_JPEG;
}

// Initialize the camera
if (psramFound())
{
    Serial.println(&quot;PSRAM FOUND! Setting framesize to QVGA&quot;);
    config.frame_size = FRAMESIZE_QVGA; // 320x240 resolution
    config.jpeg_quality = 10;
    config.fb_count = 2;
}
else
{
    Serial.println(&quot;PSRAM NOT FOUND! Setting framsize to CIF&quot;);
    config.frame_size = FRAMESIZE_CIF;
    config.jpeg_quality = 20; // not 12 (0-63; lower means high quality)
    config.fb_count = 1;
}

esp_err_t err = esp_camera_init(&amp;config);

/* PSRAM NOT FOUND! Setting framsize to CIF
E (650) cam_hal: cam_dma_config(301): frame buffer malloc failed
E (650) cam_hal: cam_config(385): cam_dma_config failed
E (651) camera: Camera config failed with error 0xffffffff
Camera init failed with error 0xffffffff */

if (err != ESP_OK)
{
    Serial.printf(&quot;Camera init failed with error 0x%x\n&quot;, err);
    return;
}

Serial.println(&quot;Camera initialized successfully!&quot;);

}
void loop()
{
if (Serial.available())
{
    String rcvdTxt = Serial.readString();

    Serial.print(&quot;I heard: &quot;);
    Serial.println(rcvdTxt);

    digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, HIGH);
    // Serial.println(&quot;PING&quot;);
    delay(1000);
    digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, LOW);
    // Serial.println(&quot;PONG&quot;);
}

}

Now the camera pins are set as per this article (pretty detailed article, I recommend checking out).

But the problem arises when I upload the code and start it up. The esp_camera_init(&config) chunk of code throws the following error:

E (650) cam_hal: cam_dma_config(301): frame buffer malloc failed
E (650) cam_hal: cam_config(385): cam_dma_config failed
E (651) camera: Camera config failed with error 0xffffffff
Camera init failed with error 0xffffffff

Also, the psramFound() returns false, meaning the PSRAM is not detected.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 13 '24 at 08:54

The error message:

E (650) cam_hal: cam_dma_config(301): frame buffer malloc failed
E (650) cam_hal: cam_config(385): cam_dma_config failed
E (651) camera: Camera config failed with error 0xffffffff
Camera init failed with error 0xffffffff

This means that the "esp_camera.h" library is not able to allocate enough memory in the ESP32CAM to process the images.

Elaborated: The ESP32CAM, when its camera module captures an image, it stores that data in a buffer that is preallocated by the program. Think of it like defining a chunk of memory and keeping it reserved only for the image data that comes in (look up 'ESP32CAM DMA').

The PSRAM (Pseudo Static RAM) can be understood like the RAM of ESP32CAM in which the memory is gonna be allocated for the incoming image data. Now this 0xffffff and frame buffer malloc failed means that there is not enough room to allocate the said buffer.

Problem: The ESP32CAM has a PSRAM (usually) that its not able to access to allocate the buffer (there is usually enough space to store the incoming image data but ESP32CAM is not able to access it).

Cause: Some famous bug in the codebase that causes the PSRAM to "not be recognised" by the ESP32CAM, hence the psramFound() returning false.

Solution: A -D PREFER_PSRAM -mfix-esp32-psram-cache-issue in the build flags of the sketch.

Now I do not know how to do this in Arduino IDE but in PlatformIO, in the platformio.ini file, add the following:

build_flags = -D PREFER_PSRAM -mfix-esp32-psram-cache-issue

ESP32CAM fails to initialise camera with error 0xffffff

1 Answers1