But the camera does not go into standby so it uses lots of power and gets real hot.
Can be cured by changing to a OV3660 camera and a register hack.
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Honestly, if you don't have some specific reason to go with Esp cam, I wouldn't even recommend it in the first place. Outdoor wifi cameras with sd-card, battery, PIR (and solar panel) cost so little that it's not worth to build.
I personally have some for 3-4 years now, with and without solar panels and never had any problems. I'm not using them to detect birds though.
hah right, I see it is quite cheap, I just wanted to make my own and learn about it !
Waveshare system is meant to be connected directly to ESP ?
I'm going to push back a little on needing a power sharing circuit for the charger. The main risk if there's no power sharing is that charging will never terminate because load current will exceed the termination current. His TP4056 module is set to 1A charging current by default, which means he's not in trouble unless his load current is at least 100mA continuously. And even if the camera is a current hog, he could build into his code a periodic partial shutdown, maybe once every hour, for a few seconds to allow termination to take place if the battery is fully charged. Once termination has occurred, the TP4056 won't resume charging again until battery voltage drops below 4.1V.
So we need more information about the load current, including the SD card.
@ShermanP You are expecting quite a bit of someone who describes him/herself as
You also have to consider how you will keep the solar panels clean. Your birds will enjoy perching on your panels and crapping on them.
That's good reason!
According to the documentation, yes.
Maybe so. Well if he wants power sharing on a solar circuit, but doesn't want to use an Adafruit module, here's a circuit I've built using the TP4056, a mosfet and an opamp (the regular USB powersharing circuit doesn't work with solar).
And I think a 5V panel might be a better choice than the 6V he described.
Thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge, I feel a bit overwhelmed and will try to make it happen the easy way : waveshare + 6V 10W panel. I'll make it on 5V output so I can power both the PIR + ESP . Maybe I'll add a IR light to make night pictures also.
You are not limited to one output.
With solar panels, the voltage definition is wild west.
You can buy 12V panel and find out that it has 18V nominal output. Good for 12V battery charge controller...
alright that's even better !
I just saw solar panels can be mentioned as 6V but are 8V or so.. is there any risk to get higher voltage into the waveshare ?
Yes.
There is a MPPT voltage selection jumper that you set for your panel voltage.
Ii's mainly for efficiency, you don't fry the device if it's one volt off. So you set it according to panel MPPT voltage.
Hi, @saphozzo
Is this your ESP32CAM?
ESP32-CAM Development Board | Buy in Australia | DFR0602 | DFRobot | Core Electronics.
Pleasee post an image of YOUR ESP32CAM.
Thanks... Tom.... 
Understood, so I can set the MPPT on the board right above what the panel is able to deliver at maximum
Hello Tom, I plan on buying this one, if there is any other proposal, why not
I would expect that it's your panel MPPT voltage, not maximum.
Also be aware that it doesn't work with 5V panel.
Alright, I thought mppt was max voltage able to be produced by the panel after checking on the Internet...
From what I see this is 6V minimum
Voc, open circuit voltage is max voltage, that's what you get just measuring panel voltage with multimeter without any "load".
Vmpp is the voltage you can draw max juice from your panel. If you try to draw more, the panel voltage collapses and you get less power.
That's the point with MPPT charge controller.
So if you go with Waveshare, pick a panel that has Vmpp 6V (or 9V).
Dfrobot has similar product for 5V panel.
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The cheap 6volt panels you buy online are rated at MPPT voltage.
IIRC the VOC at noon at full midsummer sunlight is about 8volt (I have used them before).
Just count the single cells of the panel. A 6volt panel has 12 cells, or a multiple of that.
0.5volt MPPT per cell.
Leo..
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Hello all, I received the ESP32 card so I tried to connect the camera and check if I can access. Unfortunately I understand this is not a AI Thinker board but a "non official", And I don't know which GPIO I should use in the code to access the camera, I tried several possibilities but I always finish with 0x105 error.
Here is the only sketch i've got :
Could you help me ?
I just remarked I don't have exactly the same writting on the metal part of the board. It says ESP32-S but there is not the FCCID marking...