meshtastic-ai-camera

An ML camera that broadcasts detections over a Meshtastic LoRa mesh. A XIAO ESP32-C3 bridges a Seeed Grove Vision AI V2 (Himax WE-2 NPU running a YOLO-family model) to a Meshtastic node (XIAO ESP32-S3 + Wio-SX1262) over Bluetooth. The bridge sends one text line per detection in the form @CAM TRIGGERED:<class>@<score> on the primary channel.

Hardware

Component	Role
Seeed Grove Vision AI V2	Camera + Himax WE-2 SoC running the ML model
XIAO ESP32-C3 (in the carrier socket)	Bridge MCU, runs the firmware in this repo
XIAO ESP32-S3 + Wio-SX1262	Meshtastic LoRa node

The C3 talks I²C to the WE-2 (camera detections in) and BLE to the Meshtastic node (text frames out). No host PC is needed at runtime.

Quick start

Prerequisites once per machine:

pip3 install --user pyserial==3.5 xmodem==0.4.7 meshtastic

Per kit, from the repo root:

cp .env.example .env                # adjust BLE_PIN if you set a non-default in the Meshtastic app
make grove-pick                     # optional, pick a custom model bundle from the SenseCraft catalog
make flash-grove                    # WE-2 firmware + selected models
make flash-c3                       # bridge firmware
make set-ble-pin                    # writes BLE_PIN from .env to the bridge's NVS
make set-grove-aliases              # pushes the per-slot alias + class labels to the bridge's NVS

Then configure the Meshtastic node from the Meshtastic Android/iOS app per docs/MESHTASTIC_NODE_USER.md. The bridge will pair automatically and announce @CAM bridge online on the mesh once the node is up.

Make targets

Target	What it does
build	Compile bridge firmware without flashing
flash-c3	Flash bridge firmware to the XIAO ESP32-C3
flash-grove	Flash WE-2 firmware + the manifest models to the Grove Vision AI V2
fetch-grove-firmware	Download the pinned WE-2 firmware to firmware/grove/
grove-pick	Interactive picker for the WE-2 model bundle from the SenseCraft catalog
grove-show	Read the per-slot alias and class table from the C3's NVS
set-ble-pin	Push BLE_PIN from .env into the C3's NVS (no reflash)
set-grove-aliases	Push the per-slot alias and class-label table to the C3's NVS (no reflash)
mesh-info	Read Meshtastic node state over USB
help	List all targets

Documentation

• docs/PROJECT_OVERVIEW.md - architecture and data flow
• docs/CAMERA_SUBSYSTEM_USER.md - bring up the Grove Vision AI V2, plus the full runtime reference (mesh verbs, Wi-Fi operator console, USB REPL)
• docs/CAMERA_SUBSYSTEM_TECHNICAL.md - WE-2 protocol and flash layout reference
• docs/MESHTASTIC_NODE_USER.md - configure the Meshtastic node via the mobile app

License

MIT. See LICENSE. The vendored scripts/xmodem_send.py is MIT (c) 2023 Himax Technologies, Inc.