Good IPCameras that support OpenIPC

[Sentryhive]

Hi all, I've looked at openipc for about a year now. At the time I was mostly interested in flashing wyze v3 but the tutorials required some moderate amount of disassembly. Is there a recommended camera that is easy to flash with openipc? I've been waiting so long that I don't even care if the firmware isn't fully implemented. Icing on cake would be a camera that is ptz.

 

[grumpyITGuy]

Is there a recommended camera that is easy to flash with openipc? I've been waiting so long that I don't even care if the firmware isn't fully implemented.

The very nature of OpenIPC necessitates having physical access to the uart pins in order to interact with the bootloader. So in short, there is no such thing as a commercially available camera that is "easy to flash" with anything but the manufacturer approved firmware. You're gonna have to crack the case open.

I came across OpenIPC several weeks ago and have been testing on some extremely cheap (my acronym is "triple-c" aka Cheap Chinese Crap) cameras for the past couple weeks. Ironically, the reason I started looking for firmware alternatives was due to having purchased a newer revision of the camera I already owned four specimens of, and finding the manufacturer had removed all secondary rtsp stream resolutions higher than 640x480. I went back and forth with them in hopes of a resolution via a firmware update but got little more than poorly translated excuses telling me I should just go pound sand.

Having run across this thread several weeks ago, I gave it zero attention until today when in a fit of boredom I read it from beginning to end. While it's obviously misplaced in the 'Camera Software' subforum, there appear to be no subforums here focusing on alternative camera firmwares (at least that I've found). So even though I agree with their mentality, strikes against the OP and the others who echoed said mentality for posting in a forum that was quite a bit off-topic as this one appears to address viewing clients. Of those I've been a long-time user of tinyCam and have nothing but good things to say about their offering.

Even though the OP's question is thoroughly off-topic for where it was posted, the pointless and relentless eviceration of the notion that an open-source firmware would be in any way comparable to the manufacturer's firmware in terms of performance has completely missed the point. I'm not here to get into a pissing contest with you, simply saying I think a subforum for alternative firmwares is warranted, as OpenIPC has some very serious merits. The least of which is full superuser access and control of a device running a fairly full-stack linux OS that would otherwise be operating un-constrained inside your home (or doG forbid, work) network. If you can't appreciate the value of that single salient point, best go open the facebook app on your phone and (continue to?) freely compromise the value of your personal privacy by venting your outrage. Do it with gusto!!

That said, I'm somewhat offput by the fact that they (referring to the OpenIPC dev team) have no open discussion forum and seem to gravitate towards the somewhat nebulous Telegram platform for their primary interactive presence. Additionally, while Github used to be a bastion for open source, since it was acquired by Microsoft I've lost all desire to participate there as the boys in Redmond aren't exactly the ones who jump to top-of-mind when I imagine a benevolent champion for all things open-source.

To indirectly address the question posed by the OP and subsequent supporters - it's my suspicion that there are no public repositories for a brand + part # compatibility matrix for OpenIPC because they wish to not raise the ire of said manufacturers. Producing one would be a serious affront to the manufacturer's "right" to profit from their business endeavour. I've seriously considered publishing my personal hardware-related findings on my vanity blogsite, but I'm not sure it would be helpful to anyone but myself since my needs are so "remedial".

And to clarify, my needs are as such: I only desire to capture 10fps h.265 streams from all my cameras at maximum resolution 24x7 to a storage device that's physically present in my home, right next to my gun vault. I do so with a handful of bash scripts, miscellaneous gnu tools, and ffmpeg. I do not, and will not ever utilize a "commercial" DVR product for this, because I can do it myself faster, more conveniently (according to my own standards), with complete and absolute control, for free.

By the way, having registered specifically for the purpose of posting this - what would be my first message here, I just received a welcome message with a "personal" discussion that had the phrase "blue iris" no fewer than 12 times. So I guess it's clear who's agenda is beng advanced by ipcamtalk.com. [big sad]

 

[mat200]

The very nature of OpenIPC necessitates having physical access to the uart pins in order to interact with the bootloader. So in short, there is no such thing as a commercially available camera that is "easy to flash" with anything but the manufacturer approved firmware. You're gonna have to crack the case open.

I came across OpenIPC several weeks ago and have been testing on some extremely cheap (my acronym is "triple-c" aka Cheap Chinese Crap) cameras for the past couple weeks. Ironically, the reason I started looking for firmware alternatives was due to having purchased a newer revision of the camera I already owned four specimens of, and finding the manufacturer had removed all secondary rtsp stream resolutions higher than 640x480. I went back and forth with them in hopes of a resolution via a firmware update but got little more than poorly translated excuses telling me I should just go pound sand.

Having run across this thread several weeks ago, I gave it zero attention until today when in a fit of boredom I read it from beginning to end. While it's obviously misplaced in the 'Camera Software' subforum, there appear to be no subforums here focusing on alternative camera firmwares (at least that I've found). So even though I agree with their mentality, strikes against the OP and the others who echoed said mentality for posting in a forum that was quite a bit off-topic as this one appears to address viewing clients. Of those I've been a long-time user of tinyCam and have nothing but good things to say about their offering.

Even though the OP's question is thoroughly off-topic for where it was posted, the pointless and relentless eviceration of the notion that an open-source firmware would be in any way comparable to the manufacturer's firmware in terms of performance has completely missed the point. I'm not here to get into a pissing contest with you, simply saying I think a subforum for alternative firmwares is warranted, as OpenIPC has some very serious merits. The least of which is full superuser access and control of a device running a fairly full-stack linux OS that would otherwise be operating un-constrained inside your home (or doG forbid, work) network. If you can't appreciate the value of that single salient point, best go open the facebook app on your phone and (continue to?) freely compromise the value of your personal privacy by venting your outrage. Do it with gusto!!

That said, I'm somewhat offput by the fact that they (referring to the OpenIPC dev team) have no open discussion forum and seem to gravitate towards the somewhat nebulous Telegram platform for their primary interactive presence. Additionally, while Github used to be a bastion for open source, since it was acquired by Microsoft I've lost all desire to participate there as the boys in Redmond aren't exactly the ones who jump to top-of-mind when I imagine a benevolent champion for all things open-source.

To indirectly address the question posed by the OP and subsequent supporters - it's my suspicion that there are no public repositories for a brand + part # compatibility matrix for OpenIPC because they wish to not raise the ire of said manufacturers. Producing one would be a serious affront to the manufacturer's "right" to profit from their business endeavour. I've seriously considered publishing my personal hardware-related findings on my vanity blogsite, but I'm not sure it would be helpful to anyone but myself since my needs are so "remedial".

And to clarify, my needs are as such: I only desire to capture 10fps h.265 streams from all my cameras at maximum resolution 24x7 to a storage device that's physically present in my home, right next to my gun vault. I do so with a handful of bash scripts, miscellaneous gnu tools, and ffmpeg. I do not, and will not ever utilize a "commercial" DVR product for this, because I can do it myself faster, more conveniently (according to my own standards), with complete and absolute control, for free.

By the way, having registered specifically for the purpose of posting this - what would be my first message here, I just received a welcome message with a "personal" discussion that had the phrase "blue iris" no fewer than 12 times. So I guess it's clear who's agenda is beng advanced by ipcamtalk.com. [big sad]

Welcome grumpitguy

I personally welcome more discussions on topics associated with security cameras .. of course I am just another fan here ..

 

[grumpyITGuy]

Thanks mat200. I suppose what needs to happen to maintain my interest here is the creation of an alternative firmwares subforum, maybe in the Hardware > IP Cameras subforum.

Soldering microscopic wires on the uart pins of a very fine-pitch circuit board in order to flash a linux OS via uBoot + tftp isn't for everyone. But for those of us who would rather use secureshell to access their most important computers, it's a highly rewarding experience and a valuable asset and I've done it many times over the past 20 years.

The ability to control almost every aspect of a system via a shell script triggered by cron is priceless. If I've learned anything in the nearly three decades I've worked in IT, it's that being at the mercy of some other company to fix something when you've done everything but coded the fix for them, is a pitifully helpless situation. I'd much prefer to build my own mousetrap, or at least have assembled it from components I know inside and out. To that end I just bought some bare SigmaStar 337 based main boards from aliexpress. $12 for a 5mp board that will upgrade my $33 triple-c cameras to something that will produce better resolution with OpenIPC. I'm sure it will produce images of lesser quality than a camera that costs twice as much, but I'll be able to use ssh to do anything I need to on it, from anywhere in the world I have internet access.

 

[mat200]

Thanks mat200. I suppose what needs to happen to maintain my interest here is the creation of an alternative firmwares subforum, maybe in the Hardware > IP Cameras subforum.

Soldering microscopic wires on the uart pins of a very fine-pitch circuit board in order to flash a linux OS via uBoot + tftp isn't for everyone. But for those of us who would rather use secureshell to access their most important computers, it's a highly rewarding experience and a valuable asset and I've done it many times over the past 20 years.

The ability to control almost every aspect of a system via a shell script triggered by cron is priceless. If I've learned anything in the nearly three decades I've worked in IT, it's that being at the mercy of some other company to fix something when you've done everything but coded the fix for them, is a pitifully helpless situation. I'd much prefer to build my own mousetrap, or at least have assembled it from components I know inside and out. To that end I just bought some bare SigmaStar 337 based main boards from aliexpress. $12 for a 5mp board that will upgrade my $33 triple-c cameras to something that will produce better resolution with OpenIPC. I'm sure it will produce images of lesser quality than a camera that costs twice as much, but I'll be able to use ssh to do anything I need to on it, from anywhere in the world I have internet access.

Try to drop that suggestion to the forum owners .. I like the idea even tho I have less time than I like for projects

 

[grumpyITGuy]

Yeah, I'll pass. I have dozens of other hobbies that command my attention. Though I would eagerly contribute to such a topic, I don't have the bandwidth to champion one personally.

I'll go elsewhere with my findings.

 

[forlotto]

@grumpyITGuy well why not share the link to your blog I'd be interested in your findings I wish I had more to report or share myself but I'm limited on the Cameras I have available CCC cameras seem to be what folks want when I do installs as well I'd just love the ability to have alternative firmware for the reasons you've mentioned. Would have been nice to have something already while I do a network overhaul here for my personal network cause while I'm doing it my cams will be somewhat exposed I imagine. Ugrading from 1GB fiber to 2GB seeing as the upgrade was free all I had to do is buy equipment in this case. I guess my provider does up to 8Gb fiber now they just upgraded their equipment so I'm kinda stoked about that. She needs some attention though anyways it don't come at the most opportune time with so much else going on but ain't that how it goes. I live in a more economically despair community though so if someone does want cameras they want it at a price point more so than say the quality even to get a customer to spend more than 75bucks on a camera is a bit like pulling teeth. I have some alt cameras that are a bit more expensive but still chinese never the less I think they all are TBH.

 

[AlwaysSomething]

I just recently learned about OpenIPC myself and was very curious about it. I thought it was something relatively new but it's actually been out there for over 6 years (maybe more but that is how far back I can track posts).

I understand it would be hard to document all the cameras since the manufacturer can change the chips but it wouldn't be hard to say Camera XYZ IF it has chip ABC. I also could be wrong but I doubt they are changing the chips THAT often. Something is better than nothing. I mean OpenWRT has a list.

@grumpyITGuy it can't hurt to share a link to your blog for those that are interested. I have a few CCC (Wyze and Tapo) cameras that I use to watch my pets. I would love to have a firmware that allows me to configure them WITHOUT needing an app on my phone. Too many times I had a brownout that knocked them out for some reason. I have to open my firewall up just so I can reset with the app and then block them again. What a PITA!!! However, for the cost, size, and function (don't need 4k to watch my pets) they are perfect hardware. I even added a camera to watch the temperature gauge on my wood stove so I can make sure I didn't leave the draft fully open.

I'm a total newb when it comes to UART (so new not even sure if I spelled it correctly ) and all that but I'm starting to learn and when I have some free time I may take a part one of my cameras to see if I can put OpenIPC on it and how well it would work.

 

[forlotto]

TTL isn't that hard really honestly Joint Test Action group was a bit more finicky back in the day using buffered cables and such this is only like 4 pins power ground TX RX the hardest thing about TTL is getting your Voltage right for your processor some require 5v others are 3v don't wanna burn stuff up more or less. The TTL boards with both to hook to the USB are dirty cheap too. The stuff for jtag was pricey I would build my own with DB25 connectors. But by all means share any NFO. You shouldn't have to "open your firewall" . Good idea for your furnace better idea would be a servo controller that you can control with your phone or something or you could adapt a water valve shut off and modify it to adjust the damper for you

 

[grumpyITGuy]

When I get around to building a page about it I'll drop a link.

First batch of boards showed up Wednesday, and I promptly proceeded to brick both. Turns out the description of the boards was wrong (with four different sellers). The SOC was advertised as a SigmaStar SSC337. After I lifted one of the serial flash chip solder pads on one I decided to remove the heat sink glued to the SOC to find they are in fact SSC377 chips, which lacks any manner of OpenIPC support. Maybe I'll donate the boards to them when the other two show up.

So I'm trying a different 5mp board that's slightly more expensive that's supposedly using a SSC30KQ SOC and IMX335 cmos sensor. Fingers crossed this description is correct.

For reference, the ultra-cheap 4mp turret cameras I've been using are Anpviz branded - the older ones are model IPC-D3240W and the more recent ones are IPC-D3240W-S. Both appear to have the SigmaStar SSC335 SOC. The newer models have a different cmos sensor, SC3338 versus the older SC3335. The newer one also has a microsd socket and a button that forces uboot to pause long enough that the boot process can be interrupted. These boards are produced by Anjvision / Anjoy - the uboot prompt is "Anjoy #". Unfortunately the UART pads for all of these are roughly 0.5mm in diameter and 1.0mm spacing, so a steady hand and a magnifying glass or low power microscope is required to get into the bootloader. Also, the mipi driver module OpenIPC is packaged with for these sensors supports a max resolution of 2304x1294, while the Anpviz firmware gives 2560x1440.

The only problem I have with the Anpviz firmware is the newer models have horrible substream options - max resolution is 640x360 which looks like garbage at 16:9 aspect. Also, when the P2P function is disabled so they stop phoning home to Beijing, ntp also stops working.

 

[forlotto]

When I get around to building a page about it I'll drop a link.

First batch of boards showed up Wednesday, and I promptly proceeded to brick both. Turns out the description of the boards was wrong (with four different sellers). The SOC was advertised as a SigmaStar SSC337. After I lifted one of the serial flash chip solder pads on one I decided to remove the heat sink glued to the SOC to find they are in fact SSC377 chips, which lacks any manner of OpenIPC support. Maybe I'll donate the boards to them when the other two show up.

So I'm trying a different 5mp board that's slightly more expensive that's supposedly using a SSC30KQ SOC and IMX335 cmos sensor. Fingers crossed this description is correct.

For reference, the ultra-cheap 4mp turret cameras I've been using are Anpviz branded - the older ones are model IPC-D3240W and the more recent ones are IPC-D3240W-S. Both appear to have the SigmaStar SSC335 SOC. The newer models have a different cmos sensor, SC3338 versus the older SC3335. The newer one also has a microsd socket and a button that forces uboot to pause long enough that the boot process can be interrupted. These boards are produced by Anjvision / Anjoy - the uboot prompt is "Anjoy #". Unfortunately the UART pads for all of these are roughly 0.5mm in diameter and 1.0mm spacing, so a steady hand and a magnifying glass or low power microscope is required to get into the bootloader. Also, the mipi driver module OpenIPC is packaged with for these sensors supports a max resolution of 2304x1294, while the Anpviz firmware gives 2560x1440.

The only problem I have with the Anpviz firmware is the newer models have horrible substream options - max resolution is 640x360 which looks like garbage at 16:9 aspect. Also, when the P2P function is disabled so they stop phoning home to Beijing, ntp also stops working.

Thank you sir it helps if you solder the wire then solder the pad lightly then throw down a gob of flux I shake like a whore in church as they say and I've supprised myself with this method. Lots of good info there to go off of for starters. As far as resolution it is mostly limited by camera one would assume but I'm sure it could potentially be modified via firmware to match the maximum res of the camera I mean often manufactures lie a lot about resolutions in cameras and in projectors I've noticed. Maybe its set at 1x digital zoom via firmware who knows hard saying what they do could just be a lie maybe you should take a video and actually study it both with and without and see the difference. IDK that is interesting though to note data throughput could be an issue I guess for the chip often remdied by lower frame rates and other cheats.

 

[grumpyITGuy]

I wasn't so much soliciting advice on soldering, as warning of the pitfalls of gaining physical access to the serial console / tty on these particular type of boards. It seems most of the Anjvision manufactured boards only have 1.0mm pitch pogo-pin pads for the uart. Others have the uart pins accessible via full-size headers, sometimes populated with connectors, meaning a small jumper cable would give access.

As there was little else to do yesterday evening I decided to attempt to resurrect the one 5mp board that had a smd resistor get destroyed by a flood of solder while removing the SOP-8 package serial flash chip. This 3.3k ohm resistor measures 1.0x0.5x0.3 (mm).



And the uart pins...



(click preview images for links to full-res)

Much to my surprise the board booted up after transplanting that tiny resistor from this board with the missing SOP-8 pad. Now I can waste time attempting to reverse engineer a dump of the linux install.

As for the resolution issues, the main problem with OpenIPC on the SigmaStar boards is they apparently bought the SDK package from the manufacturer, and the linux driver libraries for the 3335 and 3338 cmos sensors weren't of the same detail as others. The sc401ai mipi drivers they package for example support all the possible resolutions of the sensor. This is a bit of a roadblock, as the source code is proprietary to SigmaStar and won't be contributed to any mainline linux kernel.

 

[sdkid]

I like the evolution of this thread. I got through the first page, thought I was going to need a lot of popcorn, and then by the top of the 3rd page there seemed to be a transformation. Cool. This idea of opensource fw created just like that for routers is very neat. Nerd on gentlemen, I heartily approve. It would be cool to see FW for slightly older cams abandoned by the manufacturers that would actually work properly and make use of all the hardware functions (and maybe even do that while NOT in Internet Exploder). It would be cool if the forum set a section up for related threads and file sharing, even if it is not heavily used initially. A movement has to start somewhere.

 

[grumpyITGuy]

Just to drop an update - I've tested with the Anpviz IPC-D350WSE 5mp turret that I bought on a whim. Uses the SC30KQ SOC and the GC4653 sensor. OpenIPC works on these just fine, the mipi driver supports a max resolution of 2560x1440. Image quality is on par with the price ($40). The UART pads on this one are shrouded by the SOC heatsink, which made soldering leads on a bit challenging.

Also, the slightly more expensive boards with the IMX335 sensors showed up today. These share the same layout as the board in the aforementioned IPC-D350 camera, including the shrouded UART pads. Instead of messing with that I just removed the spi flash and replaced it with a spare Winbond chip pre-flashed with OpenIPC. The OS works well, but unfortunately the mipi driver for the sensor is limited to 1920x1080. With HDR these support 2592x1904, but for whatever reason the driver the OpenIPC folks built from the SDK is resolution crippled like the SC3335 and SC3338 drivers.

Next up is one with an Ingenic T31X SOC and GC4653 sensor for $13.40, and a 8mp with a SC30KQ coupled to a GC5603 sensor.