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.