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KCulver

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Being able to recover a bricked camera using various proven methods appears an almost necessary skill if one is to save money by buying cameras and NVRs from sources other than big box stores and online security stores. Noobs like me are clueless unfortunately as to the nuances of working with tftp, usb to serial interfaces, etc.

So my humble request is to you guys and gals out there who are the experts and pioneers....

Can you do Youtube Videos that covers start to finish of the most common unbricking methods? i.e. recovery over serial UART, etc. Just felt this would be a good addition to the forum archives.
 
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cor35vet

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If you don't try to flash english firmware on a chinese model then you should be fine.
Dahua purposely put an almost immediate reboot into their software when it detects english language on a chinese region model.

The serial recovery process isn't the only one though after what @resegun published here: Dahua Firmware Mod Kit + Modded Dahua Firmware
Serial is still more powerful as you can see what is actually happening but above is probably easier as you don't need to open up the cam and also don't need to own a serial translator (though it really doesn't hurt to just order one, might want to break your router with OpenWRT to get better firewall and VPN)

I'll try to write up a tutorial for the network recovery method this week.
However as a lot of people have different network setups and the network recovery requires a pretty odd setup it's also not going to be super straightforward (thanks again dahua).
So I'll probably base my tutorial on connecting the camera straight to your computers ethernet port and reconfiguring the network on your PC.
 
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KCulver

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cor35vet said:
If you don't try to flash english firmware on a chinese model then you should be fine.
Dahua purposely put an almost immediate reboot into their software when it detects english language on a chinese region model.

The serial recovery process isn't the only one though after what @resegun published here: Dahua Firmware Mod Kit + Modded Dahua Firmware
Serial is still more powerful as you can see what is actually happening but above is probably easier as you don't need to open up the cam and also don't need to own a serial translator (though it really doesn't hurt to just order one, might want to break your router with OpenWRT to get better firewall and VPN)

I'll try to write up a tutorial for the network recovery method this week.
However as a lot of people have different network setups and the network recovery requires a pretty odd setup it's also not going to be super straightforward (thanks again dahua).
So I'll probably base my tutorial on connecting the camera straight to your computers ethernet port and reconfiguring the network on your PC.
Click to expand...
Thanks Cor35! Would be great addition. Question - How do you determine whether your camera is a Chinese model? As you might know, considering the number of posts I have regarding my attempts to unbrick, I bricked my camera trying to update the firmware after assuming I had a English version. Is it possible to have a Chinese camera despite the all language being English? Packaging (DaHua box, instruction manual, etc.)...
 
nayr

nayr

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Dont go updating firmware just because you find a firmware file and you wont ever find your self in the situation where you need to perform a recovery because of a botched upgrade.

If its not broken; then it dont need fixing.. people just cant leave well enough alone.

If your having issues that you know have been resolved in a newer firmware; and those issues are show-stopping issues.. then its already broken, and you have a justification for the risk involved.
 
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cor35vet

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KCulver said:
Thanks Cor35! Would be great addition. Question - How do you determine whether your camera is a Chinese model? As you might know, considering the number of posts I have regarding my attempts to unbrick, I bricked my camera trying to update the firmware after assuming I had a English version. Is it possible to have a Chinese camera despite the all language being English? Packaging (DaHua box, instruction manual, etc.)...
Click to expand...
Google the exact model, if it shows up on the U.S. Dahua site then it should be an international model, if not then it probably isn't?
No clue if that's how it works, but there seems to be no specific indication in the model number. Maybe something in the S/N?
 
neverever

neverever

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I have used the firmware from cor35vet to upgrade my Chinese cameras (Dahua H2.65 IPC-HDW4431C-A) and it has been working very good so far.
Better than the modified original one.
Is it a risk that the cameras can be bricked later under any circumstances according to what cor35vet wrote:
"Dahua purposely put an almost immediate reboot into their software when it detects english language on a chinese region model."
 
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KCulver

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cor35vet said:
Google the exact model, if it shows up on the U.S. Dahua site then it should be an international model, if not then it probably isn't?
No clue if that's how it works, but there seems to be no specific indication in the model number. Maybe something in the S/N?
Click to expand...
Interesting - That is what I did and the url came up as USA/IPCamera/PTZ/Lite/DH SD22A204TN GNI - Dahua Wiki. That is where I got the firmware update. The firmware file I was directed to was DH_SD-Zi-Themis_Eng_N_Stream3_IVS_V2.400.0000.4.R.20150607 and after reboot - brick!
 
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cor35vet

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KCulver said:
Interesting - That is what I did and the url came up as USA/IPCamera/PTZ/Lite/DH SD22A204TN GNI - Dahua Wiki. That is where I got the firmware update. The firmware file I was directed to was DH_SD-Zi-Themis_Eng_N_Stream3_IVS_V2.400.0000.4.R.20150607 and after reboot - brick!
Click to expand...
That is very interesting, but yeah I actually do not know if they sell the same model number in china and internationally with the country bit flipped.

Is your camera bootlooping, e.g. turning on and off all the time (probably visible by the IR light turning off sometimes)
Or is the IR light constantly on?
Does it ever respond to pings?

To find out exactly what is wrong with your camera I recommend you connect it to a serial interface, see: Dahua IPC unbricking / recovery over serial UART and TFTP
Then when you are in the u-boot terminal do "setenv dh_keyboard 0" and "boot".
The camera should boot and throw all the messages/info at you, at the end probably there will be an error and it'll reboot?

Also the firmware you linked is pretty old, this one should be correct and more recent:
ftp://ftp.asm.cz/Dahua/kamerove_systemy/_Firmware/05SD/Main_Firmware/SD-Zi-Themis/DH/1605/

If you don't have a serial interface I'll start writing on the network recovery tutorial now so wait for that.
 
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KCulver

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cor35vet said:
That is very interesting, but yeah I actually do not know if they sell the same model number in china and internationally with the country bit flipped.

Is your camera bootlooping, e.g. turning on and off all the time (probably visible by the IR light turning off sometimes)
Or is the IR light constantly on?
Does it ever respond to pings?

To find out exactly what is wrong with your camera I recommend you connect it to a serial interface, see: Dahua IPC unbricking / recovery over serial UART and TFTP
Then when you are in the u-boot terminal do "setenv dh_keyboard 0" and "boot".
The camera should boot and throw all the messages/info at you, at the end probably there will be an error and it'll reboot?

Also the firmware you linked is pretty old, this one should be correct and more recent:
ftp://ftp.asm.cz/Dahua/kamerove_systemy/_Firmware/05SD/Main_Firmware/SD-Zi-Themis/DH/1605/

If you don't have a serial interface I'll start writing on the network recovery tutorial now so wait for that.
Click to expand...
I got a usb to serial interface and tried the serial method as per that guide you mentioned. The best I could get was a scrolling gibberish and a few mixed chinese characters. Tried putty and real term. I'm beginning to think i have a bad bootloader.
 
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cor35vet

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KCulver said:
I got a usb to serial interface and tried the serial method as per that guide you mentioned. The best I could get was a scrolling gibberish and a few mixed chinese characters. Tried putty and real term. I'm beginning to think i have a bad bootloader.
Click to expand...
Pretty sure that a bad bootloader wouldn't give you anything.
Is there a pattern in the scrolling? Like it prints chunks, waits between the chunks, stops completely after a while?
You can test if your bootloader works by capturing all the network traffic coming from the camera, e.g. plug it straight into your PC and capture your ethernet card in wireshark.
It should try to contact a TFTP server.
 
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KCulver

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cor35vet said:
Pretty sure that a bad bootloader wouldn't give you anything.
Is there a pattern in the scrolling? Like it prints chunks, waits between the chunks, stops completely after a while?
You can test if your bootloader works by capturing all the network traffic coming from the camera, e.g. plug it straight into your PC and capture your ethernet card in wireshark.
It should try to contact a TFTP server.
Click to expand...
This is a screen print of what I was getting with putty...Also I cannot ping the camera using last known Ip address nor default 192.168.1.108. would connecting to a PC and using wireshark still work?
 
nayr

nayr

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@KCulver, you get a pass for your age.. but in the future, learn how to correctly take a screenshot w/out involving a camera ;)

we got lucky this time and didnt see you sitting in your underwear in the reflection..

Since you like YouTube Videos, take your pick: Take a windows sreenshot - YouTube
 
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cor35vet

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KCulver said:
This is a screen print of what I was getting with putty...Also I cannot ping the camera using last known Ip address nor default 192.168.1.108. would connecting to a PC and using wireshark still work?
Click to expand...
Not being able to ping it makes sense, give wireshark a try.
 
tangent

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EMPIRETECANDY

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nayr said:
Dont go updating firmware just because you find a firmware file and you wont ever find your self in the situation where you need to perform a recovery because of a botched upgrade.

If its not broken; then it dont need fixing.. people just cant leave well enough alone.

If your having issues that you know have been resolved in a newer firmware; and those issues are show-stopping issues.. then its already broken, and you have a justification for the risk involved.
Click to expand...
Correct, we killed 4cams last lots for the updating them into NTSC firmware. So has risk for updating an device.
 
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M S

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nayr said:
@EMPIRETECANDY, Check out this post: Starlight varifocal turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z) Slow response

Sometimes, if your lucky.. ConfigTool v3 can still push firmware files to the camera when the WebUI is all fucked up.. ConfigTool v4 I havent figured out how to force connect to a camera manually in the same way.
Click to expand...
There is a place on both UIs v3.0 and v4.0 to specify the IP Range you want to search on. After that it searches the cameras way faster, after which you can connect. Never got the broadcast thing to work for me.
 
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