Help identifying Dahua OEM NVR from Speco N8NXP

[mcolina1]

Hey everyone. I’m trying to find the original Dahua version of the Speco N8NXP NVR. Based on my research, I think it’s the Dahua NVR4208-8P-4KS2. I’ve opened up the NVR and it seems to match identically both inside and on the back ports.

I used the pictures on this amazon listing for reference:

Amazon.com: Dahua NVR4208-8P-4KS2 4K 8 Channel PoE NVR (1080p/3MP/4MP/5MP/6MP/8MP) Network Video Recorder with 2 SATA, Supports up to 8 x 8-Megapixel IP Cameras, Supports up to 6TB HDD(Not Included): Electronics

Buy Dahua NVR4208-8P-4KS2 4K 8 Channel PoE NVR (1080p/3MP/4MP/5MP/6MP/8MP) Network Video Recorder with 2 SATA, Supports up to 8 x 8-Megapixel IP Cameras, Supports up to 6TB HDD(Not Included): Surveillance Video Recorders - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

I’m also attaching some pictures I took of my Speco N8NXP. Thanks!

 

[mat200]

Welcome @mcolina1 good to have you join us here.

@looney2ns does this board look similar to the NVR4xxx model you had tested?

 

[looney2ns]

Welcome @mcolina1 good to have you join us here.

@looney2ns does this board look similar to the NVR4xxx model you had tested?

No, it sure doesn't.

 

[mcolina1]

No, it sure doesn't.

Thanks for the reply @looney2ns. Do you happen to know the specific model you tested? The amazon listing I posted is the only one I could find that showed the internals of the unit. Is there any way I could get some additional info about the hardware via ssh or something?

 

[mcolina1]

So I did some more research. From what I gather, the NVR4208-8P-4KS2 is the international version of the USA branded N42B2P:

DahuaWiki

dahuawiki.com

also:

https://www.desertcart.ae/products/41917523-dahua-8-channel-nvr4208-4ks2-1u-8poe-4k-amp-h-265-lite-network-video-recorder-with-2t-seagate-hdd-no-logo-oem-local-support

The most interesting part about the Dahua Wiki link above is that it references the firmware for the NVR4208-8P-4KS2, which is also the same version posted by Andy in this thread:

4.0 AI NVR4XXX-4KS2_MultiLang_V4.000.0000001.3.R.191016.bin

Here are the models that suit this latest new firmware.( Attention only -4KS2 model can use this firmware. ) NVR4104-4KS2, NVR4108-4KS2, NVR4116-4KS2, NVR4104-P-4KS2, NVR4108-P-4KS2, NVR4108-8P-4KS2, NVR4116-8P-4KS2, NVR4104HS-4KS2, NVR4108HS-4KS2 NVR4116HS-4KS2 NVR4104HS-P-4KS2...

ipcamtalk.com

I tried reaching out to Speco to see if they could provide me the original Dahua hardware version, but they wouldn’t (I didn’t think they would).

I’m fairly confident that the hardware matches, now I just weigh the risk of updating my unit and potentially bricking it.

 

[looney2ns]

Thanks for the reply @looney2ns. Do you happen to know the specific model you tested? The amazon listing I posted is the only one I could find that showed the internals of the unit. Is there any way I could get some additional info about the hardware via ssh or something?

Review-dahua-nvr4104-hs-p-4ks-network-recorder
Review-Dahua NVR4216-16P-4KS2 NVR | IP Cam Talk

 

[desperatehousecam]

Hey everyone. I’m trying to find the original Dahua version of the Speco N8NXP NVR.

Greetings fellow camera people. It so happens I just bought the very same N8NXP Speco's DVR from B&H. So I am joining the camtalk bandwagon. My plan is to build a cheap and small surveillance network to care for my old man. I am very eager to take the fullest advantage of all my hardware and was wondering if anyone out there has further and fresher info on this. I suppose dahua's firmware is a bit safer for being newer (am I too naive?) and may have better developed and debugged features. If that is the case, It might be a good idea to explore the opportunity of maybe more nuts from my bucks, such as compatibility with more camera systems perhaps? I can confirm that my speco unit's back panel layout looks exactly as the specs of the dahua branded and that after seeing the pictures above and from amazon, I have good faith that it is the same hardware. Suppose it is and I flash a newer firmware build and all of a sudden I have a dahua unit... What happens to the built in p2p? My serial number wouldn't match to any dahua's products and I would not have proprietary DDNS. How about dahua mobile apps? Would they let me in and log to NVR now? Speco's and Dahua software are essentially the same code rebranded. Even though, now I can't use iDMSS - that is Dahua's ios app - to connect to the speco nvr. Why would I want that? because that app runs on my very old ipad and would render it very usefull all of a sudden. None of the Specos ios apps are supported on this ipad, so no joy in using it to monitor the cameras yet.

Further more, may I comment that I have been very frustrated with the very low end generic chinese ipcams i've tried so far. One Esee VR CAM P2 won't even have Onvif or RTSP, so it's useless. The yoosee one has onvif video, but no audio on the H265 stream coming in to the DVR. (audio works on the crappy p2p app, of course). And also it doesn't activate motion detection triggers on the DVR even with every motion alarm enabled on the app. Hows is that for a noob?

Before any kind soul brings up safety, I promise I am going to Firewall/VPN/VLAN the hell out of my system when it's done Thanks for having me! Any comments are very appreciated. happycams to all.

Andre

 

[mcolina1]

Greetings fellow camera people. It so happens I just bought the very same N8NXP Speco's DVR from B&H. So I am joining the camtalk bandwagon. My plan is to build a cheap and small surveillance network to care for my old man. I am very eager to take the fullest advantage of all my hardware and was wondering if anyone out there has further and fresher info on this. I suppose dahua's firmware is a bit safer for being newer (am I too naive?) and may have better developed and debugged features. If that is the case, It might be a good idea to explore the opportunity of maybe more nuts from my bucks, such as compatibility with more camera systems perhaps? I can confirm that my speco unit's back panel layout looks exactly as the specs of the dahua branded and that after seeing the pictures above and from amazon, I have good faith that it is the same hardware. Suppose it is and I flash a newer firmware build and all of a sudden I have a dahua unit... What happens to the built in p2p? My serial number wouldn't match to any dahua's products and I would not have proprietary DDNS. How about dahua mobile apps? Would they let me in and log to NVR now? Speco's and Dahua software are essentially the same code rebranded. Even though, now I can't use iDMSS - that is Dahua's ios app - to connect to the speco nvr. Why would I want that? because that app runs on my very old ipad and would render it very usefull all of a sudden. None of the Specos ios apps are supported on this ipad, so no joy in using it to monitor the cameras yet.

Further more, may I comment that I have been very frustrated with the very low end generic chinese ipcams i've tried so far. One Esee VR CAM P2 won't even have Onvif or RTSP, so it's useless. The yoosee one has onvif video, but no audio on the H265 stream coming in to the DVR. (audio works on the crappy p2p app, of course). And also it doesn't activate motion detection triggers on the DVR even with every motion alarm enabled on the app. Hows is that for a noob?

Before any kind soul brings up safety, I promise I am going to Firewall/VPN/VLAN the hell out of my system when it's done Thanks for having me! Any comments are very appreciated. happycams to all.

Andre

Hey Andre, glad I’m not the only one interested in updating the firmware on this. I’ve been contemplating for a few weeks now on updating the firmware. I’m still on the fence, as I don’t want to risk losing a perfectly good system.

 

[val-ipcam]

Hey Andre, glad I’m not the only one interested in updating the firmware on this. I’ve been contemplating for a few weeks now on updating the firmware. I’m still on the fence, as I don’t want to risk losing a perfectly good system.

Hi,
If you plug USB drive and reboot your N8NXP it will tell you in the logs: “ProductName: NVR42XX_8P_4KS2”. I was not able to upgrade it with Dahua firmware via USB. Had to resort to upgrading via UART module. Success there.

 

[mcolina1]

Hi,
If you plug USB drive and reboot your N8NXP it will tell you in the logs: “ProductName: NVR42XX_8P_4KS2”. I was not able to upgrade it with Dahua firmware via USB. Had to resort to upgrading via UART module. Success there.

Whoaaa! That’s great news! You are a brave soul my friend, and thank you for confirming my suspicion about the model. Besides maybe some branding differences, did you notice anything obviously different? IVS features? Do you know if the Speco apps stop working? Regarding the UART...can you elaborate some more? How did you know to try this? Special apps to use, baud rate, etc?

...I know. That was a lot of questions (sorry). Can you tell I’m excited? I’m wondering if you can reprogram via USB not that you have OEM firmware on there.

 

[desperatehousecam]

I second all the above questions, specially IVS capability. Can you revert to stock speco firmware as if you hadn't done it if you want to???

 

[val-ipcam]

I did not use Speco app. I installed Dahus gDMSS Plus on my phone, which works fine. I am now running NVR firmware V3.216.0000003.0, Build Date: 2019-05-21.
Unfortunately I do not have a camera that supports IVS, so cannot say how it works. But I would expect it would support it. I see no reason reverting back to Speco firmware, but I think UART method would work.

How did I come to try this? I noticed reference to NVR42XX_8P_4KS2 in the log on the USB drive and had few hours to experiment (it turned out to be a weekend project...). Here’s what I did:

• Download new firmware that you want to install on NVR
• Open archive, it’s a zipped file, extract files from the archive:

• Run tftp server on a computer on LAN, put extracted files on tftp server. I used TFTPD64 v4.64.
• Connect NVR to your LAN.
• Connect UART board to NVR and computer USB port.
• Run PuTTY, connect to COM port assigned to UART. Next steps are done via PuTTY:
• Power on NVR. Boot events will be visible in the PuTTY window. Using computer keyboard interrupt NVR boot procedure, hit CTL-C during boot.
• Via CLI set NVR network settings and tftp server usng “setenv” command. More info is at this link: Dahua IPC unbricking / recovery over serial UART and TFTP
• Make sure you can ping computer where tftp server is running.
• To install firmware from tftp server run the following commands:

run dr
run dw
run dc
run dk
run du
reset

You're done! NVR will boot running new firmware. You will be able to upgrade firmware via USB from that point on.
Here's pinout for UART:

 

[mcolina1]

Wow that’s awesome. Thanks for all the info. I don’t know when i’ll get a chance to try all this, but it looks promising. One question...from the looks of it, did you remove the header off the the DB-9 connector and manually run the wires to your usb module? Would something like a usb to serial (DB-9) achieve the same thing or is there something unique about this configuration?

Regarding IVS features, I think it shows up in the alarm section (checkboxes) regardless of whether you have an IVS camera. I could be wrong, but I know the Speco version certainly did NOT list IVS.

 

[val-ipcam]

There was no connector on the board, just holes in the PCB. IVS features do exist in the interface, but I have no IVS-capable camera to test them with.
Not sure about usb to serial (DB-9). No, nothing unique. UART from ebay.

 

[robross0606]

Can anyone provide help with links to the best Dahua firmware for Speco N8NXP?

 

[robross0606]

...from the looks of it, did you remove the header off the the DB-9 connector and manually run the wires to your usb module?

I also have the same problem as as mcolina1. My board has a tiny (JST?) header soldered to these pinouts and I don't have anything small enough to attach to it.

It almost looks like a JST-SH 1.0mm pitch connector, but the shroud looks a little different to me. Does anyone know what size/type header is being used here?

 

[val-ipcam]

Can anyone provide help with links to the best Dahua firmware for Speco N8NXP?

I started with DH_NVR4XXX-4KS2_EngFrnSpn_V3.215.0000000.0.R.170807.bin via UART method. Then upgraded via GUI to later versions.

 

[robross0606]

I started with DH_NVR4XXX-4KS2_EngFrnSpn_V3.215.0000000.0.R.170807.bin via UART method. Then upgraded via GUI to later versions.

Can you provide anything more specific like a link? I don't want to risk flashing the wrong firmware.

 

[sstevetx]

I am brand new to the NVR scene and wanted to start with a decent Dahua OEM NVR, so I bought the Speco 2TB listed here from B&H after seeing it could be flashed. Mat200 also mentioned it was a good deal over on Slickdeals which helped sell me on this. I followed the instructions val-ipcam provided and was able to flash the firmware to Dahua. I started with version 3.216 which flashed, but the HDMI output still showed a Speco background, but a Dahua login window. I had it download the latest firmware which was in the 4.x series and it installed and restarted. Now everything shows Dahua with no mention of Speco. I don't have any cameras yet, because I wanted to makes sure I could flash the firmware before going further.

I will mention the serial port on my Speco did have pins on it unlike val-ipcam's which didn't. I used a small flathead screwdriver to carefully pry the plastic connector off, so just the pins came out of the board. They were really close together and my wire connectors that came with my USB serial device were too large to fit. I ended up taking the plastic sheath off the end leaving just the metal portion. I used some needle nose pliers to squeeze the metal ends to make them a little smaller to fit the small pins. I then bent the 3 pins I needed slightly to put some distance between them. I attached a picture with the 3 pins attached. I had to switch the RX and TX on my USB serial device because I wasn't getting any output in Putty. I read here on ipcamtalk that you can do that as sometimes the manufacturers switch them.

The firmware I started with (3.216) won't work with the hacked Chinese firmware cameras from what I have read. You would have to find version 3.215 or earlier, but I don't plan on using the hacked cameras.
Here is the 3.216 firmware I used for the initial serial UART flash: DH_NVR4XXX-4KS2_MultiLang_V3.216.0000002.0.R.190102

This is the Serial USB UART device I used. I picked this one because it had some extra voltage options in case I needed them for something else down the road. I think just about any cheap adapter will work though.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WX2DSVB

EDIT: The fan on this thing is loud. This may be typical of NVRs with the internal power supplies, but it was too loud for me. I ended up replacing it with a 12v Noctua fan based on the suggestion of someone on another thread here on ipcamtalk. While it's not silent, it is much better. I will mention the Noctua doesn't have the same airflow as the original which should be ok since I am keeping it indoors. The connector on the stock fan is 2 pin, so I had to do some soldering with the new fan.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B071W93333

 

[mcolina1]

I am brand new to the NVR scene and wanted to start with a good NVR and bought the Speco 2TB listed here from B&H. I followed the instructions val-ipcam provided and was able to flash the firmware to Dahua. I started with version 3.216 which flashed, but the HDMI output still showed a Speco background, but a Alhua login window. I had it download the latest firmware which was in the 4.x series and it installed and restarted. Now everything shows Alhua with no mention of Speco. I don't have any cameras yet, because I wanted to makes sure I could flash the firmware before going further.

I will mention the serial port on my Speco did have pins on it unlike val-ipcam's which didn't. The process was still the same though.

That’s great news! I actually bought the usb to serial converter but haven’t gotten around to flashing it yet.