Help with getting some use out of an "Impulse Buy"

Joined
Oct 16, 2020
Messages
5
Reaction score
3
Location
San Diego CA
Woot suckered me into an impulse buy of a couple of cameras. I'll own that. But I can find Zero documentation online and thought I would ask here if someone might at least identify the manufacturer of the cameras pre-branding.

Here's the link:

Feel free to abuse me, tell me it's a piece of shit or whatever.

All I'm looking for are the initial default setup passwords and the stream address. Smart Life app works great with them but I would like to set up a very simple recording setup to monitor a problematic neighbor.

Will someone please take a moment to educate me.

Thanks in advance,

Dirk
 
Joined
Aug 8, 2018
Messages
7,386
Reaction score
25,889
Location
Spring, Texas
yes, they are not very good. 1/3" sensor. Indoor only. WIFI only. And it appears that it is only compatible with the TOVA app.

Didn't it come with directions on how to set it up? Usually on cams like this there is an app to download on your smartphone and a QR code to scan. You WIFI would assign an IP.
 
Joined
Oct 16, 2020
Messages
5
Reaction score
3
Location
San Diego CA
They both set up fine with the Smart Life app and have IP addresses identified and reserved.
The only options out of the box for recording are to SD card.
But they're pumping out a stream to the app so I'm sure if I have the default user/password and the format of the stream URL I could use SightHound or some such to cheaply record one or maybe even both.

i.e., or
rtsp:/192.168.0.XXX/H264

Hope that clarifies,

Thanks,

Dirk
 

fenderman

Staff member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
36,897
Reaction score
21,250
They both set up fine with the Smart Life app and have IP addresses identified and reserved.
The only options out of the box for recording are to SD card.
But they're pumping out a stream to the app so I'm sure if I have the default user/password and the format of the stream URL I could use SightHound or some such to cheaply record one or maybe even both.

i.e., or
rtsp:/192.168.0.XXX/H264

Hope that clarifies,

Thanks,

Dirk
You are incorrectly assuming that these cheap locked down cameras support and universal protocol like rtsp. They almost certainly do not.
 
Joined
Aug 8, 2018
Messages
7,386
Reaction score
25,889
Location
Spring, Texas
^ what he said.

But you could try rtsp port 554 ONVIF port 8999

Those seem to be used by a lot of cams.

For id try ADMIN

Password...was there a code or a QR code you scanned to set it up in the app? Some of these locked down cams use a 6 digit alpha code and sometimes they are printed on the box below the QR code.
 

Flintstone61

Known around here
Joined
Feb 4, 2020
Messages
6,587
Reaction score
10,894
Location
Minnesota USA
While were on bad purchases, somebody kick me for ever buying a Jidetech PTZ 2mp varifocal for the lobby. The old $29 Amcrest 2mp AHD at least was consistent in motion tagging the folks walking past the camera on the time line. With the PTZ I see missed subjects coming out to the Garages. It seems like if you select Continous+ Triggered mode it acts up after a day or so. But if you switch to Continous, and snap Jpegs on Triggers, at least you can reference motion events. ( but not consistently)....This thing has got to go....
I have to babysit it every Monday to see what new strange thing its doing. Like recording drop outs on the time line, and missed events .....or some new wrinkle, which sends you fiddling around with settings. It's annoying a f. I find the Dahua 180 degree camera's to be consistent in thier motion events. Heck even those on sale Amcrest 1179EW with skimpier settings menu's are pretty darn consistent so far. Lernt me some expensive lessons ( again)
 
Last edited:
Joined
Oct 16, 2020
Messages
5
Reaction score
3
Location
San Diego CA
You are incorrectly assuming that these cheap locked down cameras support and universal protocol like rtsp. They almost certainly do not.
Trust me, I'm making no assumptions that these do anything except talk to the app. It's become a mystery to solve at this point.
Someone made these and had them branded TOVA and dumped them on Woot when they didn't sell for whatever reason. The web has only the sold out Woot listing, an unavailable Amazon listing, and an Onyxdist.com placeholder catalog page. It's like whoever made them completely disappeared. The app that works with them doesn't even have a brand listing for them.
The marketing description says "For ultimate convenience, the TOVA Smart Indoor Camera is also compatible with, IFTTT, Amazon’s Echo devices, Google Home Assistant and Nest devices…" and I can see their IPs on Google Home wifi but they are not configurable, just visible.
As I looked around trying to figure this out, I noticed a lot of cameras with the unknown default user/pass/stream address problem I was struggling with.
I was just hoping someone here might recognize the camera and say," Oh, that's a BlahBlahBlah just rebranded as TOVA, maybe the documentation for the original would help."
I'm really not trying to waste anyone's time here.
 
Top