How to Identify a Mystery Camera?

[Bob Sisson]

Ok, we have a Mega-Pixel PTZ camera on the corner of our building that was cut-off for a LONG while. Cabling issues, politics and more.

Well, we got the cable fixed and now we have no idea which camera software it needs to run.

As with many of these cameras, it wants something special to enable thevideoo, we get a "Can't Find object" error message

When we login into the camera, everything is GENERIC. No brands or identifying stuff anywhere.

Even looking at the HTML for the web pages, it is generic, not developer or company names, no clues...

Are there standard "commands" we can give it via telnet or anything else that will tell us whose software it is running so we can contact them and get new copies?

It is a nice camera, half decent image, 10X PTZ, and it is WAY up on the building where it isn't practical to get to, so if we can use the camera "as-is", it would be great.

The Setup Screen says it is running Pelco-D
S510 Borad camera from Microtronix Datacom ltd
Firmware 3.1.0.6.M (MAR-15-2010 11:41:12)

Unfortunately, that could be any number of Chinese camera manufacturers/assemblers.

Any Help would be appreciated

 

[pozzello]

start here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/onvifdm/

 

[VorlonFrog]

Do you have a controller for the camera, similar to this one ?

 

[Q™]

Post a picture of the camera.

 

[HDRyder9]

Often you can search the first six characters of the MAC address to determine the manufacturer.

 

[Bob Sisson]

The Camera is a Generic PTZ Dome, no marking, no nothing... it is also on the top of a building where it is kind of hard to get a picture...

The MAC address and the Setup identify it as a "S510 Borad camera from Microtronix Datacom ltd"

But a Gazzion people use that controller, I have an email into Microtronix but don't expect a response.

I tried the source forge software, but that expected you to know the cam Manufacture, which I don't and nothing was listed for MicroTronix

 

[alastairstevenson]

I tried the source forge software, but that expected you to know the cam Manufacture

I'm not sure what you mean by that.
ONVIF Device Manager only requires you to provide it with a valid set of logon credentials for it to provide you with all that the ONVIF support of the camera will give out - which may not be a lot. Most is in the 'Identification' page.
It's generally a pretty good source of tech detail that isn't to be found anywhere else.

 

[Bob Sisson]

You are assuming it is an ONVIF enabled camera, that may not be a good assumption.

I tried giving it the login credentials for the admin login, but it threwup when it tried with pages of code and garbage...

 

[alastairstevenson]

You are assuming it is an ONVIF enabled camera, that may not be a good assumption.

If it is - you might have got what you are looking for.
But it sounds like there is a broken ONVIF capability from what you've described.
ODM is usually pretty good at teasing out useful info, but it relies on the ONVIF protocols being followed.

 

[Bob Sisson]

I got further along...
I am pretty sure it is a Java-ActiveX-MMp4.ocx driven camera.
When doing my testing from a Windows machine (mine is a Linux) it wanted to load an Active-X component called mmp4.oxc or mmp4.cab
Unfortunately, no current browser will allow that to load, so I am looking for workarounds.

 

[alastairstevenson]

mmp4.cab

Save to a Windows folder and execute?

mmp4.oxc

ocx presumably. What version of IE didn't like it?

 

[Bob Sisson]

I am running IE 11. I get the message "IE has blocked the execution of software to prevent damage to your computer" even AFTER i say to install it, put it in a "local" inTRAnet and give it a low security profile. I just won't let me install the necessary active-X, I vaugely remember having this problem long ago, but back then I just enabled Active-X and it finally loaded. I tried doing that and got lots of "Allow Active-X" on every OTHER website, but it still wouldn't load MMP4.ocx.

 

[bp2008]

Usually I just have to add the camera to the trusted sites list and make sure https is not required for the connection to trusted sites.

 

[Bob Sisson]

I have been fussing with this for a while. I am running IE11 and it will not load mmp4.*

I tried putting the camera in the local trusted hosts, set really low, no avail... same error message...

tried downloading mmp4cam, but there are no instruction of how to run it or where to put the files....

I think the camera is going, I just don't want to get up on the ladder to replace it....

(or spend the money)

 

[Bob Sisson]

Hum...
Just heard back from "Microtronix".... they don't make IP camera boards, never have,... so I need to find another Microtronix....

Hopefully it wasn't a Chinese 5 year company...

 

[Bob Sisson]

I got in !
I finally got the $%^@$@ Driver to load.

The Software was written by Shixin Tek

Now I have something to run with.

The Camera is running, it isn't as nice as we remember, looks like 1Megapixle at best, but it is running.

I can cross it off my list. If they want to upgrade it, that's someone else's problem...

 

[VorlonFrog]

Congratulations! Sorry to hear it's such potato quality video.