Review - TOP-201 Super Mini 720P HD IP-Cam (The Cheapest IP Cam So Far !!)

[metalmunger]

I have the basic "little square box" that is supposed to have WIFI.
The camera functions very well but the WIFI function seems to be totally Tango Uniform. The CMS software does not show ANY WIFI networks at all. I have checked inside the box and all the plugs seem to be seated.
I also contacted the vendor who seems to think that it is a "software" problem, he is checking with his guru.
So my question is do I have dead WIFI module or does my firmware not support WIFI, thoughts?
My current firmware:

 

[VorlonFrog]

Firmware .1303 does include the wifi drivers. If you have the basic little square box, it's highly unlikely it also contains a wifi module. If there is no RF jack on the back for connecting an antenna, you don't have wifi.

 

[metalmunger]

Firmware .1303 does include the wifi drivers. If you have the basic little square box, it's highly unlikely it also contains a wifi module. If there is no RF jack on the back for connecting an antenna, you don't have wifi.

It came with a RF jack that was loose so I felt no pain in breaking the little white tamper seal and opening the "little box" to tighten the jack. Yes there is a WIFI module and a wire to the RF jack all kinda, sorta stuffed into that little box.
Are there any diagnostics software or otherwise that can help?

Update, used "The UberOverlord's" reset utility but it did not change anything.:sad:

 

[metalmunger]

Bump. #743
No WIFI experts willing to take a stab at this?

 

[Bradley Parsons]

have you tried thru cms and choose device manage? I noticed color setting don't stick on mine via webui because the screen is incomplete and has no apply button it's only adjustable thru cms.Failing that try an older version of device manager, they may have broke the wifi in newer versions of device manage as well.

 

[Sparkey]

I have 5 of these and 3 work in IR even tho they don't have any IR emitters built in. 2 of them don't work in IR at all. Is this firmware or is there more than one version of this cam?

 

[fenderman]

I have 5 of these and 3 work in IR even tho they don't have any IR emitters built in. 2 of them don't work in IR at all. Is this firmware or is there more than one version of this cam?

The ones that can detect ir either have an ir cut filter or dont have an ir filter at all...in the latter case the daytime colors will be off.

 

[pkm]

Hello,
I found this thread looking for TOP-201 review. But then I started looking to other cheap cameras.
Here's this cam http://www.aliexpress.com/item/UKON...or-Security-Camera-1MP-H-264/32430910912.html
Is it any good?
The description has obvious errors but that's what chinese sellers do...

UPD: Oh, this similar camera has PoE for $23! http://www.aliexpress.com/item/HD-7...3518E-OV9712-With-1080P-Lens/32277444581.html
And this is an interesting camera too! $19.46 http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Hot-...-Camera-1-4-cmos-1-0Mp-24pcs/32401467010.html

What would you advice?

BTW should I choose NTSC or PAL, does it make any sense for IP camera?

 

[arikrock]

Hi
i got a similar doom cam [wireless] which i installed and can access via its CMS
however when i try to see it via the internet [internal or external network] i get quicktime running and after few seconds its freeze
i working with internet explorer and i installed the activex and QuickTime

the cam is this one
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/HD-1...egapixel-Wifi-IP-Camera-With/32308951643.html



any idea how to access it via the internet? please HELP

 

[VorlonFrog]

Bump. #743
No WIFI experts willing to take a stab at this?

If it's the usual RT3070 wifi board, there should be a blue led on it, which should be lit when the camera powers up, then blink as activity occurs. Also, be certain the HiRose U.FL connector on the board end of the antenna cable is firmly seated on the wifi board itself. These rarely but sometimes work their way loose.

 

[HoLeeShiet]

I found this PoE camera. Will this work the same as the Top-201?

ONVIF 2.0MP 1080P Sony IMX222 DSP( Hi3516C) 3MP 3.6mm(2.8mm/6mm/8mm) Lens H.264 Indoor Securiy Network P2P POE Mini IP Camera
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/ONVI...3MP-3-6mm-2-8mm-6mm-8mm-Lens/32352305701.html

 

[nzipcamera]

I found this PoE camera. Will this work the same as the Top-201?

ONVIF 2.0MP 1080P Sony IMX222 DSP( Hi3516C) 3MP 3.6mm(2.8mm/6mm/8mm) Lens H.264 Indoor Securiy Network P2P POE Mini IP Camera
http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/cVq... and a 25mm lens for 40usd on special by AE.

 

[yancym]

Helloall, fairly new to board but thought I'd chime in here as this topic was whatmainly got me interested. I also gleaned a lot of useful information fromseveral of the posts that helped me get my updated setup going. Won't bore youwith the details, but I started out many years ago with an HA X10 setup thatincluded their cameras. They generallyworked but quality was poor and as I introduced more wireless devices in myhome the stability started to drop.


Istill use several X10 cameras in my set up, since I'm trying to keep costs low,but mainly as supplemental views, not primary.

I nowhave 2 of these TOP-201 cameras, one labeled LEAGY and the other ELP. Both with the HI3518E chipset. Both purchased from Amazon at $29.98 and $25respectively. I don't have networkcables to the mount locations and didn't want to run any, so decided to go withNetgear PLCs for each. One camera isdirectly connected to power, since wall plug is close, the other is using a POEsplitter pair. Both work extremely wellwith no frame drops or jittering. Itypically get 22-24fps. I also investedin Blue Iris and the BI iPhone viewer.

I didnot have any problems connecting to the cameras, resetting their IP's, orupdating their firmware. After readingthrough the thread I was concerned I would have problems, however, it was verysimple in the end. I used CMS to do myinitial configuration of the cameras, including resetting the IP's to what Iwanted them to be. For the first cameraI purchased, the correct string for the RTSP setup in BI was provided bysomeone else in the Amazon Comments for that camera, so I didn’t have to gohunt for it. For the second camera, Iused the ONVIF utility also mentioned in some of the threads to find mystring. Again, very simple and straightforward.

Picturequality on both cameras is excellent during daytime. I have two drawbacks for now, nighttimequality and the 3.6mm lens is too narrow. The nighttime vision is mainly a problem on my back door camera. The lighting I have at the front door issufficient to get a good view of anyone coming up to the house. I haven't experimented with any other lightingor IR solutions for my back door, but am looking into some options. I've already purchased several differentlenses (3 at about $12 total cost) that I'm going to try and see what betterviews I get. I'm pretty sure I'll comeup with the right one.

So farI've been pretty impressed with these little cams. I like the small size, which makes them veryinconspicuous, and the simple setup. They work great with the Netgear PLC and the POE setup, which opens somepossibilities for more cameras.

Justto complete the picture, I have 2 X10 cameras on Ninja Pan n Tilt mounts that Ican control from my HA system. The X10Cam signal comes through their proprietary wireless signal to a receiverconnected through USB to my BI PC. SinceI can get only one camera at a time, I use a combination of BI Motion andAlerts and HA Detection and Alerts to enable the right camera and point to theprimary point of interest to record. MyTOP-201 cameras are my primary triggers in BI. I also have one Web Cam set up in my office managed/recorded from BI andan old iPhone 4s using ipcamviewer, also providing feed to BI through mywireless network. Lastly I have a dummycamera set up that actually displays some HA status.

I'veincluded a single snapshot of my BI camera view for you to see. Cams are:

FrontDoor Camera - ELP1280*720p 1.0 Megapixel Mini IP Camera,Mini Hidden Network Camera,Onvif

Back Door Camera - LEAGYH.264 1.0mp 1280 x 720p

X10Camera - 2 different Ninja Mount cameras that switch based on HA macro

OfficeCam- Logitech Fusion Web Cam

iPhoneCam- iPhone 4S (Old, no longer used as phone) running IPCamera app

InfoScreen - Dummy camera using Screen Capture device type, Blue backgroundoverlay, several macros pulling in different text files with status from HAsystem.

 

[diawollo]

Hello, camera friends. I see a big thread about 3518e cameras is going on there. Recently in ebay I saw this bad boy http://www.ebay.com/itm/HD-720P-1-0...ecurity-24-IR-LED-Night-Vision-/161509444230?
It says this camera support regular snapshots upload to FTP (no need alarm, I guess). It looks like a typical 3518e camera, but with some different software. Maybe someone has this firmware? I have couple 00006510 cameras. Maybe i can flash my cameras with that firmware and have time based FTP upload of snapshots? O maybe there is allready some mod for 6510 to support regular snapshot upload to FTP. It would be ideal 1snap per second. I dont like alarm triger. Some times it misses important information.
I'm not using any computer with CMS software. Only router with FTP server.

 

[skywise]

Does anyone know the camera's URL for grabbing just a single jpg?
The application I'm wanting to use the TOP201 only needs a single image every few hours (or on demand)

I'm going to reply to my own request in case someone else wants to do the same thing.
I managed to use ffmpeg to grab a single image from the rtsp stream and then crop it for what I need.
---
ffmpeg -i 'rtsp://192.168.0.23:554/user=admin&password=superpas&channel=1&stream=0.sdp?' -ss 00:00:01.500 -f image2 -vframes 1 thumb.jpg >/dev/null 2>&1
mogrify -crop 450x450+380+270 thumb.jpg >/dev/null 2>&1
---
This grabbed what I needed and cropped out what I didn't need.
Then an SCP command got the jpeg to where I needed, and a cron job to run a couple of times a day.

Works perfectly, gets me a really good image of my electric meter.

Sky

 

[AlpineWatch]

Sorry for the newbie questions. I bought one of the OP's cameras from Buyincoin and am trying to set it up tonight.

Out of the box should I be able to ping or connect to it with a web browser pointed to 192.168.1.10?
If so, I think I got a dud. iSpy can't see it, CMS can't see it, no ping, can't HTTP to it.

PC is on the same network (192.168.1.126).

What else should I try?

Dave

 

[AlpineWatch]

Hello, camera friends. I see a big thread about 3518e cameras is going on there. Recently in ebay I saw this bad boy http://www.ebay.com/itm/HD-720P-1-0...ecurity-24-IR-LED-Night-Vision-/161509444230?
It says this camera support regular snapshots upload to FTP (no need alarm, I guess). It looks like a typical 3518e camera, but with some different software.

Thanks for the link. This is exactly what I am looking for in a weather cam. Going to buy one to give it a try.

 

[jstrom]

Does anyone know which chip this one has, or has any experience with them? One of the "real pictures" shows firmware versino V4.02.R11.00002520.100010.0306 on a UI which looks very similar to the UI i got on my TOP-201.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/1280....DYWDkP&ws_ab_test=201407_1,201444_5,201409_5

So, I got two of these, and two similar in steel cases, for about $20 each.

The firmware version reported is V4.02.R12.00006510.10010.1407 (built 2015-03-17 09:44:44), and Onvifer says the model is a HI3518E_50H10L_S39 (cannot find similar info in craptiveX UI though).
Overall they seem to work good, but one problem I have is that I can only have one RTSP client connected. Connecting a second RTSP client will handshake properly (OPTIONS, DESCRIBE, SETUP, PLAY all gets 200OK with identical results on both first and second connection), but after 200OK on PLAY, no data is sent, the camera just idles silent.
Connecting to the low-quality sub-stream instead does work. And the ActiveX UI which has it's own video transport over port 34567 works. But not RTSP.

Connecting multiple clients works fine on my TOP201 cameras (firmware V4.02.R12.00006510.10010.1407, built 2014-10-23 16:54:02, does not report any model but I *think* HI3518C?), so I kind of expected it to work fine here with these ones as well..

Any ideas? Is this expected behaviour, or can it be fixed?

 

[Sabot]

Sorry for the newbie questions. I bought one of the OP's cameras from Buyincoin and am trying to set it up tonight.

Out of the box should I be able to ping or connect to it with a web browser pointed to 192.168.1.10?
If so, I think I got a dud. iSpy can't see it, CMS can't see it, no ping, can't HTTP to it.

PC is on the same network (192.168.1.126).

What else should I try?

Dave

Good morning Dave,
Try Netscan (it's free) to scan your network. The camera might have a different default iP. I have found returns or defective cams seem to have this issue.

Good luck!

 

[JDWX]

Sorry for the newbie questions. I bought one of the OP's cameras from Buyincoin and am trying to set it up tonight.

Out of the box should I be able to ping or connect to it with a web browser pointed to 192.168.1.10?
If so, I think I got a dud. iSpy can't see it, CMS can't see it, no ping, can't HTTP to it.

PC is on the same network (192.168.1.126).

What else should I try?

Dave

Could try ONVIF. I'm on 192.168.0.1 and both CMS and ONVIF saw the cam and allowed me to change the IP.