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

[Stef]

My camera:

Gmail works!!!
Wifi works!!!

but I had to reset the camera with serial connection (over usb)...
otherwise there was no connection (LAN & WIFI)

Thanks!
Willi

Lucky you,
I my case the LAN worked fine after the upgrade but the Wifi page was missing from Setting -> System -> NetService in Device Config

 

[Stef]

If anyone needs to have a soft gmail works and wifi !!!

General_MHKWIFI_IPC_HI3518E_50H10L_S38_RT3070_V4.02.R12.Nat.OnvifS.20160604_ALL.bin

I have tried it and indeed it has both Wifi and SMTP gmail support.
It would not update using the IE interface but it worked with CMS.
I have been waiting for this firmware for a long time; I don't know where you got it but many thanks anyway sp9dlm.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Busted someone going through our cars Thursday night using one of the TOP201's...yes, I left doors unlocked. I'm a dork.

 

[cyanno]

you can also let the camera do detection! but i preffer surveilance station

@ebaycam, thx for your answer, but perhaps there is a misunderstanding .I just asked if the top201 is able to save streams on a normal folder in my PC. Fact is, my Wansview are saving streams but the top 201 is just refusing to save. Either it is the hard/software of the top201 or its me. Thats the question

 

[ebaycam]

@ebaycam, thx for your answer, but perhaps there is a misunderstanding .I just asked if the top201 is able to save streams on a normal folder in my PC. Fact is, my Wansview are saving streams but the top 201 is just refusing to save. Either it is the hard/software of the top201 or its me. Thats the question

oh, on that way. you can use blue iris. it works very good. and they support top-201. also they have an app. i do not recommend the built in software/cms.

 

[cyanno]

oh, on that way. you can use blue iris. it works very good. and they support top-201. also they have an app. i do not recommend the built in software/cms.

this is exactly my problem: you are not recommending the build-in software from CMS, why? So is there perhaps somebody who indeed can save a stream in his LAN using the CMS software? Reading earlier post, I understand that transfer of streams via FTP is not possible due to a lack of a SD storage. According the CMS Software snapshots can be stored but even this feature is not working with my camera

 

[ebaycam]

this is exactly my problem: you are not recommending the build-in software from CMS, why? So is there perhaps somebody who indeed can save a stream in his LAN using the CMS software? Reading earlier post, I understand that transfer of streams via FTP is not possible due to a lack of a SD storage. According the CMS Software snapshots can be stored but even this feature is not working with my camera

cheap camera, crap software. The best solution is blue iris, trust me

 

[cyanno]

@ebaycam, I believe this is enough of silly comments. If you are not able to give a straight answer on a straight question, better leave it!
Bye, bye

 

[expo]

@ ebaycam. I'm about to order from the two links you supplied me, but I also found this link for the camera:

http://www.banggood.com/Hi3518E-720P-IR-Night-Vision-F3_6mm-Lens-IP-Camera-Module-Network-CMOS-PCB-Board-1_0-Megapixel-p-1041748.html#detail_reviews

Is it any good?

Also, can we use an old PC owned by the lady for recording instead of the box you showed me earlier?

 

[Tomasz72]

This is a top201 camera, or very similar. Is cheap, because there is no case. If you can build own case - buy this camera. If not, buy another, with metal case.
Recording. IP cameras, should record and save video on ftp, or NAS, directly, without encoding. But this cheap camera ( as I know) can not. so we need buy cheap recorder. This recorder(NVR), can "take" video stream from camera and "store" to local hard drive. without encoding, so small device can handle with 8 cameras! I try use old PC to store videostream from 3 cameras. All tested programs, try to decode video stream and encode again. this process take a lot of CPU power. A lot! (i7). So I have 3 solutions. 1: buy PC with i7 (expensive) 2:buy NVR. (optimal) 3: ask users, which program can "take" videostream and save to HDD _without_ decoding-encoding, type of camera, quantity cameras, type of CPU, and how much cpu power program takes.
Tomasz

 

[expo]

Fantastic! You guys are so helpful. It seems, as I expected, that the earlier advice given by Ebaycam is the best option for video and recording. I'll purchase those two items now.

 

[ebaycam]

@ebaycam, I believe this is enough of silly comments. If you are not able to give a straight answer on a straight question, better leave it!
Bye, bye

Please do normal. I just do my best to answer it. If you want use the standard software, and you are not flexible to try other programs, why you asked then? Very strange.

 

[ebaycam]

@ ebaycam. I'm about to order from the two links you supplied me, but I also found this link for the camera:

http://www.banggood.com/Hi3518E-720P-IR-Night-Vision-F3_6mm-Lens-IP-Camera-Module-Network-CMOS-PCB-Board-1_0-Megapixel-p-1041748.html#detail_reviews

Is it any good?

Also, can we use an old PC owned by the lady for recording instead of the box you showed me earlier?

Yes it can, but without housing it is fragile. And with an old pc you can maybe put on blue iris. It is about $60 i guess. But first check the specs of the pc.

i see you have ordered it, i hope everything works out for you!

 

[cyanno]

Please do normal. I just do my best to answer it. If you want use the standard software, and you are not flexible to try other programs, why you asked then? Very strange.

@ebaycam, just a last comment on your posting. I have no objections to trying other programs, only what is the use if I shut down my laptop and the program is not working anymore? Or is BI still active and saving on my Synology when the PC is turned off?

I have a system that is undependent of my PC. My wansview cameras are automatically pushing their streams to my Synology. Only if I believe something has occurd as e.g. a stolen car (happened before I installed my system) or an incendiarism (happened last month, unfortunatley the camera could not detect the people behind the fence) then I can see in the folders of the synology what happened.

All streams are in format *.asf and a small program is enabling me to join the asf files upto a 30 min stream.
Older streams are automatically deleted (here after 10 days) with a program written under putty and is quite easy to install in the synology station as a cronjob.

Perhaps you understand now my point of view. I had a look on BI, it is a nice program but not what I´m looking for.

ps. of course you can now state that the surveillance station of synology is also working independently from a PC, but why spending an additional 44,5 € only for 1 camera licence? I´m satisfied with the setup of my system and if the top 201 is not working then I´ll buy another one who is capable to stream to the synology.

 

[sp9dlm]

"If anyone needs to have a soft gmail works and wifi !!![/SIZE][/COLOR]
General_MHKWIFI_IPC_HI3518E_50H10L_S38_RT3070_V4.0 2.R12.Nat.OnvifS.20160604_ALL.bin"

weź napisz po polsku o co Ci chodzi, to spróbuje przetłumaczyć

Cześć
dopiero dzisiaj jestem znowu na forum .
Niestety nie znam angielskiego i posiłkuję się google translator
na tym sofcie działa gmail i wifi ale już chyba wszyscy o tym wiedzą

Ja teraz szukam NVR który obsłuży zarówno te kamery jak i HIKVISION
Może masz jakieś info lub jeśli możesz poprawnie to przetłumaczyć będę wdzięczny

 

[sp9dlm]

[Quote = Stef; 108425] Próbowałem go i rzeczywiście ma zarówno WiFi i wsparcie SMTP gmail.
Nie byłoby aktualizować przy użyciu interfejsu IE, ale współpracuje z CMS.
Czekałem na ten firmware przez długi czas; Nie wiem skąd masz go, ale wiele tak dzięki sp9dlm. [/ Quote]

I'm glad that I could help you

 

[ebaycam]

@ebaycam, just a last comment on your posting. I have no objections to trying other programs, only what is the use if I shut down my laptop and the program is not working anymore? Or is BI still active and saving on my Synology when the PC is turned off?

I have a system that is undependent of my PC. My wansview cameras are automatically pushing their streams to my Synology. Only if I believe something has occurd as e.g. a stolen car (happened before I installed my system) or an incendiarism (happened last month, unfortunatley the camera could not detect the people behind the fence) then I can see in the folders of the synology what happened.

All streams are in format *.asf and a small program is enabling me to join the asf files upto a 30 min stream.
Older streams are automatically deleted (here after 10 days) with a program written under putty and is quite easy to install in the synology station as a cronjob.

Perhaps you understand now my point of view. I had a look on BI, it is a nice program but not what I´m looking for.

ps. of course you can now state that the surveillance station of synology is also working independently from a PC, but why spending an additional 44,5 € only for 1 camera licence? I´m satisfied with the setup of my system and if the top 201 is not working then I´ll buy another one who is capable to stream to the synology.

Indeed, your laptop/pc must always be on 24/7
That`s why i have 3 synology servers. Before (2 years or so?) you had 1 license for the synology. Now it is 2.
i do now understand you, you want use the camera software built in. And you want send the recording of the camera to your synology. I go test it today, if it works it is a nice solution!


UPDATE: Solved with cyanno

 

[Tomasz72]

Cześć
Ja teraz szukam NVR który obsłuży zarówno te kamery jak i HIKVISION
Może masz jakieś info lub jeśli możesz poprawnie to przetłumaczyć będę wdzięczny

używam takiego i daje radę. Czy obsłuży inne niż top201 - niemam pewności ale raczej tak. Sircama 009 obsługuje, nawet z dzwiękiem.
I have this one, and works fine. Im not sure is this NVR will work with other cameras, but porobably yes. It works with sircam 009 with sound.
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/8-Channel-Super-Mini-NVR-CCTV-IP-Camera-Network-Video-Recorder-Surveillance-8Ch-NVR-1080P-960P/32676644768.html?spm=2114.30010308.3.20.SbTgzJ&ws_ab_test=searchweb201556_7,searchweb201602_3_10037_10017_405_507_10033_10032_9033,searchweb201603_2&btsid=e19a6b05-395f-4939-b4a4-3c5cf8ab3ae4

 

[IpCamManCf]

Hello everyone,

I purchased the 2MP1080P(AS-PIRCMAR-POE) model from AliExpress in Oct. 2015 and internally it is probably the same or very similar (variant) to the TOP-201...

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Video-Audio-1080P-Hidden-Pinhole-Poe-Ip-Camera-Poe-940nm-850nm-Leds-Infrared-Ip-Cam-IR/32424313795.html?spm=2114.10010108.1000013.3.iDwKQn&scm=1007.13339.33317.0&pvid=f56954e1-c040-4f53-b177-252f63a37632&tpp=1

Although it does work and is generally a low cost camera so expectations can't be too high, in my opinion the IR-cut, IR / low light performance, web based interface, CMS s/w, etc. have much room for improvement so Ihave not purchased any more yet. If newer revisions (or firmware) arerevamped with better web interfaces and improved performance levels anywhere close to or on par with brands such as Dahua or Hikvision I may consider purchasing more.

I paid $70.49 with included e-packet USPS shipping and this is just a little less than what I paid for some of my 3 MP (IPC-HDW4300C) or 4MP (IPC-HDW4421C) Dahua brand cameras that I have been happy with. I mainly purchased it due to being cased in a PIR style housing with the intent of making it more hidden / discreet, but have barely used it much due to not being satisfied with its performance in comparison to the slightly more expensive Turret style Dahua and other cameras presently / past owned.

The AlieExpress listing shows the camera brand of Anseer with email and Skype support listed and at least one document listed anseer.net as the supportsite, but the site doesn't appear to be currently active. I haven't tried email or Skype support yet, but did send a message to the vendor I boughtit from asking if newer firmware was available and they replied with general use / configuration directions along with a drop box link which appeared to have the same software (possibly newer versions) that came with the camera on a mini-cd, but didn't notice any updated firmware in the packaged file...

 

[ebaycam]

Hello everyone,

I purchased the 2MP1080P(AS-PIRCMAR-POE) model from AliExpress in Oct. 2015 and internally it is probably the same or very similar (variant) to the TOP-201...

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Video-Audio-1080P-Hidden-Pinhole-Poe-Ip-Camera-Poe-940nm-850nm-Leds-Infrared-Ip-Cam-IR/32424313795.html?spm=2114.10010108.1000013.3.iDwKQn&scm=1007.13339.33317.0&pvid=f56954e1-c040-4f53-b177-252f63a37632&tpp=1

Although it does work and is generally a low cost camera so expectations can't be too high, in my opinion the IR-cut, IR / low light performance, web based interface, CMS s/w, etc. have much room for improvement so Ihave not purchased any more yet. If newer revisions (or firmware) arerevamped with better web interfaces and improved performance levels anywhere close to or on par with brands such as Dahua or Hikvision I may consider purchasing more.

I paid $70.49 with included e-packet USPS shipping and this is just a little less than what I paid for some of my 3 MP (IPC-HDW4300C) or 4MP (IPC-HDW4421C) Dahua brand cameras that I have been happy with. I mainly purchased it due to being cased in a PIR style housing with the intent of making it more hidden / discreet, but have barely used it much due to not being satisfied with its performance in comparison to the slightly more expensive Turret style Dahua and other cameras presently / past owned.

The AlieExpress listing shows the camera brand of Anseer with email and Skype support listed and at least one document listed anseer.net as the supportsite, but the site doesn't appear to be currently active. I haven't tried email or Skype support yet, but did send a message to the vendor I boughtit from asking if newer firmware was available and they replied with general use / configuration directions along with a drop box link which appeared to have the same software (possibly newer versions) that came with the camera on a mini-cd, but didn't notice any updated firmware in the packaged file...

you looking for firmware for your camera, right?