Reviving bricked Z-Ben WIP6001

First of all, hello to everyone! I didn't really want to splash your new members thread, to save you from my cheesy introductions, and thought it would be wiser to just jump at the issue at hand. I've been googling for days, and I am just at my wits end. So before I toss it in the junk I though to ask you guys for advice.

I recently bought two very cheap Wi-Fi bullet IP cams, weatherproof, outdoor, IR LEDs, antenna- Z-Ben brand, model WIP6001-1, it looks very generic - also, it seems it is a cam that comes in a NVR KIT so data is scarce. Long story short - both seem to be brand new. One worked out of the box, connected 12V 1A power, network cable to router, assigned IP, port 80 open. Generic half Chinese interface, but I could manage.

The second one, well - I immediately hit a snag. It powers on the same, it gets assigned IP (different than the first identical camera though - working camera gets a static IP of 192.168.1.187, while inoperative one gets 192.168.1.63 - so that seemed kind of strange), but it has no open ports. None. I can't ping it at all. It sits there on port scanner, arp -a shows it's IP and Mac, IR LEDs turn on and off with the light sensor, all seems fine - but it doesn't respond.

I tried every possible camera/ONVIF manager I could find, scanned all the ports, connected it directly to the PC, nothing sees the camera. But IP is sitting there happily, just not responding.

I assumed a simple hard reset could do the trick. Yeah. If only it had a reset button, which it doesn't. Not on the pigtail, not on the body, not on the board. It just doesn't exist. So I ripped it apart to see if it has reset pins that could be shorted. Found only two open pins on the board labeled - and +, decided to risk it anyway without knowing what the heck I am doing, shorted for some time, rebooted a few times, no cigar. Guess it's not the reset pin.

Now, I assume bootloader works, as when powered on it immediately gets an IP of 192.168.1.18 with the telnet port 23 open for maybe 30 seconds. It pops a "ipc login:" prompt. I have tried all the combinations of public user/pass combinations, and none would let me in. After 30 seconds, the port and interface closes (I guess it autoboots the camera) and I am stuck with previously mentioned inaccessible IP.

The board seems to have UART pins, at least it's labeled that way. So - what would you suggest? I'm about to go out and buy an USB UART adapter, try to maybe access bootloader with putty, throw some commands around to try to reset the settings. I don't have firmware file for this camera, but perhaps I could somehow back it up off the working camera and flash it to this one? I am a total noob with electronics and programing, so please be gentle :)

Thank you all for all your input and time.
Kind regards.
 
So - what would you suggest?
As a long shot - maybe see if the 'Contact Us' method here would yield any help : 深圳市中本安防电子有限公司

**edit**
Though it looks like you have already tried this ...
  • Commentator: mario
  • Gender: Mr.
  • Commenting time:2019年1月29日
  • Commentator's email address: mar...
  • Location:bosna i hercegovina
  • Reply Status: Unanswered

  • Comment: I have a problem with recorder Z-BEN Wireless Wi-Fi NVR Model No:ZB-WN204 H.264-4CH. It has stopped working. How can I reinstall software in it?
    Best regards,
    mario
 
alastairstevenson, thanks a lot for the suggestion - and even though that guy wasn't me (though interesting coincidence), I did check the official site and contact pages, and even FB, but seeing that all the questions are unanswered, I don't expect any feedback from them, so I am looking for alternatives.
Kind regards.