Swann DVR-1580 Firmware / Any Information At All.

[ryanthetide]

I've hit both a dead-end information-wise and literally with my DVR now boot looping.. I have a Swann DVR4-1580/DVR4-720P/DVR-6904AU (last one is a guess from my 'detail' section before boot looping my dvr) and I'm in dire need of firmware and guidance from anyone to just get it working again. My end goal which leed me down my long and adventurous road, was to enable RTSP (for my HomeBridge Apple HomeKit Setup & Blue Iris if it worked well) with some sort of custom firmware from another vendor, as I've seen a few threads that have achieved this for other swann dvr's similar but of the 1080p variant (such as this post from these forums). Also I can't find any information on the official swann website anywhere regarding firmware for my dvr.

So here's how my DVR began boot looping, I saw a forum elsewhere that was talking about a chip type (Hi3520) with custom firmware (see here), so I needed to check my chip to see if it matched that of the guides & unfortunately to do so I needed to get past a heatsink.. Using turning pressure I managed to get the stuck down heatsink off without damaging any pins (I believe with a visual inspection at least) to confirm it was indeed that chip type (Hi3520 - DRQCV300 - CP1571632 - 1632-CHINA). After getting the heatsink off it is now boot looping, I see the swann logo & it says "starting" and then it goes brown fading into black, 2 minutes or so later it then repeats. If anyone can help me with, A) The UART process to see where it's freezing as I have no clue what I'm doing, & B) Some custom firmware or info as to how to enable RTSP, I'd appreciate it so much as I'm just at a standstill now.

Helpful Information (Images Are Attached Too):

DVR Model as listed on Swann's Website: DVR4-1580 aka SWDVK-4720P4 (Link)
DVR Model as listed on AlwaysSafe App: DVR4-720P
MAC Address: EC:71:DB:XX:XX:XX (last three octets redacted)
Build No: build 1606160
Hardware Version: H2MB15
Config Ver: v2.0.0.0
Firmware Ver: N/A (Blank)
Detail: DVR-6904AU414001000200000

Picture Index:
1.png - Screenshot of Info Section on AlwaysSafe App before boot looping began.
2.png - Overview of PCB before removal of heatsink.
3.png - Better Overview of PCB before removal of heatsink.
4.png - Chip after removal of heatsink and alcohol wipes.

 

[Flintstone61]

It could be a hardware failure. Firmware may not solve it.

 

[ryanthetide]

It could be a hardware failure. Firmware may not solve it.

That was my instinctive reaction too, I’d like to at least check if the UART pins do or don’t have a U-Boot output. Problem is though I don’t know how to do that, I need guidance on what pins and what voltage and settings to get a TTY output.

 

[Flintstone61]

I’d bag the whole thing and get a better rated device. Thats my 2 cents.

 

[Flintstone61]

Amcrest 4K UltraHD 8 Channel DVR Security Camera System Recorder, 8MP Security DVR for Analog Security Cameras & Amcrest IP Cameras, Remote Smartphone Access, HDD & Cameras NOT Included (AMDV8M8-H5)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HPB7D9...abc_7JG1ZC2J48FCZT2EACSC?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

[alastairstevenson]

After getting the heatsink off it is now boot looping

On the assumption this action is the origin of the problem -

On the picture of the SoC, there appears to be quite a lot of debris between the legs of the device.
This may well just be non-conductive material scrubbed off the alcohol wipes, but it shouldn't be there.
Sometimes heatsink compounds are partially conductive.

Suggestion - clean the leads up with a clean non-metallic fine brush, such as the one you use for your makeup, with the brush being moved parallel to the leads as opposed to across them.

Also - with a magnifying glass, or a zoomed-in macro image, check carefully around the device for any damage to the leads or adjacent components.
And confirm that all connectors are still properly plugged in.

 

[ryanthetide]

On the picture of the SoC, there appears to be quite a lot of debris between the legs of the device.
This may well just be non-conductive material scrubbed off the alcohol wipes, but it shouldn't be there.
Sometimes heatsink compounds are partially conductive.

Your assumption was 100% on the mark, I unfortunately had to be a little more intrusive as wipes would not clean it (a precision artist knife) however I did manage to cleanly separate all the pins & to my glee it is working again.

As to my second request though, I seem to still be caught at a cross-road there. I need some sort of modified firmware to enable RTSP or someone to help me index the cgi-bin portion of the webserver for the streams. Another vendors firmware seems to be the best way to go but I need help finding another 4 Channel DVR with a max of 720P/960H that has their firmware available. However I'm happy to get a bios/rom clip to dump the current firmware if someone can help me with that process.

I did find manage to find something interesting though in the form of backup/restore settings. The backup file saves in the format of a .tgz file, decompressing this I get access to modify the "mnt" directory. In this directory I see two subdirectories "tmp" & "para", tmp contains one file labeled "dvrsysteminfo" and the other directory para contains a whole lot of .cfg files that are all in plain text format. The reason I bring all this up however is one of those config files is labeled "service.cfg" and has a line containing exactly what I need "<rtsp port="554" />". See attached Screenshots.

 

[ryanthetide]

I’d bag the whole thing and get a better rated device. Thats my 2 cents.

I understand that however my goal is to make the best of what I have, I managed to clean up the chip a little and got the device working normally again so I don't see why I should just dump a perfectly working DVR & set of cameras if I can just 'jankily'-hack my way to what I want.

 

[Flintstone61]

Good work.
I couldn't see much on the old system. When i get a chance to to replace defective equipment, It's usually a win in terms better capability/compatibility. They had a 960/720 system in place when I acquired the maintenance job at the Condo site. Eyemax Software on a Pentium CPU with 2Gb ram, and largely useless data when retrieving requested incidents from the Condo assoc. I could not give any valuable info from these cams.
So I bought a Swann 1080P camera to get eyes out back. It was great, compared to the black and white garage cameras. ( see attached)
So I have someone else's budget to play with so it's more of a time and money thing. The swann stopped detecting motion after 2 Winters outdoors, So I put a 2MP PTZ in its place. much better optics, and zooming into specific spots to try and monitor is easy.
Now I have slowly learned how this whole camera video system market has evolved, and I got to try some better components, and now I'm seeing usable video.
If my much hated housemates Nightowl X 8 dvr at home would just die, I'd be happy, because it'd be an opportunity to upgrade into IP. and use BI alongside an NVR. Which not all of the DVR's do. Amcrest (Dahua OEM) will port into Blue Iris. neither one of my Hikvision ( Nightowl) DVR's, will do that in laymans terms. People have tried helping me with both, and I've spent hours, poring over settings, and what not, So no more Hik for me. once I discovered the Amcrest would import into my BI i was able to see me rear parking lot with out going out to the rear parking lot and standing in a frozen garage with a frozen mouse, trying to see who took the CAtalytic Converter off the Honda Odyssey.
I have oven baked a few Nvidia graphics chips back into functioning...laptops were spendy 10 year ago....so saving one was worth it. But as I learn about the hardware in this industry, I swap out stuff to up my Security game.