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OpenIPC is an alternative open firmware for your IP camera
- roger_ 3y agoHave several cameras that may be compatible but the lack of a clear installation guide and a community has always bothered me about this project.
- pingec 3y agoTo me this seems to be for cameras what OpenWrt is for routers? I've found web ui screenshots here: https://openipc.org/web-interface https://openipc.org/web-interface
- ZigFisher 3y agoThat's right, you're right my friend.
- boiler_up800 3y agoSuper cool. Embedded camera software is tough. Number one issue when I worked on it was dropping frames. You have 10 ms or so to get the frame to the next I/O stage - for example for streaming - and a lot has to happen. Double the challenge for stereo cameras.
- tw04 3y agoIt’s interesting, but I’m curious if they’re ever going to target higher end cameras from the likes of dahua. Those cameras are all Linux based and most have serial headers so it should be doable.
- squarefoot 3y agoIt appears the list indicates various SoCs, not the devices employing them. It is possible Dahua cameras already use one or more of these chips, but the only way to tell would be to tear apart one or find someone who did. Before flashing, however, one should triple-check anyway that the SoC is the same, as models could switch from a SoC to another one without any noticeable difference to the user apps. I would also 2nd for Hikvision cameras support as they're cheap and ubiquitous. They already offer downloadable firmware and SDK that can be examined to infer the employed SoC: https://www.hikvision.com/en/support/download/software/ https://www.hikvision.com/en/support/download/software/
- MostlyStable 3y agoAccording to the list [0] in this comment [1], some Dahua cameras are supported [0] https://github.com/OpenIPC/wiki/blob/master/en/guide-supported-devices.md#supported-devices https://github.com/OpenIPC/wiki/blob/master/en/guide-support... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39574547 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39574547
- TrueDuality 3y agoThey have a list of specific chips the firmware supports which is very useful but I couldn't find any concrete camera models this was for or the features the firmware supports. Maybe I missed it but it'd be nice to raise the visibility of that a bit more.
- chpatrick 3y agoI had the same problem. Which camera should I buy if I want to use this?
- bombcar 3y agoThat’s something every project like this should highlight at the top - the robot firmware replacement for vacuums had that after the warning that it was a personal project and you get what he wants and that’s it. Perfection. If I want it, I know what to order. You can even get a bit of affiliate revenue.
- pests 3y ago> the robot firmware replacement for vacuums had that after the warning that it was a personal project and you get what he wants and that’s it. I noticed this too back when that project was posted.
- eichin 3y agohttps://github.com/EliasKotlyar/Xiaomi-Dafang-Hacks https://github.com/EliasKotlyar/Xiaomi-Dafang-Hacks is a particularly good example, the top of the README is a list of camera models and pictures of the camera. (It also mentions "Any other Device with Ingenic T10/T20" at the end of the list, so it might overlap with OpenIPC somewhat?)
- ZigFisher 3y agoYes, you are right
- baby_souffle 3y ago
- believ3 3y agoThe old Nest DropCam cameras are about to go EOL next month in April 2024. It's too bad that hardware isn't supported by this project.
- ZigFisher 3y agoPlease inform the developers of the characteristics of your cameras. Perhaps they simply don't have them.
- saidinesh5 3y agoFun fact: This firmware is also being used to currently repurpose cheap IP Camera hardware + Off the shelf wifi hardware to get digital FPV on racing drones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMFqk3vMupE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMFqk3vMupE ( Feel free to scroll to the parts that interest you ).
- FrankPetrilli 3y agoUnfortunately the latency is nowhere near good enough for racing - best case actual results are ~100ms E2E. The project authors have claimed some absurdly low latency numbers in the past but they're laden with asterisks, like using a wired connection.
- saidinesh5 3y agoThe latency numbers were indeed shady .. like he advertised "cheapest digital fpv" and for that price they were doing 720p60fps with the latency around 80-100 indeed.. but with the more expensive 120fps setup, they were getting closer to interesting latency: https://youtu.be/i_Wz9oAK5z4?t=224 https://youtu.be/i_Wz9oAK5z4?t=224 The other issue is that a lot of their source code isn't open source yet. The majestic etc.. bits. What I am hopeful is that: once there is easy to use hardware for people to tinker around with, the project will actually improve to the point of being a real system like ExpressLRS.
- 05 3y agoDJI/Caddx are using basically LTE radios, I doubt WiFi chipsets will have acceptable perf. Still, for fixed wing this might be acceptable and cheaper than existing systems. For freestyle/racing.. forget it.
- saidinesh5 3y agoTypically speaking, even if you are getting around 10-12Mbps over wifi that means each 720p raw frame takes only ~2-3ms to transmit. Most of the time is spent in encoding and decoding the video frames, waiting for retransmissions etc.. Also they aren't exactly using Wifi. They're using just the chipset to broadcast. Here's the interesting talk from the original author of wifibroadcast . The challenges they fixed to use wifi hardware for transmission: https://media.ccc.de/v/36c3-10630-wifibroadcast https://media.ccc.de/v/36c3-10630-wifibroadcast .
- bee_rider 3y agoDo people use IPC as a shortening for IP Cameras often? I associate it more with inter-process communication.
- formerly_proven 3y agoYes
- daemonologist 3y agoI was thinking instructions per cycle. I suppose with three letters acronyms collisions are going to be pretty frequent.
- bee_rider 3y agoTrue. I could definitely be convinced, even, that instructions per cycle was the somehow “stronger” association. I think the reason I went to inter process communication is that is seems like the sort of thing that would benefit from libraries to standardize. OpenIPC could be a great name for such a library. For instructions per cycle—maybe a benchmarking suite? Haha.
- neilv 3y agoI suspect "OpenIPCam" would've been better branding, if a goal is to reach outside of whatever community(?) calls IP cameras "IPCs".
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Zandikar 3y agoWhen the context of IP Camera's/CCTV/surveillance or video security is establish, yes, it's very common jargon.
- ssl-3 3y agoIn the early days of IP CCTV/surveillance cameras, I used to call them "IP cameras." But that was very a long time ago. Now I just call them "cameras."
- kjkjadksj 3y agoWhat is the cheapest option for a barebones IP camera that can install this? My biggest criteria is cheap as possible but also internal power source and wifi so I don’t have to run any wires. It’s fine if I have to wipe proprietary stuff off it first. Waterproof would be a plus for outdoor cameras too.
- NavinF 3y ago> internal power source Prepare to be disappointed. You'll find that there's a huge gap between real IP cameras (PoE powered) and consumer crap (battery powered)
- bombcar 3y agoYou really really want to just run the Ethernet. It’s not that painful, and you can transition to WiFi if you need to. Battery WiFi cameras are toys and complete shit. PoE is where it is at. (Someone should release power management software for PoE called Edgar Allen)
- jwells89 3y agoPoE cameras (and doorbell) is something I’ve been looking at, but from the looks of it running ethernet in my house, which is a newer build (~2005) and wasn’t designed with things like that in mind isn’t going to be fun. Might as well go this route since I’ll be running regular ethernet between rooms anyway, but seems like it might be enough of a pain to be worth hiring a professional to do it instead of trying to DIY it.
- KennyBlanken 3y agoI thought the last time this project was posted here, people pointed out that at least some of it uses closed-source binary blobs from the manufacturers? Are they even building their own kernels? If not, this doesn't remotely fix the trust issues.
- ZigFisher 3y agoAll kernels, libraries and applications are open source and built from source code. Only the part of the streamer that intersects with the chip manufacturer’s SDK, uses its calls, and is under NDA is closed. Thus, even if theoretically you open that part of the Majestic streamer that is closed, it will not give much, since everything else from the chip manufacturer will be closed and cannot be published openly officially
- walterbell 3y agoYou can also use OSS Rust Neolink with unmodified Reolink PoE/WiFi cameras, to proxy their proprietary streaming protocol to standard RTSP for NVRs. For security, keep the cameras on their own VLAN. "Hacking Reolink cameras for fun and profit", https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33091698 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33091698 https://github.com/thirtythreeforty/neolink https://github.com/thirtythreeforty/neolink https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articles/900000617826-Which-Reolink-Products-Support-CGI-RTSP-ONVIF/ https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articles/900000617826-W...
- therobotking 3y agoI was really hoping to see my Google cameras on the list of supported models. I'm expecting them to be EOL'd any day. I am slowly migrating and replacing my way to an entirely self-hosted smart home setup, but my Google cameras were expensive and it would be fantastic to be able to flash and integrate them with the rest.
- surajrmal 3y agoWhy do you think they will be EOLd? https://support.google.com/product-documentation/answer/10231940 https://support.google.com/product-documentation/answer/1023...? Shows they are guaranteed to be updated for at least 5 years after release, so you have at least 2 more years, but hopefully longer. Only 1 nest product has stopped receiving updates so far and there are several that are 4 years past their guarantee date so precedent would indicate you still have a fairly long support window. This isn't the same as supporting a phone.
- superkuh 3y agoI've been working on getting openipc compiling libusb and rtl-sdr packages so I can flash it to the $15 chinese sbc dvr w/sata port (ICsee Xmeye XM Nvr Board 4K 10Ch Hisilicon chip Hi3536E IP Recorder Embedded Linux) that's openipc compatible and just use those boards for running my rtl-sdr software defined radio dongles instead of $50-100 rpis or odroids. Their build system is a bit weird but it's not bad. Having to flash over serial to install is tedious but well worth it for the price and functionality. That said, the actual FPV/camera stuff with openipc is cool too. I definitely would rather pay $50-80 for a 2k 90fps camera/transceiver/receiver system I can hack on in linux than than $300 for a (much better) dji o3 pro. I'm hoping I can get the HDMI out formatted properly to use with my HTC Vive head mounted display instead of having to fork out for something new I can't buy (-11 diopter) prescription lenses for. There's basically no support for glasses wearers in any FPV goggles except the dji ($$$$) stuff.
- ZigFisher 3y agoThank you
- braincode 3y agoMajestic, the main streamer binary is not opensource and even connects to remote servers it Hetzner among other shenanigans, so it should be called OpenIPC/ClosedMagestic.
- ZigFisher 3y agoWhat prevents you personally from taking part in supporting open streamers? https://github.com/openipc/mini https://github.com/openipc/mini https://github.com/OpenIPC/silicon_research/tree/master/venc https://github.com/OpenIPC/silicon_research/tree/master/venc https://github.com/openipc/smolrtsp https://github.com/openipc/smolrtsp
- Szpadel 3y agoI think this project isn't (at least yet) targeting such use case, but I would love to give second live to my old action camera as ip camera
- doctorpangloss 3y agoWhat is the value proposition of security cameras? In my community it's great if they record a crime, but so what if the crime doesn't register on the police's priorities? A lot of communities are like this. Some people say deterrence but that's farcical. Closed source software like Magestic pretending to be open source OpenIPC is dubious. It has 23andMe vibes to it.
- walterbell 3y ago> what if the crime doesn't register on the police's priorities? A few thousand years of human history offers many potential answers.
- imglorp 3y agoI would like to see what's going on with my house when I'm not home, keep track of deliveries, visitors, who's parked in my driveway, keep an eye on my dog outside, etc. I demand firmware that I control because plenty of the normal enshittified ip cams mine your data and brick the device when they feel like.
- Zambyte 3y ago> I demand firmware that I control Unfortunately you'll have to keep looking. This confusingly named project is proprietary.
- lazyeye 3y agoThere is a business here for somebody to sell ip camera hardware targeting open source firmware.
- yogorenapan 3y agoContains closed source binary blobs. It’s commercial with open source components. https://github.com/OpenIPC/firmware/issues/230#issuecomment-1262852035 https://github.com/OpenIPC/firmware/issues/230#issuecomment-...
- Zambyte 3y agoThanks. The "open-washing" recently is absolutely absurd.
- Zuiii 3y agoI blame facebook and friends. Calling their legal abomination of a LLM "open source" was a deliberate move on their part.
- Zambyte 3y agoAssuming the license they stuck on it actually means anything that is. AFAIK there is no legal decision on whether weights are IP (yet another thing to shovel under copyright? lol)
- j45 3y agoIf you have not bought cameras yet, be sure to consider purchasing PoE (power over ethernet) cameras instead of wifi cameras.