I'm continuing my evaluation of various mini camera's this time with the M709 1080p Mini Camera.
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This is a very impressive camera that delivers a full 1080p resolution with night vision in an extremely small form factor.
It also has a magnetic base on the back and side of the camera and comes with a stick on mounting bracket.
Hardware:
Processor: hi3518 erbcv200
WiFi chip: MediaTek BL-R7601MU3 (MT7601U)
SPI Flash chip: Winbond 25Q64JVS10
Code: Select all
MJPEG Stream (1080p, runs at around 3 frames per second)
http://192.168.0.167:80/media/?action=stream&user=USERNAME&pwd=PASSWORD
HTTP Video Stream which includes audio (720p 30 frames per second)
http://192.168.0.167/videostream.asf?user=USERNAME&pwd=PASSWORD&resolution=64
Tested resolutions:
(320x240): resolution=8
(640x480): resolution=32
(1280x720): resolution=64
JPEG Snapshot 1080p (This URL is what you will need to use if you want to integrate the camera directly into Domoticz)
http://192.168.0.167/media/?action=snapshot&user=USERNAME&pwd=PASSWORD
1) Connected via WiFi
2) Camera default IP is: 192.168.10.1
3) Default login is username: admin with no password
With multiple cameras I discovered a problem when I attempted to set a long password containing special characters, the camera denied all access until I reset the unit, since then I've been using 12 character length alpha numeric passwords with no special characters.
Note that until I got the camera connected to my WiFi AP the connection to the camera was very unstable with frequent timeouts, I just kept retrying until I had it connected to my WiFi AP then it worked fast.
Results of a "nmap -p- ipaddress" scan (took about 1 hour):
PORT STATE SERVICE
80/tcp open http
10213/tcp open unknown
Interesting URLs:
/get_params.cgi
/get_status.cgi
/get_camera_params.cgi
/set_video_prm.cgi
/advanced_cfg.asp
/voice_detection_cfg.asp
/stream_cfg.asp
/get_batchk_cfg.cgi
/get_advol.cgi
/upnp_cfg.asp
/ddns_cfg.asp
/ftp_cfg.asp
/reboot.cgi
/get_misc.cgi
/wifi_scan.cgi
/get_wifi_scan_result.cgi
/get_hwver.cgi
/check_user.cgi?user=USERNAME&pwd=PASSWORD
/set_alias.cgi
/video/snapshot.asp?cam_idx=0&img_size=83886800
/videostream.cgi?resolution=128
Enabled auto IR Led (set to 0 to disable):
/set_misc.cgi?irled_mode=1
Set Power line frequency (0 = 50hz, 1 = 60hz, 2 = disable):
/set_misc.cgi?pwr_freq=2
Set Brightness (values between 0 and 10):
/camera_control.cgi?param=2&value=6
Set Contrast (values between 0 and 10):
/camera_control.cgi?param=3&value=6
Flip image (persists over device reboots):
/camera_control.cgi?param=5&value=1
To disable the OSD "on screen display" which overlays the following on the camera image:
* battery level top right
* camera name bottom left
* time top left
Instructions to disable OSD: Login to web gui, create a backup configuration and export it (download to your PC), edit and change the line "osd_show=1" to "osd_show=0", save the file and restore it to the camera. The camera will reboot and the OSD should be disabled.
Adjust the infrared LED light activation sensitivity (I had to do this on one of my M709 cameras), the IR was activated even when the room lights were turned on. Note I had to set the IR LED status to close and then auto in the /setting.asp > System > Misc Settings before modifications at the below url seemed to take effect. The adjustment needed was very minor, I changed "IR Low Limit" from the default 15 to 13 and set "IR High Limit" to 25 which solved my problem.
/advanced_cfg.asp
Thermal tests:
Unfortunately my infrared thermometer was unable to get a reasonably accurate reading measuring the heat off the top of the Hi3518 chipset, I ended up using a cooking thermometer which gave me these results:
Without included thermal pad and heat shield: 55.4 degrees Celsius
With included thermal pad and heat shield: 40.8 degrees Celsius
Ambient room temperature was 25.5 degrees Celsius
My complaints about this camera:
1) Have not found a way to adjust the asf of mjpeg frame-rate
2) Have not found a way to adjust the asf bitrate, hi3518 chipset is known that it can be set up to 6000kbps, how to change? It appears to be hard-set at around 1000kbps or similar vbr quality setting.
3) Have not found a way to get 1080p resolution video at a reasonable frame-rate (for example even 10fps would be acceptable for me).
4) The power button design should just be a switch on or off that persists across reboots.
5) Wish there was an option to order the camera without a battery.
Other things I like about this camera:
1) The infrared LED's when active do not appear to be visible to a human eye at night which is fantastic if intending to use these cameras as sensors around a home.
Security concerns:
1) Web interface, video and audio are all sent over the network with zero encryption. This means the security of the camera feeds is entirely dependent on the WiFi WPA2 AES and there being no untrusted users on the WiFi network.
2) By default the camera joins a P2P network, this option needs to be disabled in the web interface.
So far I have not been able to get root access to this camera, when I do though I'd like to:
1) Investigate the possibility of enabling https for Web interface, video and audio to secure traffic over the local network either via the built in goahead web server or by adding a small ssl reverse proxy and firewall.
2) Attempt to get a 15 fps 1080p stream.
WORK STILL IN PROGRESS
