Mini G180 Hidden Camera Black Box WiFi

[ben53252642]

Hey folks,

I recently purchased a "Mini G180 Hidden Camera" to use as a sensor for Yolo object recognition with Domoticz.

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For size comparison the camera on the right is sitting next to a Raspberry Pi 2 on the left. From an angle the Mini G180 looks longer than the Raspberry Pi 2 but it is actually shorter.

I think this is a particularly interesting camera as it doesn't really look like a camera unless it's inspected closely which for my using cameras as sensors project is ideal.

Also the base of the camera is magnetic which makes it extremely easy to attach to a metal surface, the magnet on my camera is easily powerful enough to support the weight of the camera although obviously it varies depending on the metal surface.

The camera does operate onvif on port 81 however I was unable to get it to work via onvif with either Synology Surveillance Station or Shinobi, I suspect the problem is that there appears to be an automatic redirect from port 81 to port 80 if I attempt to access it via a web browser. Synology Surveillance Station's automatic onvif detection identified the camera as "hi3518E".

I was able to get the camera working directly via RTSP, the urls I was able to get from the camera (which I have tested) are below:

Code: Select all

RTSP Video Stream (Use this URL for Synology Surveillance Station)
rtsp://192.168.0.66:554/rtsp_live0

HTTP Video Stream:
http://192.168.0.66/videostream.asf?user=USERNAME&pwd=PASSWORD&resolution=1280*720

JPEG Snapshot (This URL is what you will need to use if you want to integrate the camera directly into Domoticz)
http://192.168.0.66/media/?action=snapshot&user=USERNAME&pwd=PASSWORD

Pan Left
http://192.168.0.66/media/?action=cmd&code=2&value=4&user=USERNAME&pwd=PASSWORD

Pan Right
http://192.168.0.66/media/?action=cmd&code=2&value=3&user=USERNAME&pwd=PASSWORD

Pan Stop
http://192.168.0.66/media/?action=cmd&code=3&value=3&user=USERNAME&pwd=PASSWORD

I did not need to use an app to setup the camera, I was able to connect to it directly via WiFi and configure it via a web interface:

1) Connected via WiFi
2) Camera default IP is: 192.168.10.1
3) Default login is username: admin with no password
4) Clicked the gear icon at the bottom right
5) Then went into Network > Wi-Fi and configured the camera to join my WiFi AP.
6) Upon reboot the Camera automatically got an IP address from my DHCP server
7) Login again and setup a password: gear icon > System > "Change Password"
8) Set a static IP address in the camera settings page if needed: gear icon > Network > "IP Config"
9) I personally decided to disable P2P access: gear icon > Network > "P2P Settings"

Note that despite the advertised resolution of 1080p, the highest I was able to get the camera to achieve was 720p (maximum pixels are 1280 x 768) in the web interface which is still fine for my use case. My camera is running firmware: 1.9.8 E Hardware version: 2.0

A couple of still images taken with the camera (resized for the Domoticz forum):

1) Good lighting at night (The camera image shows a lot of grain)

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2) Taken during the day with a combination of LED and natural sunlight. A small amount of grain is visible in the image but the picture of easily clear enough for object recognition purposes.

IPCamera2.png (323.85 KiB) Viewed 2582 times

Other interesting things:

Results of a "nmap -p- ipaddress" scan (took about 2 hours):
PORT STATE SERVICE
80/tcp open http
81/tcp open hosts2-ns
554/tcp open rtsp
10213/tcp open unknown

Interesting URLs (all tested):
/get_params.cgi
/get_status.cgi
/get_camera_params.cgi
/stream_cfg.asp
/reboot.cgi
/get_misc.cgi
/wifi_scan.cgi
/get_wifi_scan_result.cgi
/set_misc.cgi?led_mode=0 (doesn't appear to control anything?)

How to flip or reverse the camera image which can be very useful if mounting the device upside down (persists across reboots):
Flip image: /camera_control.cgi?param=5&value=2
Image reversal: /camera_control.cgi?param=5&value=1
Normal image: /camera_control.cgi?param=5&value=3

[ben53252642]

Ended up doing a few hardware mods to this cameras as well:

1) Removed the lithium ion battery (camera still works fine via USB without it).

2) Removed both the blue and red LED's

There is a very thin plastic top that can easily be removed revealing 4 screws:

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I pulled out the battery and remove the foam pads under it, then there are another couple of screws securing the mainboard.

20190531_161005.jpg (273.13 KiB) Viewed 2574 times

I pulled out the camera motor and mainboard, under it I removed the wires for the battery then removed the two LED's using pliers (one is on the bottom the other is near the USB power input on the other side).