Anyone tried the hacked Xiaomi-Dafang camera?

https://hackernoon.com/hacking-a-25-iot ... a8d4dc805c

This seems like a great little camera, once you remove the manufacturer's awful software.

I've got one sitting on my desk, but unfortunately I'm unable to download the custom firmware successfully--or rather, to unzip it properly. While I've opened a ticket on GitHub, I would love to hear from anyone here who has integrated one of these.

It's also entirely possible I don't know how to use GitHub well enough, though I never had any problems with the HomeKit Bridge project there.

It's also entirely possible I don't know how to use GitHub well enough

Not everyone keeps up on the tickets on Git, I try to be mindful of the open tickets but some completely forget about it. The bin file you linked to won't be viewable, but you can just download the entire project zip instead and extract it from there (this is probably how 90% of most people download Git distros anyway).

Sadly, that didn't work either. downloaded the whole thing, but cfw-1.3.bin still won't unzip.

Thanks though!

Sadly, that didn't work either. downloaded the whole thing, but cfw-1.3.bin still won't unzip.

Thanks though!

What makes you think that file should be unzipped? A .bin file is usually a binary image file, which is what you would load into the firmware.

Dang. Looks like that was the clue I needed!

I didn't read far enough in the instructions/failed to notice that it didn't say "de-compress the file" or similar. Trying it now!

Got this working with the custom software, and I have to say it's as full featured as a $600 Axis camera. I just need to figure out how to authenticate when pulling a snapshot URL with Indigo and it will be my favorite camera.

I'd urge caution when connecting cheap (albeit hacked) IoT devices to your network. I'm guessing the custom firmware improves on the security, but I'd personally still be nervous.

Agreed. Once I get it talking to Indigo, I'll block it from the internet at the router.

I'd urge caution when connecting cheap (albeit hacked) IoT devices to your network. I'm guessing the custom firmware improves on the security, but I'd personally still be nervous.

+100,000

Not only are Chinese companies notorious for putting in back doors and having gaping holes in their software but add to that an open source firmware update and you may need to tie it down much further than the Internet because you don't know what it's reading in your LAN and then broadcasting to someplace on the Internet. If it were me I would have a rule in my firewall saying that any IP activity destined for outside my network originating with that camera is immediately blocked. I would actually go a step further and put a rule in place that says the camera can talk to whatever it is I'm using to view it (SecuritySpy, my iPhone, etc) and nothing else.

That’s what I do, I have a whole load of cheap cameras (that the quality of image on is surprisingly good) but I’ve got them on their own separate network connected to my Mac Pro via Ethernet 2 which has no internet connectivity and only SecuritySpy can read them, and occasionally a Windows VM for changing settings as they need old MSIE to configure some elements.


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Anyone know if ‘home assistant’ means HomeKit? Awesome if so i’ll Order one now!!

Home Assistant is NOT HomeKit.

However, I'm making progress on getting this hacked cam working with Indigo. I'm optimistic. And when HomeKit Bridge includes cameras that aren't through Blue Iris, it should work.

Here's some cool news: A home bridge plugin for these cameras WITH the hacked firmware: https://github.com/sahilchaddha/homebridge-dafang

Includes support for motion detection.

I have these cameras working after a fashion with Indigo, and can supply details of how I do it if anyone is interested. But how I integrate them is pretty low tech--I run a script that pulls a static image into Indigo. No motion detection or other features.