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Comment by wltechblog | Hacker News Reader

I'm generally the guy making "easy installers" for Thingino cams. The default way to install on a cam is to use a flash programmer, some devices you can use a uart adapter.. I try to find opportunities in the factory firmware that allow you to flash using just a SD card when possible, and publish walkthrough videos on my channel. Some other devices you can flash with a flash glitch trick at boot, which I have several devices documented for that method as well. I'm a huge proponent of privacy and security being available to everyone and not just the technically minded user, and being able to get a commodity priced camera to faithfully serve a non-technical user is my goal!

More info is at my installers repo https://github.com/wltechblog/thingino-installers or my YT channel (WLTechBlog)

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I wonder if there is business in buying those cameras in bulk, flash them with thingio and resell them as "open" camera. Not sure if it's even legal. I guess flashing the camera probably void the warranty and the margin would be razor thin anyway.

NO, flashing the camera DOES NOT void the warranty. Repairing things does not void warranty. Opening cases does not void warranty.

FUD misinformation and lies from manufacturers.

There are people using Thingino to provide security camera services. Just selling the cam pre-flashed probably isn't a great plan as I go out of my way to make it as easy as possible for people to flash our firmware themselves!

I have the impression that most security cameras on Amazon are subsidized with their subscription services.

Also, because many of these brands are no-name, you get the inverse volume discounts — you can get 1 camera for less per-unit cost compared to buying 2 or more.

Starting a business may make more sense if you're willing to go directly to the manufacturer, and have the manufacturer flash the firmware directly at the factory. Even then, why would people buy from you at $30 when they can buy an encumbered version for $15 and follow a few instructions?

It should be sold at a higher price. You perform a service by “unlocking” the camera.

Our firmware is open source, if you think you can provide an upsell on pre-installed cams, go for it!

Thanks for doing that! And welcome to HN!

Do you know if Wansview Q5 can be installed easily or not? I think it's one of the only cams on the thingino list that's available in the US with super-fast Amazon FBA shipping for under $20 USD and with lots of stock.

The Q5 is on our supported list. I have a user who YOLOd and tried the Cinnado D1 (t23) installer and claimed success. Cinnado and Wasnview (and galayou and a few others!) are owned by the same company so a lot of things are shared.

I just successfully used the Cinnado T23 installer on a Q5 and it worked. It did seem to take two tries, but I could have been being impatient.

Same here. I ordered from the link in the sibling comment. Mine took a few tries to connect to wifi.

> I have a user who YOLOd and tried the Cinnado D1 (t23) installer and claimed success.

Oh, wait, Cinnado D1 is only $14.99! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CBBT5RMP

That's cheaper than Wansview Q5! (Unless the Woot deal returns.)

yep I've got a video on the installation on my channel too!

That’s a great project, thanks for your work. I even have a couple of cameras around the house that look like they should work with this. Do you have any suggestions for an open NVR to pair with cameras running this firmware?

There are easily 50 different NVR applications out there. They differentiate themselves based on processing and analysis versus supported platforms.

Frigate is a reasonably immature project but it is getting better with each release. Blue Iris is adored but it does have a Windows requirement so that might disqualify it for you.

Yes I’m aware. But the whole point of this open firmware afaiu is that is enables use of the existing on-chip AI features for these particular cameras. Which means that something like Frigate - which focuses on running such AI features separately on, e.g., a coral accelerator - might not be a good fit. That’s why I sought the maintainer’s opinion.

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