Vilar IP Camera

[peikko]

i found something :

http://www.saunalahti.fi/~oh6hop/vilar_ipcam/

[wb71]

my Vilar camera works so far with 1.1.0.18 firmware upgraded.

I made an ddns.com account and in the Network Setup
"Successfully updated IP address to DDNS Server"

I am using a router 192.168.1.1.
and the camera is 192.168.1.234

The IE on my computer works good.

but from the Internet it does not work.

What else must be setup corectly ?

Wolfgang

[peikko]

You have to open port 80 to ip 192.168.1.234 from your internet router. (adsl modem?? cable modem??)

Some manual for zyxel routers found here:

http://portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/ZyXEL/Prestige600/BitTorrent.htm

[wb71]

thanks that`s it.

just at the moment i can't enter I forgot the password.

Do you know if resetting the Zyxel will delete my providerdata ?

admin/1234 does not work

[bobby1471]

Typically resetting the login details will wipe everything.
_________________
www.controlbynet.com

[rambouzi]

Who also has problems with the IR LEDs of the VILAR IP camera?

They always go ON when it gets to dark, even though I disabled this option in the cam settings.

This is tricky, because my camera stands behind a window. The reflection of the LEDs can be seen in the glass and distorts the image.

I took the LEDs out of the cam, because I could'nt find any other solution.

Does anyone know if this is fixed in the 1.1.0.18 firmware upgrade? Or does anyone have a different solution?

Help please!

[cdonner]

[Domminic]

There are several different versions of firmware kicking about for this camera.
As somebody earlier said, the Vilar website is quite understandable with the google translator.

http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vilar.cn%2F&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

The latest version of firmware is v1.1.0.18 dated 15th Jan 2008. It seems slightly improved on the v1.1.0.16 and earlier versions however it still doesn't work properly when it comes to detecting when to switch on the IR LEDs. Under most "dark" conditions the camera automatically drops into night mode. It will switch on the LEDs after a few seconds. It then seems to blind itself with the brightness of the night image, which is exacerbated by the light from the IR LEDs so it switches then them off again and reverts to day mode! It then soon realises its actually quite dark so it repeats the cycle!

Try carefully covering the LEDs (with say plasticine) to block out their light and stop it leaking into the camera. If the image is dark enough the unit will probably stay in night mode. I didn't notice much adjustment in the sensitivity setting. If the view is dark enough and the LEDs are lighting up something over 2-3m away that is not very reflective then sometimes the camera will stay in night mode.

As an experiment you can also carefully cover the lens with something lightproof (not just a finger!) and notice that the LEDS will stay on permanently and the blank video will be be a shade of dark grey of night mode and not the deep black of daylight mode. To me this means that dark has to be very dark indeed for the camera to work properly without oscillating between day and night vision every few seconds.

I believe that v1.1.0.18 firmware also still has the annoyance of leaving 00.00.00 on the video in ActiveX viewing mode.

An apparently identical camera is also available under a different brand name. Take a look at this.

http://www.eminent-online.com/producten_stap2.php?dt=2&ps=00904482

The latest Eminent software for their EM4482 <a href="http://www.networkcamerareviews.com" style="color: #333333; text-decoration: none;">IP camera</a> is EM4482-FW11038.zip dated 28th August 2008 (or eight months newer!).

The accompanying text file says......

"28-8-2008 1.1.0.38
- LED Control fixes. You can now turn off led and they will not turn on automatically again. Reboot the camera after changing this setting.
- Server Push page fixed for mobile usage.

14-8-2008 1.1.0.37
- Pan/Tilt control fixed in normal/mirror/flip/rotate modes.
- Camera will now adjust the pan/tilt controls depending on the
selected mode under 'Basic - Image Settings'.

11-03-2008 1.1.0.36
- LED Control fixes. You can now turn off led and they will not turn on automatically again.

25-1-2008 1.1.0.31
- Password-less video added. try view320.html or view640.html to view video w/o password.
Note: Guest password may not be changed for this to work.

09-1-2008 Original release
- Mail issue fixed
- Web style updated
- Typographic errors fixed"

The Eminent documentation is in better english too. I took a chance and flashed up to the 1.1.0.38 software. It flashed up properly. I've also managed to flash back to the latest Vilar firmware ok, just in case you wanted to.
The 1.1.0.38 firmware appears pretty similar although there are a few differences. The time is now correctly displayed on the ActiveX video only when you have entered some on screen text (and hit apply!).

The most useful change I can see is that it is now possible to completely switch off the LEDS and night mode by selecting a Light up threshold of "0 (OFF)" then hitting apply.
Even this doesn't work correctly, I've then had to tick the "Enable Night Vision" box and click "apply" then untick it and apply again to finally get the LEDs to stay off. Its not ideal but its better than the latest Vilar branded firmware. Tragically the settings do not seem to survive a reboot (every day at 2am by default if you notice) or power off. You will have to go in and cycle the "Enable Night Vision LEDs" option pressing Apply in between to get the LEDs off again! There really are some good for nothing, second rate, ding bat programmers in this world! Why didn't they offer the option of permanently enabled night operation? Numskulls!

As the thing is running on Linux does that mean that the source code ought to be freely available from somewhere? I'll bet that thems who know what they are doing could lick this firmware into shape very quickly.

The V38 firmware also supports 7 Dynamic DNS services which is several more than the V18 I seem to remember. Of course your own broadband router may also offer you other DDNS options.

If you fancy some more reading....
http://www.vimicro.com/english/product/advanced_m.htm
The links and info are all messed up however it does point to
http://www.vimicro.com/english/product/pdf/Vilar-1_PB_En_070307.pdf
which I believe is referring to this camera or something very similar.
This is definitely about our camera.
http://www.vimicro.com/english/product/pdf/VS-IPC1002_ProductBriefV1.0.pdf

Dont go near the download section of this site though, there is nothing for us there.

Here is the manufacturers DDNS site. I've not managed how to work out how to register yet though! http://www.vipcam.cn/index.htm

Dominic