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F.A.Q

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d-a-r-k edited this page May 4, 2017 · 11 revisions

Frequently Asked Questions

Table of Contents

Is it possible to have both RTSP stream and continuous recording?

No. At the time being you can have only RTSP or (Mi App + Continuous Recording + Motion Detection). But not both.

After applying xiaofang hacks does the camera still work with Mi Home App?

Only if you disable "stop-cloud" and "rtsp-server" services on the "Manage Services" page. Probably it's a good idea to disable IR-control too. Keep in mind that by disabling RTSP server you're not going to have RTSP stream anymore.

What is the purpose of the "big" USB on the back of the camera?

The "big" USB on the back of the camera provides power for second camera to create the 220 degree panorama. (or any other device that can be powered over USB)

The device reboots automatically after ~30 seconds

This happens when the watchdog-timer module (snx_wdt) isn't unloaded. Some people have reported this on the old firmware. Since there's no way to downgrade, it's difficult to develop a fix. Upgrading the firmware is much easier and should resolve the issue.

Telnet and ssh logins ask for a password

The default password is ismart12

The RTSP server doesn't start

The cloud apps don't cooperate with the RTSP server, you can't use both at the same time. Check the process list on the status page to determine if the cloud apps (iCamera or iSC3S) or RTSP server (snx_rtsp_server) are running.

Things don't appear to work, rtsp server refuses to start or other weird issues

There's a chance you've hit a bug, but most likely your sd-card is corrupt. Either it is defective, or the filesystem is messed up. Try to login using ssh and manually run a script, i.e. /media/mmcblk0p2/data/etc/scripts/20-rtsp-server. Check for mmcblk0p2 related errors using 'tail /var/log/messages' and 'dmesg'. Not succesfully completing the filesystem resize operation is often the cause of a messed up filesystem.

The timezone is incorrect

The timezone for uClibc should be specified in POSIX.1 (Olson) format. You can set it using the status page or by changing /etc/TZ directly. For more info and examples see:

Difference between "stop cloud" script and "disable cloud" checkbox

In most cases, people have already setup the camera using the Mi Home app. Using this app, you can configure wifi settings send them to the device using a QR code. The credentials are stored in some files in /etc/config (.wifitype, .wifipasswd, .wifissid). By default, the Fang Hacks scripts assume this is the case and leave wifi settings untouched. Since the cloud app manages the wifi connection, the checkbox to disable cloud apps on the status page is greyed out and on the network page the mode is set to "Cloud" (DISABLE_CLOUD=0, NETWORK_MODE=0). Note that changing ssid/passphrase in this mode simply modifies the files in /etc/config mentioned before. Before any other services are started (i.e. RTSP) the cloud apps are stopped by the "stop cloud" script.

It takes quite a while for the cloud apps to start and configure the wifi interface and obviously there's a risk of outgoing cloud connections before the apps are stopped. For most people this is undesirable, but if the cloud apps are not started at all, the wifi interface isn't configured either! Therefore it's required to first configure the wifi: "Wireless client" or "Access-point" mode on the network page (NETWORK_MODE=1|2). Note that you will be locked out of the device if the wifi connection fails after a reboot. In case of wireless-client mode, you must first connect to the network (and re-open the network page in case the device changes IP address) before the settings can be applied. Once applied, the "Disable Cloud" checkbox on the status page will become available. But, please make sure your wifi settings work by rebooting a couple of times! If you run into issues you can simply remove the sdcard and reboot: the cloud apps are still enabled and without sdcard the network script is not present so will not override wifi configuration. Once you're happy, you can check the "Disable cloud" checkbox to prevent cloud apps from starting (DISABLE_CLOUD=1).

If for some reason things don't work out for you, there's a simply recovery method: in the bootstrap folder rename fang_hacks_rescue.cfg.tmpl to fang_hacks_rescue.cfg. This file is copied on boot and restores the default settings. So you need to reboot twice: first to copy the file, then a fresh reboot to use the restored settings. Note that in both "Wireless Client" and "Access-point" modes, the config files reside on the sdcard (wpa_supplicant.conf, hostapd.conf, udhcpd.conf in etc folder of data partition) so they can be edited offline. In case you're not able to access ext2 partitions, there're tmpl files for these configs in the bootstrap folder as well: modify as required and remove the tmpl suffix to have them copied when the device boots.

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