Identify discarded camera

N

nighteye

n3wb
Nov 28, 2022
9
6
Australia
Hi guys. Very new to security cams. Some time ago I found a discarded camera in the dumpster. I finally decided I would like to identify it and get it running.

It is an eyeball (turret) style of camera with no branding that I can see. I even tried opening it up. I cannot find its IP address on the network in Windows too. I assume it is in a different IP range to the ethernet in the PC. The camera powers on over PoE and seems to operate, so that's good.

1) how would you go about quickly identifying the camera?
2) assuming it gets identified, which free security camera software would you recommend for Windows and which for Linux? I can go either way.

Thank you!
 
Mike A. said:
Yes. Most people have a first mistake camera purchase. That was mine.

Maybe they're better now. I won't ever find out.
Click to expand...

They lost me when the chat sales team would not tell me who or at least where they were manufactured and when they could not even answer the bandwidth capability of one of their NVRs.
Extremely happy with hikvision thus far.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sebastiantombs and Mike A.
Can he try running the Dahua IP config program or the Hikvision equivalent? and take a stab at it?
 
  • Like
Reactions: nighteye and sebastiantombs
Hik is called SADP i see.....
 
If you can get a MAC address then you can find out the MFG:

Wireshark · OUI Lookup Tool

If you can get it on a Windows machine, open up a cmd window and run the 'arp -a' command to look for the cam.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mat200 and Flintstone61
Hi guys. I will have to investigate wireshark. I have heard about Wireshark quite a few times but never tried it. I was hoping I could find its mac address on pc with a tool like that too. I have tried the Hikvision SADP app and the Dahua app (I think it was Dahua) already with no success, btw. I don't think this cam is from those two brands unless my ethernet has to be in the same range that the cam is configured to? Yesterday I found a long list of links to all the various brands' apps but I was not keen on downloading them all one-by-one.

All the cameras look the same to me so I didn't post a pic earlier but it was a good suggesttion to do so, so here are some pics. There are small traces of black paint left on the camera because a vandal had spray-painted it black. I had to clean the paint off as best I could.
 

Attachments

  • cam002.jpg
    cam002.jpg
    78.3 KB · Views: 49
  • cam004.jpg
    cam004.jpg
    69.2 KB · Views: 45
  • cam007.jpg
    cam007.jpg
    65.8 KB · Views: 41
  • cam008.jpg
    cam008.jpg
    100.3 KB · Views: 41
  • cam010.jpg
    cam010.jpg
    45.2 KB · Views: 41
  • Like
Reactions: mat200
nighteye said:
Hi guys. I will have to investigate wireshark. I have heard about Wireshark quite a few times but never tried it. I was hoping I could find its mac address on pc with a tool like that too. I have tried the Hikvision SADP app and the Dahua app (I think it was Dahua) already with no success, btw. I don't think this cam is from those two brands unless my ethernet has to be in the same range that the cam is configured to? Yesterday I found a long list of links to all the various brands' apps but I was not keen on downloading them all one-by-one.

All the cameras look the same to me so I didn't post a pic earlier but it was a good suggesttion to do so, so here are some pics. There are small traces of black paint left on the camera because a vandal had spray-painted it black. I had to clean the paint off as best I could.
Click to expand...

Looks like a Dahua OEM eyeball ..

Hikvision often has a square IR Led ..
 
  • Like
Reactions: dabflyboy, CCTVCam, Mark_M and 2 others
mat200 said:
Looks like a Dahua OEM eyeball ..

Hikvision often has a square IR Led ..
Click to expand...
It might be Dahua. Yesterday I tried 2 pieces of software from 2 manufacturers and I am not 100% sure the second one I tried was from Dahua. Thanks for the help. I will look into this again tonight.
 
See if it comes up with this:

Dahua Config Tool

DahuaWiki

dahuawiki.com dahuawiki.com

You can also open it up and look inside to see if there are any boards marked. It's simple to do. Unscrew the screws and the two halves will separate.

There may be a reset button inside. If Dahua, that will set it back to 192.168.1.108 as the default IP.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Looking Out, CCTVCam, mat200 and 3 others
Obviously, if nothing works, there maybe a reason its in the trash heap.
 
Like if I find a 2x4 in a dumpster its still a 2x4...but electronics...<--Captain Obvious sorry...
 
  • Haha
Reactions: sebastiantombs
nighteye said:
The camera powers on over PoE and seems to operate, so that's good.
Click to expand...
As seen by the IR LEDs coming on, or by a status LED on the switch port it's connected to?
And does the link detect LED flash?

It also does look like a Hikvision turret camera.
Hikvision's SADP tool will find their devices on the same wiring as the PC independent of the IP address range each is using.
 
  • Like
Reactions: watchful_ip and nighteye
If you get inside there might be a reset button. You could find the reset procedure for both dahua and hikvision and try them both. Of course it might not have a reset button.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mat200 and nighteye
camera identified! :)
Dahua IPC-HDW1220C

As mentioned earlier, I tried opening her up but found no signs of the manufacturer (plus no reset switch or reset button that I could see).

All is working fine, as far as I can tell. Somehow I managed to reset the password in ConfigTool despite half the time not being certain what the program was telling me to do, or what it was doing after user input. Anyway, it worked so I am a happy camper.

A problem I found was that the cam's web server interface shows Chinese text instead of English. Maybe an easy fix but I could not work it out. Anyway, not that important.

I tried so many things a couple of days ago but the ConfigTool was not downloaded separately. Thanks everyone for the help.

Any recording software recommendations for a machine that will not be connected to the internet? I have been using iSpy and it is working fine but I wonder what free software you are all using and can recommend?
 
  • Like
Reactions: fergenheimer, CCTVCam, mat200 and 2 others
BlueIris (BI) is not free, but not that expensive either ($55 currently through this forum - which usually has lower than retail prices). It might be over kill for recording one camera, but it is really the gold standard when it comes to computer based NVR systems.

BI has a great "trial" mode. Everything works under the trial, you will just have a "trial" watermark on your recordings. Obviously that isn't what you want long term, but it is a great way to try out the software before purchasing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: nighteye and TonyR
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom