Some older Wansview, TP-Link, Wyze and Imou are also supported.
Part of the reason these cams are sold so cheap, and are directly imported into the US by the brand owners, is because they're making all of their money from the subscriptions. It's also the reason why buying a single camera is actually cheaper than buying a pack.
This is really great and an underrated project. I speculate that this idea will trigger other innovations in this field as it brings developers access. As the surveillance state expands its reach, projects like this deserve recognition.
What does the firmware do, practically? Can I use the firmware on my Wyze cameras as a drop-in replacement? Will the cameras still talk to the Wyze app?
I guess my question is: from a practical viewpoint, what do I get with this firmware (other than that it is open and all that, which I totally appreciate).
I just installed this on my Wyse cam 2 after using the defang hacks for years. This works all the same but it is much better. Having working night vision where it isn't just randomly enabling the IR filter is great.
Upgrade from dafang was easy if you follow the guide on the github wiki. Getting RTSP working was strange as it wouldn't work over IP but did over local DNS entry, but that's the only issue I've found so far.
These projects are very cool, especially if you're stuck with a crappy "app only" camera. But lack of even rudimentary AI motion detection and alerting is a bit of a deal breaker.
We have basic motion detection and alerting in Thingino. You can send alerts (with stills or video clips) to email, telegram, and several other targets.
> The Ingenic Zeratul, Atlas, and Tassadar platforms are a series of System-on-Chip (SoC) solutions designed primarily for battery-powered IoT cameras and smart home devices.
I installed this on a kitty cam. It was very easy, discord was a fun experience. Great software, and great group. Do not underestimate how useful it is to have firmware for your specific device - I bought my cam based on thingino support, and I would do exactly the same again. You need to be ready to tinker since at least my cams were fiddly. But with that expectation, enjoy!
This isn't related to Thingino specifically, but I just started trying to find an outdoor camera to watch nightlife, and I have to say, it's been a painful experience. Literally all I want is to get a notification on my phone when an animal moves around in my large yard, and watch a recording of it on my phone soon after. And that, apparently, is very difficult.
The first problem I ran into what "what camera do I buy???" First I looked at trail cams, because those are made for this, right? Except, no, they almost all require a SIM card data plan. There are a few with wifi but they are all "mini hotspots", meaning you have to disconnect from your own wifi to connect to them, and maybe get nofications, and maybe you can stream live video, if they aren't buggy, and if the range reaches. So trail cams are out (and honestly that's fine because there's too many of them to look through as well)
So then I start looking at outdoor "security" cameras that can connect to my wifi, have some kind of app, motion detection, notifications, etc. Now I want to place this at the back of my yard where the animals come in, and there's no power there, so I think battery powered, right?
I spend 2 days doing research to finally buy a Reolink... only to find out 1) everyone says don't get Reolink (honestly it's not that bad), and 2) the motion detection is almost unusable, because all battery cameras only use a PIR sensor (to save battery), and their PIR sensors are not designed like the better trail-cam PIR sensors, so a wide-angle, long-range area won't detect motion (even if you can see the motion in live view). So your best bet for actually detecting motion is a plugged-in IP camera with an RTSP/ONVIF stream and some software to do pixel diffing (and then the "AI" (lol) feature of cropping away false-detection areas and shapes).
So now I'm packaging up the Reolink to return it, and looking at what cameras are cheap and have built-in pixel detection (if possible) or streaming to an NVR (which of course is another expense and thing for me to figure out how to build or buy). But there's still hundreds of different models of all kinds and price points to sift through. And of course there'll be the separate project of "how do I power the thing" (because I'd rather not spend even more on an outdoor-buried-compatible ethernet cable + POE adapter, plus the labor of digging below the frost line for hundreds of feet; but if I don't, i'll need to jury-rig up a spare battery and solar panel, and possibly wifi adapter if the camera doesn't have wifi).
It would be great if there were just a web page that asked me what I was trying to do and told me "buy this." The funny thing is, I've been using ChatGPT throughout this entire process and it failed to inform me of al this at the beginning, so clearly there's more tailored guides needed for people to pick the right thing.
I'm so happy this was posted as I had no idea this exists. I had an old chinese cam, completely out of order with a very loud Chinese voice speaking (no, shouting) when attempting to turn it on. It now works beautifully with Thingio! Thank you!
Combine thingino, friagte and go2rtc, with home assistant, and you can have a sweet setup with recording, and low latency playback. The family loves it.
Cool! I hope this supports my Yi cameras someday. They added advertising to their app so now every time I gotta check my cams I first need to dismiss ads. That's a fabulous way to piss off customers.
21 comments
[ 3.9 ms ] story [ 39.9 ms ] threadOpenIPC: Open IP Camera Firmware — https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44758463 — Aug 2025 (106 comments)
The cheapest camera that you can install this onto, is Cinnado D1, which retails at under $14.99 USD FBA on Amazon Prime in the US:
https://github.com/wltechblog/thingino-installers/tree/main/...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CBBT5RMP — ≤ $14.99 FBA for Cinnado D1, #3 best-seller in "Dome Surveillance Cameras"
Some older Wansview, TP-Link, Wyze and Imou are also supported.
Part of the reason these cams are sold so cheap, and are directly imported into the US by the brand owners, is because they're making all of their money from the subscriptions. It's also the reason why buying a single camera is actually cheaper than buying a pack.
First thing I want to know is "do I have this hardware".
These guys do it right.
I guess my question is: from a practical viewpoint, what do I get with this firmware (other than that it is open and all that, which I totally appreciate).
I haven’t been able to get Frigate to see the garden eufy cam yet but iSpy worked right away with the same credentials.
I’ll choose my next cameras based on the Thingino supported list. Thank you to everyone working on this project!
[1] https://mariushosting.com/how-to-install-frigate-on-your-syn...
[2] https://mariushosting.com/how-to-install-ispy-on-your-synolo...
https://youtu.be/QQV6vjzhylg
This looks like a great project!
Upgrade from dafang was easy if you follow the guide on the github wiki. Getting RTSP working was strange as it wouldn't work over IP but did over local DNS entry, but that's the only issue I've found so far.
Seems like someone at Ingenic is a StarCraft fan!
https://github.com/themactep/thingino-firmware/wiki/Zeratul-...
The first problem I ran into what "what camera do I buy???" First I looked at trail cams, because those are made for this, right? Except, no, they almost all require a SIM card data plan. There are a few with wifi but they are all "mini hotspots", meaning you have to disconnect from your own wifi to connect to them, and maybe get nofications, and maybe you can stream live video, if they aren't buggy, and if the range reaches. So trail cams are out (and honestly that's fine because there's too many of them to look through as well)
So then I start looking at outdoor "security" cameras that can connect to my wifi, have some kind of app, motion detection, notifications, etc. Now I want to place this at the back of my yard where the animals come in, and there's no power there, so I think battery powered, right?
I spend 2 days doing research to finally buy a Reolink... only to find out 1) everyone says don't get Reolink (honestly it's not that bad), and 2) the motion detection is almost unusable, because all battery cameras only use a PIR sensor (to save battery), and their PIR sensors are not designed like the better trail-cam PIR sensors, so a wide-angle, long-range area won't detect motion (even if you can see the motion in live view). So your best bet for actually detecting motion is a plugged-in IP camera with an RTSP/ONVIF stream and some software to do pixel diffing (and then the "AI" (lol) feature of cropping away false-detection areas and shapes).
So now I'm packaging up the Reolink to return it, and looking at what cameras are cheap and have built-in pixel detection (if possible) or streaming to an NVR (which of course is another expense and thing for me to figure out how to build or buy). But there's still hundreds of different models of all kinds and price points to sift through. And of course there'll be the separate project of "how do I power the thing" (because I'd rather not spend even more on an outdoor-buried-compatible ethernet cable + POE adapter, plus the labor of digging below the frost line for hundreds of feet; but if I don't, i'll need to jury-rig up a spare battery and solar panel, and possibly wifi adapter if the camera doesn't have wifi).
It would be great if there were just a web page that asked me what I was trying to do and told me "buy this." The funny thing is, I've been using ChatGPT throughout this entire process and it failed to inform me of al this at the beginning, so clearly there's more tailored guides needed for people to pick the right thing.
I should know, I help make it!
Combine thingino, friagte and go2rtc, with home assistant, and you can have a sweet setup with recording, and low latency playback. The family loves it.