Finally found a decent & cheap IP camera: Dericam

robmarkcole · April 22, 2019, 4:55am

I have trie several sub 50 dollar IP cameras but they all had issues, mostly they only worked with an ‘app’ and couldn’t be integrated with Home Assistant. Well I finally found a camera that meets all my requirements, and it is only 30 pounds (UK)! It is the Dericam pan-tilt, which I added via ONVIF camera. Very crisp picture, auth, and hardware is quite smart too.
Cheers

camera:
  - platform: onvif
    host: ip
    name: dericam_1
    password: !secret dericam_1_password
  - platform: generic # to use generic instead, or if onvif doesn't work
    name: dericam_1_generic
    still_image_url: http://ip/tmpfs/auto.jpg
    username: ***
    password: !secret dericam_1_password

(PS I am not being paid to endorse, I just want to share this great find)

klogg · April 22, 2019, 8:08am

This looks good, thanks for sharing.

As is often the case, getting power to it will be a small issue for me. Can you tell me how long the power cable is?

Thanks

robmarkcole · April 22, 2019, 6:24pm

@klogg the cable is pretty standard 5V supply, about 1 meter long

AhmadK · April 22, 2019, 10:13pm

Thanks for sharing.
Could you answer some questions:

There is Full HD version for £45, haven’t you considered buying that one?
Do you use your cam as it is i.e without re-flashing it?
How can you pan/tilt/zoom?
Do you use wired or wireless network connection, and pros/cons?
How is night vision like?
It has no PoE option, is that correct?
Does the camera have any interesting features like motion detection and auto-follow?

Btw, from the photo its DC in is 5V, not 12V

nickrout · April 22, 2019, 10:18pm

https://www.home-assistant.io/components/onvif/#service-cameraonvif_ptz

robmarkcole · April 23, 2019, 4:25am

@AhmadK

In answer to your questions:

I didn’t notice the HD version when I purchased, but the resolution of the 720 model is good enough for me
Using stock firmware
You can pan-tilt using the HA services, but get fine control only via the app
I’ve only used wireless mode, no problems to report
Night vision is good!

No POE
There is motion detection and FTP, suggest reading the full feature list.

Also you are correct it is 5V supply

AhmadK · April 23, 2019, 10:30pm

Cheers mate, sounds great.

By the way, have you ever tried or considered this YI Dome 1080p camera, which you can have for less than £30 (and about £20 for 720p version)?
It can be “improved” and used with HA, but I’m not sure how good it is compared to your one.

Count.Zilch · April 23, 2019, 10:47pm

Thanks! Has anyone found a decent 360° fisheye camera? I bought one from AliExpress and it’s totally unusable.

KKlitgaard · May 4, 2019, 9:51pm

So I decided to follow your advice and bought a Dericam P2. Thanks!
It seems like a fine value for money camera. I can make it work with the generic platform but not with Onvif. The same goes for using it with the Android App tinyCam Pro.
What Onvif setting are you using on the camera?

robmarkcole · May 5, 2019, 10:16am

I checked the cam the other day and also have an issue with Onvif, despite it working a couple of weeks previously! Raised an issue with their customer support people but not resolved yet

KKlitgaard · May 5, 2019, 11:08am

That makes sense. I have had it working with both proprietary (H264)-settings and Onvif-settings in tinyCam Pro, but Onvif often fails to connect. It however keeps working with the proprietary settings.

peterber · May 5, 2019, 12:35pm

When I followed the link robmarkcole provided, they suggested to also buy “Dericam Universal 10ft 3 meters Power Extension Cable”. This should probably be long enough for your needs…

KKlitgaard · May 5, 2019, 2:04pm

As a follow up: I can make the camera work with the Onvif-protocol in Blue Iris. I get the following log when setting it up:
Opening 192.168.2.187 port 80…
HTTP Get / request…
OK
ONVIF GetSystemDateAndTime
HTTP 404
Opening 192.168.2.187 port 8080…
ONVIF GetSystemDateAndTime
HTTP 12002
Checking for common cameras…
Foscam FI86xx/98xx compatible?
VendorID=Dericam
ProductID=C6F0SgZ0N0P0L0
Foscam FI86xx/98xx compatible detected!
Done

The reason for 404 after “GetSystemDateAndTime” I guess is, that I have blocked the camera from all outgoing (internet) ports on router level.

And in Blue Iris the settings are these:

robmarkcole · May 6, 2019, 7:52pm

OK so ONVIF on my dericam is working again via HA. I moved onto another network and set the camera up from fresh…

AhmadK · May 8, 2019, 9:41pm

I’ve just received the P1 version (720p) and set it up with HA.
It kind of works, but only as a generic one, ONVIF doesn’t work and so PTZ - very sad…

Here’s my config:

- platform: onvif
  name: Dericam
  host: 192.168.0.58
  password: !secret passwd

- platform: generic
  name: Dericam_generic
  still_image_url: http://192.168.0.58/tmpfs/auto.jpg
  password: !secret passwd

Any hint on how to fix ONVIF?

robmarkcole · May 9, 2019, 4:01am

I am currently having an email exchange with their support team, hopefully we can diagnose the issue

AhmadK · May 20, 2019, 11:25am

Any news there?

As described here, I was able to set this camera up as generic IP camera and it worked for a while… but now it’s stopped, I have this in HA frontend:
18%20(2)

and there is no errors in the log.

The funny thing is I can see the camera’s feed if I paste the URL in my browser and enter password, so it’s not the camera issue.
Tried to clear cache, enable/dasable the component, updated to 0.93.1 to no avail…

How can I get it back even in generic mode?

Coedy · May 20, 2019, 12:05pm

Please keep this thread up to date.
I plan on starting on cameras soon but plan to do so on a budget… These seem perfect! Except the issues…

robmarkcole · May 20, 2019, 12:43pm

@AhmadK I had the same issue, then the camera came on-line in HA again after some time. I have ordered a second camera as it has been stable for a couple of weeks now

AhmadK · May 20, 2019, 12:51pm

Well, mine is still not working and nobody knows how to get it back to normal, that’s the issue.
And there’s still no solution to the ONVIF support.
I tried to control the camera via browser by logging in, but their PT control is a joke, it’s erratic and unpredictable, absolutely useless.