The problem is this:

audio_dev.state not AU_STATE_RECORDING
wb_audio_start_record
inet_sr.c INET_rinput 321
action===1
options==33
inet_sr.c INET_setroute 75
*args===255.255.255.255
*args===netmask
*args===eth0
[29]
write i2c error
write i2c error
write i2c error
write i2c error
write i2c error
write i2c error
write i2c error
write i2c error
write i2c error
write i2c error
myreboot

Every time the camera is almost at the end of the boot process it try’s to read “something” and after that fails it reboots itself!! The problem is that this is exact the same problem I have with all firmware’s I tried.

I start to think that in the newest revisions of the camera’s there is some sort of security chip build in the camera and if the firmware doesn’t detect this chip or some kind of CRC code it reboots!

Another strange thing I have seen is that when you flash the “romfs.img” part to the camera it changes. I made a dump of the “romfs.img” part and it is different then the image I flashed to it, but is exactly the same as what is on the camera.

I’m going to attach my tool to this post for others to experiment with it. You have to remember that this is “total, your on your own software!!” I’m not responsible for any form of damage the tool might cause to your camera! Ok well with that out of the way, a little bit of explanation of how the tool works.

Step 1

Press the browse button to select a folder to dump the firmware to.

Step 2

Choose the port where you RS232 device is and select “Open Port”

Step 3

After you clicked on the “Open Port” button you have to connect your camera, if all goes well you will see the message “Camera is in ‘Bootloader’ mode”

Step 4

Click on the “Dump Firmware button

Step 5

Choose the firmware images you want to dump and click the “Dump” button

Step 6

The tool will start dumping the selected images and if all goes well you will end up with a working copy of your firmware.

I have to say, because the tool uses RS232 serial communication to dump the firmware it is not very stable, it is very likely that you won’t succeed to dump the firmware straight away, it will probably take a few times to get it right, but I wanted to share the tool for those who might find it useful.

You can download the tool here:

Foscam Clone Recovery Tool (2026)

Cheers,

Ramon

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There not very good, but for that amount of money what can we expect! After installing the cams and playing a bit with them the natural urge to flash the latest firmware to a device came over me.

I looked at the site of China Vasion, but could not find anything of a new firmware. A bit disappointed I search on google and found out that this camera is a Foscam clone. I immediately rushed over to the site of the original foscam camera and downloaded the latest firmware.  Next thing I knew was that I was sitting behind my desk with a bricked device in my hand…

I searched the entire internet hoping to find a way to recover my bricked device. I have bricked many devices before, and usually there is a backdoor in.

I found a few very interesting sites:
http://www.gadgetvictims.com/2009/12/bring-your-fi8908w-paperweight-back-to.html
http://www.computersolutions.cn/blog/2010/05/ip-cam-hacking-%E2%80%93-pt6/
http://irishjesus.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/hacking-the-foscam-fi8908w/

Gadget Victems describes a way to get into the bootloader of the device through a serial connection. I opened up the cam and soldered the wires on the serial connection pads.

I tried about every firmware I found, but none did the trick. I always ended up with my cam in an endless loop of reboots.

I then checked the bootloader commands and saw a option called: Display Memory (D). If you type in for example: D -b 0x7F0E0000 it will display the first 256 bytes from that address like below.

Displaying memory at 0x7F0E0000
[7F0E0000] 2D 72 6F 6D 31 66 73 2D - 00 08 CF 50 C6 EA 45 5B  -rom1fs-...P..E[
[7F0E0010] 72 6F 6D 20 34 61 38 39 - 33 63 63 62 00 00 00 00  rom.4a893ccb....
[7F0E0020] 00 00 00 49 00 00 00 20 - 00 00 00 00 D1 FF FF 97  ...I............
[7F0E0030] 2E 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
[7F0E0040] 00 00 00 60 00 00 00 20 - 00 00 00 00 D1 D1 FF 80  ...`............
[7F0E0050] 2E 2E 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
[7F0E0060] 00 00 00 C9 00 00 00 80 - 00 00 00 00 8C 88 9D 47  ...............G
[7F0E0070] 73 77 61 70 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  swap............
[7F0E0080] 00 00 00 A0 00 00 00 60 - 00 00 00 00 D1 FF FF 00  .......`........
[7F0E0090] 2E 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
[7F0E00A0] 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 - 00 00 00 00 D1 D1 FF E0  ................
[7F0E00B0] 2E 2E 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
[7F0E00C0] 00 00 01 29 00 00 00 E0 - 00 00 00 00 9A 8B 9A F7  ...)............
[7F0E00D0] 65 74 63 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  etc.............
[7F0E00E0] 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 C0 - 00 00 00 00 D1 FF FE 40  ...............@
[7F0E00F0] 2E 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................

I really wanted to get my cameras back so I hacked up this quick and dirty tool today, it dumps all the memory from a given memory range. I have did some tests and did a compare with the output of my tool and the original firmware and it was a match!!

I don’t have a good camera here at the moment so I can’t check if this will solve my problem, but at least I can dump the firmware of any Foscam Clone Camera.

As soon as I tested some more and I have added some extra options to the tool I will make it available for anyone who wants to use it!

Cheers,

Ramon

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A few things to keep in mind:
1. It is alpha software and not for people who do not know how to recover if something goes wrong.
2. You need an internet connection if you would like to use the auto update feature.
3. It currently only supports the Netduino, so not the Plus or Mini, those will be supported in later versions.

If you would like to test please remember you have to have version 4.1.0.3 on your Netduino, so you can test the automatic update feature. I have 4.1.0.4 on the update server.

I hope you like the tool! Please let me know what you think!

You can download the Updater here: One Click Updater for Netduino

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Now the waiting is for my USBizi LQFP144 chips! I hope they will ship together with my FEZ Panda boards on October 1^st

The biggest challenge with building these boards will be soldering the really fine pitch 144 pins chips.

I will post follow ups as soon as I have the parts!

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The FEZ Panda

FEZ Panda is a tiny open-source board running Microsoft .NET Micro Framework. This means, you can write code with much more efficiency using C# programming language under free Microsoft Visual C# express.

FEZ Panda also includes JTAG access for those who wish to use their own firmware instead of NETMF.
The Arduino-form-factor allows you to use about any Arduino shield.
Many libraries are already included like FAT file system, networking, threading, USB Client, UART, SPI, I2C, GPIO, PWM, ADC, DAC and many more.

The FEZ Domino

FEZ (Freakin’ Easy!) is a tiny open-source board running Microsoft .NET Micro Framework. This means, you can write code with much more efficiency using C# programming language under free Microsoft Visual C# express.

Build your next projects in minutes by connecting FEZ Domino to one of the shields or the many available components.
Many libraries are already included like FAT file system, threading, USB Client, USB Host, UART, SPI, I2C, GPIO, PWM, ADC, DAC and many more.

The Domino is based on the USBizi LQFP100 big brother the USBizi LQFP144. USBizi™ 144 pin chipset is identical to the 100 pin version except it contains a USB host.

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Above is the new Arduino Uno

Today I received my Netduino package! A nice blue box.

Inside is the Netduino board.

Ofcourse I couldn’t wait and had already installed the necessary software on my development PC. This consists of:

1 Microsoft Visual C# Express 2010
2 .NET Micro Framework SDK v4.1
3 Netduino SDK v4.1.0 (32-bit) or Netduino SDK v4.1.0 (64-bit)

After that you can fire up isual Studio 2010 and start your first Embedded Microsoft.NET Micro Framework application!

I looked at the getting start guide (pdf) for the Netduino. Inside this document is a small example on how to flash the onboard Netduino LED. I thought that would be a nice start to get started with my new shiny Netduino. The code for flashing a LED is as following:

   1: public static void Main()

   2:         {

   3:             // write your code here

   4:             OutputPort led = new OutputPort(Pins.ONBOARD_LED, false);

   5:             while (true)

   6:             {

   7:                 led.Write(true); // turn on the LED

   8:                 Thread.Sleep(250); // sleep for 250ms

   9:                 led.Write(false); // turn off the LED

  10:                 Thread.Sleep(250); // sleep for 250ms

  11:             }

  12:         }

After typing in this impressive amount of code I pressed the debug button in VS2010 and started praying. After building and deploying the code the LED on the Netduino started blinking!!

My confidence was skyhigh and I was ready for my next challenge lets do something bigger. I had some 32×8 LED Matrices laying around from Sure Electronics. I decided I wanted to try to connect those displays to the netduino using code I had for the arduino. To my surprise a member on the Netduino forums (sweetlilmre) had already translated the C code for driving the Holtek HT1632 chip on the Matrix boards. You can find his post here. I downloaded the code, I connected the wires from the netduino to my Matrix board and….. nothing! I checked my connections, double checked everything seemed to be ok! What could be wrong? My confidence from a few minutes ago was totally gone, I searched and checked but could not find an error. I posted messages to the writer of the driver code on the forum to ask him what I could be doing wrong. After a few posts sweetlilmre suggested I updated my netduino to the latest firmware. I tried and instantly after the upgrade was ready I got something displayed on the matrix!

There is a public beta at the moment for a Netduino Plus board, this board has all the features of the Netduino, but ads a MicroSD and Ethernet to the board! I ordered one immediately!

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