Today, I will show you how to customize firmware for some Yi camera families. This article references the yi-hack-v4 project on github.
Link project: https://github.com/TheCrypt0/yi-hack-v4.git
1. Support cameras and notes:
2. Features:
- RTSP server – which will allow a RTSP stream of the video while keeping the cloud features enabled.
- viewd – a daemon to check the
/tmp/viewbuffer heads/tails location (needed by the RTSP). - MQTT – detect motion directly from your home server!
- WebServer – user-friendly stats and configurations.
- SSH server – Enabled by default.
- Telnet server – Disabled by default.
- FTP server – Enabled by default.
- Web server – Enabled by default.
- Proxychains-ng – Disabled by default. Useful if the camera is region locked.
- A static image snapshot from the web interface.
- The possibility to disable all the cloud features while keeping the RTSP stream.
3. Replace firmware:
- Check that you have a correct Xiaomi Yi camera. (see the section above).
- Get an microSD card, preferably of capacity 16gb or less and format it by selecting File System as FAT32.
- Get the correct firmware files for your camera from this link: https://github.com/TheCrypt0/yi-hack-v4/releases
- Save both files on root path of microSD card.
- Remove power to the camera, insert the microSD card, turn the power back ON.
- The yellow light will come ON and flash for roughly 30 seconds, which means the firmware is being flashed successfully. The camera will boot up.
- The yellow light will come ON again for the final stage of flashing. This will take up to 2 minutes.
- Blue light should come ON indicating that your WiFi connection has been successful.
4. Accessing the Camera:
You can obtain the camera_ip by using the Yi app and navigate to Camera Settings > Network Info, looking in your routers DHCP table or use an app like Fing on iOS/Android to scan your network.
You should now be able to connect to the camera via any the following methods:
- Web: http://camera_ip
- FTP:
camera_ip - SSH:
ssh username@camera_ip - Telnet:
telnet username@camera_ip
The default username and password are: root:(none)
