Review of ESCAM Pearl QF100 IP wireless camera w/lots of pics!!!

[JoeBk]

A new firmware? Where did you see that?

No my camera is connected with wired connection to my router, the WIFI itself does not work, it can hardly find any access point, even next to the router, that is why I got some money back from dx due to this problem. (as sending my camera back for a new one, would cost me more then buying a new one)

So for the password thing, I wouldnt know, my password doesnt have any special characters, only numbers and letters.

And resetting the camera back to default settings for a 5th time, (to fix my wifi problems) opened up so much trouble, the IP adress changed of camera, the gateway, the subnet mask and so on, luckily I have fixed this already by the application delivered on the CD and forcing my laptop in a certain gateway and subnet (which my firewall noted out as a new network).

I only have 1 problem now, and thats the WIFI not seeing access points for some reason, but thats not realy bad, Ill just put a wire down on the floor for the camera

I just got the camera from DX, spent some time to set it up for web browser access outside own network, and the last to be tested was the WiFi... which did not work. It is a bit different than what you are experience: I find all access points around, including my router, I add the passkey, unplug the cable and let it reboot. Unfortunately, the camera is not connecting to the WiFi. When plugged back and going to wifi settings, I see that the camera "remembers" the passkey, and the access point, but after unplug+reboot, is not connecting (not accessible and not showing in the router list). I have also tried changing the WIFi security to open, and same issue (so it is not related to security type).
I have reset it, same issue.

Do I miss something? or it is a fault? could it be a router setting? (even though any other device can connect with no problems).

 

[JoeBk]

I largely purchased this camera based on the review here...What a disappointment, either everyone is receiving a different version or the reviewer is making false claims... The camera does NOT work outside of the local LAN! This makes it useless. DDNS does not work. I'm computer savvy have a few other IP cameras and this model is not accessible outside the LAN even if you open all ports on the router. Support requests unanswered... the app is garbage, this camera does not work with other Android apps either, a wasted $60...

have you managed to make it work? I thought the same as you when I first installed it... it took me a few hours of frustration and different software installation, before realizing how easy it was. Just assign it a static IP (reservation) in your DHCP + add the HTTP port (default = 81) to the port-forwarding in the router. It can be accessed with: //[your_WAN_IP]:81
Of course, after you make it work, if you have dynamic WAN IP, you will also need a DDNS server. But you can just test it without it, with the IP that is currently allocated by your IPS.

PS: The free DDNS server provided with the camera, is not working (Err: Could not connect to DDNS server). ...or I could not make it work, but did not bothered, as both my ASUS router and my Internet provider offers free DDNS server.

 

[JoeBk]

I just got the camera from DX, spent some time to set it up for web browser access outside own network, and the last to be tested was the WiFi... which did not work [...]

Update: I have tried again this morning to connect the WiFi, doing exactly the same steps as last night in WiFi setup, with camera is the same position (30 cm from the router)... and miraculously, now it connects to WiFi in 10-15 sec after power on! I also moved it in another room where I have the weakest WiFi signal (2 concrete walls of 20cm in between), and it works perfectly. :victory:

The only things that I have changed before it worked, is the static IP assigned by the router when in LAN (from 192...20 to 192...120), and the HTTP port from the default 81 (all these should have no connection with WiFi setup). It's strange, but I am very glad it happened! :cyclops:

Later update: thinking about it, it could have been my mistake. after WiFi reboot, I could not access the camera from the browser, and then looked in the router DHCP table. The camera was there, but somehow (because the browser access did not work), I have assumed that the table was not refreshed and I clicked the "Refresh" button. After this, the all the other devices started to appeared except the camera, so I assumed it is not workink. As the cam was a bit slower than other devices, it did not appear, and I was not patient enough to wait... but hit the Refresh button again several times

As from the review pov: the image quality is above other dx cameras (even more expensive), however, the 720p resolution is not native but scaled from around 480p. Again, still very good compared with my brother's DX Cam (Ontop RT8028-HD - more expensive) that I would say it's a max 360p scaled to 720p.

 

[YaLzYiFe]

How to set the admin password

There's a bug in the page that allows you to change the password for the "admin" user: it is supposed to allow all passwords that contain at least 8 letters and numbers, both upper and lowercase, and no other characters. Instead it checks to see if the password contains only lowercase letters and numbers, regardless of how many you entered. This means "z" will be considered a valid password, but "ZZZZZZZZ" will not.

If you want to change the admin password (and you do!) you will need to either use only numbers and lowercase letters or fix the bug in real time. I'll explain how to do the later using Firefox.

Step 1: log in to your camera's webpage at http://ip_address:port.
Step 2: open http://ip_address:port/user.htm in a new tab.
Step 3: Press "Ctrl+Shift+K" to open a browser console. A new window will open.
Step 4: At the bottom of this new window, you will see a prompt ">>". After the prompt copy+paste the following:

function set_users()
{

if($("#user3").val() == ''){
alert(_user_x1);
return;
}
if(($("#user1").val() == '')&&($("#user2").val() != '')){
if($("#user2").val()==$("#user3").val())
{
alert(_user_x2);
return;
}
}
if(($("#user2").val() == '')&&($("#user1").val() != '')){
if($("#user1").val()==$("#user3").val())
{
alert(_user_x2);
return;
}
}
if(($("#user2").val() != '')&&($("#user1").val() != '')){
if(($("#user1").val()==$("#user3").val()) || ($("#user2").val() == $("#user3").val()) || ($("#user1").val()==$("#user2").val()))
{
alert(_user_x2);
return;
}
}


var zmnumreg=/^[0-9a-zA-Z]{8,}$/; 
if($("#pwd3").val()!=""&&!zmnumreg.test($("#pwd3").val())){ 
alert(_PwdFormat);
return;
}


var url;
url='set_users.cgi?next_url=rebootme.htm';
url+='&loginuse='+loginuser+'&loginpas='+encodeURIComponent(loginpass);
url+='&user1='+encodeURIComponent($("#user1").val())+'&pwd1='+encodeURIComponent($("#pwd1").val())+'&pri1=1';//+$("#pri1").val();
url+='&user2='+encodeURIComponent($("#user2").val())+'&pwd2='+encodeURIComponent($("#pwd2").val())+'&pri2=2';//+$("#pri2").val();
url+='&user3='+encodeURIComponent($("#user3").val())+'&pwd3='+encodeURIComponent($("#pwd3").val())+'&pri3=255';//+$("#pri3").val();

location=url;
};"OK"

Step 5: Press ENTER, you should see the text "OK" immediately above the prompt.
Step 5: Close the window and change your password as normal.

Here's how this works: there is an error in http://ip_address:port/user.htm, line 56:

var zmnumreg=/^[0-9a-za-z]*$/;

This is a regular expression used to check the password. The "developer" accidentally wrote "a-z" twice, rather than "A-Za-z". This reg.exp. also does not verify the length is large enough. The correct reg.exp. is:

var zmnumreg=/^[0-9A-Za-z]{8,}$/;

Using the above steps you have replaced the "set_users" function in the page with a new one. This function contains the reg.exp. and does the check. The new version fixes the check, so you can enter a password that contains uppercase characters.

---------- Post added at 04:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:39 PM ----------

I've found there's also a partially implemented video settings page at http://ipaddressort/video.htm
I don't think you can reach it any other way rather than typing the url directly. It seems to be mostly broken, and nothing happens when you submit it, as there is no Javascript to do anything like there is on other pages. I also could not find a cgi interface it might submit data to (to see what happens when you do submit changes). But then I only just tested to see if anything obvious worked (e.g. set_video.cgi). I'm not sure where on the device the cgi part of the webinterface is implemented: I couldn't find a cgi-bin folder, so I cannot enumerate the cgi pages.

 

[DL8698]

You won't Believe how rugged this camera is!

My camera is normally mounted on a mini tripod on a upstairs window ledge. Recently I decided to shorten the tripod legs to minimum length cos I thought the camera was a bit precarious mounted so high up.
Tonight I decided to reposition the camera somewhere else, so I pulled out the power connector. To my horror the camera together with the tripod toppled forward right out of my window!. The whole shebang landed on the floor one storey down, with a loud bang. I was kicking myself for not noticing that by shortening the tripod legs I had reduced the footprint of the tripod and effectively caused the CG of the camera to be outside of the tripod footprint. The only thing holding it back was the power cable, so when I pulled it out.....
BUT! you won't believe this, the camera was still intact and still works. Only damage was the drive for the vertical movement had disengaged, and when I opened the unit to reseat the vertical drive, I found the nylon white plate for horizontal movement had a crack. Fixed the crack with super glue, put everything back together and now it's good as new.
Incredible!

 

[Freakstyler]

Hi Guys, I just purchased one of these from DX. Seems to be working well enough, I have done some digging around.

So my camera detected as APKLINK-HI3518E in TinyCam Pro.
I found the manufacturer of the ARM processor is HiSilicon Technologies Co.,Ltd, and they make the HI3518 chipset, although I couldn't find the info on the E revision.
http://support.hisilicon.com/suppor...tByKeyword?mid=PRODUCT_SUPPORT&keyword=Hi3518

I believe it's also using a 1/4" Omnivision OV9712-1D CMOS sensor.
http://www.ovt.com/products/sensor.php?id=29

People can find an SDK and toolchain by searching Google for:3518 – Hi3518_SDK_V1.0.7.0.tgz
And various other interesting websites that have attempted to hack various versions of the chipset to tinker and improve.
https://acassis.wordpress.com/2014/05/25/boot-log-for-a-cheap-hi3518-chinese-ip-camera/

The ESCAM website currently has a newer version of the ESCAM Eye.apk (version 2.0) compared to the Playstore (version 1.0) that is apparently Lollipop friendly..
http://www.escam.cn/en/download.html
I have downloaded it, and have run it over virustotal and it's clean.
https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/...bd3c7e317c272c0a660e8152/analysis/1422433679/

I haven't had a chance to do much else yet...

[/COLOR]I've found there's also a partially implemented video settings page at http://ipaddressort/video.htm
I don't think you can reach it any other way rather than typing the url directly. It seems to be mostly broken, and nothing happens when you submit it, as there is no Javascript to do anything like there is on other pages. I also could not find a cgi interface it might submit data to (to see what happens when you do submit changes). But then I only just tested to see if anything obvious worked (e.g. set_video.cgi). I'm not sure where on the device the cgi part of the webinterface is implemented: I couldn't find a cgi-bin folder, so I cannot enumerate the cgi pages.

Thanks for the information and useful post, I will also have a look..

 

[untg]

Getting to the streams

Noticed this thread and I've got this camera, so in case anyone is interested in getting to the streams using a raspberry pi with motion or with ispy or a similar program, these two have worked for me:

h t t p://192.168.1.45:81/videostream.cgi?loginuse=admin&loginpas=888888

and

h t t p://192.168.1.45:81/snapshot.cgi?user=admin&pwd=888888&count=0

Obviously adjust your IP, username, password etc...

The raspberry pi although can connect and get some info DOESN'T CURRENLTY WORK FOR ME and has an error:
[1] netcam image height (360) is not modulo 16

Which I believe is related to the height not being a multiple of 16 and I think this issue is fixed in motion version 3.2.12-3 but I can't be sure as I can't get it onto my Pi at the moment.

Apart from that something like ispy works as well.

 

[alexey.vasilyev]

I have pro version and the audio doesn't work

Audio fixed in the latest tinyCam Monitor app update
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alexvas.dvr.pro

 

[NandoHiller]

Hello Vectron,
my 'ESCAM Pearl QF100 IP camera' I bought at coolicool.com. I was dissatisfied because of the low resolution (VGA 640x360). With Direct-X I could adjust HD 1280x720.

@ all
Images will upload to FTP 'Upload Interval (Seconds)' not when motion is detected. Does it work for anyone?
The uploaded images are low resolution (VGA 640x360). Has anyone to get it in higher resolution?

I've tried different firmware.
was installed:
Firmware version 0.50.64.42
Web UI version CH50.0.1.13

tested newer firmware (not better):
Firmware version CH-sys-62.50.64.50
Web UI version CH-app-CH50.0.1.22_VSTARCAM

found here:
old cd.gocam.so/FM/ANKJA/firmware.txt
cd.gocam.so/FM/vstarcam/firmware.txt
cd.gocam.so/FM/system/firmware.txt

Update via browser (Maintenance).

Tests with different firmware leads to boot loops (CH-sys-103.51.64.11.bin, CH-sys-48.51.64.16.bin). Correction was possible with 'ESCAM Finder.exe' (QF100 CD, execute upgrade 11s after click).
Can anyone help me? Do anyone have the right firmware?

best regards,
Nando

 

[d0gi]

There seems to be an updated firmware available at the Escam site. VERY slow download for me at least, but I'll try it as soon as it's done downloading. Funny thing, I bought my first QF100 a few months ago and it has a firmware version starting with 0, now I bought another and the firmware version starts with 112 and the camera looks a bit different (lan port is on the other side, wifi antenna not the same etc) but it should be the same product. The first camera has some text and date/time imprinted on the image whilst the second doesn't.

e: After upgrading firmware is version 112.50.64.53 and everything seems to be working fine, also time and date disappeared from the live video.

 

[wassam]

Weird how they update the product without changing the model or revision number.

Do you like the firmware you're on?
The one I have works ok so I didn't upgrade. If you look at my screenshot the version it tells me available is CH50.0.1.12 but I am already on CH50.0.1.13. The other bugs I notice are with the interface on the IOS settings screen. Some of the options appear blank when trying to change them.

There seems to be an updated firmware available at the Escam site. VERY slow download for me at least, but I'll try it as soon as it's done downloading. Funny thing, I bought my first QF100 a few months ago and it has a firmware version starting with 0, now I bought another and the firmware version starts with 112 and the camera looks a bit different (lan port is on the other side, wifi antenna not the same etc) but it should be the same product. The first camera has some text and date/time imprinted on the image whilst the second doesn't.

e: After upgrading firmware is version 112.50.64.53 and everything seems to be working fine, also time and date disappeared from the live video.

 

[d0gi]

Weird how they update the product without changing the model or revision number.

Do you like the firmware you're on?
The one I have works ok so I didn't upgrade. If you look at my screenshot the version it tells me available is CH50.0.1.12 but I am already on CH50.0.1.13. The other bugs I notice are with the interface on the IOS settings screen. Some of the options appear blank when trying to change them.

It's certainly much better than the "original". I've always had UI version CH50.0.1.13 on both cameras and not going to try the downgrade, it's probably a bug with the updating system. But device firmware 112.50.64.53 I can recommend, no problems at all.

 

[Olphi]

Issues...

Hi all,
I just updated my QF100 with the latest softwares but I a have the same issues than before:
- No possible to send email (but the same settings work perfectly with my other IPCam FOSCAM)
- Some random reset each day or 2 days. In fact it's not a complete reset but only the camera "head" which comes back to the initial position.
Other topic: how do you read SD videos with another software than camera soft ? The player delivered on CD is not working (only sound, black screen)

Thanks a lot for your answers.

 

[kosmarnik]

I got confirmation that outdoor camera they have right now will not integrate with their app. They are working on a new version of outdoor camera (I just assume the same guts as QF100 inside of their current outdoor camera enclosure), and I will update my review as soon as I get a sample!

Can you share what are the outdoor models if you got the chance to review them or have information from other sources?

Going by the youtube reviews, QD500 seems to be compatible with the app, but it would be nice to get a confirmation before buying.
What about QD300? Seems a prefect fit for my purpose, but seems as the software is bad and there are no real reviews.

 

[vectron]

Can you share what are the outdoor models if you got the chance to review them or have information from other sources?

Going by the youtube reviews, QD500 seems to be compatible with the app, but it would be nice to get a confirmation before buying.
What about QD300? Seems a prefect fit for my purpose, but seems as the software is bad and there are no real reviews.

Sorry, they never got back to me regarding outdoor cameras

 

[kosmarnik]

Sorry, they never got back to me regarding outdoor cameras

Oh well.
Could you take a glance at the youtube videos of qd500 and qd300 to check if it's the same app as the qf100?

 

[wreto]

How satisfied are you with the motion detection? Mine seems to either nor react to anything or the slightest movement of ANY size.

I have it aimed out a windows and it either doesn't react to cars approaching or it records all the time, witch I'm guessing is due to leafs moving on one of the trees.

 

[GoJo ^^]

It's been a while i haven't been around.. Still no way to change master password? And to use it as a streaming cam or such?

 

[amiettunen]

With lots of fiddling around I have finally managed to setup things I originally wanted:

Firmware version 0.50.64.42

- Wireless networking
- Remote use for Android / RTSP over TCP 720p resolution
- Toggle alarm & send email

What doesn't work:
- DDNS
- HD video through browser (except IE)
- Sounds / Mic

 

[GoJo ^^]

I don't have any problem to have email alert, however the capture is not 720p, it's very small.. No way to change that?

Also, does anyone here knows what is the difference between Alert Motion/Trigger/Vox (this in in the email alert header)?

PS: Forgot to ask... How is the SD card supposed to be formated/which folder should it contain. Don't wanna delete all now..