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A project log for WiFi Camera (TimelapseMe)

Cheap wireless camera with timelapse capability

domenDomen 03/07/2016 at 15:580 Comments

Michael commented today on this project. He suggested I take a look at a Russian website.

The website (link) mentioned something about using a USB for flashing files, so I did a bit of googling.

I found this guide.
It's written that we first need to change the bootloader then flash the new image.


Everything is nicely written so I won't go into detail.


The MDT structure on the webpage does not match the on on my device. At least the bootloader structure looks ok. I'll do it anyway because I don't feel like waiting for soldering the UART pins.


I picked the USB way because it seemed simpler.


My USB was not at the SDA1 location, but at SDA.

# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
mount: mounting /dev/sda1 on /mnt failed: No such device or address
# mount /dev/sda /mnt
# cd /mnt
# ls
uboot128.img  firmware.img

I later on successfully changed the bootloader.

# mtd_write write  /mnt/uboot128.img Bootloader
Unlocking Bootloader ...
Writing from /mnt/uboot128.img to Bootloader ...  [w]

But when I tried to flash the firmware ...

# mtd_write write /mnt/firmware.img Kernel_RootFS
Could not open mtd device: Kernel_RootFS
Can't open device for writing!

Because of course I don't have the Kernel_RootFS partition as I saw before.

So I looked at the comments and someone had the same problem.

It seems I need to use the the 32MB RAM bootloader, but first I checked how much memory I actually have.

# cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal:        28616 kB
28616 / 1024 = 27.95 MB hmm wierd. Or I may have just converted this the wrong way. Anyway it's closer to 32 than to 16 so fuck it.

At this point, I can't remount the USB drive. And because I don't want to fuck up the bootloader I'll just try the other method.

*5 minutes later*

Ok so now the USB isn't at /dev/sda1 but at sdb

No need to try the other method. :D

# mount /dev/sdb /mnt
# ls /mnt
uboot256.img  firmware.img

Success writing bootloader.

# mtd_write write  /mnt/uboot256.img Bootloader
Unlocking Bootloader ...
Writing from /mnt/uboot256.img to Bootloader ...  [w]

Success writing kernel.

# mtd_write write /mnt/firmware.img Kernel
Unlocking Kernel ...
Writing from /mnt/firmware.img to Kernel ...  [w]

Fuck yeah.

So that's it for today I guess.

I'll write back to sellers on alibaba tomorow.
I already spent 2 hours on this today and I still have school work do do. :s

Thanks again to Michael and to the 3D Makers My embedded blog.

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