Genuinely 6 hours later, and I'm ready to ask for help. about merkury720

[guino]

@Jellsberry147 you got the hack file and I assume you got a home directory with ppsapp inside ? If you have a ppsapp file with no matching md5 patch, please post a zip of the ppsapp file here on github and I'll take a look at it. Most 4.x firmware does not need to be patched to enable onvif/rtsp. Please note the tuya_config.json file is in the firmware (not on the SD card) so you do need telnet to change it.

Most of the time when telnet doesn't work it's because the busybox file was not downloaded correctly -- it should be over 1Mb in size and you can download it from this link: https://github.com/guino/Merkury720/raw/main/mmc/busybox

In rare cases there may be an issue with the SD card (corrupt/faulty) where it doesn't read the files correctly during boot and could prevent telnet from starting.

Please check the above and if that doesn't work, feel free to post a zip of your SD card (without the SDT folder) so I can review it.

[Jellsberry147]

@Jellsberry147 you got the hack file and I assume you got a home directory with ppsapp inside ? If you have a ppsapp file with no matching md5 patch, please post a zip of the ppsapp file here on github and I'll take a look at it. Most 4.x firmware does not need to be patched to enable onvif/rtsp. Please note the tuya_config.json file is in the firmware (not on the SD card) so you do need telnet to change it.

Most of the time when telnet doesn't work it's because the busybox file was not downloaded correctly -- it should be over 1Mb in size and you can download it from this link: https://github.com/guino/Merkury720/raw/main/mmc/busybox

In rare cases there may be an issue with the SD card (corrupt/faulty) where it doesn't read the files correctly during boot and could prevent telnet from starting.

Please check the above and if that doesn't work, feel free to post a zip of your SD card (without the SDT folder) so I can review it.

Your assumption is correct. All of those components are in the right place, as far as I can tell.

I matched up my BusyBox file with what was shown in the guide and my byte count matched up perfectly, so I don't know if that's still a possible culprit.

I'm away from my work station right now, but I'll post the relevant files as soon as I get back there.

You really are epic for keeping this project alive after such a long time, not to mention my message went less than 24 hours before you responded. These really are some cool little cameras. It's cool to see that so many other people realized it too. :)

[Jellsberry147]

Here's the full folder, ppsapp included:
--deleted--

I did a ctrl+f through the ppsapp file and found several mention of the md5, but no explicit md5 string. I'm gonna keep monkeying around with the telnet in the meantime. Thank you for being willing to take a look at this. :)

[guino]

@Jellsberry147 the process worked correctly for your device (good) but you missed the fact that you needed all the files from the Merkury720 project PLUS the files from the Merkury1080P copied over them.

So what you should need right now is:
1-Download all the files from here into the root of the SD card: https://github.com/guino/Merkury720/tree/main/mmc
2-Download all the files from here into the root of the SD card (overwriting any existing files): https://github.com/guino/Merkury1080P/tree/main/mmc
3-Download busybox again (just in case you overwrite it on step 1 above): https://github.com/guino/Merkury720/raw/main/mmc/busybox
4-Configure telnet following step 9 from here: https://github.com/guino/Merkury720#rooting-and-customizng-the-device

With the above you should be able to use telnet and modify tuya_config.json as described here: guino/Merkury1080P#9 (comment)

There's also a patch to enable RTSP that I made for that version but I did not get confirmation of it working: guino/Merkury1080P#39 (comment) -- you should either try the patch OR the tuya_config.json change but NOT both at once.

Finally there's an offline patch available for it: guino/Merkury1080P#39 (comment) but that's more of an advanced feature.

[Jellsberry147]

Telnet seems to be my major bottleneck here. I've got the files configured, added my password hash as described in step 9, and no matter what I try I can't connect. I've never used telnet before, so I'm not sure what to expect or how to do it - and I'm having trouble finding any guides that go beyond "make firewall exceptions" or to just disable the firewall altogether while working (both of which I've tried).

I've enabled telnet in the windows settings, set an exception to allow traffic through port 23,, then I open command prompt, type
telnet xx.x.x.xxx
and get
Could not open connection to the host, on port xx: Connect failed

I found the ip address of my device through my router config, then it tries to connect on the default port of 23 (and I've tried several other numbers just in case), and I get nothing. Ping tests work just fine, but I can't connect.

Oh, and I tried just using the patch you mentioned, but I wasn't able to get connectivity via the 8554 address you mentioned.

My lack of experience is making this a lot harder than it needs to be, and I really appreciate your helpfulness so far.

[guino]

@Jellsberry147 I'm sorry I haven't had much time for this project in months. I probably won't have much time in the next month either.

Based on the files you posted last time I asked you to prepare the SD card with the steps I posted here: #32 (comment) -- can you provide an updated zip of your SD card (without SDT folder) so I can review if there was an issue with the steps I provided ?

Getting telnet to work is crucial. Some people have issues with specific brand SD cards and/or damaged/corrupted SD cards, so it it's always worth trying another one when you're having issues.\