The Ingenic T20 video SoC is used by quite a lot of Chinese IP cameras. One notable example is Xiaomi Dafang, which is capable of streaming 1080p video in H.264 format and includes pan/tilt motors. This camera is great for hacking, because it runs Linux and installing custom firmware is quite easy: https://github.com/EliasKotlyar/Xiaomi-Dafang-Hacks. Once custom firmware is installed, you can gain SSH access and execute commands on the camera itself, or you can edit the configuration files directly from within the running system. The default editor shipped with the custom firmware is vi, which to be honest is quite a challenge to be used effectively. I personally prefer the nano editor, so following is a log of the steps that I did in order to cross-compile a binary, that can be executed on Ingenic T20 CPUs.

Introduction

In my previous post about an ESP8266-based Smart Plug, I described how I had to desolder and remove the metal shielding cap of the WiFi module in order to identify its pins and their functions. I hadn’t a clue what that module was, because there were no manufacturer, nor model labels on it.

Recently I bought a very nice and compact Smart Plug (UK variant) from Aliexpress - a Hyleton 313. This was in fact the smallest smart plug device with UK plug I’ve ever seen - it is no bigger than an average USB/phone charger: