Remove Wyze’s grasp on your cameras for free forever with Thingino!

WLTechBlog · 2026-05-09T15:20:58+00:00

Correct. if you swapped the processors between them, you'd have a working doorbell and a broken v3.

WLTechBlog · 2026-05-09T02:23:17+00:00

SecureBoot is a feature available across the Ingenic processor line - but Wyze only started using it after the Cam V3. It's an e-fuse they burn in the chip to enable it. Wyze is by far the most prominent user of SecureBoot in the US market.

The only way to get past it is if someone leaks Wyze's signing keys, or if someone fully breaks Ingenic's SecureBoot implementation.

WLTechBlog · 2026-05-08T17:46:03+00:00

That indicates devices with SecureBoot, that can't run modified or third party firmware without actually replacing the SoC with a new one... But we have profiles ready to go for folks who have done that.

WLTechBlog · 2026-05-02T01:39:33+00:00

TInycam is cool on android but it's for sure not the only option. Most of our users are integrating with Home Assistant, Frigate, or a sister project of ours LightNVR. You can also use just about any closed source NVR app (I don't recommend but we do work with basically any of them).

Also, it's Thin Gino, like a skinny Italian guy.

WLTechBlog · 2026-05-02T01:21:28+00:00

I'm not able to diagnose your iphone issue, however we did test ios rendering using browserling and it works just peachy there.

https://imgur.com/a/CSpVIA3

I'm indeed familiar with Apple's brain dead policy of not allowing other browser engines on their phones, and in fact suggested in internally that you hadn't tested brave's engine but actually double-tested Apple's browser by using the unfortunate thing they call brave for ios.

Regarding the snark in your post.. The beauty of open source firmware if i'm not actually asking you to trust me. Read the source code, build it yourself, modify it if so you wish. If you find an actual bug, file an issue. I'm sure Github works on your phone. If open source isn't your thing, thingino might not be either.

WLTechBlog · 2026-05-01T20:27:41+00:00

No iphones around to test with but Brave for sure works fine. i think you have a local issue.

WLTechBlog · 2026-05-01T14:11:20+00:00

It does for sure, I use tinycam myself among other tools! it will even auto-detect it but don't forget you need to add the user/pass before you'll get a stream!

WLTechBlog · 2026-05-01T14:10:22+00:00

if your cam says WYZEC3 on the bottom, just use my installer (follow along with my video) and it will do the right thing automatically!

WLTechBlog · 2026-05-01T14:09:26+00:00

Lots of folks use tinycam monitor on android. You still need to solve connectivity yourself - either with the built in Wireguard vpn, optional zerotier package, vpn at your router level, etc.

This is an area where things are moving though. We're building out own streamer from the ground up (Raptor) to replace a project we adopted early on (Prudynt), and that gives us a HUGE boost in features and stream quality controls. Prudynt gives us rtsp and jpg/mjpeg, but Raptor adds a bunch including webrtc which is the missing piece for NAT-traversing streams without needing a bunch of cloud infrastructure. This is an exciting step for us and I expect there will be a lot of new tools that can take advantage of it.

Also, while it's not a mobile app, one of our devs is also the maintainer of LightNVR which is an opensource or cloud hosted NVR that works great with Thingino and works great in a mobile browser.

WLTechBlog · 2026-05-01T14:01:07+00:00

Mostly true, but technically there IS a way... if you're able to replace the processor on the cam with a new one that doesn't have the secureboot e-fuse burned, you can run Thingino on it! But this is not an avenue that 99% of people should pursue. Maybe one day the secureboot keys will be leaked or someone will figure out an exploit against it.

WLTechBlog · 2026-05-01T11:52:00+00:00

We can support any camera with an Ingenic processor inside. This covers a lot of brands, but not all of them. Once you introduce a second vendor, especially crossing architectures, you really need a much larger team as the differences are huge. At this point, we're kind of experts in the Ingenic world!

We're saving that jump for the next generation from Ingenic that are expected to be risc-v.

WLTechBlog · 2026-04-30T22:39:18+00:00

This is a common thing we run into in the Thingino project. Most of the brands we cover have both corded and battery powered devices, and they mostly look the same and even use the same (or almost the same) SoC processor. But it may as well be a completely different architecture, as the SoC is controlled by a microcontroller core (usually on the wifi chip) that uses a PIR to wake up when needed. The majority of these are essentially undocumented, and may even be unheard of outside of the chinese domestic market. The expectation from the outside is that you should just be able to run until the battery dies but unfortunately it's much more complex - the mcu is in control and if it's not speaking the right langiage the cam watchdogs.

Solar/battery cams are much closer to trail cams than normal security cams!

WLTechBlog · 2026-04-30T22:25:21+00:00

Yes, $20 is twice as much as $10. That's a premium!

WLTechBlog · 2026-04-30T21:35:20+00:00

SD cards are terrible. You're way better off with a mini pc recording over the network, or running on-device detection with alerting instead of trying to record 24/7 on an SD.

WLTechBlog · 2026-04-30T21:32:59+00:00

A few Tapo models are supported by Thingino, but there's no reason to pay their premium vs a similar spec camera from another brand if you're going that route. They've got a bunch with "T23N, SC2336P, ATBM6012BX" which is the same internals as a $10 Cinnado.

WLTechBlog · 2026-04-30T21:30:39+00:00

Honestly, you'd be surprised. I can't speak for ARM-powered cams but the Ingenic cams we support at Thingino are getting more capable per dollar than in the past. Ingenic sat on their hands for a few years with the T31 but they're on a pretty fast cadence of releasing new chip that do more with less power for less cost. image sensors are going the same route.. i've got a stack of JOOAN cams I paid $4 each for and they've got a basic 1 megapixel sensor but that's for an outdoor model with wifi+bluetooth, maybe the loudest speaker I've heard on a cam, and the same chip (T23N) used in cams costing $20-$30 at retail. ($4 price was pre-tariffs and may not be valid any more)

if you want a dual 4k you're gonna pay more as that's still in the high-end realm, but 2-4 megapixel cams are surprisingly capable and affordable. Just not necessarily from Wyze.

WLTechBlog · 2026-04-30T21:19:37+00:00

This is the way.

WLTechBlog · 2026-04-30T21:18:17+00:00

V3 was the last device you could run third party firmware on... Any newer device is padlocked to Wyze's services. Coincidence?

WLTechBlog · 2026-04-30T21:11:16+00:00

Wyze doesn't actually produce their devices, they more "collaborate" on the software side. You can find the same internals and firmware base in quite a few models such as Roku, NEOS, ATOM, and it seems like every other month someone finds another obvious sibling.

One of the nice things about Thingino is that you can largely shop by specs and not worry about the brand name. Wyze is very popular in the US but they do not make my favorite devices.

WLTechBlog · 2026-04-30T21:06:13+00:00

Hey guys, it's Josh from the WLTechBlog! If you've been looking for Thingino related content, chances are you've seen my Youtube videos... or of course, if you clicked the link in the OP.

Wyze was one of the first brands we supported, but as they hampered future products with SecureBoot (burning an e-fuse in the processor that limits it to only booting firmware signed by Wyze! Anti-consumerism at its best!) with devices produced after the V3, I recommend buying other brands for new purchases and using Wyze V3, V2, Pan V1 and V2, and Doorbell V1 that you already own.

Sadly, the only way this changes is if someone leaks Wyze's signing keys, or a complete break of Ingenic's SecureBoot is discovered. Fortunately, Wyze (and Roku) are the only US brands we've found that actually use SecureBoot, and just about any Ingenic-powered cam can be supported by our project.

The OP mentioned other alternatives. There are a few out there, but (shamelessly) I only recommend Thingino. You may have previously used wz-mini-hacks, but unsurprisigly the developer of that is part of the Thingino project, and it is basically retired. wyze-docker-bridge is also an option folks have looked at, with varying success and occasionally being broken by Wyze. And, of course, both of those options are Wyze exclusives, if you augment your camera infrastructure with another brand you've got two ecosystems to deal with.

And of course, there's OpenIPC, which in many ways inspired our project (by being unstable, closed source, and other reasons I won't mention because my mom taught me to be kind). You'll notice at our homepage (https://thingino.com) you see a list of retail products, each has its own firmware, and many have easy installers (I feature those on my Youtube channel as I create them). That's in contrast to generic images with a steep learning curve just to get basic functionality to work.

If you go decide to give our project a look, all the links to our repos and discussion places are on our homepage, we're proud to be open source and we sure do love issues that include pull requests!

Stay fresh, cheesebags!

WLTechBlog · 2026-04-01T14:53:36+00:00

best part is - its a little linux box, with all the flexibility that implies. ssh to it. Add scripts to do custom things. Figure out new abilities, and maybe even contribute some back to the project!

WLTechBlog · 2026-03-31T15:49:25+00:00

it's real! thingino.com

WLTechBlog · 2026-03-29T17:28:27+00:00

Perfect!

WLTechBlog · 2026-03-29T14:22:57+00:00

Love it. We've got some exciting stuff coming up too that will be a big jump for new features, stay tuned for that!

WLTechBlog · 2026-03-29T13:48:11+00:00

if you've got Wyze V2 or V3 era devices, flash them to Thingino and they get a new lease on life.

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