Manufacturers could do it themselves, but the license prohibits commercial use.
Source: https://openipc.org/
> OpenIPC Firmware uses Buildroot to build its Linux distro, and utilizes either Majestic, Mini or Venc streamer.
Which makes it sound like Majestic isn't required? Or is it the only good option, or something?
They come with a web interface for setup/control that uses JS (easy to reverse engineer [@]) to interact with the device's API (not as easy to figure out).
-- also stripped the wifi, mic, and speakers, and put the chip+camera in a new casing (waterproof outdoor outlet cover) --
I then bought a few more from various sources (different colors / casings) and, even though they all had slightly different web interfaces, under the hood, they were all running roughly the same code under the hood (MIPCM). Some didn't come with a web interface, but still responded to the same requests.
[@] If you're/anyone's interested in the camera API wrapper-code, happy to send it via Twitter.
I also wish there were an option for someone to buy cameras with open HW/SW, to get away from the random cloud services they want you to open your network up to with cheap cameras.
I've bought a router from TPlink a while ago that wanted me to install a fucking app, create a TPlink account and send all comms over some cloud servers to configure a router that's sitting right next to me, that all the traffic from the very fucking phone is going through. It did have a classic web interface, but it was completely crippled and basically just allowed changing the Wifi SSID and doing a firmware update. There was nothing in the product description about this, and none of the customer reviews mentioned it, because obviously this shit is now completely normal to the average joe.
And we will eventually ship them form here Crowd Supply at: https://www.crowdsupply.com/maxlab/tokay-lite
You never really know what hardware ships internally at any given time, ie what SoC a camera really is. They change frequently in random Chinese manufacturers with internal SoC hardware update with constant improvement (in their margins at least), if reported by someone at a point in time, buying the same model a 6mo-1yr later you cannot expect the same model number to be the same hardware.
It is rarely stated on a site selling them what SoC they use, or the vendors sites, assuming you can find and/or translate anything usable, or if the vendor is even still around more than a few months under that name. Therefore there is no repeatable source of products you can get reliably across time without simply testing a sample and hacking your own as you go.
I really wish someone would take initiative to sell/resell a line of camera hardware with openipc or other open firmware on them. It's a business opportunity sorely missing with nothing to offer home/business users ip cameras with open sterile and guaranteed secure firmware vs. random pure Chinese jank.