Hacking Logitech v-r0002 TV Cam HD

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Martin Surasky

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Jul 26, 2017, 4:00:41 PM7/26/17
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Hi Skullspacers!

I'm sorry if this is not the right channel to communicate with the group, but I was given this distribution list and I hope some of you can see this and get interested. We are a community of users organized in a Slack channel (you can join if you want to see what this is all about, it is unrestricted - https://join.slack.com/t/logitechskypecamera/shared_invite/MjE1MzA2NTQ5NTM2LTE1MDA2NDU0NDgtMjQxYWNkOTY1NQ) and are willing to pay 35 U$D per person if someone can help us with our problem. I was doing math and I believe IF everybody stays true to the arrangement, whoever finds a solution could get more than 2,000 u$d.

Basically we are trying to find a person that is willing to hack (maybe root the OS, maybe be able to get into it and replace the software) of this Logitech TV Cam HD: https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-960-000921-Skype-Calls-Version/dp/B009Z7KMUM

The problem to solve is this: Microsoft does not support Skype on TV anymore (as you can see in this article: https://www.theverge.com/2016/3/8/11178976/microsoft-skype-for-tv-support) and as a result of that, every customer having this web cam has been left with e-garbage. The device is basically useless. 

The details of why this doesn't work anymore are apparently related with the fact that Microsoft disconnects Skype clients that are not up to date. And since this camera is locked down by Logitech, and the firmware is not update, it is still running one of the old Skype clients that get disconnected automatically.

So, in a nutshell: we need a person willing to look into this device and find a way to update the Skype Client or somehow make it work again.

I have one device and I'm willing to give it to anybody who wants to play with it and try to hack it. Another gentelman in the group (not from Winnipeg) said he should be able to ship 5 more units if that's what it takes to see it solved.

Should you have more questions and want to know more about this, the easiest thing to do is to join the Slack channel and look for me (i'm the admin) for further questions.

Thanks for your time! 

Troy Denton

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Jul 26, 2017, 5:50:39 PM7/26/17
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Sounds like a cool project!  I wouldn't mind poking around one to see what could be done, but alas I am too busy to guarantee any sort of result or time commitment.  Perhaps another member has more cycles to dedicate than I.

Feel free to bring it by on our tuesday meeting -  I could at least look at it for an hour or two

-Troy


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Aemilianus Kehler

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Aug 6, 2017, 3:03:03 PM8/6/17
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Indeed sounds pretty cool. I always found hardware hacks to be difficult. Reverse engineering the hardware alone can be trick without a schematics diagram. Then to figure out the logic of the firmware, and if such a firmware is locked down with DRM code makes life even more difficult. I love Logitech, would def be something could be fun to poke around with.

mark....@gmail.com

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Dec 8, 2017, 4:41:47 AM12/8/17
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I just came across this post while looking to see whether there was any use for the 5 Logitech Skype Cams that I purchased for myself and family members.  I'd love to get these working again as it was a perfect solution for my elderly parents to Skype me overseas.  I was wondering whether this got off the ground?
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ali.hi...@gmail.com

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Jan 17, 2018, 1:38:51 PM1/17/18
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Any luck. Any hack any solution

Mark Campbell

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Jan 21, 2018, 6:16:47 AM1/21/18
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Yeah, progress so far?

On Wed, Jan 17, 2018 at 12:38 PM, <ali.hi...@gmail.com> wrote:
Any luck. Any hack any solution
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wszt...@gmail.com

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Feb 9, 2018, 9:57:03 AM2/9/18
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Up. I'm interested in results too.
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mrd...@gmail.com

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Sep 6, 2018, 3:58:08 AM9/6/18
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eject...@gmail.com

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Jan 13, 2019, 6:06:14 PM1/13/19
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I'm very interesting if it's possible to get any help from Logitech. 

vuce...@gmail.com

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Mar 28, 2019, 11:08:27 AM3/28/19
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You can get it to work again. Basically the devise pings skype.com to see if you are connected to the service. If you block skype through your router it should work again.

kcda...@gmail.com

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Jun 9, 2019, 5:08:44 PM6/9/19
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Hello
Is this stil active? 
The Shared invite isn't active anymore.
I have a CAM to and want to chech if there where some progress :)

/Best Regareds
KC

Edwin Amsler

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Jun 9, 2019, 9:38:45 PM6/9/19
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I’m not sure it ever started to be honest. 
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butle...@gmail.com

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Oct 26, 2019, 10:19:45 PM10/26/19
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Is that still the case? block Skype.com and the tv cam will work. If you block Skype.com how do you make skype calls? also is there a way to upload the last version so it wont block the WIFI anymore? or do I have something wrong?....

al.l...@gmail.com

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Mar 20, 2020, 6:53:49 PM3/20/20
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You know, it's just a USB HD webcam. You can plug it in by itself and use it like any webcam. Mine works fine. Hook up to your machine, log in to any service and choose "unknown USB device" from the camera selection preferences. That's it.

joe.k...@gmail.com

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Mar 27, 2020, 12:19:38 PM3/27/20
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Hi, This unit is not a USB  but a HDMI Unit, so the Logi Tech webcam software does not recognize that it is connected

Al Luckow

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Mar 27, 2020, 1:48:10 PM3/27/20
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I worked on that product at Logitech back in the day. I must have a prototype unit or something. I’ll send out some feelers to see if I can find the guys who put that thing together. Maybe there is a back door.

jeph...@gmail.com

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Apr 1, 2020, 2:28:17 AM4/1/20
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Looks like this project needs a little inside help. :) Thanks!

Edwin Amsler

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Apr 2, 2020, 9:14:52 AM4/2/20
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Insider help would definitely be interesting. I don’t remember if we even had this thing at SkullSpace but you guys are welcome to use our mailing list to figure it out. 

Regards,

Edwin

On Apr 1, 2020, at 1:28 AM, jeph...@gmail.com wrote:


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gary.xi...@gmail.com

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Apr 3, 2020, 8:35:07 PM4/3/20
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Hi,  Luckow, did you find the guys?

Al Luckow

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Apr 3, 2020, 9:08:22 PM4/3/20
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I reached out on Linked in and haven’t got a response yet. Sometimes people don’t check that messaging thing often. I’ll see if I can find one of them on facebook.

Xiao Gary

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Apr 5, 2020, 7:46:53 PM4/5/20
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Cool thank you much!!

Al Luckow <al.l...@gmail.com> 于 2020年4月3日周五 下午8:08写道:

david...@gmail.com

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Apr 9, 2020, 4:55:38 PM4/9/20
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hubiese estado bien que en estos momentos de encierro en casa, logitech y skype hubiesen hecho alguna excepción, para las persona que están en casa.

fsgi...@gmail.com

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Apr 12, 2020, 6:54:36 AM4/12/20
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Waiting for some infos

kber...@nxlkcm.com

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Apr 16, 2020, 2:46:31 PM4/16/20
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I like infos

On Sunday, April 12, 2020 at 6:54:36 AM UTC-4, fsgi...@gmail.com wrote:
Waiting for some infos

ken_g...@hotmail.com

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Apr 21, 2020, 6:39:29 PM4/21/20
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Thank you Al. I bought several of these new and a few months later Microsoft pulled the plug turning them into expensive bricks.
Message has been deleted

avanti.au...@gmail.com

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Jun 3, 2020, 3:26:22 AM6/3/20
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Any luck Al? I have a few of these as bricks I would like to use as well!!!


On Friday, April 3, 2020 at 6:08:22 PM UTC-7, Al Luckow wrote:
I reached out on Linked in and haven’t got a response yet. Sometimes people don’t check that messaging thing often. I’ll see if I can find one of them on facebook.

alekzndr92...@gmail.com

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Jul 12, 2020, 2:49:31 AM7/12/20
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Hi, excuse me, did yo find something more?... I would like to make that Logi cam work again. :( ....  I need it for my work.


El viernes, 3 de abril de 2020, 20:08:22 (UTC-5), Al Luckow escribió:
I reached out on Linked in and haven’t got a response yet. Sometimes people don’t check that messaging thing often. I’ll see if I can find one of them on facebook.

alekzndr92...@gmail.com

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Jul 12, 2020, 2:52:27 AM7/12/20
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Hi guys, did you get any progress?... hope a positive response :(


Al Luckow

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Jul 13, 2020, 12:48:54 PM7/13/20
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I was able to get to my friend John, who still works at Logitech and worked on that project with me. Here is the correspondence:


Alan Luckow 
HI John, I know this is out of the blue, but I thought I'd take a shot. Remember that Logitech HD TV Cam? It was a pretty decent camera, but unfortunately it was tied to an internal system which is no longer supported. I have one of these things still, as do a bunch of other people who have recently contacted me through a forum. People are wondering if there is any way to hack the system to just turn it back into a normal webcam. It seems it has all the components, and should work, but it doesn't seem to. Anyway, I thought I'd take a shot in case you knew anybody at Logi who could give a tip or two. Otherwise this things are just bricks.

John Skeehan 
Hi Al. Those were complete Skype Kit systems embedded. They turned into Bricks when Skype ended SkypeKit and switched all to Microsoft ID.... this was 6-7yrs ago. A ton of $$$ refunds were issued back then......there is no easy path to make them do anything today to my knowledge.
with a lof of effort, someone might be able to root the devices and run something else on the embedded cpu, but it's a pretty old board in there. Obviously, we don't promote rooting our devices.

Kevin Bernard

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Jul 13, 2020, 2:09:43 PM7/13/20
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Would it be possible to ask for a firmware image for the device? That would probably help un efforts to Crack this thing. 

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ake...@gmail.com

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Jul 14, 2020, 1:26:46 AM7/14/20
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There was a ping hack some time ago, on initial start of the device it tries to ping skype kit server i think and wont run if it cant ping.
Having a workaround to this ping did let some users to use the device (this was some time ago).

I am not sure if this still applies, here is a reference point: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/skype-tv-cam.36272/

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Al Luckow

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Jul 14, 2020, 4:46:58 PM7/14/20
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Apparently, that hack from:
seems to work according to the poster (see below).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

kitch9 said: 
I have a Skype TV cam which needs to successfully ping www.skype.com in order to function.

Microsoft has blocked these pings so the Skype cam no longer works is there an easy way to spoof this ping within the routers UI?
I fixed mine by adding an entry in the routers dnsmasq config to point to itself. So that any traffic coming from the lan hits the router and DNS resolution resolves to localhost (which is the router). 

Launch to your router config page (I'm using Merlin firmware):
  1. Go to Administration -> System
  2. Enable: Enable JFFS custom scripts and configs config option
  3. Enable: Enable SSH config option
  4. ssh ad...@192.168.1.1
  5. touch /jffs/configs/dnsmasq.conf.add
  6. vi /jffs/configs/dnsmasq.conf.add
Add the following:

address=/www.skype.com/127.0.0.1
address=/www.skype.com/::1

7. Reboot rooter with reboot command in ssh or through web interface
8. Go to Administration -> System and disable Enable SSH config option

www.skype.com website won't work on your local network but your Skype apps and Skype TV camera will still work because it pings your router. From any computer on your network, ping www.skype.com and see if it gives you your router IP address ;-)
AL

Constantin Petrescu

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Aug 26, 2020, 2:16:25 PM8/26/20
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Hi Guys, i managed to have my camera connect (bypassing the ping obstacle) and update the firmware to 1.6.214 version.
Now it boots it says internet connection established but it does not login in skype, it just stays there and after about five minutes i get a "P2P connection failed" error.
Used wireshark and seen that all the sync request do not get a reply.
Has anyone got this thing to work again?
If yes, wich firmware are you on ? Any other tricks i might try ?

Tks
Costa

Jose Puerto

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Sep 7, 2020, 9:03:27 PM9/7/20
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I managed to repurpose mine as a PC webcam by using one of those cheap HDMI to USB Video capture adapters (Amazon have now many around the USD$10).  So far it works fine.  Basically, with the cheap adapter, you connect the HDMI camera output to your PC's USB port, and the PC recognizes it as a regular USB (named USB Video).  Once connected, use the camera remote control to enter to Settings (the small wheel icon on bottom left) in the camera, and Select Test video Output (no audio though).

Luckow IMAP 2

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Sep 7, 2020, 11:57:57 PM9/7/20
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What? That’s awesome!



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On Sep 7, 2020, at 6:04 PM, Jose Puerto <jps...@gmail.com> wrote:

I managed to repurpose mine as a PC webcam by using one of those cheap HDMI to USB Video capture adapters (Amazon have now many around the USD$10).  So far it works fine.  Basically, with the cheap adapter, you connect the HDMI camera output to your PC's USB port, and the PC recognizes it as a regular USB (named USB Video).  Once connected, use the camera remote control to enter to Settings (the small wheel icon on bottom left) in the camera, and Select Test video Output (no audio though).

Tomas Nordin

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Apr 16, 2021, 7:01:24 AM4/16/21
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It would be awesome if someone found a fix or something to make it useable again =)
No one =)?

BR

Evgeniy S.

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Apr 16, 2021, 7:37:13 AM4/16/21
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Nothing I was able to found (
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Pal'o Dax

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Apr 19, 2021, 5:34:20 PM4/19/21
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Hi there,
tv hd cam containst ARM9 procesor, which is 32 bit. Skype has canceled support of 32bit platform/devices. I have no more idea. Can someone build own 32bit skype server and connect all clients via VPN?Still looking for solutions.

Evgeniy S.

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Apr 20, 2021, 5:24:10 AM4/20/21
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Who needs Skype on that platform? I'm more interested in getting
alternative software running (need root access) or in the worst case
use that camera as a web camera.

Connor Goodfellow

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Oct 9, 2021, 9:41:26 PM10/9/21
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I picked one of these up for cheap, mostly because of the tripod mount. Disappointing to find out it's unusable. Only hoping to use it as a webcam except that it didn't come with a remote so the adapter solution seems to be a no-go for me. If anyone is still working on this fix, know that I'm cheering for you!
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