Mar 20 2008

Reviving the Veo Observer

Filed under: Daily Events, Programming

Recently I came across an old Veo Observer camera. I remember the Veo cameras as being refreshingly easy to use, and quite inexpensive for all the functionality you get.

This camera seemed to power up normally, and acquired an IP address as expected. However, when I logged on to the camera with a web browser, all it gave was a “404 Not Found” error. Also, when I tried to use the Veo Observer Studio software from the CD that supposedly came with the camera, the software said that there was a “Protocol Version Error.”

This led me to believe that someone may have tried to upgrade the firmware in the camera, and either disconnected before completing the upgrade, or loaded the wrong firmware. So all I had to do was find the correct firmware, as well as the correct utility for loading it onto the camera. This turned out to be a lot more difficult than I thought. The manufacturer (Veo) no longer exists, and all I could find on the Web were complaints from users who are just as SOL as I was. Fortunately, I stumbled on an obscure website that turned out to contain a repository of old device drivers, one of which happened to be the Veo Setup Utility and the Veo firmware. I was then able to load the firmware successfully, and then log on to the camera and see the video stream from it. I’ve decided to host the Veo Setup Utility and the latest firmware here on my website, in case someone else comes across the same problems.

During my search for Veo software, I also found that someone has written a clever Perl module for communicating with the camera (making it usable from virtually any OS), and another person has written Java code for it, too. This inspired me to make a quick-and-dirty C++ application based on the Perl code. My little program controls pretty much all the features of the Veo observer, and displays the image stream from the camera. Here’s the program and the source code repository, if you care to browse it.

9 Responses to “Reviving the Veo Observer”

  1. Nikolas Karalis says:
    May 16th, 2008 at 9:05 am

    I have the exact same problem as you.
    But I have already used the Veo Setup Utility, and when I try to upload the firmware it says Protocol Version Error… Did this just work for you?
    Can you also upload the Veo Observer Studio?

  2. Jake says:
    August 10th, 2008 at 3:16 am

    Thanks for working on the Veo! I get an error when running VeoView.
    I needed CG32.dll, found it online.
    Now I get CodeGuard detected errors, a log file will be created.
    Log file reads:
    Error 00001. 0×400000 (Thread 0×05BC):
    Exception 0xC0000005: Access violation at 0×0.

  3. db says:
    August 11th, 2008 at 1:09 pm

    Jake,
    That may have been a “debug” version of the executable that you downloaded. I’m not sure how it got there, but I’ve updated it with the release version. Try it again!

  4. Paul says:
    August 13th, 2008 at 11:13 pm

    My camera was working, until recently. Have you had any luck of the veo utility does not recognize the camera at all?

  5. Jake says:
    August 13th, 2008 at 11:27 pm

    Got it. Works great, thanks!

  6. Paul says:
    August 14th, 2008 at 9:47 am

    More detail, my camera turns on, has an ip, but the veo software wont see it.

  7. Amr Hassan says:
    October 17th, 2008 at 7:46 pm

    Thanks for your effort db, but i was not able to download Veo setup utility nor you program from the links above, do you have any other way i can get the software as i really need it urgently.

  8. John says:
    October 25th, 2008 at 4:30 pm

    Hi, impressive stuff but way over my head!. I wonder if you (or anyone) can help me out, I have an Observer XT Wireless but I carelessy upgraded the firmware on it many months ago but I used the WIRED firmware (DOH!).

    At the moment I can power up the camera (blue power button lights up) but there is no display at all on the LCD screen where the IP would show.

    I have tried connecting it to the serial port on my PC but the setup utility keeps telling me “No Camera Found” so I don’t even have a chance to upgrade to the correct firmware.

    I tried opening the camera up to see if there was a chip or something I could pop out and in but I guess becuase the firmware is written that wouldn’t work?

    Anyone have any ideas - this is really just a challenge for me now!

  9. Ati says:
    December 28th, 2008 at 5:20 pm

    Hello!

    My name is Ati. I have a Veo Observer VIPN-1100 IP Netcam, but I don’t have the installation cd. So I can’t use the camera. Can You help me?

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