Network File Downloader (updated 17/07)

[George Argus]

Hi everyone!

EDIT: and of course as soon as I put it up, there are errors... great! - this should be fixed now
EDIT2: Update - more bugs worked out, better error handling, progress meter added ...
EDIT3: can I get someone to at least verify that it's not malicious? I think peeps are scared after WannaCry
EDIT4: Added... then Updated a manual
EDIT5: Updated script and Manual - removed requirement for "recordings" folder, and no more temp files!
EDIT: this thread will hopefully close soon, please see the new thread on the viewer and apps board

As the kids were at daycare today, and I had a day off, I decided to learn powershell and write a script that can download files from the camera over the network.

(yes, it does mean you have to turn on the cloud thing from the camera, and connect it to your WiFi)

could some kind soul help me test this? it's only works for the 650S (as far as I know, I only have that model), and will only download videos that are not on the computer already

as I said, it's a powershell script that is called from a batch file and that's it... (I promise no crypto bullstuff)

also, if there are any programmers in here, I'd love to know how I could improve it.. just take it easy on me, I just learned it today...

future features will include automated running (will auto connect once the camera enters WiFi range), and concurrent multi camera download, plus whatever else i can think up...

please let me know what you think, and if you have any suggested features...

 

[Ralph2]

Hoping someone with a DR650GW-1CH will test this out. The lack of being able to easily download video from the camera has been my only complaint with my Blackvue camera... well, that and intermittent GPS connection but that is a different complaint.

If.. this possibly works for other than the DR650S then perhaps placing this in the Viewer and Apps sub folder will get more users involved.

 

[George Argus]

If.. this possibly works for other than the DR650S then perhaps placing this in the Viewer and Apps sub folder will get more users involved.

Thanks for the tip, will go post it now ..

 

[bpsmicro]

I've just downloaded this to give it a try. I've set the execution policy (I have some familiarity with PS), but when I run it I just get a >> prompt and nothing happens.
Running on Windows 10 with the latest PowerShell version. I'm going to see if I can get the script up in the PS debugger to sort out what's going on.

I have high hopes for this, because it'll answer the biggest limitation I have with the Blackvue system. The "Cloud" stuff isn't viable for me because my internet upload speed is waaaaay too slow to actually work.

Brad.

 

[bpsmicro]

Got it working running under the ISE (once I commented out the FlushInputBuffer calls, that don't work in an ISE environment). It's in the process of downloading 770 videos now, which is going to take a while.

I'm going to be customizing this for my own use, but a couple of suggestions for future enhancements:

1) Allow a non-interactive mode, where you can pass in command-line arguments and bypass all of the places where it asks questions or asks you to "press Enter". That allows it to be set up in Task Scheduler to run as an automated task (which I'm going to be doing).
2) Add an option such that, when parsing the file list to download, you can specify the file types to download (ie. omit parking mode). Once you do that, also add that to the command-line arguments.
3) [Bonus points] Allow specification of a time range. That could be as simple as "last <n> hours".
4) [More bonus points] Allow the script to run (non-interactive) on Windows startup and "watch" for the camera to connect to the WiFi. Then automatically start grabbing files. Once done, back to sleep until the next connection.

Thanks a lot for your efforts on this. I was thinking that there *must* be some way to hack into the camera's web interface to allow me to just grab files onto my Windows box to use with the Viewer app without having to use the Cloud thingy or keep popping the microSD card. I'm thrilled that you've done all the yucky work for me already.

Brad.

 

[bpsmicro]

In case anybody else runs into problems running this in Windows 10, I changed the command line in START.BAT thusly:

START POWERSHELL -Version 4.0 -File .\YOGO'S-DOWNLOAD-SCRIPT.ps1

It may have something to do with the fact I have multiple versions of PS installed, but by forcing it to use 4.0, that seemed to work around whatever the problem was.

 

[George Argus]

woohoo ... beta testers!

brad, i think if you were getting just a >> , indicates there was a double/quote mark missing somewhere...

yeah, i've been working on the selection section a bit to make it a little cleaner, and also provide the future functionality to have it monitoring the network for cams that connect.. (your point 4)

i might hold off on the multi cam concurrent download until i learn a little more about jobs and workflows.. it got very clunky when i tried a foreach/while

i'm going to try and remove its dependency on files for maintaining the list of files to be downloaded and use arrays instead




I'm just really happy that someone is using it!!! ... could you post the cam that you are using?

 

[bpsmicro]

I'm using the 650S-2CH. Just the one camera.

I was thinking that you could process your file lists into memory as well. I dabble in PS myself, but I'm more a C# developer.

I PM'ed you my direct e-mail. I'm away this weekend, but I'd be happy to collaborate with you on this.

 

[Ralph2]

Hoping you guys will post any enhanced versions.. and really hoping this will work for other Blackvue cameras as well.

 

[bpsmicro]

I've been doing a little Googling & reading of blog articles. It looks like the interface is the same for the 650GW, so it should work there. My assumption is other models with WiFi capabilities likely use the same base OS, so the basic premise should work, possibly with some file-name tweaking.
It would also appear that if you connect a Windows box directly to the camera WiFi (rather than the cloud thingy), you should get a camera IP of 10.99.77.1 or 192.168.8.1 (older model/firmware) and the script will work with that. That approach would need more manual intervention because it won't auto-connect like the cloud thing will.

 

[George Argus]

once this poll closes, i'll ask the mods to close this thread, and make the one in the "Viewer and Apps" board the default one, as it seems the script may work with more cams than I thought..

 

[George Argus]

script and manual updated

See here:
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/blackvue-network-file-downloader-updated-17-07.29728/