But what if you can't get a support reply? Mark moved to Plan B. This is the gold standard for button-less cameras. Mark learned that Dahua cameras have a hidden bootloader that listens for a few seconds after power-up. He used a protocol called TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol) .
He soldered wires to TX , RX , and GND (never VCC ) and connected them to a USB-to-TTL adapter ( 3.3V logic). Using PuTTY (a serial terminal) at 115200 baud , he powered the camera.
A flood of Linux boot text appeared. When it stopped, he typed: