How to use Yi Home Camera 2 (1080p) outside of China

UPDATE (11/11/2017): This process is not valid anymore, but you can use a new one. All info here.

I’ve been using a Yi Homme Camera for a long (aka Xiaomi/Xiaoyi Small Ants Camera). It’s a magnific camera with good quality (720p) and night vision at a stunning price. In my opinion, then only flaw is the lack of an wired Ethernet port. However, Xiaomi, firmware update after firmware update has made it a bit worse. First they blocked telnet access, RTSP and HTTP. And finally the blocked their Chinese hardware to be used only in China Mainland (from Nov 2015). Yes, they sell two versions, Chinese and International. Luckily you always can solve this limitations running some scripts or downgrading the firmware. There is a lot of info on the Internet.

Recently Xiaomi (Yi) launched a major upgrade for this product. They presented Yi Home Camera 2, with even better quality, 1080p @25fps 1.5Mbits, gesture detection and more. Obviusly I immediately bought one. However I got the same issue all people is having. It’s impossible to get it working. You can not pair it with the phone app. The camera gets the QR code, connect to your WIFI network (light steady blue light) but the pairing proccess never ends succesfully. You get “time out” both the camera (voice message) and the phone. Every people has the same problem. Some of them have tried to update the firmware, but this is even worse. Now they get a voice message “This camera can only be used in China”.

After some weeks of research I finally get mine working, using a specific firmware.

To install it you have to:

1. 1. Download this firmware (version 2.1.1-20160429113900) and put it in the root of your SDCARD (it has to be FAT32 formated). The name of the file has to be home.bin, otherwise camera won’t install it
   2. Turn on the camera
   3. Reset the camera to default values pressing the reset white button in the back
   4. Turn the camera off
   5. Insert the SD card with home.bin and turn it on

You will see the green led blinking for about one minute. After that you will be able to pair your camera with the app. Bear in mind that the app has to be Chinese version too.

And, of course, remember NOT to update your camera firmware even if the phone app invite you.

Next step: Enable telnet to allow RTSP and FTP.