Can a Computer Look like a Thumb Drive to a Device(such as a Lorex Security DVR) - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: daveyk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2020, 02:27:06 pm
content: Sorry, I really didn't know how to name the topic for my question.I have a Lorex 8 camera Wire-Free security system, with a 128gb micro-USB SD card as its DVR thumb Drive. It connects to my network via hard CAT-5 Cable to the router (through a Switch). I can watch all my cameras a long way from home on my iPhone or Laptop. It works great, with one exception. The 128GB drive is more than enough storage, but it can not directly backup to a cloud drive, such as Google Drive. The only backup method is to a USB Thumb Drive.It has one Type 1 (I guess what that is) socket that you plug in a Thumb Drive. If I could find a male to male USB cable. Could I plug the Lorex DVR in my computer as use the computer as a thumb drive? That way, on the computer end, I could assign the computer's "W" drive (Google Drive with the use of WebDrive - great program by the way and worth every dollar). If I could do that, then when I tell the DVR to back-up, it would back-up directly to a Goggle Drive folder.That's the only major issue I have with Lorex, it that it doesn't back up to the cloud (of course there are no monthly fees associated with that). I know most other camera security systems can store to the cloud, but that is expensive. I like Lorex because of the long range of their Wire Free (not WiFi) cameras and the good hidef HDMI output of the DVR and the iPhone software is good.Anyway, is their any utility software out there that can make a computer look like a USB Thumb drive? Is there a USB cable that would make that work?

author: AkiTaiyo
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 22, 2020, 02:33:19 pm
content: Heres an article about using a Raspberry Pi as a USB storage device. Might fit your requirement?https://magpi.raspberrypi.org/articles/pi-zero-w-smart-usb-flash-drive

author: daveyk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 23, 2020, 11:54:01 pm
content: Hello,Thank you. I'm not looking for storage. I am looking for the the Lorex to see a folder on the computer as a Thumb drive. Then the computer may be able to automate off-site back-ups. I dunno. Doesn't sound possible.Dave

author: ve7xen
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 24, 2020, 02:08:55 am
content: This seems to be exactly what the last reply is offering you a solution to do, so not sure why you are saying 'not looking for' it...Windows - don't think so.Linux - the usb 'gadget' drivers do exactly this, and you can have any Linux machine with a USB-device (or OTG) interface behave as USB mass storage 'a thumb drive' mapped to its local storage quite easily.Though IMHO, it would be a much better solution to pull the video down over the existing network to the computer rather than do something fancy with the USB. Lorex appears to support standard RTSP delivery of the streams, so you could use something simple likehttps://github.com/arlac77/rtsp-archivejust to archive the streams, or complicated likehttps://zoneminder.com/to just replace the Lorex DVR entirely.

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 24, 2020, 08:29:59 am
content: Maybe I'm missing something but don't Lorex devices support recording to a NAS?