ip cameras

Service Summary: The DrHeck Camera Hub (https://cam.drheck.dev) provides automatic LAN discovery, low-latency live streaming, optical zoom/spotlight/siren hardware controls, bandwidth adaptation, and a sideloadable Google TV interface for the Reolink PoE IP cameras on 10.0.0.0/24. Access is restricted via Authentik ForwardAuth to members of the camera_access group (luke, ikura, and haruka).

Hardware Inventory & Detected Cameras

Two Reolink RLC-811A (P430) 4K 8MP PoE Spotlight IP cameras are connected to the 10.0.0.0/24 LAN on interface eth77 of host ul:

Camera Services, Network Ports & Internal Operation

On firmware v3.1.0.4695_2504301440, Reolink cameras lock down legacy plaintext web/streaming ports out of the box and expose only the proprietary Baichuan management port (9000/tcp) until explicitly instructed to enable standard streaming protocols.

1. Port & Service Matrix (cmd_id = 37 GetNetPort / cmd_id = 36 SetNetPort)

2. How the Baichuan Protocol (9000/tcp) Works

All discovery, hardware control, and instantaneous snapshots are performed over TCP port 9000 using Reolink's Baichuan protocol:

3. RTSP Stream Endpoints (554/tcp)

Once rtspEnable = 1 is set via Baichuan cmd_id = 36, each camera serves two RTSP streams:

rtsp://admin:<password>@10.0.0.122:554/h264Preview_01_sub
rtsp://admin:<password>@10.0.0.123:554/h264Preview_01_sub

rtsp://admin:<password>@10.0.0.122:554/h265Preview_01_main
rtsp://admin:<password>@10.0.0.123:554/h265Preview_01_main

Architecture of cam.drheck.dev

The web service on host ul (/data/docker/cam) bridges the isolated IPv4 camera LAN (10.0.0.0/24) to an authenticated, browser-compatible HTTPS service at https://cam.drheck.dev.

How cam.drheck.dev Communicates With the Cameras

ffmpeg -nostdin -loglevel error -rtsp_transport tcp -analyzeduration 1500000 \
  -flags low_delay -i rtsp://admin:@10.0.0.123:554/h264Preview_01_sub -an \
  -vf "fps=10,scale=640:-2,format=yuvj420p" -strict unofficial \
  -f mpjpeg -boundary_tag frame -q:v 5 -

Static IPs vs. DHCP Reservations & IPv6 Support

1. Should the Cameras Be Configured for Static IPs?

Yes — pinning the cameras' IPv4 addresses via static DHCP reservations on danknasty is recommended.

Currently, both cameras use DHCP (<Dhcp><enable>1</enable></Dhcp>) and received 10.0.0.122 and 10.0.0.123 from the dynamic pool (range 10.0.0.114 10.0.0.250;) on danknasty. There are two ways to assign permanent IPs:

host cam1 {
  hardware ethernet ec:71:db:f1:25:5a;
  fixed-address 10.0.0.122;
}
host cam2 {
  hardware ethernet ec:71:db:6d:84:ce;
  fixed-address 10.0.0.123;
}

<LocalLink version="1.1">
  <Dynamic>
    <Dhcp><enable>0</enable></Dhcp>
    <Ip>
      <ip>10.0.0.122</ip>
      <mask>255.255.255.0</mask>
      <gateway>10.0.0.1</gateway>
    </Ip>
    <Dns>
      <auto>0</auto>
      <dns1>10.0.0.1</dns1>
      <dns2>0.0.0.0</dns2>
    </Dns>
  </Dynamic>
</LocalLink>

2. Do the Cameras Support IPv6?

Available Camera Settings & How to Adjust Them

All camera settings can be adjusted interactively in the DrHeck Camera Hub web UI (https://cam.drheck.dev/ — expand Camera Hardware Encoder, Bandwidth, Image & Protocol Settings on any camera card) or programmatically via POST /api/cameras/{ip}/control.

# Toggle Spotlight ON at 75% brightness on 10.0.0.122
curl -X POST http://[fd77:7777:5010:0:1337:f1ac:d00d:ca30]:8000/api/cameras/10.0.0.122/control \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"action": "spotlight", "state": true, "brightness": 75}'

# Set Optical Zoom to 14 (2.5X)
curl -X POST http://[fd77:7777:5010:0:1337:f1ac:d00d:ca30]:8000/api/cameras/10.0.0.122/control \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"action": "zoom", "value": 14}'

# Reduce on-camera H.264 sub-stream encoder to 128 kbps @ 7 fps
curl -X POST http://[fd77:7777:5010:0:1337:f1ac:d00d:ca30]:8000/api/cameras/10.0.0.122/control \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"action": "encoding", "sub_bitrate": 128, "sub_fps": 7}'

# Adjust ISP Image Brightness and Sharpness
curl -X POST http://[fd77:7777:5010:0:1337:f1ac:d00d:ca30]:8000/api/cameras/10.0.0.122/control \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"action": "image", "bright": 135, "sharpen": 140}'

Authentik Access Control (camera_access Group)

Access to https://cam.drheck.dev is restricted exclusively to members of the camera_access group in Authentik:

ssh ul 'docker exec -i authentik-server ak shell << "PY"
from authentik.core.models import Group, User
grp = Group.objects.get(name="camera_access")
print("Current members:", [u.username for u in grp.users.all()])
# To add or set members:
grp.users.set(User.objects.filter(username__in=["luke", "ikura", "haruka"]))
grp.save()
PY'

Bandwidth Adjustments for Unreliable or Slow Internet

When viewing two cameras simultaneously over a slow, high-latency, or lossy internet connection (cellular tethering, hotel Wi-Fi, or rural WAN), total downstream bandwidth for $N$ cameras is governed by:

$$B_{\text{total}} = N \times f_{\text{fps}} \times S_{\text{frame}}(W, H, q) \times 8 \quad \text{bits/sec}$$

where $f_{\text{fps}}$ is the frame rate, $W \times H$ is the scaled resolution, and $q \in [2, 24]$ is the FFmpeg MJPEG quantization factor (-q:v).

cam.drheck.dev provides two independent bandwidth controls:

1. Per-Viewer Stream Presets (Top Toolbar on cam.drheck.dev & /tv)

Changing the Bandwidth / Mode dropdown in the top bar adjusts server-side scaling, frame rate decimation, and JPEG compression for your browser session without affecting other viewers:

Tip for High Packet Loss Links: Continuous multipart MJPEG streams use a single long-lived HTTP TCP response. On connections with heavy packet loss where TCP head-of-line blocking stalls long streams, switch the dropdown to Unreliable WAN Snapshot (Every 2s) or Minimal WAN Snapshot (Every 5s). Snapshot modes issue independent, stateless HTTP GET requests that recover immediately from dropped packets.

2. On-Camera Hardware H.264 Sub-Stream Bitrate Tuning

Inside each camera card's Camera Hardware Encoder, Bandwidth, Image & Protocol Settings drawer, you can also lower the camera's internal H.264 hardware encoder (SetEnc cmd_id = 57) from 256 kbps @ 10 fps down to 64 kbps @ 4 fps (64, 128, 160, 192, 256, 384, 512 kbps).

Google TV / Android TV Sideloadable App (cam-googletv.apk)

A signed, sideloadable Android TV / Google TV application (DrHeck Cameras, package dev.drheck.cam) is built and hosted directly on cam.drheck.dev at:

Features of the Google TV App

How to Sideload onto Google TV

Option A: Via ADB over Wi-Fi / Ethernet (Fastest from a Laptop/Desktop)

curl -L -o /tmp/cam-googletv.apk https://cam.drheck.dev/cam-googletv.apk
adb connect <googletv-ip>:5555
adb install -r /tmp/cam-googletv.apk

Option B: Directly on the Google TV (Using the "Downloader" App)