Connecting Other Software

Using the camera with other software

PicoCam speaks the standard languages, so most programs work without special setup. Replace <ip> with the camera's address, user / password with an account from System > Users (viewer is enough for watching).

Addresses at a glance

What	Address
Web portal	http://<ip>/ (also https://<ip>/)
Video, full resolution	rtsp://user:password@<ip>/live/main
Video, light (sub stream)	rtsp://user:password@<ip>/live/sub
Still picture (JPEG)	http://<ip>/snapshot.jpg (login required)
ONVIF	http://<ip>/onvif/device_service (also found by automatic discovery)
Event stream (WebSocket)	ws://<ip>/ws/events

Aliases for software that expects another brand's address: /Streaming/Channels/101 and 102, /h264/ch1/main/av_stream, /cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0 and subtype=1, /live/0 and /live/1.

Special characters in the password (@ : / ? #) must be written as %40 %3A %2F %3F %23 inside a URL. Or pick a password without them for the camera accounts you use in URLs.

Watching video

VLC. Media > Open Network Stream, paste the RTSP address. VLC buffers one second by default; for a snappier picture open Tools > Preferences > Show all > Input/Codecs > Network caching and set 150-300 ms.

ffplay (lowest delay).

ffplay -fflags nobuffer -flags low_delay -rtsp_transport tcp rtsp://user:password@<ip>/live/sub

Phone. Any RTSP viewer app. Or just use the web portal: it is built for phones.

Choosing a stream. Main is for recording and NVRs. Sub (960x540 by default) is for live viewing, phones and AI. If a player cannot show H.265, set the stream to H.264 in Video & Audio.

Network video recorders (NVR / VMS)

Add the camera as an ONVIF device (address <ip>, port 80, an account from System > Users), or paste the RTSP address as a generic camera. Works with Synology Surveillance Station, Blue Iris, Milestone, Hikvision/Dahua NVRs and similar. Motion alarms are sent as ONVIF events.

Frigate

cameras:
  gate:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://user:password@<ip>/live/main
          roles: [record]
        - path: rtsp://user:password@<ip>/live/sub
          roles: [detect]
    detect: { width: 960, height: 540, fps: 5 }

The camera can also do detection itself on its NPU; Frigate then only records. Use whichever you prefer.

Home Assistant

• Quickest: Settings > Devices > Add integration > ONVIF, enter the camera's address, port 80 and an account.
• With events: in the camera under Integrations > MQTT, point it at your broker and switch on Home Assistant discovery. The camera then appears as a device with motion, person, last event, last plate and line-counter sensors.
• Picture only: the Generic Camera integration with still URL http://<ip>/snapshot.jpg (use an API key, see below) and stream URL rtsp://user:password@<ip>/live/sub.

Getting alerts

Where	How
Telegram	Create a bot with @BotFather, add it to your chat, paste its token and chat id under Integrations > Telegram
Email	Integrations > Email (SMTP): server, port, account, recipient. Use an app password for Gmail
Webhook	Integrations > Webhooks: any http(s):// address gets a JSON POST for every event
MQTT	Integrations > MQTT: topics <topic>/events, <topic>/events/<type> and a retained <topic>/state (online/offline)
FTP	Snapshots uploaded to an FTP server
Relay	A GPIO pin pulses when a rule fires (open a gate, switch a lamp). Pin numbers depend on your board

Every target has its own queue stored on the camera: if the network is down, events wait and are retried for up to 24 hours, even across a reboot.

Webhook example.

{"event": {"id": "20261021-190555-8f10", "ts": 1792589755683, "time": "2026-10-21T19:05:55",
           "type": "track", "rule": "Vehicle log", "label": "car", "track_id": 12, "score": 0.81,
           "box": [0.31, 0.42, 0.58, 0.77], "attributes": {"plate_text": "MH00PC0000"},
           "images": {"snapshot": "...jpg", "plate": "...jpg"}},
 "device": {"id": "picocam-743224", "name": "Gate", "location": "", "ip": "192.168.1.64"}}

The request carries X-PicoCam-Event-Id (use it to ignore duplicates after a retry). With a secret set, X-PicoCam-Signature: sha256=HMAC(secret, timestamp + "." + body) lets you verify that it really came from your camera.

The REST API

Create an API key under Integrations > API & keys and send it as Authorization: Bearer pk_... (or use normal account login).

Call	Returns
GET /api/status	health, versions, board details
GET /api/snapshot.jpg	a picture now
GET /api/events?type=&label=&q=&date=&limit=	events
GET /api/events/export.csv	events as CSV
GET /api/events/<id>/<image>.jpg	an event picture
`GET	PUT /api/config/`
GET /api/recordings?date=YYYY-MM-DD	recordings of a day (files support range requests)

A short script:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer pk_yourkey" http://<ip>/api/status
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer pk_yourkey" -o now.jpg http://<ip>/snapshot.jpg

Many cameras in one place: the EdgeAI server

server/ in this repository is a small optional program (Go) that receives events from several cameras and shows them in one dashboard. Point each camera's Integrations > EdgeAI server at it. It is not needed for normal use.

Ports used

Port	Use	Change in
80 / 443	web (HTTP / HTTPS)	Security
554	RTSP	Integrations
3702 (UDP)	ONVIF discovery	switch off in Integrations
22	SSH	Security

If a port is already taken PicoCam falls back to 80, then 8080 for the web page, so the portal is never lost.