Data over USB

[erik-sutton95]

Move camera data (and maybe live) over USB instead of — or as a fallback for — camera SoftAP.

Today the spine is BLE pair → SoftAP → UDP 9004. Operator Setup copy: “USB-C, hotspot, and HDMI capture are not in this build.” Media offload is HTTP /v2 on the camera AP, not USB MSC.

Related: Connection reliability · Live streaming · macOS · roadmap index

Workstreams (research-gated)

1. USB mass storage / MTP for clips

• What does Pocket 4 / Nano actually present over USB-C to iOS vs macOS vs Android?
• iOS External Accessory / DriverKit / Files app limitations — iPhone as USB host is the hard part
• Android USB host is the more likely first clip-copy path
• Goal: pull stills/clips when SoftAP HTTP is painful, without inventing a live protocol

2. USB tethered live (investigational)

• Capture whether Mimo or DJI’s desktop tools use USB for DUML / video
• If yes: table it, then decide iOS vs Mac vs Android
• If no: mark live-over-USB won't-do and keep USB as offload-only

3. Do not copy OpenZCine

ANDROID.md lists USB-C/HDMI as OpenZCine paths not to copy. Pocket is a different camera.

Priority

SoftAP reliability is the daily driver. USB should not block the connection-reliability audit. Treat this as a parallel investigation.

Done when

We have a written answer: clip-copy on which OS, live-over-USB yes/no, and no operator-facing “USB” toggle until one of those is real.

[erik-sutton95]

Tracked as maintainer spike #88.