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Angelcam Connector - a referential client implementing the Angelcam Arrow protocol

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Angelcam Connector (a.k.a. Arrow Client)

Build Status

Arrow Client is an application used to simplify the process of connecting IP cameras to the Angelcam cloud. The Arrow Client is intended to be shipped together with IP camera firmwares or as a standalone application for various devices such as Raspberry Pi. It can connect to RTSP and MJPEG services passed as command line arguments and, optionally, it can be also compiled with a network scanning feature. This feature allows the client to scan all its network interfaces and find local RTSP and MJPEG services automatically. All such services can be registered within Angelcam cloud under your Angelcam account without the need of a public IP address and setting up your firewall.

This is a reference implementation of the Arrow Client role described in Arrow Protocol. If you are interested in integration or you just want to play with the client a little, please see our Quick Start guide.

Features

  • Automatic RTSP and MJPEG service discovery
  • Zero-conf IP camera connection
  • Remote access to HTTP-based IP camera admin interfaces
  • Connection to Angelcam cloud services secured using TLS v1.2 or newer
  • Secure pairing with your Angelcam account

Usage

The application requires /etc/arrow directory for storing its configuration file generated on the first start (the path to the configuration file can be changed using a command line argument). The directory must also contain files named rtsp-paths and mjpeg-paths in case the network scanning feature is enabled. The files should contain RTSP paths and MJPEG paths that will be checked on service discovery. You can use the files from this repository. In order to start the application, you have to pass address of the Angelcam Arrow Service and certificate file for the service verification. Address of the Angelcam Arrow Service is:

arr-rs.angelcam.com:8900

We use custom root CA certificates. You can find the certificates in this repository (files root-g1.pem and root-g2.pem). Currently, there are two root certificates. The older certificate expires on 2025-03-02, the other certificate is valid until 2044-04-18. We recommend starting the application with both certificates to ensure uninterrupted service after we switch our servers to the new certificate.

Here is an example of starting the Arrow Client with one fixed RTSP service and with network scanning enabled:

arrow-client arr-rs.angelcam.com:8900 -d \
    -c root-g1.pem \
    -c root-g2.pem \
    -r "rtsp://localhost:8554/stream.sdp?prof=baseline&res=low"

Note that the application requires root privileges for direct access to local network interfaces. Alternatively, you can use the NET_CAP_RAW capability.

Dependencies

This application requires the following native libraries:

  • OpenSSL 1.0.x or later
  • libpcap 1.6.x or later (optional)

Compilation

See the following guides for more info: