Waking Up Solar IP Cameras with Python

I recently acquired the same solar-powered WiFi IP camera mentioned in my Capturing H.264 Livestreams from IP Cameras: Wireless Solar IP67 Security Camera System.

My goal was to programmatically control the camera, specifically to wake it up from its low-power state.

Prerequisites

To successfully wake up the camera, it must be properly configured:

1. The camera must be connected to the internet.
2. Its status should be shown as ‘online’ in the mobile app (e.g., Microshare or Danale).

Waking Up the Camera

The camera can be activated by sending a specific sequence of UDP packets. Here is a Python script to demonstrate this:

import socket
import binascii

# Configuration
DEST_IP = 'camera_ip_address'
DEST_PORT = 12345  # Replace with the actual port if known, or use a broadcast approach if supported
MAGIC_PACKET = "0000000a983b16f8f39c"

def wake_camera(ip, port):
    """
    Sends a UDP packet to wake up the IP camera.
    """
    try:
        # Create a UDP socket
        sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_DGRAM)
        sock.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_BROADCAST, 1)
        
        # Prepare the packet
        message = binascii.unhexlify(MAGIC_PACKET)
        
        # Send to the destination
        sock.sendto(message, (ip, port))
        print(f"Wake-up packet sent to {ip}:{port}")
        
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Error: {e}")
    finally:
        sock.close()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    wake_camera(DEST_IP, DEST_PORT)