python-aidot-cameras

Control AIDOT WiFi lights and cameras from Python.

This is a camera-capable fork of the upstream lights-only python-aidot. It adds live WebRTC video streaming (DTLS and SDES-SRTP paths), snapshots, PTZ, camera controls, cloud recordings/thumbnails, and two-way (push-to-talk) audio.

This repository is the library (distribution name python-aidot-cameras). The Home Assistant custom component (custom_components/aidot/) lives in the companion integration repo cbrightly/hass-aidot-cameras, which depends on this library.

Library install

Install from PyPI (the simplest, recommended method):

# lights + camera cloud/control only:
pip install python-aidot-cameras
# add live WebRTC streaming, snapshots, and two-way audio:
pip install python-aidot-cameras[webrtc]

[webrtc] pulls in the extra dependencies (aiortc, av, …) needed for live streaming, snapshots, and two-way audio. Without it you still get lights plus the camera cloud/control APIs, but not live media.

For the latest unreleased code, install straight from the GitHub repo instead:

# lights + camera cloud/control only:
pip install "git+https://github.com/cbrightly/python-aidot-cameras"
# add live WebRTC streaming, snapshots, and two-way audio:
pip install "python-aidot-cameras[webrtc] @ git+https://github.com/cbrightly/python-aidot-cameras"

Standalone CLI: aidot-go2rtc

Bridge a camera into go2rtc (or any RTSP/HTTP consumer) without Home Assistant. Installing the package provides the aidot-go2rtc console script; for an isolated tool install use pipx or uv:

pipx install "python-aidot-cameras[webrtc]"
# or:
uv tool install "python-aidot-cameras[webrtc]"

aidot-go2rtc --list                  # discover cameras + their transport
aidot-go2rtc <device_id> '{output}'  # stream one camera (as a go2rtc exec: source)

Usage

Open a live WebRTC stream from a camera device client:

session = await device_client.async_open_webrtc_stream(on_frame=cb, timeout=30.0)
# ... session.stop() when done

Two-way (push-to-talk) audio:

session = await device_client.async_open_webrtc_stream(..., talk=True)
await session.async_start_talk(pcm_provider)   # provider() -> 320B s16le PCM (20ms @ 8kHz), or None
# ... speak ...
await session.async_stop_talk()

See docs/CAMERAS.md for the full camera API (streaming, snapshots, recordings, motion polling, two-way audio, and LAN-direct media).

Home Assistant component and CLI

The Home Assistant custom component (custom_components/aidot/) is not part of this library repo - it lives in the companion integration repo cbrightly/hass-aidot-cameras, which depends on this library. See that repo for installing the component (via HACS or by copying custom_components/aidot/).

Environment variables

The library reads the following environment variables.

Credentials

Used by the credential helper (aidot.credentials); they take priority over any stored credentials file. See src/aidot/credentials.py.

Variable	Purpose	Default
AIDOT_USERNAME	AiDot account username/email. Used with AIDOT_PASSWORD.	(none)
AIDOT_PASSWORD	AiDot account password. Used with AIDOT_USERNAME.	(none)
AIDOT_COUNTRY	Account region/country code.	US

Camera streaming / tuning

The most useful knobs read by the camera client (aidot.camera.client). Defaults are chosen to work out of the box; override only when tuning. Finer-grained internal knobs (audio normalization, keyframe/PLI cadence, retry timing, SDES audio, idle release, the sprop cache path) are documented in docs/CAMERAS.md.

Variable	Purpose	Default
AIDOT_MAX_CONCURRENT_OPENS	Caps how many stream opens run concurrently across all cameras.	2
AIDOT_MAX_CONCURRENT_STREAMS	Caps how many cameras stream at once.	3
AIDOT_FAST_CONNECT	Enable LAN-direct "fast connect" (STUN-only, skips several cloud signaling waits) when truthy. On-LAN only — off-subnet/strict-NAT viewers must leave it off.	unset (off)
AIDOT_SDES_SKIP_TURN_PREALLOC	Skip the SDES TURN relay pre-allocation (~2–3 s of cold-start latency) so signaling goes straight out with the host candidate. Faster on a LAN, at the cost of no relay fallback for a camera on a different segment / behind strict NAT. Experimental, opt-in (truthy = 1/true/yes/on).	unset (off)
AIDOT_SDES_ADAPTIVE	Adaptive fast-with-fallback for the SDES keepalive loop: try the fast path first and fall back to the full relay path if a fast attempt delivers no media. A per-device cache skips the fast attempt on later views once it has failed. Truthy value enables.	unset (off)
AIDOT_SDES_FAST_LIVEPLAY	Don't block on the livePlayResp wait for eligible SDES cameras (~4.5 s faster cold start). Role-reversal models (A001064 PTZ) always excluded for correctness. On by default; set to 0/false/no/off to disable.	enabled (on)
AIDOT_DTLS_FAST_LIVEPLAY	The DTLS (A000088) analogue: skip the livePlayReq-echo and livePlayResp waits (the dominant LAN cold-start cost) while keeping the full ICE/TURN/DTLS handshake, so remote/relay viewing is unaffected. On by default; set to 0/false/no/off to disable.	enabled (on)
AIDOT_PERSISTENT_MQTT	Reuse ONE account-level persistent MQTT connection for commands, attribute fetches, and stream-open signaling (matching the official app) instead of connecting per operation. On by default (live soak cut SDES NO_MEDIA 57%→19%); set to 0/false/no/off to disable.	enabled (on)
AIDOT_SERVE_RELAY	Hold the public stream port via an internal relay that proxies to ffmpeg, so the first (cold) view connects instead of failing while ffmpeg can't pre-bind the port. Set to 0 to serve ffmpeg directly.	1 (enabled)
AIDOT_LIVESTREAM_PARAM	Set to 0 to skip the cloud liveStreamParam pre-connect that provisions battery cameras' live-stream sessions before signaling (without it, battery cameras like the L2 models reject streaming with -50019).	1 (enabled)