Neolink is a small program that acts as a proxy between Reolink IP cameras and normal RTSP clients. Certain cameras, such as the Reolink B800, do not implement ONVIF or RTSP, but instead use a proprietary "Baichuan" protocol only compatible with their apps and NVRs (any camera that uses "port 9000" will likely be using this protocol). Neolink allows you to use NVR software such as Shinobi or Blue Iris to receive video from these cameras instead. The Reolink NVR is not required, and the cameras are unmodified. Your NVR software connects to Neolink, which forwards the video stream from the camera.
The Neolink project is not affiliated with Reolink in any way; everything it does has been reverse engineered.
This fork is an extension of thirtythreeforty's with additional features not yet in upstream master.
Major Features:
- MQTT
- Motion Detection
- Paused Streams (when no rtsp client or no motion detected)
- Save a still image to disk
Minor Features:
- Improved error messages when missing gstreamer plugins
- Protocol more closely follows official reolink format
- Possibly can handle more simulatenous connections
- More ways to connect to the camera. Including Relaying through reolink servers
- Camera battery levels can be displayed in the log
Download from the release page
Extract the zip
Install the latest gstreamer (1.20.5 as of writing this).
- Windows: ensure you install
fullwhen prompted in the MSI options. - Mac: Install the dpkg version on the official gstreamer website over the brew version
- Ubuntu/Debian: These packages should work
sudo apt install \
libgstrtspserver-1.0-0 \
libgstreamer1.0-0 \
libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-0 \
gstreamer1.0-x \
gstreamer1.0-plugins-base \
gstreamer1.0-plugins-good \
gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad \
libssl- Windows: You may also need to install openssl
- Macos: You may also need to
install openssl or
brew install openssl@1.1 - Ubuntu/Debian: Install the
libsslpackage
Make a config file see below.
To use neolink you need a config file.
There's a more complete example here, but the following should work as a minimal example.
bind = "0.0.0.0"
[[cameras]]
name = "Camera01"
username = "admin"
password = "password"
uid = "ABCDEF0123456789"
[[cameras]]
name = "Camera02"
username = "admin"
password = "password"
uid = "BCDEF0123456789A"
address = "192.168.1.10"Create a text file called neolink.toml in the same folder as the
neolink binary. With your config options.
When ready start neolink with the following command
using the terminal in the same folder the neolink binary is in.
./neolink rtsp --config=neolink.tomlTo connect to a camera using a UID we need to find the IP address of the camera with that UID
The IP is discovered with four methods
-
Local discovery: Here we send a broadcast on all visible networks asking the local network if there is a camera with this UID. This only works if the network supports broadcasts
If you know the ip address you can put it into the
addressfield of the config and attempt a direct connection without broadcasts. This requires a route from neolink to the camera. -
Remote discovery: Here we ask the reolink servers what the IP address is. This requires that we contact reolink and provide some basic information like the UID. Once we have this information we connect directly to the local IP address. This requires a route from neolink to the camera and for the camera to be able to contact reolink.
-
Map discovery: In this case we register our IP address with reolink and ask the camera to connect to us. Once the camera either polls/recieves a connect request from the reolink servers the camera will initiate a connection to neolink. This requires that our IP and reolink are reachable from the camera.
-
Relay: In this case we request that reolink relay our connection. Neolink nor the camera need to be able to direcly contact each other. But both neolink and the camera need to be able to contact reolink.
This can be controlled with the config
discovery = "local"In the [[cameras]] section of the toml.
Possible values are local, remote, map, relay later values implictly
enable prior methods.
Cellular cameras should select "cellular" which only enables map and
relay since local and remote will always fail
discovery = "cellular"See the sample config file for more details.
To use mqtt you will need to adjust your config file as such:
bind = "0.0.0.0"
[mqtt]
broker_addr = "127.0.0.1" # Address of the mqtt server
port = 1883 # mqtt servers port
credentials = ["username", "password"] # mqtt server login details
[[cameras]]
name = "Camera01"
username = "admin"
password = "password"
uid = "ABCDEF0123456789"Then to start the mqtt+rtsp connection run the following:
./neolink mqtt-rtsp --config=neolink.tomlOR for only mqtt
./neolink mqtt --config=neolink.tomlNeolink will publish these messages:
Messages that are prefixed with neolink/
/statusTracks the connection of neolink,connectedfor readyofflinefor not ready this is a LastWill message/configThe configuration file used to start neolink, you can publish to this to temporarily alter the live configuration/config/statusIf you publish to/configthen any errors from your publish config will show here, orOk(())if no errors and finished loading
Messages that are prefixed with neolink/{CAMERANAME}
Control messages:
/control/led [on|off]Turns status LED on/off/control/ir [on|off|auto]Turn IR lights on/off or automatically via light detection/control/rebootReboot the camera/control/ptz [up|down|left|right|in|out] (amount)Control the PTZ movements, amount defaults to 32.0/control/ptz/preset [id]Move the camera to a PTZ preset/control/ptz/assign [id] [name]Set the current PTZ position to a preset ID and name/control/zoom (amount)Zoom the camera to the specified amount. Example: 1.0 for normal and 3.5 for 3.5x zoom factor. This only works on cameras that support zoom/control/pir [on|off]/control/floodlight [on|off]Turns floodlight (if equipped) on/off/control/floodlight_tasks [on|off]Turns floodlight (if equipped) tasks on/off This is the automatic tasks such as on motion and night triggers/control/wakeup (mins)For cameras that are usingidle_disconnectthis will force a wakeup for at least the given minutes/control/siren onSignal the siren, the message is always "on" as there is no "off" signal for the siren
Status Messages:
/status disconnectedSent when the camera goes offline/status/batterySent in reply to a/query/batteryan XML encoded version of the battery status/status/battery_levelA simple % value of current battery level, only published whenenable_batteryis true in the config/status/pirSent in reply to a/query/piran XML encoded version of the pir status/status/motionContains the motion detection alarm status.onfor motion andofffor still, only published whenenable_motonis true in the config/status/ptz/presetSent in reply to a/query/ptz/presetan XML encoded version of the PTZ presets/status/previewa base64 encoded camera image updated every 2s. Not every camera supports the snapshot command needed for this. In such cases there will be no/status/previewmessage. Only published whenenable_previewis true in the config/status/floodlight_tasksThe current status of the floodlight tasks used updated every 2s by default
Query Messages:
/query/batteryRequest that the camera reports its battery level/query/pirRequest that the camera reports its pir status/query/ptz/presetRequest that the camera reports its PTZ presets/query/previewRequest that the camera post a base64 encoded jpeg of the stream to/status/previewnow, ignoring the timer
If neolink is started with mqtt-rtsp then the /neolink/config can be used
to control the RTSP
Changes made to the config by publishing to /neolink/config should be
reflected in the rtsp
These include changing the:
- Available users
[[users]]
name = "me"
pass = "mepass"- Permitted users on a camera
[[cameras]]
permitted_users = [ "me" ]- Available streams
[[cameras]]
stream = "Main"Setting a value of None will disable the stream
- Disable the entire camera (mqtt updates and all)
[[cameras]]
enabled = falseCertain features like preview and motion detection may not be desired you can disable them with the following config options. Disabling these may help to conserve battery
bind = "0.0.0.0"
[mqtt]
broker_addr = "127.0.0.1" # Address of the mqtt server
port = 1883 # mqtt servers port
credentials = ["username", "password"] # mqtt server login details
[[cameras]]
name = "Camera01"
username = "admin"
password = "password"
uid = "ABCDEF0123456789"
[cameras.mqtt]
enable_motion = false # motion detection
# (limited battery drain since it
# is a passive listening connection)
#
enable_light = false # flood lights only available on some camera
# (limited battery drain since it
# is a passive listening connection)
#
enable_battery = false # battery updates in `/status/battery_level`
#
enable_preview = false # preview image in `/status/preview`
#
enable_floodlight = false # preview image in `/status/floodlight_tasks`
#
battery_update = 2000 # Number of ms between `/status/battery_level` updates
#
preview_update = 2000 # Number of ms between `/status/preview` updates
#
floodlight_update = 2000 # Number of ms between `/status/floodlight_tasks` updatesMQTT Discovery is partially supported. Currently, discovery is opt-in and camera features must be manually specified.
[cameras.mqtt]
# <see above>
[cameras.mqtt.discovery]
topic = "homeassistant"
features = ["floodlight"]Available features are:
floodlight: This adds a light control to home assistantcamera: This adds a camera preview to home assistant. It is only updated every 0.5s and cannot be much more than that since it is updated over mqtt not over RTSP. Not every camera supports the snapshot command needed for this. In such cases there will be no/status/previewmessage.led: This adds a switch to chage the LED status light on/off to home assistantir: This adds a selection switch to chage the IR light on/off/auto to home assistantmotion: This adds a motion detection binary sensor to home assistantreboot: This adds a reboot button to home assistantpt: This adds a selection of buttons to control the pan and tilt of the camerabattery: This adds a battery level sensor to home assistantsiren: Adds a siren button to home assistant
To use the pause feature you will need to adjust your config file as such:
bind = "0.0.0.0"
[[cameras]]
name = "Camera01"
username = "admin"
password = "password"
uid = "ABCDEF0123456789"
[cameras.pause]
on_motion = true # Should pause when no motion
on_client = true # Should pause when no rtsp client
timeout = 2.1 # How long to wait after motion stops before pausingThen start the rtsp server as usual:
./neolink rtsp --config=neolink.tomlTo really save battery we need to disconnect the camera when it is idle.
To acheieve this you can add idle_disconnect = true to the [[cameras]]
section
bind = "0.0.0.0"
[[cameras]]
name = "Camera01"
username = "admin"
password = "password"
uid = "ABCDEF0123456789"
idle_disconnect = true
[cameras.pause]
on_client = true # Should pause when no rtsp client
timeout = 2.1 # How long to wait after motion stops before pausingWhen idle_disconnect = true neolink will disconnect from the camera 30s
after it stops being used.
Neolink considers it as being used if there is an active stream running, or if there is motion being detected or an mqtt command being run
You can make neolink stop active streams when there are no rtsp clients using
[cameras.pause]
on_client = true # Should pause when no rtsp clientOnce in the disconnected state. Neolink will stay disconnected until there is a new requested activation such as a client connecting or an mqtt command
Neolink will also wake up on push notifications from the camera. These are usually
sent by the camera on motion or PIR alarms. To disable this you can set
push_notifications = false in the [[cameras]] config
Docker builds are also provided in multiple architectures. The latest tag tracks master while each branch gets it's own tag.
docker pull quantumentangledandy/neolink
# Add `-e "RUST_LOG=debug"` to run with debug logs
#
# --network host is only needed if you require to connect
# via local broadcasts. If you can connect via any other
# method then normal bridge mode should work fine
# and you can ommit this option. Not all OSes support
# network=host, notably macos lacks this option.
docker run --network host --volume=$PWD/config.toml:/etc/neolink.toml quantumentangledandy/neolinkThere are currently 2 environmental variables available as part of the container:
NEO_LINK_MODE: defaults to"rtsp"if not set, other options are "mqtt" or "mqtt-rtsp".NEO_LINK_PORT: defaults to8554, set this to your required port value.
You can write an image from the stream to disk using:
neolink image --config=config.toml --file-path=filepath CameraNameWhere filepath is the path to save the image to and CameraName is the name of the camera from the config to save the image from.
File is always jpeg and the extension given in filepath will be added or changed to reflect this.
Some cameras do not support the SNAP command that is used to generate the image
on the camera. If this is the case with your camera you can try the
--use-stream option which will instead create a jpeg by transcoding the video
stream.
You can get the battery level and status using
neolink battery --config=config.toml CameraNameThis will produce an xml formatted battery status on stdout for processing
You can control pir using
neolink pir --config=config.toml CameraName [on|off]This will turn the PIR on or off
You can reboot a camera using
neolink reboot --config=config.toml CameraNameYou can control the status LED using
neolink status-light --config=config.toml CameraName [on|off]You can talk over the camera using
neolink talk --config=config.toml --adpcm-file=data.adpc\
--sample-rate=16000 --block-size=512 CameraNameWhere the sounds is ADPCM encoded
or
neolink talk --config=config.toml --microphone CameraNameWhich uses the default microphone which depends on gstreamer
You can control the PTZ using
neolink ptz --config=config.toml CameraName control 32 [left|right|up|down|in|out]Where 32 is the speed. Not all cameras support speed
Some cameras also support preset positions
# Print the list of preset positions
neolink ptz --config=config.toml CameraName preset
# Move the camera to preset ID 0
neolink ptz --config=config.toml CameraName preset 0
# Save the current position as preset ID 0 with name PresetName
neolink ptz --config=config.toml CameraName assign 0 PresetNameTo change the zoom level use the following:
# Zoom the camera to 2.5x
neolink ptz --config=config.toml CameraName zoom 2.5With 1.0 being normal and 2.5 being 2.5x zoom
Neolink is free software, released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.
This means that if you incorporate it into a piece of software available over the network, you must offer that software's source code to your users.
If you find this code helpful please consider supporting development.
