homebridge-kasa-cam

HomeKit on/off (privacy) control for TP-Link Kasa cameras (EC70 "Spot Pan Tilt", and other models using the same protocol).

Each camera shows up in HomeKit with up to three switches:

• Camera on/off (always present) — On = enabled, Off = privacy mode (same as "Camera Off" in the app)
• Status LED (optional) — toggle the camera's indicator LED
• Motion detection (optional) — enable/disable motion detection

The LED and motion switches are on by default and can each be turned off via exposeLed / exposeMotionDetection.

Setup is just your TP-Link account email + password and each camera's local IP. No app capture, no rooted phone.

Optionally, it can also expose a live video tile (see Video below).

Configuration

{
  "platforms": [
    {
      "platform": "KasaCam",
      "name": "Kasa Cam",
      "email": "[email protected]",
      "password": "your-tplink-account-password",
      "pollSeconds": 30,
      "exposeLed": true,
      "exposeMotionDetection": true,
      "cameras": [
        { "ip": "192.168.1.50" },
        { "ip": "192.168.1.51", "name": "Bedroom" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

That's it — deviceId, model, and the default name are auto-detected from each camera's local get_sysinfo. (If a camera isn't reachable on the same LAN as Homebridge, give its deviceId explicitly and omit ip; state will then be read via the cloud.)

Video (optional)

Kasa cameras have no RTSP/ONVIF and use a proprietary stream, so point this plugin at a feed that ffmpeg can read — easiest is a go2rtc RTSP endpoint (go2rtc's kasa:// source does the hard demuxing). Set source (ffmpeg input args, like homebridge-camera-ffmpeg) on a camera and a HomeKit camera tile appears:

{
  "ip": "192.168.1.50",
  "source": "-rtsp_transport tcp -i rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/living_room",
  "stillImageSource": "-i http://127.0.0.1:1984/api/frame.jpeg?src=living_room"
}

Requirements / notes:

• ffmpeg must be installed on the Homebridge host (set ffmpegPath if it's not on PATH).
• source / stillImageSource are ffmpeg input arg strings; stillImageSource defaults to source if omitted.
• Native privacy via HKSV: with video, the camera is exposed as a HomeKit Secure Video camera, so the device on/off lives in the camera's native mode control (Settings → set When Home/When Away to Off). HKSV recording needs an iCloud+ plan + a home hub; the on/off works regardless.
  • privacySwitch: true — also add a standalone on/off switch alongside the native mode (both stay in sync) if you want a one-tap toggle.
  • privacyAsSwitch: true — disable HKSV entirely and use only the standalone switch.
• HKSV is experimental here (hard to validate without an iOS device/hub); if the camera misbehaves, privacyAsSwitch: true falls back to the simple streaming camera + switch.
• Video only for now — HomeKit audio needs AAC-ELD (libfdk_aac), which most ffmpeg builds lack.
• Set copyVideo: true to pass H.264 through without re-encoding (much lower CPU); turn it off if the picture is glitchy.
• The camera tile is a separate accessory from the on/off switch.

How it works

Current Kasa camera firmware (e.g. EC70 2.3.x) has no local control path:

• UDP/TCP 9999 answers get_sysinfo (read) but ignores set_* commands.
• The HTTPS API on 19443 serves only the video stream — no control endpoint.
• The official app controls the camera exclusively via the TP-Link cloud (confirmed by packet capture: block the cloud while keeping LAN, and the app's on/off spins forever and never touches the camera locally).

So this plugin:

• Reads on/off state locally over UDP 9999 (get_sysinfo → camera_switch) — fast, works offline.
• Writes on/off via the TP-Link cloud passthrough API, signed exactly like the Tapo app signs its requests.

Auth & signing (baked in)

Login and request signing use HMAC-SHA1 with app-global signing keys that ship inside the official app — not per-user secrets — so they're built into this plugin and you never configure them:

Content-MD5    = base64(MD5(body))
stringToSign   = Content-MD5 + "\n" + "9999999999" + "\n" + Nonce + "\n" + <request-path>
Signature      = hex( HMAC-SHA1(secret, stringToSign) )
X-Authorization: Timestamp=9999999999, Nonce=<uuid>, AccessKey=<key>, Signature=<sig>

The on/off command relayed through passthrough is:

{ "smartlife.cam.ipcamera.switch": { "set_is_enable": { "value": "on" } } }

The plugin generates and persists its own terminalUUID on first run.

Status

• ✅ Local state read (EC70, UDP 9999)
• ✅ Cloud login + signed passthrough (email + password only)
• ✅ On/off command verified end-to-end
• Tested against: EC70(US) fw 2.3.27

License

MIT