tapo-c210/secret-apis

Secret APIs

Tapo cameras provide undocumented APIs we can use to control the camera (like using its official app). I did not do anything, I am writing this document while looking at the code of the awesome project pytapo, which seems it does not have a documentation on the usage of the APIs yet.

Preface

The APIs are accessed via HTTP requests.

Headers

There are the headers pytapo uses, probably not all of them are necessary:

> Host: [camera ip]
> Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
> User-Agent: Tapo CameraClient Android
> Accept: application/json
> Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
> Connection: close
> requestByApp: true

You must use these headers for each call.

Error codes

"-40401": "Invalid stok value",
"-40210": "Function not supported",
"-64303": "Action cannot be done while camera is in patrol mode.",
"-64324": "Privacy mode is ON, not able to execute",
"-64302": "Preset ID not found",
"-64321": "Preset ID was deleted so no longer exists",
"-40106": "Parameter to get/do does not exist",
"-40105": "Method does not exist",
"-40101": "Parameter to set does not exist",
"-40209": "Invalid login credentials",
"-64304": "Maximum Pan/Tilt range reached",
"-71103": "User ID is not authorized",

Get token

To use the camera's functionalities, we need to get a token first (also called stok).

Create a POST request to https://ip_of_your_camera with this JSON body

{
	"method": "login",
	"params" : {
		"hashed" : true,
		"password" : "MD5_UPPERCASE_HASH_OF_YOUR_TPLINK_ACCOUNT",
		"username" : "admin"
	}
}

You must provide the value admin for username, and the MD5 hash of your Tp-Link account's password as the value of password. You will get a token named stok.

Move the camera's motors

Create a POST request to https://ip_of_your_camera/stok={your_stok}/ds with this JSON body

{
	"method": "do", 
	"motor": {
		"movestep": {
			"direction": "direction_value"
		}
	}
}

direction_value can be one of these values

direction	description
0	It will move horizontally to the position 0°
90	It will move vertically to the uppermost point
180	It will move horizontally to the position 360°
270	Il will move vertically to the bottommost point