Tinker Niche

Teeny space in the WebVerse to shamelessly brag (document) about things that were attempted, things that worked and that did not, both in the professional and hobby fronts. Topics include hacking, modding, new ideas/ways of doing things in many domains (electronics hardware/software, making stuff, mechanical, etc). Maybe to inspire, learn, ignore or forget. It might not work for you. Try at your own risk. Thank you for stopping by and would be delighted to hear from you.

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Web Based Video Streamer using TPLINK MR3020 (TL-MR3020) Pocket Router

A portable camera was needed. This was before the time of the Raspberry Pi, commonly available mobile phone extensible apps.
The following would be nice to have

Very tiny form factor
Low cost
Open Source software to enable extension
Support standard computer interfaces
Maybe run on battery too

As other extensible platforms were not too common, it was standard practice to use existing low cost Access point. A few notable mentions would be the Linksys WRT54G, which has many mods and hacks like WIFI car, etc and others.
A suitable candidate was the TPLINK MR3020 Pocket router. TPLINK MR3020 POCKET ROUTER

It has a USB Port so its extensible.
Has Ethernet too.
Has an OpenWRT port so any new software/configuration/mod can be written.
It can be battery powered.
It is super cheap less than 1000 INR.

Downloaded or generated (it was too long ago) a ROM for this router and added USB support in the kernel for various USB devices including UVC Cameras.
It has an mjpeg video/camera streamer built into the ROM
One can access the stream via any browser on a desktop/phone/etc at a URL
The router and the stream is as shown in the pictures below for a Logitech webcam.

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