feat: battery-aware reconnect backoff to prevent battery drain#405
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ramparte wants to merge 4 commits into
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feat: battery-aware reconnect backoff to prevent battery drain#405ramparte wants to merge 4 commits into
ramparte wants to merge 4 commits into
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April 17, 2026 13:37
Battery cameras (Reolink Argus, E1 Outdoor, etc.) suffer severe battery drain when neolink retries connections every 5 seconds indefinitely. Each retry wakes the camera via the relay, draining batteries at ~240 wake-ups per hour per camera. Changes: - Add `battery_camera` config option per camera (`battery_camera = true`) - True exponential backoff for battery cameras: 50ms → doubling → 1hr cap (vs the fixed 5s cap that causes the drain) - Disable 15-second stream-info poll for battery cameras; query once at startup since stream capabilities don't change at runtime - Auto-enable `idle_disconnect` for battery cameras so the connection drops when no RTSP client is viewing Example config: [[cameras]] name = "front_door" battery_camera = true username = "admin" password = "****" uid = "XXXXXXXXXX" Fixes QuantumEntangledAndy#204, addresses discussions QuantumEntangledAndy#241 and QuantumEntangledAndy#334.
The pinned versions (gstreamer 1.24.2, protoc 24.2.0, openssl 1.1.1.2100) are no longer available on Chocolatey, causing all Windows CI builds to fail at the 'Install Windows deps' step. Remove version pins to use latest available packages.
Bypasses the unreliable choco gstreamer package by downloading MSIs directly from gstreamer.freedesktop.org. Also avoids the macOS-12 runner that's stuck in queue (deprecated).
- Download GStreamer MSIs directly from gstreamer.freedesktop.org instead of using unreliable choco gstreamer/gstreamer-devel packages - Drop macOS-12 from CI matrix (deprecated, stuck in queue) - Set PKG_CONFIG_PATH for Windows builds - Remove macos-12 artifact references from release job
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Hi, good job. |
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Problem
Battery-powered Reolink cameras (Argus series, E1 Outdoor, Go Plus, etc.) suffer severe battery drain when neolink is running. The root cause: when a battery camera is asleep, neolink retries the connection every 5 seconds (the current fixed backoff cap), each time waking the camera via the P2P relay. At ~240 wake-ups per hour per camera, this drains batteries in days instead of weeks.
The 15-second stream-info polling loop (
get_stream_info) compounds the problem — it queries cameras that never change their stream capabilities, keeping the connection warm even whenidle_disconnectis set.Solution
A new
battery_camera = trueconfig option per camera that activates three battery-saving behaviors:1. Exponential backoff with 1-hour cap
When
battery_camera = true, the reconnect delay grows exponentially: 50ms → 100ms → 200ms → ... → 1 hour cap, instead of the fixed 5s cap. This matches the reality that sleeping battery cameras may not wake for long periods — there is no point hammering the relay every 5 seconds.2. Stream-info poll disabled
The 15-second
get_stream_infoloop is gated behind!battery_camera. Stream capabilities are queried once at startup and cached. For battery cameras, these capabilities never change at runtime, so periodic polling is pure waste.3. Auto-enable idle_disconnect
If
battery_camera = trueandidle_disconnectis not explicitly set, it defaults totrueso the connection drops when no RTSP client is viewing.Config
For non-battery cameras, nothing changes. The default is
battery_camera = false, preserving the existing 5-second reconnect behavior.Changes
src/config.rs: Addbattery_camerafield (default false)src/common/neocam.rs: Propagate battery_camera to NeoInstance, auto-enable idle_disconnectsrc/common/camthread.rs: Exponential backoff (1hr cap) when battery_camera is truesrc/rtsp/mod.rs: Gate stream-info poll behind!battery_camera, query once at startup instead85 lines added, 6 removed across 4 files.
Testing
Tested with 6 battery/solar Reolink cameras (Argus 3 Pro, Go Plus with cellular, solar-powered variants). Neolink starts cleanly, RTSP bridge works, and cameras are no longer hammered with reconnect attempts while sleeping.
CI fixes (bonus)
Also included:
gstreamerpackage is unreliable — gstreamer.freedesktop.org now blocks automated downloads with anti-bot challenges, but the MSI URLs still work)macos-12runner from CI matrix (stuck in queue permanently)Addresses #204, #241, #334.