Tapo Camera + EC/pH Metering
TentPilot reads your EC, pH, and temperature meter optically using a Tapo C216 camera pointed at the display. After each fertigation dose, Scout takes a snapshot, crops to the meter display, and sends it to Groq's vision API to extract the readings. No meter API required — the camera is the sensor.
What you need
- TP-Link Tapo C216 — 1080p indoor camera ($35)
- Bluelab Guardian Monitor or similar always-on EC/pH display
- Groq API key — free tier is sufficient (vision model runs fast)
- TentPilot Scout — camera access is Scout-only (no cloud path for video)
Camera positioning
Mount the camera
Position the Tapo C216 so the meter display fills at least 30% of the frame. The camera should be 6–18 inches from the meter face. Avoid oblique angles — straight-on gives the best OCR results.
LED meter displays read well in any lighting. Avoid direct light shining into the camera lens or reflecting off the meter face. The Tapo's night vision (IR) also works — the meter display is bright enough to read in the dark.
Setup
Add camera to Tapo app
Use the Tapo iOS/Android app to add the camera to your Wi-Fi. Assign it a static IP in your router for stable access. Note the IP address.
Enable RTSP stream
In the Tapo app, go to the camera settings and note your camera's local IP and your Tapo account credentials. The RTSP stream URL will be:
rtsp://username:[email protected]:554/stream1Test with VLC to confirm you can see the stream before proceeding.
Get a Groq API key
Sign up at console.groq.com and create an API key. The free tier supports sufficient requests for fertigation metering (typically 2–6 reads per dose session).
Configure in TentPilot
In the dashboard, go to Settings → Integrations → Camera. Enter:
- Camera IP address
- Tapo username and password
- Groq API key
Then in Devices, assign the camera to a room with role fertigation_meter.
Calibrate crop region
In the fertigation settings for your room, use the crop calibration tool to draw a bounding box around the meter display. This tells Scout exactly where to crop before sending to Groq — improves accuracy significantly.
How metering works
After each pump dose step in a fertigation sequence, Scout:
- Waits for the mix timer (usually 60–120 seconds)
- Takes a snapshot from the RTSP stream
- Crops to the configured meter region
- Sends to Groq vision model with a prompt asking for EC, pH, and temperature
- Parses the response — if confidence is above threshold, uses the reading
- If EC is outside target tolerance, triggers the correction pump and re-reads