Wi-Fi & access point
Capture never depends on the network. Wi-Fi can flap, the access point can cycle, and the capture daemon keeps writing frames to the card no matter what. Networking is its own service (skylapse-netwatch) precisely so a network problem cannot take capture down with it.
When the Wi-Fi goes away
Section titled “When the Wi-Fi goes away”If the camera can’t reach a known network, it starts serving its own instead — Skylapse-Setup, open by default — so a camera you can’t reach over Wi-Fi is still one you can walk up to. Join it and open http://10.42.0.1. When your network comes back, the camera returns to it by itself.
Two guards keep this from being annoying:
- It will not drop the access point while your phone is connected to it. Rejoining Wi-Fi means dropping the access point, and doing that halfway through somebody’s setup is worse than waiting.
- It stays on the access point for at least five minutes regardless, so a network that is flapping can’t leave you chasing it.
Switching by hand
Section titled “Switching by hand”From the Network tab you can switch to access-point mode yourself — useful when you’re standing at the camera and don’t want to wait for anything to time out. That choice sticks until you switch it back, and survives a reboot; there are timed options if you’d rather it return to Wi-Fi on its own.
Two cameras on one network
Section titled “Two cameras on one network”The image answers to skylapse.local. Give a second camera a different hostname when you write its card (Raspberry Pi Imager → customisation), because two skylapse.local on one network resolve to whichever answers first.
Remote access
Section titled “Remote access”Viewing the camera from outside your own network — over Tailscale, on your account, nothing hosted by us — is written but does not work on real hardware yet. The settings card says so rather than offering a button that fails. On your own network everything works today, and the camera has never needed the internet to run. See Status & roadmap.