NovaDash

A clean, native Android replacement for the stock ARPHA Vision / AZDOME dashcam app, targeting Novatek NA51055 (NT96658) cameras (e.g. ARPHA D25). No cloud accounts, no telemetry, no dead multi-chipset code — just local control over the camera's Wi-Fi API.

Built with Kotlin + Jetpack Compose (Material 3), Hilt, libVLC (RTSP live view), media3 (local playback), and the Android Auto Car App Library.

Screenshots

Android Auto — flag a moment while driving, review saved moments, manage tags:

Features

• Live view — RTSP preview (front/rear, via libVLC), start/stop recording, and take a photo (snapshot while recording).
• Files — browse SD-card clips and photos with thumbnails; filter by all / video / photo / event / marked; download to the phone (front, rear, or both) with a queue, progress and speed; delete (from the camera when online, from the phone when offline); play back streamed or local with two-axis swipe (up/down = prev/next clip, left/right = front/rear).
• Markers & export — set in/out cut points on a clip and export a LosslessCut .llc project to Download/NovaDash.
• Moments — flag a moment (time + quick tag), then reconcile it with recorded clips: jump to the matching clip and download footage in a ± minutes window. Works on the phone and on the Android Auto car screen — tap a preset tag to save a moment while driving (tags are managed in Settings; moments can also be created on the phone without AA).
• Settings — Wi-Fi SSID/password; recording (resolution, WDR/HDR, loop interval, G-sensor, volume, date/time stamp, light frequency) — the available options and current values are read live from the camera (cmd 3030 / 3014), so they reflect what your specific model supports rather than a hardcoded list; record-audio toggle and "mute voice & beep"; SD storage (free space + estimated recording time left); save-to-camera; format SD; and an experimental panel to probe undocumented firmware commands.
• Offline / Online modes — Online connects to the dashcam Wi-Fi for live control; Offline works without the camera, browsing already-downloaded clips and managing moments/tags.

Protocol

The camera exposes three local transports on its Wi-Fi AP:

• Control API — http://192.168.1.254/?custom=1&cmd=<id>[&par=][&str=] → XML. (custom=1 must be the first query parameter or the server ignores the command.)
• Live video — rtsp://192.168.1.254/liveRTSP/av4 (front; av5 rear, unverified).
• Events — TCP 192.168.1.254:8192, camera-pushed status notifications.

Command IDs and response schemas were worked out by watching the stock app's Wi-Fi traffic against a real camera; see app/src/main/java/com/novadash/net/NovaCommands.kt.

Install

For the Android Auto integration to work in a real car, install NovaDash from Google Play (currently distributed via the internal-testing track) — Android Auto only shows car apps that were installed from the Play Store. A sideloaded/debug build still works fine on the phone and on the Desktop Head Unit (DHU) emulator, but don't count on it in a real car: the Unknown sources toggle in Android Auto's developer settings is meant to allow non-Play apps, yet sideloaded car apps often still fail to appear on the head-unit launcher.

Build

./gradlew :app:installDebug        # build + install to a connected device
./gradlew :app:testDebugUnitTest   # unit tests

Requires the Android SDK (platform 35) and JDK 17. Stack: Kotlin 2.0, Compose (Material 3), Hilt, Retrofit/OkHttp + Simple-XML, libVLC (RTSP), media3 (local playback), Coil, androidx.car.app. min SDK 24 / target 35.

Bonus: custom camera sounds (firmware mod)

The camera's prompt sounds (button click, "recording started", emergency, boot, etc.) are raw 16 kHz / 16-bit / mono PCM baked into its /usr/bin/cardv binary — no Wi-Fi command exposes them. They can be replaced by patching that binary over the camera's root shell (telnet, login root, no password) and rebooting.

This is separate from the app and specific to one firmware build — the byte offsets are hardcoded, so applying them to a different version would corrupt cardv and brick the camera. It's a manual, at-your-own-risk procedure, but fully reversible via a backup of the original binary. On the reference camera (ARPHA D25, V0.0.6-20230816) the button click, "recording started" (which is the de-facto power-on sound), and the emergency-clip sound were swapped for custom clips. The full method, scripts, and rollback command are in firmware-sound-mod/ (scripts + howto only — the proprietary firmware binary and the audio clips are not included; bring your own).

Notes / TODO

• Command IDs and error codes build on nutsey/novatek-web-api-commands, verified and extended against a real ARPHA D25 (firmware Arpha-D25--V0.0.6-20230816TE).
• GPS export from clips isn't in-app yet. For now, extract on a PC with exiftool -ee -G3 -s -api LargeFileSupport=1 file.mp4 — the camera stores Novatek freeGPS binary blocks (XOR-obfuscated), not standard NMEA.
• Rear-camera RTSP stream name (av5) is a guess (no rear camera on hand to verify).