Camera Wi-Fi

PTP-IP needs the phone and the camera on one IP network. OpenZCine supports three Wi-Fi paths. Each is a declared setup, chosen once and saved per camera, never re-derived from an SSID or a subnet afterwards (transport architecture).

Path	Who joins whom	Camera menu	App behavior
Camera AP	The phone joins the camera’s own network	Connection wizard shows the SSID and key	The only path with Wi-Fi join code
Router (infrastructure)	Both join an existing network	Network menu, Connect to PC, a profile for that network	Never touches Wi-Fi settings; searches the current network
Hotspot	The camera joins the phone’s Personal Hotspot	Connect to PC with a profile for the hotspot	Hosts and waits; scans and joins nothing

USB-C and HDMI capture are the other two setup kinds; see PTP-IP and USB transport. A camera can hold one setup per kind, and a DHCP move updates the router setup’s address in place.

Camera access point

The camera’s Connection wizard screen shows its network name and key. The app can read both from that screen with the phone camera: on-device text recognition hands one transcript to the shared CameraWiFiScreenParser, which validates the Nikon Z network shape and repairs common look-alike characters. The operator reviews the result before joining. When the scan cannot validate a format, manual entry accepts the name and key as typed.

SSIDs are not synthesized for unknown bodies. The ZR’s network name can be derived from its PTP name; other bodies use the exact scanned or stored name, and a setup without one joins by Nikon brand prefix.

Never publish the key

The camera key, scan screenshots and saved credentials must not appear in issues, pull requests or captures. Keys are stored in the iOS Keychain or an Android Keystore-encrypted store; Android writes one only after a successful join.

Platform	Join
iOS 18+	AccessorySetupKit system picker, joinAccessoryHotspot
iOS 17	NEHotspotConfiguration (Hotspot Configuration entitlement)
Android	WifiNetworkSpecifier plus ConnectivityManager.bindProcessToNetwork

The access point’s IP is not a constant across bodies, firmware or regions. After the join, connect rediscovers the camera on the live link instead of dialing a guessed address. An access-point setup that has never learned an address is stored under a non-dialable placeholder key. The access point has no internet; see iOS notes for how the app routes around that.

Router and hotspot

On a router the camera must have a Connect to PC profile for that same network. The infrastructure finder (InfrastructureDiscovery.swift) browses continuously, probes known hosts patiently, then sweeps the local subnet. After two empty passes it offers manual host entry. When nothing is found it reports a typed reason instead of an endless search:

Reason	Meaning
Still on the camera AP	The phone is on the camera’s network, so a router search cannot succeed
Silent network	Almost nothing answers: wrong network, client isolation, or a permission problem
Hosts but no PTP-IP	Devices answer, but nothing accepts port 15740. Connect to PC is off, or isolation blocks the camera
Held by another device	Another OpenZCine device holds the only camera found
Budget exhausted	No camera and no stronger diagnosis

On the hotspot path the phone is the network. iOS waits for the camera to appear on the hotspot subnet; Android waits on NSD discovery.

Discovery

Step	Detail
Bonjour	Browse _ptp._tcp for the lifetime of the search (iOS Network framework, Android NSD)
Port sweep	Connect and close on TCP 15740, bounded width, no PTP bytes sent
Identify	A minimal Init_Command_Request only against hosts that answered, to read the camera name
Liveness	Saved cameras are checked with a kernel-level dial, never a PTP Init

Every private IPv4 range is scanned, 10/8 included. The plan starts from the subnets the phone actually has an address in and widens to neighbouring /24s, nearest first (SubnetScanPlan.swift).

Probing is deliberately gentle. A camera serves one PTP-IP initiator, and an Init from a second device drops the first device’s session or knocks a body out of pairing mode. A camera another OpenZCine device announces as held is listed as in use and is not probed.

Operator steps for each path: Troubleshooting. Once the camera is reachable, open the PTP-IP session.