supercamera

Python driver for USB endoscopes that use the supercamera / useeplus protocol — the cheap endoscopes sold under brands like Oasis, Depstech, and others that only work with the "UseeePlus" mobile app.

These devices don't implement standard UVC, so they won't show up as webcams. This package talks to them directly over USB and gives you JPEG frames or numpy arrays.

Supported devices

Check yours with lsusb (Linux) or system_profiler SPUSBDataType (macOS).

Install

pip install supercamera

For OpenCV/numpy support (.read() returns numpy arrays):

pip install supercamera[opencv]

Usage

Python API

from supercamera import Camera

# Like cv2.VideoCapture
with Camera() as cam:
    ret, frame = cam.read()  # numpy array (BGR), requires opencv
    # or
    jpeg_bytes = cam.read_jpeg()  # raw JPEG, no extra deps

Multiple cameras

from supercamera import Camera, list_devices

list_devices()       # returns list of CameraInfo with bus/address
Camera(index=0)      # first camera
Camera(index=1)      # second camera

Note: these devices often share the same serial number, so use index or bus/address to distinguish them.

CLI

supercamera --list       # list connected cameras
supercamera              # capture one frame
supercamera -n 10        # capture 10 frames
supercamera -i 1         # use second camera
supercamera --show       # live view (requires opencv-python)

Frame validation

from supercamera import is_valid_jpeg
is_valid_jpeg(jpeg_bytes)  # True/False (uses Pillow full decode if available)

OpenCV pipeline example

import cv2
from supercamera import Camera

cam = Camera()
while True:
    ret, frame = cam.read()
    if not ret:
        continue
    gray = cv2.cvtColor(frame, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
    cv2.imshow("endoscope", gray)
    if cv2.waitKey(1) & 0xFF == ord("q"):
        break
cam.release()

How it works

These endoscopes use a proprietary USB protocol (com.useeplus.protocol) instead of UVC. The driver:

1. Claims USB interfaces, sends magic init (ff 55 ff 55 ee 10) and connect command (bb aa 05 00 00)
2. Reads bulk USB packets containing JPEG-encoded 640x480 frames
3. Properly resets the device on disconnect so it's ready for the next session

Resolution is 640x480 regardless of what the product listing claims.

Testing

Plug in one or both cameras, then:

python test_camera.py

Runs: device listing, single capture, 3x reconnect (no replug), OpenCV read, and two-camera simultaneous capture (if two connected).

Platform notes

• macOS: Works out of the box. No kernel extensions needed.
• Linux: Works. You may need a udev rule for non-root access:

  echo 'SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="2ce3", ATTR{idProduct}=="3828", MODE="0666"' | \
    sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/99-supercamera.rules
  sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
  

• Windows: Should work with libusb + Zadig driver. Untested.

Credits

Protocol reverse-engineered by:

• hbens/geek-szitman-supercamera (C++ PoC, CC0)
• MAkcanca/useeplus-linux-driver (Linux kernel driver)

License

MIT