CribWatch Root

Stanislav Kubín

About this app

CribWatch Root is an add-on for CribWatch, the baby monitor made of two phones. It is meant for the camera phone — and only for phones that are rooted.

WHAT IT DOES

• Illuminator — switches a light on when the camera starts capturing video and off when it stops. Typically the infrared LED of phones with a night-vision camera.
• Minimum brightness — when the camera dims its screen at night, the add-on pushes the backlight below the minimum Android allows, so the phone by the crib doesn't light up the room.

HOW IT WORKS

Both functions write a value to a file under /sys that controls the LED or the backlight. Which file and which values depends on the phone: use a ready-made configuration (the app includes one for the AGM H3), or set the file and values yourself — there is a root file browser and buttons to try each value.

You don't need to keep the app open. CribWatch starts it by itself when “Control via CribWatch Root” is turned on in its settings on the camera phone. When CribWatch stops watching, the add-on switches the light off and returns the brightness.

REQUIREMENTS

• A rooted phone with a root manager (for example Magisk).
• CribWatch installed on the same phone and set up as the camera.

Without root the add-on can't do anything — and CribWatch works without it exactly as before.

PRIVACY

The add-on has no internet permission and collects nothing. It only writes the values you set to the files you chose. Commands come only from CribWatch on the same phone; the add-on checks the sender's signature before doing anything.

Questions, or a phone you'd like a ready-made configuration for? Write to [e-mail].

What’s new

• Try each function with one tap: the illuminator lights up or the screen dims for five seconds, then everything is switched back.
• A clearer settings screen.
• AGM H3: its ready-made configuration is offered automatically and the illuminator lights up only with the infrared camera.
• Screen brightness comes back after dimming even in the dark, also after the add-on restarts.
• Clearer help when root access is missing.
• The add-on follows CribWatch's language.