Camera Control
Updated March 12, 2022 by ShaquuUUID: 00000111-0000-1000-8000-0026BB765291
Characteristics
| Name | Required |
|---|---|
| CurrentHorizontalTiltAngle | ✕ |
| CurrentVerticalTiltAngle | ✕ |
| TargetHorizontalTiltAngle | ✕ |
| TargetVerticalTiltAngle | ✕ |
| NightVision | ✕ |
| OpticalZoom | ✕ |
| DigitalZoom | ✕ |
| ImageRotation | ✕ |
| ImageMirroring | ✕ |
| Name | ✕ |
| On | ✓ |
Notes on Cameras
Cameras are a complicated situation. If you are running the Docker way then FFMPEG will be preinstalled for you with several of the options preset (may not have all hardware accelerations built). Alternately you can download and compile your own version of FFMPEG with the build flags you need for your cameras.
For those writing examples, please include how you have installed FFMPEG!
It is recommended to add only one camera per bridge. The camera should be the “parent” service with “motion” and “doorbell” (if used) as linked services.
How to debug issues
If you have problems with FFMPEG (if you think the camera is set up properly but it “does nothing” then you might have FFMPEG problems) then please follow these steps to properly debug your FFMPEG setup.
- Configure Camera Control node in Node-RED
- Run Node-RED with
DEBUG=NRCHKB*,CameraSource*and tick “debug mode” in Camera Control -
- Try to open Camera stream in Home.app
- It will error again but will also print FFMPEG command in logs
- Run that command in terminal separately to get real problem
Examples
* Raspberry Pi Zero W
Example written by CRXPorter. Date 21 November 2020. Plugin version 1.2.0, Node-RED version 1.2.5.
Hardware:
-Raspberry Pi Zero W
-Raspberry Pi Camera Module V2\
Software setup:
Step zero: I assume you are able to set up a pi zero with SSH and Wi-Fi. I am using Raspberry Pi OS Lite
Step one: use raspi-config to enable the camera interface on the pi
Step two: install FFMPEG for HomeBridge using the script found here
Step three: install and start Node-RED with the script found here
Step four: install node-red-contrib-homekit-bridged from palette manager
Step five: import this flow. It should be a single homekit node
[{"id":"36df1f80.39e34","type":"homekit-service","z":"c9e35eda.bb75f8","isParent":true,"bridge":"f18ad79f.5081e8","parentService":"","name":"Pi zero camera","serviceName":"CameraControl","topic":"","filter":false,"manufacturer":"NRCHKB","model":"1.2.0","serialNo":"Default Serial Number","firmwareRev":"1.2.0","hardwareRev":"1.2.0","softwareRev":"1.2.0","cameraConfigVideoProcessor":"ffmpeg","cameraConfigSource":"-re -r 6 -s 1280x720 -f video4linux2 -i /dev/video0","cameraConfigStillImageSource":"-s 1280x720 -f video4linux2 -i /dev/video0","cameraConfigMaxStreams":2,"cameraConfigMaxWidth":"1280","cameraConfigMaxHeight":"720","cameraConfigMaxFPS":"6","cameraConfigMaxBitrate":300,"cameraConfigVideoCodec":"h264_omx","cameraConfigAudioCodec":"h264_omx","cameraConfigAudio":false,"cameraConfigPacketSize":"564","cameraConfigVerticalFlip":false,"cameraConfigHorizontalFlip":false,"cameraConfigMapVideo":"0:0","cameraConfigMapAudio":"0:1","cameraConfigVideoFilter":"","cameraConfigAdditionalCommandLine":"-tune zerolatency","cameraConfigDebug":false,"cameraConfigSnapshotOutput":"disabled","cameraConfigInterfaceName":"","characteristicProperties":"{}","waitForSetupMsg":false,"outputs":3,"x":430,"y":260,"wires":[[],[],[]]},{"id":"f18ad79f.5081e8","type":"homekit-bridge","bridgeName":"Camera","pinCode":"111-11-111","port":"","allowInsecureRequest":false,"manufacturer":"Raspberry Pi","model":"Pi zero w","serialNo":"00001","firmwareRev":"1.2.0","hardwareRev":"1.2.0","softwareRev":"1.2.0","customMdnsConfig":false,"mdnsMulticast":true,"mdnsInterface":"","mdnsPort":"","mdnsIp":"","mdnsTtl":"","mdnsLoopback":true,"mdnsReuseAddr":true,"allowMessagePassthrough":true}]
(Note to self: need to add this to the examples for next release)
Step six: add it to your Home.app and enjoy!
Notes:
Additional tuning could be done to optimize resolution and speed. The new Raspberry Pi High Quality camera should work with the same setup. This setup should work on a Pi 3 or 4 with very little modification. Adding a microphone, motion detector, doorbell button, or other things should be relatively simple. Visit us on discord if you’d like to discuss!
* Raspberry Pi Zero W running MotionEyeOS
This setup adds motion detection to the Pi Zero W camera. Note that the pi zero does not appear to have enough power to run MotionEye alongside Node-RED, so it is recommended to run MotionEyeOS alone on a pi with Node-RED on another server (bigger pi, nas, etc.).
- Head over to MotionEyeOS releases and download the one for “raspberrypi”, flash it to your SD card as you normally would
- Boot and set up MotionEyeOS as you like it (motion detector settings, stream quality, etc.) using their instructions. The one important part is to send your motion alerts to a webhook, the address used in the code below is
http://<node-red-pi-address>:1880/MotionEye - Import the flow below into your Node-RED machine, you will need to change the IP addresses in the camera node, so they point to your pi zero.
[{"id":"54eca8a5.3ae868","type":"homekit-service","z":"e9d44372.de7a58","isParent":true,"bridge":"e1aa7622.06a8b","parentService":"","name":"MotionEye OS","serviceName":"CameraControl","topic":"","filter":false,"manufacturer":"NRCHKB","model":"0.130.2","serialNo":"Default Serial Number","firmwareRev":"0.130.2","hardwareRev":"0.130.2","softwareRev":"0.130.2","cameraConfigVideoProcessor":"ffmpeg","cameraConfigSource":"-re -f mjpeg -i http://10.10.10.13:8081","cameraConfigStillImageSource":"-f mjpeg -i http://10.10.10.13/picture/1/current/","cameraConfigMaxStreams":2,"cameraConfigMaxWidth":1280,"cameraConfigMaxHeight":"800","cameraConfigMaxFPS":10,"cameraConfigMaxBitrate":300,"cameraConfigVideoCodec":"libx264","cameraConfigAudioCodec":"libfdk_aac","cameraConfigAudio":false,"cameraConfigPacketSize":1316,"cameraConfigVerticalFlip":false,"cameraConfigHorizontalFlip":false,"cameraConfigMapVideo":"0:0","cameraConfigMapAudio":"0:1","cameraConfigVideoFilter":"scale=1280:720","cameraConfigAdditionalCommandLine":"-tune zerolatency","cameraConfigDebug":false,"cameraConfigSnapshotOutput":"disabled","cameraConfigInterfaceName":"","characteristicProperties":"{}","waitForSetupMsg":false,"outputs":3,"x":460,"y":1680,"wires":[[],[],[]]},{"id":"ea482940.81194","type":"http in","z":"e9d44372.de7a58","name":"MotionEye","url":"/MotionEye","method":"get","upload":false,"swaggerDoc":"","x":290,"y":1540,"wires":[["10c44307.6c37ad","6a889a0f.5f851c","a3c9a20d.a1fef8"]]},{"id":"10c44307.6c37ad","type":"debug","z":"e9d44372.de7a58","name":"","active":true,"tosidebar":true,"console":false,"tostatus":false,"complete":"true","targetType":"full","statusVal":"","statusType":"auto","x":450,"y":1500,"wires":[]},{"id":"6a889a0f.5f851c","type":"http response","z":"e9d44372.de7a58","name":"Success","statusCode":"201","headers":{},"x":750,"y":1540,"wires":[]},{"id":"5ed047ac.070648","type":"homekit-service","z":"e9d44372.de7a58","isParent":false,"bridge":"","parentService":"54eca8a5.3ae868","name":"MotionEye Motion","serviceName":"MotionSensor","topic":"","filter":false,"manufacturer":"NRCHKB","model":"0.130.2","serialNo":"Default Serial Number","firmwareRev":"0.130.2","hardwareRev":"0.130.2","softwareRev":"0.130.2","cameraConfigVideoProcessor":"ffmpeg","cameraConfigSource":"","cameraConfigStillImageSource":"","cameraConfigMaxStreams":2,"cameraConfigMaxWidth":1280,"cameraConfigMaxHeight":720,"cameraConfigMaxFPS":10,"cameraConfigMaxBitrate":300,"cameraConfigVideoCodec":"libx264","cameraConfigAudioCodec":"libfdk_aac","cameraConfigAudio":false,"cameraConfigPacketSize":1316,"cameraConfigVerticalFlip":false,"cameraConfigHorizontalFlip":false,"cameraConfigMapVideo":"0:0","cameraConfigMapAudio":"0:1","cameraConfigVideoFilter":"scale=1280:720","cameraConfigAdditionalCommandLine":"-tune zerolatency","cameraConfigDebug":false,"cameraConfigSnapshotOutput":"disabled","cameraConfigInterfaceName":"","characteristicProperties":"{}","waitForSetupMsg":false,"outputs":2,"x":790,"y":1600,"wires":[[],[]]},{"id":"b29f3d75.196e1","type":"change","z":"e9d44372.de7a58","name":"","rules":[{"t":"move","p":"payload","pt":"msg","to":"payload.MotionDetected","tot":"msg"}],"action":"","property":"","from":"","to":"","reg":false,"x":570,"y":1600,"wires":[["5ed047ac.070648"]]},{"id":"a3c9a20d.a1fef8","type":"trigger","z":"e9d44372.de7a58","name":"","op1":"true","op2":"false","op1type":"bool","op2type":"bool","duration":"30","extend":true,"overrideDelay":false,"units":"s","reset":"","bytopic":"all","topic":"topic","outputs":1,"x":370,"y":1600,"wires":[["b29f3d75.196e1"]]},{"id":"e1aa7622.06a8b","type":"homekit-bridge","bridgeName":"TestCam","pinCode":"111-11-111","port":"","allowInsecureRequest":false,"manufacturer":"NRCHKB","model":"0.130.2","serialNo":"Default Serial Number","firmwareRev":"0.130.2","hardwareRev":"0.130.2","softwareRev":"0.130.2","customMdnsConfig":false,"mdnsMulticast":true,"mdnsInterface":"","mdnsPort":"","mdnsIp":"","mdnsTtl":"","mdnsLoopback":true,"mdnsReuseAddr":true,"allowMessagePassthrough":true}]
* Unifi Protect
Example written by CRXPorter.
Cameras tested:
- Unifi G3 Flex
- Unifi G3 Bullet
- Unifi G4 Doorbell
Motion detection and doorbell presses are available for advanced users, ask @crxporter on discord. A new Unifi node is pending from CRXPorter - hopefully coming late 2020.
FFMPEG was installed on a pi 4. Node-RED was installed with the official Node-RED on pi install script.
FFMPEG Install
Install build tools
sudo apt install git pkg-config autoconf automake libtool libx264-dev
ALSA runtime library
sudo apt install libasound2-dev
Download and build fdk-aac
cd ~
git clone https://github.com/mstorsjo/fdk-aac.git
cd fdk-aac
sudo ./autogen.sh
sudo ./configure --prefix=/usr/local --enable-shared --enable-static
sudo make -j4
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig
Download and build ffmpeg
cd ~
git clone https://github.com/FFmpeg/FFmpeg.git
cd FFmpeg
sudo ./configure --prefix=/usr/local --arch=armel --target-os=linux --enable-omx-rpi --enable-nonfree --enable-gpl --enable-libfdk-aac --enable-mmal --enable-libx264 --enable-decoder=h264 --enable-network --enable-protocol=tcp --enable-demuxer=rtsp
sudo make -j4
sudo make install
Clean up
cd ~
rm -rf FFmpeg
rm -rf fdk-aac
Cameras Setup
The camera node setup is quite simple for Unifi. Be sure to enable unauthenticated still images on your cameras. My fields are filled out as shown:
Video Processor: ffmpeg
Source: -re -rtsp_transport tcp -i rtsp://10.0.0.1:7447/randomstring
Still image source: -i http://10.0.1.4/snap.jpeg
Max Streams: 3
Max Width: 960
Max Height: 720
Max FPS: 10
Max Bitrate: 3072
Video Codec: h264_omx
Audio Codec: libfdk_aac
Audio: yes
Packet Sixe: 564
Map Video: 0:1
Map Audio: 0:0
Video Filter: scale=960:720
Additional Command Line: -preset slow -profile:v high -level 4.2 -x264-params intra-refresh=1:bframes=0
This is a work in progress. Written October 9, 2020. Please find me (crxporter) on our discord server if you’re having problems or would like more information.
* Reolink
(reolink here by @itsj4y)
Replace XXX with your camera’s password. Do not use Video Filter with copy codec. There may be more ideal settings but these should get you up and running.
Video Processor: ffmpeg
Source: -re -rtsp_transport tcp -i rtsp://admin:XXX@10.0.1.125:544//h264Preview_01_sub
Still image source: -i http://10.0.1.125/cgi-bin/api.cgi?cmd=Snap&channel=0&rs=wuuPhkmUCeI9WG7C&user=admin&password=XXX
Max Streams: 2
Max Width: 1280
Max Height: 720
Max FPS: 10
Max Bitrate: 3000
Video Codec: copy
Audio Codec: libfdk_aac
Audio: no
Packet Size: 1316
Map Video: 0:0
Map Audio: 0:1
Additional Command Line: -tune zerolatency