Add ICSEE Camera to HA (rtsp)

Configuration
1

I bought myself a very cheap Chinese build Bulb Camera with Fish-Eye lens just to play around. To add it too HA wasn’t as easy as I expected. But with an evening playing around I managed to get it working within HA.
The below guide is for camera’s that need the ICSEE app to use the camera. I tested it only with my Bulb Camera, but I expect all ICSEE camera’s to work with this method.

Steps:

  1. Download the ICSEE app, login as “guest (Quick Login)”. Add the camera to your Wi-Fi, set a password and close the app.
  2. Find the IP address of the camera in your router’s DHCP settings.
  3. Use a Windows computer and use an old version of Internet Explorer, all new browsers don’t seem to work with the web server of the camera.
  4. Install the browser addon NewActive.exe (https://ixnfo.com/en/newactive-exe-plug-in-for-partizan-cameras.html)
  5. Surf to the IP address of your camera: http://[ipaddress]/, login using username “admin”, password as you have set during the initial config with the ICSEE app.
  6. Check all the device settings and make sure RTSP is enabled and on which port.
    ss0
    ss0551×543 13.1 KB

Now comes the tricky part, finding the rtsp stream link…

  1. Install the app called iSpy (I used my windows computer). https://www.ispyconnect.com/download.aspx
  2. In iSpy, click add, add IP camera with wizard
  3. Try different options for Chinese camera’s or use ICSEE option that I used (see screenshots)
    ss1
    ss1640×567 9.47 KB

    Enter your credentials:
    ss2
    ss2625×558 6.41 KB

    Enter the IP-Adress of the camera:
    ss3
    ss3639×563 30 KB

    Press next to start the scan for possible URL’s.
  4. After the scan is complete you get a list with (sometimes) a LOT of URL’s to try. I might have been lucky, the 5th one I tried worked.

Now add the camera to HA:

  1. I used the following con fig for the camera:
camera:
- platform: generic
  name: Front Door
  still_image_url: http://[ipaddress]/webcapture.jpg?user=[username]&password=[password]&command=snap&channel=1
  stream_source: rtsp://[username]:[password]@[ipaddress]:554/user=[username]&password=[password]&channel=1&stream=0.sdp?
  1. If your camera supports HD/SD streams, usually stream=0.sdp? is the HD stream and stream=1.sdp? is the SD stream.
  2. Have a look around what your still image url might be. I tried multiple ones I found online for “chinese camera still image/snapshot url” with google.
  3. Delete the ICSEE app from your phone, and if you can, place the camera in a seperate VLAN so it can’t “phone home” :slight_smile:

All working now! Have fun making some automations with your newly added very cheap camera. ICSEE cameras are well availbale on all Chinese retail sources.

8 Likes
2

Did you check the PTZ controls?

1 Like
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No I didn’t as my bulb light is fixed…

4

Hey man, I just wanted to say that I got my ptz cam to work in motioneye using the same config you posted, I didn’t have to do all the process, thanks!

2 Likes
5

Cool! Glad to hear the solution still works. :+1:t2:

1 Like
6

Hi,

Thanks for your post, it helps me a lot figuring out the rtsp url for this type of camera.
Cheap with pretty good hardware and good web configuration. It’s comparable to my Foscam (more expensive)

7

For those struggling with installing IE. You can enable IE mode in Microsoft Edge.
Enable IE mode: edge://settings/defaultBrowser and enable reload in IE mode.
When navigating to the webpage, click the three dots → reload in IE mode.

8

Tks for the help

9

Same here. rtsp and picture worked with first try. Thank you

10

Hello,
there is a method to turn on the light from HA or trought curl?

11

hey mate, what PTZ camera did you get as im looking at this camera to test out

12

For ICSEE PTZ Camera:

2 Likes
13

Hi, I’m following your steps until step6 (enabling RTSP). I’m getting a error prompting ‘Get config from device failed’ when trying to open RTSP in the NetService menu.
What does this mean? RTSP isn’t available on my camera? Am I missing something?

14

Hi, did you find a way to turn the light on and off?

16

No sorry not found

17

This helped me, got my cam working!

2 Likes
18

Could you post how your config.yaml file turned out? I’ve been trying to configure my cameras but to no avail.

19

I have 3 ICSee cameras and one doesn’t have ONVIF and the option to enable it is not shown in the software above.

I was about to throw it away but found that go2rtc can read the stream using the same protocol that ICSee uses. For PTZ, I just created a custom integration that also allows to control it.

If you also want PTZ and have no ONVIF:

(there are instructions on how to integrate PTZ with the WebRTC card and get the video stream from go2rtc)

BTW, with the software from the video @virtaz posted, I was able to increase the FPS of the cameras from 12 to 30 and the work really well!

3 Likes
20

I am not able to make the video appear on the card…it is giving password and user error…
Can you help?

ERR: mse: source 0 error: user/pass not provided error

image

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You have to pass the login data. The user is usually admin and the password is the one you used in icsee.
Rtsp://admin:[email protected]/… (See first post by bjornb)

If that doesn’t work, try with go2rtc and a dvrip stream (more info in the icsee_ptz link in my previous post)

1 Like