Add Tuya/Merkury Smart WiFi Camera integration

Configuration
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1

I installed Home Assistant on my Raspberry Pi 4 Model B yesterday. I’ve set up a few integrations (Google Cast, Tuya, and A Dell Printer) and am trying to add a Merkury Innovation Smart WiFi Camera. I can see its feed and control it in the TuyaSmart app (on Android) but I can’t set it up in Home Assistant. My goal is to save 5-minute recordings (MOV, MP4, I’m okay with any format) from the camera in a file like this:

/home/pi/
    SecuritySys/
        <YEAR>_<MONTH>_<DAY>/
            <START_TIME_24_HOUR>_to_<END_TIME_24_HOUR>.mp4 or mov or whatever

…or somewhere on a network drive so my SD card doesn’t run out of space.

I thought first I could set up the camera and then I could try to write a script to save files, so I went over to http://<RASPI_IP_ADDR>:8123/ and then to “Configuration > Integrations”. And also, I’ve already added the Tuya integration so I don’t know why the camera isn’t discovered automatically. So I didn’t know what I should do. I just clicked “Add Integration” and tried searching for “camera” but couldn’t find any integrations. I couldn’t find any when I tried “merkury” either.

Can someone please help?

2

I am investigating this as well, but as I understand it the Tuya integration for Home Assistant does not yet support any video cameras that otherwise work in their apps. There may be other ways to access this, but I have not found it yet, and these cameras don’t have direct (that I am aware of) RTSP video streams, which makes them hard to manage using more generic integrations.

3

I found the answer. You can’t configure Tuya cameras with Home Assistant. For that, you have to get a camera that supports Onvif (I think that’s how you spell it, I don’t remember). I got an Amcrest camera that supports Onvif and now I’ve added the implementation to my Home Assistant instance. You can find these cameras for somewhere near $60 on Amazon.

4

I actually have several of the Merkury (Tuya) 1080p Camera’s. I have them all connected to the MotionEye home-assistant integration using an RTSP video feed from each camera. The camera’s do support RTSP and ONVIF, however you have to enable the functionality by “hacking” the cameras and installing/adding the missing files that enable RTSP and ONVIF streaming capabilities. Have a look at this github repository, as it contains all the files and instructions for modifying the camera’s to support RTSP and ONVIF. guino/Merkury720: Root and Customization for Merkury 720P and similar cameras (github.com). This definitely opens up a world of new possibilities with these camera’s being as cheap as they are…