Adding cameras, motion detection, saving files on RPi, uploads to external FTP

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Hi!
As the subject says it all I am trying to connect the few cams I have to Home Automation and was wondering what would be the best solution.

Right now I am fiddling with MotionEye but it’s not exactly working as I wish (probably because I don’t know how to do what I would like to).

So I have 3 (probably 2 more coming) cams. Different brands who can do jpeg and rtsp (well in theory - still looking for the RTSP feed for one, but I got ONVIF working through HA for that one).

I’d like to be able to move the cameras through buttons, listen, talk (eventually, when supported), and record the feed when there is movement.

At this stage the cheapest cam (which doesn’t have manual doc and lousy tech support) works in the overview and I managed to add the buttons. But it’s not recording anything.

After installing MotionEye I was able to have all the cameras, though the cheap one is through JPEG link. I am starting to toy with motion detection but I’d like to say that file to a USB connected drive to my RPi. Dmesg says it’s /dev/sda1 but that’s about as far as I got. Also I haven’t been able to add any motion buttons neither.

Another observation is that my RPi CPU usage went from 2% to 40% after installing (and using) MotionEye.

Last observation is that the Reolink native app is a lot more smooth than MotionEye RTSP. Are there ways to fix that?

So I feel it’s a lot of questions and maybe not very well organized :thinking: but the real question is probably what is the best way with multiple brand cameras to:

  • Stream when at home (I’ll block external access or eventually add VPN access to do so)
  • Be able to move the camera up/down/right/left from the GUI
  • Be able to listen either while streaming or when recording
  • Eventually be able to speak when streaming
  • Save stream when motion is detected
  • The “save” part can be on RPi USB connected device
  • Upload those saved files to dropbox or any FTP server on the outside world (I believe I can do that without HA eventually)
  • Eventually send an alert when motion is detected

Thank you very much for some directions.

Fred

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This sounds incredibly similar to what I’m looking to do, specifically with uploading the saved files to a remote location. Wondering if you were able to get that working?

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Same experiences and needs on my side:
-I use an EUFY and a REOLINK where the EUFY so far does not provide motion detection to HA

  • My NAS (WD MyCloud EX2) does not support RTSP but FTP
  • My Eufy cam does not support FTP
  • MotionEye utilized the RP a lot ~ 40% utiliztion just with one camera installed

Is there a solution based on HA-SambaNas to utilize the HA-SSD for recording the RTSP pictures?

So I would be keen on any solution too.

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This integration supports motion sensors and streaming for your cameras inside home assistant. GitHub - fuatakgun/eufy_security: Home Assistant integration to manage Eufy Security devices as cameras, home base stations, doorbells, motion and contact sensors.