Cast Camera when Doorbell Pressed

Configuration
1

I’ve got a Ubiquiti G4 Doorbell and wanted to cast its video to a display every time it gets pressed. Below is the automation but it doesn’t seem to trigger. I figured it was a simple automation and just cannot wrap my head around what could possibly be wrong.

While in the UI, editing the automation, when I click “Run Action”, it will cast the camera stream correctly. After the doorbell is pressed (there are no errors in the log), and when I check the entity history it shows correctly each time it is activated (see screenshot). After pressing the doorbell, there are no errors in the log.

What am I missing?

doorbell

- id: '1615989694017'
  alias: Someone's at the Door
  description: Cast Doorbell Video to Smart Display
  trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.g4doorbell_porch
    to: 'on'
  condition: []
  action:
  - service: camera.play_stream
    data:
      media_player: media_player.lenovo_smart_display
    target:
      entity_id: camera.g4doorbell_porch
  mode: single
2

What does the state become when the doorbell is pressed? It may not be ‘on’, it may be ‘occupied’. Watch the states tab in dev-tools, or the bit you screenshotted as someone presses the bell.

My motion sensors come up as “Detected” when they see something.

3

So in the screenshot above, in between the “clear” states is a tiny sliver which is identified as the “detected” state, just as you mentioned. However, I didn’t think you need to indicate the state to be “detected” or “clear” in the code. Per ‘binary sensor’ page, on and off have specific meanings for different device types.

4

You are probably right (I thought about it more after posting!).

Take a look in states in dev tools, just to humour me.

5

This is the first time I’ve ever gone into this part of the app … lol

I’m assuming this is what you are asking?

doorbellState

Since it is currently in the ‘off’ state, that means on/off should work?

6

Yes it is, well done :slight_smile: To go the whole hog, press the doorbell while looking at that panel.

Also, try taking the quotes out of ‘on’ in the automation trigger.

7

Alright, I’ll give that a go in the morning and report back.
The family will not appreciate the doorbell ringing at this hour :smiley:

8

It seems awfully strange, but putting in the quotations seemed to have fixed it … thanks for that suggestion. It’s with using on/off as opposed to clear/detected.

Still on this topic of casting the camera stream to a media player, what occurs right now is that it streams continuously until told otherwise. How would I go about “disconnecting” the cast after a certain amount of time? Would it have to be done via another automation? or is there something that can be done within this one i’m fiddling around with?

9

I think you can put a delay in the action, and after the delay turn it off.