Ok let me rephrase that:
Connecting any camera that is possible to connect to HA, will not preclude you from using the manufacturer’s app.
There is a custom Integration to allow Eufy into HA.
Dahua cameras and doorbells integrate with HA quite well, original app also exists. NVR device itself is cheap (100€ range) for 4-channel nvr without HDD. Cameras are from 35-40€ upwards.
I just switched my Dahua NVR (7 cameras) from the 3rd party integration to Onvif as development seems to have stalled. It cut my start-up time in half (60+ sec to ~30 sec). The only thing I lose is the ability to tell if it was a vehicle or a human that triggered the smart movement, and I don’t do anything different for either, so no big loss.
Ah okay thanks. I’ll see if I can find it
I’d go with Dahua instead of Eufy though.
But if want Eufy.
I cannot seem to find a Dahua doorbell available in the UK though.
It also seems that are more aimed at businesses rather than residential and I’d need WiFi cameras too.
Hi.
I’m using for my home security the motion eye add on. I’m saving the recorded video an pictures on the ssd of HA. Works very well.
Camera I always buy from aliexxpress. Very cheap an the qualtity is ok. To integrate the cameras I prefer cameras with onvif and rtsp stream. My last oneI bought cost 25 €.
And because is everything local I cut the Internet connection of the cameras. I made a Handy Dashboard, so my wife can use them too easily
Well, i can give you link from our local (Slovenian) web shop, you can get at least model numbers (an prices for comparison) from there and do a search on amazon. Outdoor units: link → you can translate via google . This web shop is known to have very decent prices in our region, i buy all stuff from them. I doubt they ship to UK, though, so it’s just as a reference.You can also find NVR’s and cameras here. (Note that i’m not in any way connected with this shop, nor i have any benefits from them! It’s purely info!)
I have DAHUA-VTO2211G-WP outdoor unit.
Personally, i wouldn’t go with wifi cameras unless absolutely necessary. Get POE models, wifi is unreliable, picture can stutter etc…
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Thanks I’ll take a look. Cannot seem to find any videos though of people using it within a smart home setting.
I have no choice but to go for a few wifi cameras due to the setup of my house exterior.
Take a look at Reolink as well. They have both WiFi and POE versions, offer a dedicated NVR and app, has an official integration into HA and are usually fairly priced. My only real complaint about them is the night mode isn’t as great as some others, but daytime/evening quality is fantastic. You can kind of fix the night mode issues by adding IR extenders or floodlights. Plus, IIRC, they are a UK based company as well.
I have a reolink camera already and theres no image with the notification. I tried setting up Pushover with my gmail address but keep getting errors. I have emailed Reolink for help.
I also have outdoor wiring for a floodlight and want to use that wiring. Unless I just put an outdoor plug socket on the wall instead. It’s high up.
Are you referring to the native app’s notification? If that’s the case, yeah, they don’t offer that yet (they’ve been saying for over a year now it’s on the roadmap). You can get a notification with an attached image using HA notifications and a simple automation.
You can do this with a POE injector wired in. Basically, you terminate the wiring into an outlet, then you add the POE injector and you have a POE capable outlet right there. You’d still have to run an ethernet cable there, but tbh, if you are going to do that, might as well just terminate the wiring and go POE at that point. Alternately, you could mount the camera AND a floodlight there together. I’ve done that for one of my cameras I have high up on my house. I added a smart outlet into the existing wiring and ran that out to my floodlights. When the camera detects motion, I have an automation that turns on the floods as well.
I have this setup with frigate on HA, but it’s so flakey.
I cannot seem to find any help on sending an image when triggered. Any help please?
This is using the companion app: (I didn’t write this, just lifted it from the docs). You would just need to call the snapshot service and save the file to a media folder. Then you can attach it.
automation:
- alias: Notify Mobile app attachment
trigger:
...
action:
- service: notify.mobile_app_<your_device_id_here>
data:
message: "Something happened at home!"
data:
# an example of an absolute url
image: "https://www.home-assistant.io/images/default-social.png"
# example of a relative url
image: "/media/local/image.png"
# the same works for video
video: "/media/local/video.mp4"
# and for audio
audio: "/media/local/audio.mp3"
thanks, but cannot get it to work. My camera is called front_garden, how does it know to look at that?
You would need a service call to camera.snapshot in the automation before sending the notification.
I’m mobile right now, so I can’t type out the YAML, but I can when I get back to my computer this evening (or someone else can code it up :)).
sticky: true
notification_icon: mdi:doorbell
image: /api/camera_proxy/camera.front_door
channel: doorbell
actions:
- action: URI
title: Open Camera
uri: /lovelace/cctv
This is how I got mine working for my android phone, its showing front door twice in the camera entity as its the name used for the camera in my synology nvr setup and the area in my HA setup when first setup so I just edit the entity to correct it.
The doorbell channel is auto created in the app and its in the companion app where you tell it what audio file to use for the chime (the file must be saved to the phone to work), I have yet to work out how to have it bypass silent mode via critical state and preset a volume on the phone to play the chime then mute again.
edit update: I have worked out how to get the chime working on android when the HA notification comes up without a specific filter set to the notification using tasker:
You first create a new event with the following dedicated to HA:
Then for the linked task you use the following to control the audio level of the phone and to play the chime file, (as you are setting the ringer volume it’s playing the file directly not tied to whats set in the companion app):
To have a specific file play for each notification channel/type you need to make sure that the Notification 2 Title option is selected in the If field for that specific alert and have the title you set from the notifications action in HA is exactly the same to trigger it:
