Is there any way to use Home Assistant to enable and disable Reolink cameras ? I don’t just mean nvr recording, I mean taking them off the network.
Reason is that I would like to use HA to control is the cameras are transmitting or not, e.g. when a pet sitter comes over I would like to turn off the cameras as she unlocks the door (Nuki smart door). This way I can gurantee her that the cameras are not meant to supervise her. Or I could turn all cameras off while we are home, and only turn them on when no one is in the house. I looked through the camera entities but could not find anything. The solution ideally should include to remove the cam from the Reolink app/client as well. Thanks a lot.
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You can enable “privacy mode”, which stops the camera from recording or streaming (to home assistant or reolink app).
For my reolink camera named (front door), there’s a state switch.front_door_privacy_mode that you can toggle on/off. Easiest way to get to it is go to Settings → Device & Services → Reolink Devices → Click on the Camera Device (to go to the device), then see it as an option in the Configuration.
If you have several indoor cameras, you can group them together with a helper. (Go to Settings → Devices & Services → Select “Helpers” tab (at the top) → Press “+ Create Helper”, Select Group, Switch Group, and search for “Privacy Mode” and add all the cameras you want with some name. (Like reolink_camera_group
You can change the state of a switch in an automation action using “Switch: Turn on”, note the newly created reolink_camera_group switch will be an option.
Granted, the cameras are still have power, you can still access previously recorded video (saved on SD card), they just aren’t recording or able to be viewed through the app or home assistant (until a user exits privacy mode, which is just a click for the normal user). If you are really paranoid you could try getting a switch where you can toggle the PoE (or regular power) to cut power to cameras.
(I note I’m answering a two-year old question and this may not have existed at the time the question was asked; but just answering in case anyone else stumbles across this unanswered question).
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Great leads with the privacy mode, I wasn’t aware of it, thanks for this. I checked the Reolink page and it says it is only for the E1 Series. I will check with Reolink if the E1 Outdoor Pro also has privacy mode as it is not listed as one of the E1 series models. I confirmed that I have latest firmware, but I do not get a privacy switch in HA on none of my E1 models. I will check with Reolink what is going on here. I tried on a dev RPi using a new Reolink integration. I have the cams on a Reolink NVR and in the limited nvr cam settings I also don’t have any privacy toggles. I can’t check the cam directly as it is on the nvr wifi. Another problem is though that all of my outdoor cameras are not E1 models, so I could use a smart power plug for those. The privacy mode together with the smart power plugs on the models that don’t have privacy mode could be the solution. Just need to get privacy mode to work on my E1 series. I will report back once I got the privacy mode working.