Reolink POE IP Camera Setup

[starkillerOG]

@DuckDuck25

I"m very interested in the Reolink Duo Floodlight PoE. Specs look great and meet my requirements. With the latest HA builds is Reolink streaming and real time even notification sensors rock solid? How about object detection? Is setting up motion-based NVR clip storage easy? I’d also like to stream to Homekit via HA or Scrypted. Are there better camera solutions that have a similar feature set?

In my experiance the event notification are very fast and rock solid, but since I wrote the code and it is specifically tested on my enviroment and camera models my opinion may be biased. However I also hear from other users that it seems to work very well.

Streaming does have some lack but does work properly for me, you can reduce lack by using something like go2rtc or webrtc addons, but that is a more advanced configuration.

AI people, vehicle detection works far better than motion detection (motion does have false positives from trees blowing in the wind etc.) but people detection is almost flawless for me.

motion/AI based NVR recording is really easy to setup.

If you decide to go for the Reolink cameras, please consider buying them through this affiliate link.

[starkillerOG]

The detection area configured in the Reolink app should also apply to the HomeAssistant binary sensor events.
So you would need to fine-tune the detection area size, please look in the Reolink app to see if all detected events are identicall in HomeAssistant. If HomeAssistant is seeing events that are not visible in the playback of the Reolink App, then you should tell me and I can look into it, otherwise you just need to fine-tune your settings in the Reolink app.

[Olivier974 (Electronlibre)]

Hello @starkillerOG

i would like to know please why i cant have the video records in media browser with the “official” integration of Reolink in HA?
In your HACS version, i have a folder Reolink where i can found all my videos records on the NVR and can browse it and play videos.

The last firmware v3.3.0.226_23031609 for RNL410-8 seems buggy…which one do you advise to use please?

Thanks

[starkillerOG]

Hi @Olivier974, as aswered in the github issue Issues · starkillerOG/reolink_aio · GitHub

1. playback of old recodings trough the media browser is not yet supported by the build-in reolink integration. That is the only part still missing in the current build-in integration. There is some work beeing done on this by @xannor. The HACS version has a rather complex and dirty implementation, so it needes restructuring, cleanup, simplification and needs to adhere to the HomeAssistant rules.
2. I am using the v3.3.0.226_23031609 on my RLN8-410 N3MB01 withouth any issues. You will need at least this firmware version for proper push messages for the binary sensors (motion, AI people, vehicle, pet, person and doorbell press). I would strongly advise to stick to that firmware untill a newer one is released.

Do you have any issues on the latest firmware with the build-in reolink integration? (besides media browser not beeing available).

[jimford]

I’ve got a pair of Reolink RLC-410-5MP cameras and was surprised to see that several features appear to be supported.
Am I correct in thinking that if an entity is displayed, then that feature is supported?
Also, how do I set up ‘Email on Event’, ‘FTP Upload’ and ‘Push Notifications’?
Jim

[mnpg1 (Mnpg)]

With the Trigger ON/Off of the each surveillance modes, you can activate these modes whenever you want.
So in you case, activate these modes (main enable/disable button) before you want to be apply the schedule you have defined for these surveillance modes.
For example : on the week days, you want to get inform about event through the differents surveillance mode. Activate the main button (on/off) of these surveillance modes before and you will have your events (defined by the surveillance schedules). After that, disable the main button.

[Luca1996O]

They’re different. In Reolink app, if I activate notifications, I receive them only if a person walk by inside the detection area (not grey). If a person walk in the grey area (drawn in Reolink app), I don’t receive notifications.

In HA, instead, I always receive notifications. It seems it ignores completely the detection area… Can you please verify it? Thank you

[SgtBatten]

I assume the difference is that the reolink camera still detects there is a person (and therefore HA sensor is true) regardless of where the object is. But reolinks software says don’t notify if it’s here, and HA doesn’t have that same software to do the same thing.

[starkillerOG]

@jimford in principle yes, if it shows up in HomeAssistant it should be supported by the camera and be available in the reolink app/client for more detailed configuration. If this is not the case and HomeAssistant is showing stuff not supported by the camera this schould be reported as a bug on github and I will fix it.

@Luca1996O I will verify on my own camera’s once I have some time, it is noted in my to do list.

[jimford]

Thanks for the reply ‘starkillerOG’.
I’d guessed that all the displayed entities are available. (I haven’t worked out how to FTP into the camera yet though!)
Jim

[fuzzyfelt]

Is there a way to browse the SD card snapshots in HA?

[LeiChat (Richard)]

Thank you for the integration.

Will it be possible for the siren.cameraname_siren state to return on/off?
Mine currently always return ‘unknown’ but I am able to turn on and turn off the siren through HA using the default UI on the ‘more info’ dialog window.

Have you heard back from ReoLink about whether it will be possible to trigger a smart reply manually (from Home Assistant) ? In their smartphone app you can preview each message by tapping the small white ‘play’ icon on the left and the paper plane/messenger icon on the right triggers the quick reply to play on the doorbell.

[mnpg1 (Mnpg)]

Hi @LeiChat, there is, right now even in the latest firmware no API command to trigger one of these messages you’ve created. I don’t know if this functionnality will be added in the future.
Regards

[LeiChat (Richard)]

Thank you for confirming. Fingers crossed ReoLink expose this in the API in the future.

Does the API return the state of the siren?
I had a little nose at this ReoLink PDF and found GetBuzzerAlarmV20 and AudioAlarmPlay but they might relate to other features.

I am able to start and stop the siren on the doorbell through Home Assistant dialog but it doesn’t seem to affect the entity state.

The option I was considering was a boolean Helper for the alarm state that I could toggle from the siren’s ‘on event’ entity but that doesn’t always seem to capture the siren being turned on.

[mnpg1 (Mnpg)]

@LeiChat

I am able to start and stop the siren on the doorbell through Home Assistant dialog but it doesn’t seem to affect the entity state.

I don’t know why your doorbell siren do not understand the API command. If the API can change the state of the siren, it can start and stop his status. Perhaps it’s need a refresh of the status

[LeiChat (Richard)]

Perhaps, when I have tested, I am not leaving the siren active for long enough for the API to register the change of state. I did not want to irritate my neighbours.

[mnpg1 (Mnpg)]

In another post, i explain that there are 2 modes to trigger the siren : the manual mode -included in the official reolink integration- and the repeat mode.
This last feature isn’t include in official reolink integration because it’s not based to turn on or off the siren as explain before.
Please, take a look if it’s suit to your need:

Reolink camera call siren

Which reolink camera do you have? Is this camera behind a nvr? EDIT : in the reolink integration module, you can only turn off or on the siren. Perhaps, with an automation you can do that. On the other way, It exists another mode for the siren than can do what you want : the repeat mode. This mode is not included in the official reolink integration. For that, you’ve to work-around that missing feature by using shell_commands and this bash script that activate the siren just for a limited t…

[Luca1996O]

Hi!

Is there any update on it? Did you check that?

Thank you.

Luca.

[starkillerOG]

Yes I just checked with my Reolink E1 Zoom, If I set HomeAssistant side by side with the reolink desktop client all person events exactly match and the grey zone works as expected. Within the grey zone a person is not detected both in desktop app as in HomeAssistant.
Note that motion detection seems to ignore the grey zone both in the reolink desktop app as in HomeAssistant.

I could not find any diffrent behaviour between HomeAssistant and the Reolink desktop app.
The grey zones are working as expected.

Have you tried putting HomeAssistant binary sensors side by side to the Reolink desktop app?
Do you see diffrent behaviour between the two?

[modernhistorian]

I set up an RLC830A with this integration. I wrote a webrtc card with controls for PTZ and presets, like so:

      shortcuts:
        - name: left
          icon: mdi:arrow-left
          service: button.press
          service_data:
            entity_id: button.entrance_camera_ptz_left
        - name: Preset 1
          icon: mdi:numeric-1-box
          service: select.select_option
          service_data:
            entity_id: select.entrance_camera_ptz_preset
            option: '1'

The preset button works properly, but the left button takes the camera all the way to the stop. Any way to make it go a short distance, or would I have to use onvif for that?

Also, I see that the camera mainstream is disabled by default in the integration. How would I enable it? Thanks.