Send different camera screenshot to phone depending on triggering entity?

1

I have an automation which triggers my home alarm when a security sensor is triggered. I’d like to extend it by sending a screenshot from the relevant security camera to my phone, depending on which sensor was triggered. For example, if the motion sensor in the kitchen is triggered I want to send a snapshot from the kitchen camera. If the lounge motion sensor is triggered I want to send a snapshot from the lounge camera.

I currently use this code (in a script) to send a snapshot to my phone from my doorbell camera when someone presses the doorbell:

  - service: camera.snapshot
    data:
      filename: /config/www/doorbell_snapshot.jpg
    target:
      entity_id: camera.doorbell
  - service: notify.mobile_app_moto_g_5g_plus
    data:
      message: Someone at the front door
      title: Doorbell Pressed
      data:
        image: /local/doorbell_snapshot.jpg

I want to add similar logic to the automation below, which currently triggers the home alarm when any of the security sensors are triggered. Any idea whether/how I can add logic which sends a specific camera snapshot depending on which sensor triggered the alarm?

alias: Trigger alarm while armed (home or away)
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.pir_kitchen
    to: "on"
  - platform: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.kitchen_window
    to: "on"
  - platform: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.kitchen_window
    to: "off"
  - platform: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.kitchen_external_door
    to: "on"
  - platform: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.front_door
    to: "on"
  - platform: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.lounge_sliding_doors
    to: "on"
  - platform: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.lounge_sliding_doors2
    to: "on"
  - platform: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.pir_study
    to: "on"
  - platform: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.pir_lounge
    to: "on"
  - platform: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.pir_garage
    to: "on"
  - platform: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.garage_internal_door
    to: "on"
condition:
  - condition: or
    conditions:
      - condition: state
        entity_id: alarm_control_panel.home_alarm
        state: armed_away
      - condition: state
        entity_id: alarm_control_panel.home_alarm
        state: armed_home
action:
  - service: alarm_control_panel.alarm_trigger
    entity_id: alarm_control_panel.home_alarm
  - service: input_boolean.turn_on
    data: {}
    target:
      entity_id: input_boolean.alarm_triggered
mode: single
2

Should be possible, I guess a lot will depend on what type of cameras you have, how they have been added, local / cloud etc.

I would start by giving each trigger an ID, so for example if you are looking to send a pic from a the same 1 kitchen camera when any of the kitchen triggers give them all an trigger ID the same (kitchen) for example.

Then you could use a choose option in the actions to choose what actions to take depending on what the trigger id was / is.

With regards the snapshot I guess it depends on make, integration etc. But don’t forget you could use the snapshot service (assuming your cameras support this), have the choose action take a snapshot from the appropriate camera and maybe then a small delay and a follow up action to send the snapshot you have just saved.

Lots of variables here, so just spitting out some randoms thoughts really

3

Thanks for that - using trigger id’s in that way sounds like a good idea. I didn’t know that multiple triggers could use the same id. I’ll also look into the Choose Option syntax - I actually hadn’t come across it before.
I was wondering whether there was any way of passing a parameter/variable to a script? I was thinking I could then repurpose the script that I have for the doorbell press, so that I can use the snapshot notifications in other contexts when I need to? The idea would be to pass the name of the camera to the script.

4

Yes there is and that would make sense, I have only dabbled in passing variables to scripts so probably not gonna be much help there, but most of what you need can be found here:

5

Thanks for the link. It explains how to declare and use variables within a script, but doesn’t seem to explain how a variable can be passed to a script (e.g. from an automation, or from another script)??

6

When triggering the script or automation from another script or automation you are looking for something like the following basic example:

Start a script and send the variables:

service: script.tts_message
data:
  variable1: 'what I want to say'
  what_player1: media_player.office_hub
  another_random_variable: ........

Then the script that receives the variables:

alias: TTS Message
sequence:
  - service: tts.google_cloud_say
    data:
      message: "{{ variable1 }}"
      entity_id: "{{ what_player1 }}"
mode: queued

That is about as far as my knowledge goes on this subject I am afraid, I hope it helps.

7

Thanks. I’ve been playing around with it but I haven’t managed to pass the trigger id as a parameter to the script, which would be the most efficient way of doing this.
I’ll open a separate thread with more specific query about passing variables/parameters to scripts

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