Zoneminder integration not showing any entities/services

[petro]

You should clean up your system. You need mqtt for frigate and it’s integration into Home Assistant. What OS are you running?

@Zoccalo

I’ve tried that, but my camera can only do H265 video - not H264.
And despite me declaring that this is the camera I wanted to buy in order to accomplish live viewing through HA, everyone failed to mention that HA cannot display live video with H265 until after I bought it.

Frigate has a beta out where it displays the camera feeds, not home assistant. I have no idea if it produces sound. I have sound off.

If what you’re saying is true about H264, then I would assume that’s the root cause of zoneminder integration failing. The main platform creates the camera feeds in home assistant. If that craps out, the rest probably fails too because the main background process isn’t running.

[petro]

@Zoccalo

it gives me is the ‘media viewer’, where I have to scroll endlessly between folders and files to find a single event. It’s counter-intuitive and archaic.

That’s not true at all…

It gives you a UI for all cameras and a feed when you click on each. Did you gloss over this on the frigate docs?

[Zoccalo]

@petro

You should clean up your system. You need mqtt for frigate and it’s integration into Home Assistant.

Right. That’s why it’s also in HA. It literally won’t let me install the Frigate integration without the MQTT integration - but the broker is running within Unraid. Frigate also runs successfully within its WebUI.

@petro

What OS are you running?

Like I said, I’m running HA in a VM inside Unraid. In Unraid, I’ve also got Frigate and my MQTT broker running in separate dockers. I can confirm MQTT is working via MQTT explorer on my Windows machine, which sends commands successfully.

@petro

Frigate has a beta out where it displays the camera feeds

Great, but it has no mobile app, so it’s completely pointless for me.

@petro

If what you’re saying is true about H264, then I would assume that’s the root cause of zoneminder integration failing.

It’s only true of HA displaying the feeds, why would it prevent an integration from working? I’ve even tried displaying the feed of my camera via ONVIF. It displays still images from it just fine (1 image every 10 seconds) so clearly it doesn’t cause it ‘crap out’, let alone prevent it from installing a switch or sensor from an integration.

@petro

It gives you a UI for all cameras and a feed when you click on each. Did you gloss over this on the frigate docs?

Once again, I’m not running Frigate from inside HA. I’m running it from a docker from inside Unraid - which is outside HA.

And even using your screenshots as an example, it proves my point. What if I want to only see events from a date 2 weeks ago? I can’t just select the date, I have to physically scroll through hundreds of recordings.

Does any of this make sense? Sorry I don’t mean to sound rude, but I feel like I’m constantly having to repeat myself here.

[petro]

@Zoccalo

It’s only true of HA displaying the feeds, why would it prevent an integration from working? I’ve even tried displaying the feed of my camera via ONVIF. It displays still images from it just fine (1 image every 10 seconds) so clearly it doesn’t cause it ‘crap out’, let alone prevent it from installing a switch or sensor from an integration.

Then the switches and sensors must exist. What are you doing to find these in your system? Dev Tools → States page and filter down to sensors and see if you see anything that would look like it came from zoneminder.

@Zoccalo

Does any of this make sense? Sorry I don’t mean to sound rude, but I feel like I’m constantly having to repeat myself here.

You sound extremely rude and you need to drop the attitude. I don’t care how much you spent or whatever your sob story is. Everyone on these forums has had a bad time at some point or another. Your issue is nothing different, you just need to work through it. So buck up and work through it without projecting your anger on anyone who tries to help.

These arbitrary requirements are your own. The only person to blame is yourself and the setup you gave yourself. You are taking the hardest route possible. You don’t have the HassOS that installs things for you. You don’t have access to addons. That means you have to configure everything by hand and if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can screw things up at every corner. If you don’t have the patience to go this route, you should move to HassOS. You’re going to need a lot patience to continue on the path you’re going. Blaming everyone on these forums for ‘How hard it was, they said it was easy’ is not the way to go about this, especially when it’s only hard based on the choices you made. The camera choice is another story, I don’t blame the users for not knowing H264 vs H265. That’s not something that the average user will know.

@Zoccalo

Great, but it has no mobile app, so it’s completely pointless for me.

For the second time, home assistant has a mobile app. If you set up ssl for it, you can connect to HA. This of course will be hard if you don’t have HassOS or NabuCasa.

[firstof9]

@Zoccalo

Unable to get API response from ZoneMinder

Once you fix this, all the sensors will pop into place. Have you checked your ZM log files so see what is happening? I use ZM/Frig, but I have the authentication disabled, so it just connects.

EDIT: Might be worth double checking the ZM config, I forgot you could disable the API in there:

[Zoccalo]

@petro

Dev Tools → States page and filter down to sensors and see if you see anything that would look like it came from zoneminder.

I did exactly this. I start typing ‘zone’ in the ‘filter services’ field, and all it returns is ‘zone.home’ - nothing to do with ZM.

@petro

Your issue is nothing different, you just need to work through it. So buck up and work through it without projecting your anger on anyone who tries to help.

I’m more than happy to work through it. I’m willing to do whatever it takes, so long as someone actually helps me and doesn’t offer me copout excuses and things which I’ve said I’ve already tried. I really appreciate your patience.

@petro

These arbitrary requirements are your own.

That’s really unfair. I’m coming from a 10 year old deterioriating NVR system that was more than capable of fulfilling each one of these requirements (sans object detection) when it was working. I don’t think it should be unreasonable to expect that hardware 10 years more advanced to accomplish the same tasks, especially when it’s something as basic as ‘live mobile view with sound’ and ‘easy access to finding recordings by selecting a date’.

The only reason I embarked on this project was because I’m locked down and others on this forum and others assured me that they have it working - except now they’ve conveniently disappeared and not replying to any of my messages.

@petro

You don’t have the HassOS that installs things for you.

What are you talking about? I’m running HassOS in a VM. What other HassOS is there?

@petro

You don’t have access to addons.

Of course I have access to addons, because I’m running HassOS. The problem is that Frigate wasn’t working for me when I installed it as an addon via HassOS, and the creator of Frigate himself suggested I install it in a separate docker outside of HassOS. How can you blame me if I’m following the actual developer’s advice?

@petro

If you don’t have the patience to go this route, you should move to HassOS.

This is confusing. What am I running inside this VM if not HassOS? Doesn’t HassOS still require tons of configuration and coding within yaml files? Literally every tutorial I’ve seen looks exactly the same as the HassOS I’m running - so what are you saying that I should be running that is any different? Genuine question.

@petro

You’re going to need a lot patience to continue on the path you’re going.

I’ve got the patience - I just need someone to actually be willing to help me without giving a copout excuse of ‘it’s too hard’.
It’s obviously possible, I just need someone to teach me how. I’m willing to do whatever it takes. Happy to even pay someone actual money to help me. That’s how serious I am.

@petro

For the second time, home assistant has a mobile app. If you set up ssl for it, you can connect to HA. This of course will be hard if you don’t have HassOS or NabuCasa.

So HA’s mobile app allows selecting a specific date to filter recordings? If I wanted to select a recording from the 15th of June 2021, can I select that date, and it’ll only show me recordings from that date only? Or will I have to scroll through 2 weeks of events just to find it?

Because if it’s the latter, then I was correct. I mean, I hope I’m wrong, because it means the barriers will have lifted slightly for me - but if I’m not, then this is just another example of how people aren’t really listening to what I need to accomplish here.

[petro]

@Zoccalo

I did exactly this. I start typing ‘zone’ in the ‘filter services’ field, and all it returns is ‘zone.home’ - nothing to do with ZM.

On mobile now, responses will be shorter. Don’t search for zone, search your sensors. I don’t remember if zone is even in the name. It likely isn’t.

Anyways @firstof9 offers some advice you should look into first

[firstof9]

Correct the sensors/switches don’t say ‘zoneminder’, but rather the name of the monitor in Zoneminder.

[Zoccalo]

@firstof9

EDIT: Might be worth double checking the ZM config, I forgot you could disable the API in there:

Great suggestion. I checked within ZM and both the API and the legacy API are ticked. I tried looking in the ZM logs, but there’s over 6000 page and counting. Doesn’t look like anything in red on the first few pages at least. Is there a particular way I should be filtering them?

[firstof9]

I usually check it via the container logs (I run it in a docker container) and just follow the log as your HA tries to connect to see if an error pops up.

Alternatively you could try disabling the authentication in ZM, and remove the user/password from the HA config to see if that’s tripping it up for some reason.

[Zoccalo]

@firstof9

Correct the sensors/switches don’t say ‘zoneminder’, but rather the name of the monitor in Zoneminder.

I named my camera ‘camera 1’ in ZM, but I also named it the same in the ONVIF and Frigate integrations. So I just went back into ZM and changed the name to ‘test 1’ - and viola! When I type in ‘test’ in the the ‘filter services’ field, I get a range of sensors and switches!

Thank you, we’re making progress!

Ok, so now how do I use these to trigger ZM to switch to ‘record’ mode from a Frigate state change? I’m familiar with creating automations, but not quite sure what to select on ZM’s end as an action.

Also not sure how to get it to only record while Frigate is detecting something - and maybe for 15 seconds afterwards.

[firstof9]

@Zoccalo

Ok, so now how do I use these to trigger ZM to switch to ‘record’ mode from a Frigate state change?

So my Frigate will change binary_sensor.front_door_person_motion to true, and you could automate the switch that ZM created in HA to turn ‘on’, that should trigger a recording if you have the monitor set to record in ZM.

Honestly I just have my sub stream with lower res/FPS run the modetect in ZM then have the higher res stream linked to that so when motion is detected the high res stream starts recording.

[Zoccalo]

@firstof9

So my Frigate will change binary_sensor.front_door_person_motion to true, and you could automate the switch that ZM created in HA to turn ‘on’, that should trigger a recording if you have the monitor set to record in ZM.

So atm I’ve got my camera set to ‘Nodect’. As I understand it, this means ZM will only stream the output of this camera, yes?
I’ve read that ‘Monitor’ doesn’t allow recording from the camera. That’s why I didn’t use it. Will it still record when triggered from Frigate if I choose this? Do I also need to change my config in HA? Particularly under the ‘command_on’ and ‘command_off’ states?

Also, in ZM, how do I set the time I want included before and after an event sent to it via Frigate? For example, if I want the recording to start 10 seconds before the Frigate event and end 10 seconds after, where should I go in ZM to set this?

@firstof9

Honestly I just have my sub stream with lower res/FPS run the modetect in ZM then have the higher res stream linked to that so when motion is detected the high res stream starts recording.

Where does your Frigate setup come into the equation then? Didn’t you say you had it configured to trigger recordings in ZM?

[firstof9]

@Zoccalo

Where does your Frigate setup come into the equation then?

It’s separate, same camera I just have it doing object detection for me and display the info into HA.

@Zoccalo

Didn’t you say you had it configured to trigger recordings in ZM?

Nope, I use the sub stream for that.

@Zoccalo

Also, in ZM, how do I set the time I want included before and after an event sent to it via Frigate? For example, if I want the recording to start 10 seconds before the Frigate event and end 10 seconds after, where should I go in ZM to set this?

These settings might do it but I’ve never tried to trigger outside of ZM like you’re trying:

[Zoccalo]

Cool, so I’m just running through the automation now.

In the ‘action’ section, what ‘action type’ am I looking for? I tried looking through ‘call service’, but I can’t find any of the switches I found in dev tools.

[firstof9]

Call Service → Turn On for switches

That should signal ZM to start recording on that camera.

[Zoccalo]

Thanks! Found it.

Hang on… So this will turn the switch ‘on’ - but how will it know to turn off when Frigate stops detection?

[firstof9]

When the binary sensor goes to “off” you can do a delay for like 10 seconds then Call Service → turn off on the switch.

(Second automation)

[Zoccalo]

Thanks! I’ll try it and let you know how I go!
I’m super excited now!

[firstof9]

Keep in mind I’ve never done it this way with HA being the controller of the recording, so YMMV.