IP Camera Binding

This binding allows you to use IP cameras in openHAB 2.x and has multiple features and ways to work around common challenges that cameras present. Please take the time to read through this guide as it will show many hidden features and different ways to work with cameras that you may not know about. I highly recommend purchasing a brand of camera that has an open API, as many of the features use far less CPU when done with an API camera, open streams quicker and they usually have more features. You will also have a much more enjoyable time with these cameras as they are well tested and easier to setup. To see what each brand has implemented from the API, please see this post:

https://community.openhab.org/t/ipcamera-new-ip-camera-binding/42771

Each brand that has an API is listed below in alphabetical order with a link to where the API is located:

• AMCREST

• DAHUA (see the Amcrest API link above as they work the same)

• DOORBIRD

• FOSCAM

• GRANDSTREAM (not implemented, but should be possible to add)

• HIKVISION

• INSTAR

Special notes for different brands

Generic Cameras

The binding can create snapshots, motion and audio alarms for cameras which only have a RTSP url, it requires ffmpeg to be installed for these to work. Some features may not work fully unless your camera has a snapshot URL but most will work with the ffmpeg generated snapshots. Using ffmpeg to create snapshots requires more CPU, and you can turn this on and off via the updateImageNow channel using a switch or rule. The Image channel will not update when using ffmpeg to create snapshots so you will need to use one of the other methods listed in this readme. You can forget about using the switch if you setup the Config IMAGE_UPDATE_EVENTS to be equal to 1 and then it runs all the time unless you move the switch to OFF. Snapshots generated by Ffmpeg use the key frames only, and since most cameras only produce a key frame every 2 second, this will effect how often a snapshot is produced. Some cameras allow the keyframe (iFrame) to be created every second or a different amount by the user, refer to your cameras manual and support.

ESP32 Cameras

These cameras do not have the ability to create H264 streams and hence can not be used with HLS to cast to Chromecasts and Google Home Hubs. They will work with snapshots and mjpeg features, see the examples in the sections below on how to setup these cameras.

Amcrest

It is better to setup your AMCREST camera as a DAHUA thing type as the old alarm checking method is used in AMCREST and the newer better method is used in DAHUA that is stream based. This means less CPU load on your server and far better response to alarms if you setup as Dahua. Please read the special notes for Dahua as they will apply.

Dahua

• For mjpeg to work you need to set the first substream to be in mjpeg format for the default settings to work, otherwise you can override the default with STREAM_URL_OVERRIDE with a valid url for mjpeg streams.

• The camera I have requires the snapshot set to 1 second updates and also the schedule set to record it before the snapshot will respond at 1 second rates. I found that changing the settings to send the snapshot to a NAS without it having any NAS settings allowed the snapshot to be generated every second. The cameras default settings worked, but it improved when the motion schedule was removed for snapshots.

Hikvision

• For mjpeg to work you need to set the first substream to be in mjpeg format for the default settings to work, otherwise you can override the default with STREAM_URL_OVERRIDE with a valid url for mjpeg streams.

• Each alarm you wish to use must have "Notify Surveillance Center" enabled under each alarms settings in the control panel of the camera itself.

• The CGI/API and also ONVIF are disabled by default on these cameras, so enable and create user details for ONVIF that are the same user/pass as what you have given the binding. If your camera does not have PTZ then you can leave ONVIF disabled and just enable the CGI/API.

If you need a channel or control updated in case you have made a change with the cameras app, you can call a refresh on it by using a cron rule.

import org.eclipse.smarthome.core.types.RefreshType

rule "refresh"
when
    Time cron "0 */15 * * * ? *"
then
    //your ITEMS to refresh every 15 minutes here
    Item.sendCommand(RefreshType.REFRESH)
end

HikVision NVR's

In case your HikVision NVR does not communicate with the binding, make sure that:

• ISAPI is enabled in the NVR settings
• ONVIF is enabled and a user/pass created that match the bindings.
• RTSP is enabled
• Some NVR's allow each camera to be exposed on a set port to give direct access to each camera, most users report this works the best and needs to be enabled.

Some older versions of these NVRs require setting a different snapshot URL (SNAPSHOT_URL_OVERRIDE), as well as FFMPEG_INPUT. The older ones use the same URL's just with 'ISAPI' removed.

Thing ipcamera:HIKVISION:West "West Camera"
[
    IPADDRESS="192.168.0.XX",
    USERNAME="username",
    PASSWORD="password",
    ONVIF_PORT=8000, //normally 80 check what it needs
    PORT=80,
    NVR_CHANNEL=4,
    SERVER_PORT=54324,
    FFMPEG_OUTPUT="/etc/openhab2/html/cameras/camera-west/",
    FFMPEG_INPUT="rtsp://192.168.0.XX:554/ISAPI/Streaming/channels/401"
]

Foscam

• If the user/pass is wrong the camera can lockout and refuse to answer the binding requiring a reset of the camera, so be sure the details are correct.

• To use MJPEG streaming you need to enable one of the streams to use this format. This can be done by entering this into any browser:

http://ip:88/cgi-bin/CGIProxy.fcgi?cmd=setSubStreamFormat&format=1&usr=admin&pwd=password

• Some FOSCAM cameras need to have a detection area listed in the URL when you enable the motion alarm. As each model has a different resolution and two different URLs, this makes it difficult to make this automatic so an override feature was added to create your own enable the alarm url. This setting is called MOTION_URL_OVERRIDE and the steps to using it are:

1. Enable the motion alarm in the web interface of your camera and setup any areas you wish movement to be ignored in ie. Tree branches moving in the wind.
2. Use any web browser to fetch this URL https://x.x.x.x/cgi-bin/CGIProxy.fcgi?cmd=getMotionDetectConfig1&usr=xxxxx&pwd=xxxxx
3. Use the information returned by the above url to create the override settings.

An example for a Foscam C2 is...

/cgi-bin/CGIProxy.fcgi?cmd=setMotionDetectConfig1&isEnable=1&snapInterval=1&schedule0=281474976710655&schedule1=281474976710655&schedule2=281474976710655&schedule3=281474976710655&schedule4=281474976710655&schedule5=281474976710655&schedule6=281474976710655&x1=0&y1=0&width1=10000&height1=10000&sensitivity1=1&valid1=1&linkage=6&usr=xxxxx&pwd=xxxxx

Another example is:

/cgi-bin/CGIProxy.fcgi?cmd=setMotionDetectConfig&isEnable=1&linkage=0001&sensitivity=1&triggerInterval=15&schedule0=281474976710655&schedule1=281474976710655&schedule2=281474976710655&schedule3=281474976710655&schedule4=281474976710655&schedule5=281474976710655&schedule6=281474976710655&area0=1023&area1=1023&area2=1023&area3=1023&area4=1023&area5=1023&area6=1023&area7=1023&area7=1023&area8=1023&area9=1023&usr=username&pwd=password

Instar

• For mjpeg to work you need to set the first substream to be in mjpeg format for the default settings to work, otherwise you can override the default with STREAM_URL_OVERRIDE with a valid url for mjpeg streams.
• These cameras have the ability to call the openHAB REST API directly when an alarm occurs, or you can use the built in Alarm Server that the binding auto sets up for you. Be sure to update to the latest firmware for your camera as Instar have made a lot of improvements in this area recently and MQTT is also just added.
• For Onvif it may be required to disable the authentication (only for ONVIF) in the cameras setup page if you experience issues using PTZ features.

Discovery

Auto discovery can be used, however I would recommend using textual configuration which is covered below in more detail. Textual config should be preferred whilst the binding is under going a lot of changes as the channels and config items appear to be stored in a database and are not checked to be correct by the Openhab framework. If you use auto discovery or manually add a camera with PaperUI, it may/will be required to delete the camera and re-add it for the DB to be refreshed with the correct data.

Supported Things

If using openHAB's textual configuration or when needing to setup HABPANEL/sitemaps, you are going to need to know what your camera is as a "thing type". These are listed in CAPS below. Example: The thing type for a generic onvif camera is "ONVIF".

Thing Type ID	Description
AMCREST	Use for all Amcrest Cameras that do not work as a Dahua thing. This uses an older polling method for alarm detection which is not as efficient as the newer method used in Dahua. Amcrest are made by Dahua and hence their cameras can be setup as a Dahua thing.
DAHUA	Use for all current Dahua and Amcrest cameras as they support an API as well as ONVIF.
DOORBIRD	Use for all current DOORBIRD cameras as they support an API as well as ONVIF.
FOSCAM	Use for all current FOSCAM HD Cameras as they support an API as well as ONVIF.
HIKVISION	Use for all current HIKVISION Cameras as they support an API as well as ONVIF.
HTTPONLY	For any camera that is not ONVIF compatible yet still has the ability to fetch a snapshot or stream with a url.
INSTAR	Use for all current INSTAR Cameras as they support an API as well as ONVIF.
ONVIF	Use for all ONVIF Cameras from any brand that does not have an API. You gain Pan Tilt and Zoom controls and auto discovery of the snapshot and rtsp urls over a basic HTTPONLY thing.

Binding Configuration

The binding can be configured with PaperUI by clicking on the pencil icon of any of the cameras that you have manually added via the PaperUI inbox. To add a camera just press on the PLUS (+) icon in the INBOX of PaperUI.

Cameras can also be manually configured with text files by doing the following. DO NOT try and change a setting using PaperUI after using textual configuration as the two will conflict as the text file locks the settings preventing them from changing. If using PaperUI, each time I add a new channel you will need to remove and re-add the camera which then gives it a new UID number (Unique ID number), which in turn can break your sitemap and HABPanel setups. Textual configuration has its advantages and locks the camera to use a simple UID which can be a plain text name like "DrivewayCamera".

The configuration parameters that can be used in textual configuration are in CAPS, descriptions can be seen in PaperUI to help guide you on what each one does:

Parameter	Description
IPADDRESS	Local address of your camera or NVR
PORT	This port will be used for HTTP calls for fetching the snapshot and alarm states.
ONVIF_PORT	The port your camera uses for ONVIF connections. This is needed for PTZ movement and the auto discovery of RTSP and snapshot URLs.
SERVER_PORT	The port that will serve the video streams and images back to openHAB without authentication. You can choose any number, but it must be unique and unused for each camera that you setup. Setting the port to -1 (default), will turn all file serving off and some features will fail to work.
USERNAME	User name used to connect to your camera. Leave blank if your camera does not use login details.
PASSWORD	Leave blank if your camera does not use login details.
ONVIF_MEDIA_PROFILE	0 is your cameras Mainstream and the numbers above 0 are the substreams if your camera has any.
POLL_CAMERA_MS	Time in milliseconds between checking camera states and fetching a JPG/Image.
IMAGE_UPDATE_EVENTS	The Image channel and JPG served on request can be set to update in a number of ways to help reduce network traffic.
	0 - Both ipcamera.jpg and the Image channel only update when updateImageNow is ON
	1 - Update ipcamera.jpg every poll, but the Image channel follows updateImageNow
	2 - Start of Motion Alarms will cause jpg and Image channel to update next poll.
	3 - Start Audio Alarm will cause jpg and Image channel to update next poll.
	23 - Start of Motion and Audio Alarms will cause jpg and Image channel to update next poll.
	4 - During Motion Alarm the jpg and Image channel will update every poll until Alarm stops.
	5 - During Audio Alarm the jpg and Image channel will update every poll until Alarm stops.
	45 - During Motion and Audio Alarms the jpg and Image channel will update every poll until both alarms stop.
UPDATE_IMAGE	The startup default behavior of updating the image channel until the channel updateImageNow overrides. When switched OFF the image channel will NOT update unless you override this with the updateImageNow channel.
NVR_CHANNEL	Set this to 1 if it is a standalone camera, or to the input channel number of your NVR that the camera is connected to.
SNAPSHOT_URL_OVERRIDE	Leave this empty to auto detect the snapshot URL. Enter a HTTP address if you wish to override with a different address. This also makes the camera connect quicker.
MOTION_URL_OVERRIDE	Foscam only, for custom enable motion alarm use. More info found in Foscam setup below.
AUDIO_URL_OVERRIDE	Foscam only, for custom enable audio alarm use. More info found in foscam setup below.
STREAM_URL_OVERRIDE	A HTTP URL for MJPEG format streams only, RTSP not supported.
FFMPEG_INPUT	Best if this stream is in H264 format and can be RTSP or HTTP urls. Leave this blank to use the auto detected RTSP address, or enter a URL for any type of stream that ffmpeg can use as an input.
FFMPEG_LOCATION	The full path including the filename for where you have installed ffmpeg. For windows use e.g. this format: c:\ffmpeg\bin\ffmpeg.exe
FFMPEG_OUTPUT	The full path where ffmpeg has the ability to write files to ending with a slash. For windows use e.g. this format: c:\openhabconf\html\ipcamera\
	If you would like to expose the GIF files to your static server, you can set FFMPEG_OUTPUT="/etc/openhab2/html/cameras/camera-name/"
FFMPEG_HLS_OUT_ARGUMENTS	This gives you direct access to specify your own ffmpeg options to be used. Default: -f lavfi -i aevalsrc=0 -acodec aac -vcodec copy -hls_flags delete_segments -segment_list_flags live -flags -global_header
FFMPEG_GIF_OUT_ARGUMENTS	This gives you direct access to specify your own ffmpeg options to be used for animated GIF files. Default: -filter_complex fps=4,scale=480:-2:flags=lanczos,setpts=0.25*PTS,split[o1][o2];[o1]palettegen[p];[o2]fifo[o3];[o3][p]paletteuse
GIF_PREROLL	Store this many snapshots from BEFORE you trigger a GIF creation. Default: 0 will not use snapshots and will instead use a realtime stream from the FFMPEG_INPUT url
GIF_POSTROLL	How long in seconds to create a GIF from a stream. Alternatively if GIF_PREROLL is set to value greater than 0, this is how many snapshots to use AFTER you trigger a GIF creation as snapshots occur at the poll rate.
IP_WHITELIST	Enter any IPs inside brackets that you wish to allow to access the video stream. DISABLE the default value will turn this feature off. Example: IP_WHITELIST="(127.0.0.1)(192.168.0.99)"

Create a file called ipcamera.things and save it to your things folder. Inside this file enter this in plain text and modify it to your needs.

// Defined a custom HLS setting to allow audio to be casted.
// Uses Onvif to fetch the urls,
hence why they are not defined here.
Thing ipcamera:DAHUA:BabyCamera "Baby Monitor" @ "Cameras"
[
    IPADDRESS="192.168.1.5",
    USERNAME="admin",
    PASSWORD="suitcase123456",
    POLL_CAMERA_MS=2000,
    SERVER_PORT=50001,
    UPDATE_IMAGE=false,
    GIF_PREROLL=0,
    GIF_POSTROLL=6,
    FFMPEG_OUTPUT="/tmpfs/babymonitor/",
    FFMPEG_HLS_OUT_ARGUMENTS="-strict -2 -acodec copy -vcodec copy -hls_flags delete_segments -segment_list_flags live -flags -global_header"
]

// Update JPG every second and don't update the image channel to save on CPU.
// Uses 3rd stream of camera to feed openHAB with less data (720p so it can be Chromecasted) as the mainstream is 4K.
Thing ipcamera:HIKVISION:DrivewayCam "DrivewayCam" @ "Cameras"
[
    IPADDRESS="192.168.1.6",
    PASSWORD="suitcase123456",
    USERNAME="admin",
    POLL_CAMERA_MS=1000,
    SERVER_PORT=50002,
    UPDATE_IMAGE=false,
    FFMPEG_OUTPUT="/tmpfs/DrivewayCam/",
    FFMPEG_INPUT="rtsp://192.168.1.6:554/Streaming/Channels/103?transportmode=unicast&profile=Profile_1"
]

// Will autofetch the urls from Onvif so they are not defined here.
// Other settings will use the defaults if they are missing.
// Example of the IP_WHITELIST is used here.
Thing ipcamera:ONVIF:003
[
    IPADDRESS="192.168.1.21",
    PASSWORD="suitcase123456",
    USERNAME="admin",
    ONVIF_PORT=80,
    PORT=80,
    UPDATE_IMAGE=false,
    SERVER_PORT=50003,
    FFMPEG_OUTPUT="/tmpfs/camera3/",
    IP_WHITELIST="(192.168.2.8)(192.168.2.83)(192.168.2.99)"
]

// ESP32 Cameras have the stream on a different port 81 to snapshots, this can be setup easily.
// Use JPG files as the source for animated Gifs (preroll of 1 or higher) as the camera can only handle 1 stream at a time.
Thing ipcamera:HTTPONLY:TTGoCamera "TTGo Camera" @ "Cameras"
[
    IPADDRESS="192.168.1.181",
    POLL_CAMERA_MS=1000,
    SERVER_PORT=54321,
    UPDATE_IMAGE=false,
    GIF_PREROLL=1,
    GIF_POSTROLL=6,
    SNAPSHOT_URL_OVERRIDE="http://192.168.1.181/capture",
    STREAM_URL_OVERRIDE="http://192.168.1.181:81/stream",
    FFMPEG_OUTPUT="/tmpfs/TTGoCamera/",
    FFMPEG_INPUT="http://192.168.1.181:81/stream"
]

Here you see the format is: bindingID:THINGTYPE:UID [param1="string",param2=x,param3=x]

BindingID: is always ipcamera.

THINGTYPE: is found listed above under the heading "supported things"

UID: Can be made up but it must be UNIQUE, hence why it is called uniqueID. If you use PaperUI you will notice the UID will be something like "0A78687F" which is not very nice when using it in sitemaps and rules. PaperUI will choose a new random ID each time you remove and add the camera causing you to edit your rules, items and sitemaps to make them match. You can use text to name it something useful like "DrivewayCamera" if you wish.

Thing Configuration

Not all the configuration controls will be explained here, only the ones which are hard to understand by reading the description in PaperUI.

IMAGE_UPDATE_EVENTS

If you look in PaperUI you will notice that there are numbers in brackets after each option.
The numbers are also described above in 'Binding Configuration'. These numbers represents the number for textual config that you can enter into the thing file which is described above. Cameras with supported alarms have more options compared to generic cameras. The channel updateImageNow can work with this setting to allow you to manually start and stop the Image channel from updating. This control effects fetching a snapshot for 'ipcamera.jpg', 'snapshots.mjpeg', ipcamera.gif and more.

UPDATE_IMAGE

The config UPDATE_IMAGE sets the default value of the switch updateImageNow when openHAB restarts. Recommend this is disabled and you use another method for a stream or snapshot covered in this readme.

Channels

See PaperUI for a full list of channels and the descriptions, as most are easy to understand. Any which need further explanation will be added here. Each camera brand will have different channels depending on how much of the support for an API has been added. The channels are kept consistent as much as possible from brand to brand to make upgrading to a different branded camera easier and to help when sharing rules with other users in the forum.

updateImageNow

This control can be used to manually start and stop updating the Image channel with a picture. The UPDATE_IMAGE config sets the state this control is set to on startup/reboot of Openhab. When ON the image will update at the POLL_CAMERA_MS rate down to a minimum of 5 seconds. When OFF the Image will NOT update. If you need to update a picture more often then every 5 seconds, please see the snapshot and stream sections of this readme to learn how to get a picture without using the Image channel.

controlMotionAlarm (non API cameras only)

This control uses ffmpeg to detect movement from a RTSP source. It is best described in the first few posts of this thread. https://community.openhab.org/t/how-to-turn-a-cameras-rtsp-stream-into-motion-detection/89906 You can link a Switch and a Slider to this channel at the same time to have ON/OFF control as well as a slider to change the threshold.

thresholdAudioAlarm

Most of the API cameras have a separate ON/OFF channel, but for cameras that use ffmpeg to create an Audio Alarm from a RTSP source this channel can be linked to a Switch and a Slider to this channel at the same time to have ON/OFF control as well as a slider to change the threshold. The value of the slider is the value in dB that is detected as no noise/alarm. Higher values are more sensitive and will trigger the Alarm with quieter noise.

updateGif

When this control is turned ON it will trigger an animated Gif to be created by ffmpeg. You will need to install ffmpeg on your server manually. Once the file is created the control will auto turn itself back to OFF which can be used to trigger a rule to email/Pushover/Telegram the file to you. When GIF_PREROLL is set to a value higher than 0, the binding will create and use snapshots (jpg) instead of using the RTSP feed from the camera, which is the default behavior when the GIF_PREROLL is set to 0 or not defined. IMAGE_UPDATE_EVENTS must be set to always update the image and POLL_CAMERA_MS sets how often the snapshot is added to the FIFO buffer that creates the animated GIF. The snapshot files are not deleted but are overwritten each time a gif is created. These files 'snapshotxx.jpg' can also be used by yourself to create and email Jpeg files also giving you a number to choose from in case your camera has delayed footage. The files are placed into the folder specified by the config FFMPEG_OUTPUT.

lastMotionType

Cameras with multiple alarm types will update this with which alarm detected motion.ie a lineCrossing, faceDetection or item stolen alarm. You can use this to create a timestamp of when the last motion was detected by creating a rule when this channel is updated.

items:

String BabyCamLastMotionType "Last Motion Type" { channel="ipcamera:DAHUA:BabyCamera:lastMotionType" }
DateTime BabyCamLastMotionTime "Last Update [%1$ta %1$tR]"

rules:

rule "Create timestamp of last movement"
    when
    Item BabyCamLastMotionType received update
    then
    BabyCamLastMotionTime.postUpdate( new DateTimeType() )
end

API Access Channel

A special String channel has been added that allows you to send any GET request to Dahua cameras only. This is due to the HTTP binding currently not supporting the DIGEST method that these cameras must use in the latest firmwares. For other brands you can use the HTTP binding should a feature not have direct support in this binding. It is far better to add or request a feature so that it gets added to the binding so that all future users benefit. One goal of this binding is to save all users from needing to learn an API, instead they can use that time saved to automate with openHAB.

The reply from the camera is not captured nor returned, so this is only a 1 way GET request. To use this feature you can simply use this command inside any rule at any time and with as many url Strings as you wish. User/pass and the IP are handled automagically.

item:

String CamAPIAccess "Access the API" { channel="ipcamera:DAHUA:001:apiAccess" }

Command to use in rules:

CamAPIAccess.sendCommand('/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=setConfig&Lighting[0][0].Mode=Off')

The URL must be in this format without the IP:Port info and the binding will handle the user and password for you making it far simpler to change a password on a camera without the need to update countless lines in your openHAB files.

Full Example

Use the following examples to base your setup on to save some time. In the example below I believe older versions of OpenHAB needed a fake address in the "Image url=" line, however Openhab 2.4 and newer do not need this to work but for backwards compatibility reasons it was left in the examples. The item= overrides the url.

NOTE: If you used PaperUI to create the camera thing instead of textual config, you will need to ensure the 001 is replaced with the cameras UID which may look like "0A78687F". Also replace AMCREST or HIKVISION with the name of the supported thing you are using from the list above.

*.things

Thing ipcamera:DAHUA:001 [
    IPADDRESS="192.168.1.5", PASSWORD="suitcase123456",
    USERNAME="admin",
    POLL_CAMERA_MS=2000,
    SERVER_PORT=50001,
    FFMPEG_OUTPUT="/tmpfs/camera1/"
]

Thing ipcamera:HIKVISION:002 [
    IPADDRESS="192.168.1.6", PASSWORD="suitcase123456",
    USERNAME="admin",
    POLL_CAMERA_MS=2000,
    SERVER_PORT=50002,
    FFMPEG_OUTPUT="/tmpfs/camera2/"
]

*.items

Switch BabyCamCreateGif "Create animated GIF" { channel="ipcamera:DAHUA:001:updateGif" }
Number BabyCamDirection "Camera Direction"
Dimmer BabyCamPan "Pan [%d] left/right" { channel="ipcamera:DAHUA:001:pan" }
Dimmer BabyCamTilt "Tilt [%d] up/down" { channel="ipcamera:DAHUA:001:tilt" }
Dimmer BabyCamZoom "Zoom [%d] in/out" { channel="ipcamera:DAHUA:001:zoom" }
Switch BabyCamEnableMotion "MotionAlarm on/off" { channel="ipcamera:DAHUA:001:enableMotionAlarm" }
Switch BabyCamMotionAlarm "Motion detected" { channel="ipcamera:DAHUA:001:motionAlarm" }
Switch BabyCamEnableAudioAlarm "AudioAlarm on/off" { channel="ipcamera:DAHUA:001:enableAudioAlarm" }
Switch BabyCamAudioAlarm "Audio detected" { channel="ipcamera:DAHUA:001:audioAlarm" }
Dimmer BabyCamAudioThreshold "Audio Threshold [%d]" { channel="ipcamera:DAHUA:001:thresholdAudioAlarm" }
Dimmer BabyCamLED "IR LED [%d]" { channel="ipcamera:DAHUA:001:enableLED" }
Switch BabyCamAutoLED "Auto IR LED" { channel="ipcamera:DAHUA:001:autoLED" }
String BabyCamTextOverlay "Text to overlay" { channel="ipcamera:DAHUA:001:textOverlay" }
String BabyCamAPIAccess "Access the API" { channel="ipcamera:DAHUA:001:apiAccess" }
String BabyCamStreamUrl "Mjpeg Stream" { channel="ipcamera:DAHUA:BabyCamera:streamUrl" }
String BabyCamHlsStreamUrl "HLS Stream" { channel="ipcamera:DAHUA:BabyCamera:hlsUrl" }
String BabyCamRTSPStreamUrl "RTSP Stream" { channel="ipcamera:DAHUA:BabyCamera:rtspUrl" }
DateTime BabyCamLastMotionTime "Time motion was last detected [%1$ta %1$tR]"
String BabyCamLastMotionType "Last Motion Type" { channel="ipcamera:DAHUA:BabyCamera:lastMotionType" }
Switch BabyCamStartHLS { channel="ipcamera:DAHUA:BabyCamera:startStream" }

Switch CamEnableMotionAlarm "MotionAlarm on/off" { channel="ipcamera:HIKVISION:002:enableMotionAlarm" }
Switch CamMotionAlarm "Motion detected" { channel="ipcamera:HIKVISION:002:motionAlarm" }
Switch CamEnableLineAlarm "LineAlarm on/off" { channel="ipcamera:HIKVISION:002:enableLineCrossingAlarm" }
Switch CamLineAlarm "Line Alarm detected" { channel="ipcamera:HIKVISION:002:lineCrossingAlarm" }

*.sitemap

    Text label="BabyMonitor" icon="camera"{
        Video url="http://192.168.0.2:54321/autofps.mjpeg" encoding="mjpeg"}//picture every 8 sec unless motion occurs then 1FPS
        Switch item=BabyCamDirection icon=movecontrol label="Camera Direction" mappings=[0="Room", 1="Cot", 2="Door"]
        Default item=BabyCamMotionAlarm icon=siren
        Default item=BabyCamAudioAlarm icon=siren
        Text label="Advanced Controls" icon="settings"{
            Switch item=BabyCamEnableMotion
            Default item=BabyCamEnableAudioAlarm
            Default item=BabyCamAudioThreshold icon=recorder
            Slider item=BabyCamLED
            Default item=BabyCamAutoLED
            Slider item=BabyCamPan icon=movecontrol
            Slider item=BabyCamTilt icon=movecontrol
            Slider item=BabyCamZoom icon=zoom
        }
    }

*.rules

rule "Move cameras direction"
when
    Item BabyCamDirection changed
then
    switch (BabyCamDirection.state as DecimalType) {
        case 0 :{
        //Room
        BabyCamPan.sendCommand(22)
        BabyCamTilt.sendCommand(60)
        BabyCamZoom.sendCommand(0)
        }
        case 1 :{
        //Cot
        BabyCamPan.sendCommand(22)
        BabyCamTilt.sendCommand(0)
        BabyCamZoom.sendCommand(0)
        }
        case 2 : {
        //Door
        BabyCamPan.sendCommand(15)
        BabyCamTilt.sendCommand(75)
        BabyCamZoom.sendCommand(1)
        }
    }
end

rule "Camera detected crying"
when
    Item BabyCamAudioAlarm changed from OFF to ON
then
if(BabyMonitor.state==ON){

    if(MumAlerts.state==ON){
    sendNotification("mum@parentCo.com", "Mum, the baby is awake.")
    }

    if(DadAlerts.state==ON){
    sendNotification("dad@parentCo.com", "Dad, the baby is awake.")
    }

    if(TvAlerts.state==ON){
    myKodi_notification.sendCommand("Baby is crying.")
    }
}
end

For the above notifications to work you will need to setup multiple users with the correct email address's at the openHAB cloud.

Moving PTZ capable cameras

Currently there are two ways to move the camera, 1 with Onvif Absolute move and the second with Onvif presets. The full example above shows how to use the Absolute move method which when a control is moved, it will wait until the next poll time has arrived and make all the movements at the same time. Not all cameras support Absolute movements, so the below Onvif Preset method is easier to use, does not need a rule to set 3 different values from a single button, and does not wait for the Poll time to arrive.

item:

Number TestCamGotoPreset "Goto Preset" { channel="ipcamera:INSTAR:TestCam:gotoPreset" }

sitemap:

Selection item=TestCamGotoPreset 

Rules:

TestCamGotoPreset.sendCommand(1)

The presets do not wait until the next poll time to arrive and are made right away, so this makes the method more desirable if you set a high POLL_CAMERA_MS time. To create the preset locations, use a program like the free 'onvif device manager' program to create the presets and then you can create names using the mappings feature of the selection element. See docs here https://www.openhab.org/docs/configuration/sitemaps.html#mappings

Image Snapshots

There are a number of ways to use snapshots with this binding. There are advantages to using these methods from the binding instead of directly from the camera.

Ways to use snapshots are:

• Use the cameras URL and fetch it directly so it passes from the camera to your end device ie Tablet without passing any data through the openHAB server. For cameras like Dahua that refuse to allow DIGEST to be turned off this is not an option, plus the binding has some advantages which are explained below so even if your camera can work directly, you may not wish to do so.
• Request a snapshot with the url http://192.168.xxx.xxx:54321/ipcamera.jpg (with 54321 being the SERVER_PORT number that you specify in the bindings setup) this will return the current snapshot without needing to wait for the camera to create and send a snapshot. This file does not exist on disk and is served out of ram to keep disk writes to a minimum with this binding. It also means the binding can serve a jpg file much faster than a camera can directly as a camera usually waits for a keyframe, then has to compresses the data, before it can be sent. All of this takes time giving you a delay compared to serving the file from Ram and can make a sitemap or habpanel UI feel slow to respond if the pictures take time to appear. The ipcamera.jpg can be cast as most cameras can not cast their snapshots without using the binding.
• Use the http://192.168.xxx.xxx:54321/snapshots.mjpeg to request a stream of snapshots to be delivered in mjpeg format. See the streaming section for more info but this only works if the Poll time is 8 seconds or lower. For poll times above 8 seconds use the Image channel.
• Use the Create GIF feature and use a preroll value >0. This creates a number of snapshots in the ffmpeg output folder called snapshotXXX.jpg where XXX starts at 0 and increases each poll amount of time. This means you can get a snapshot from an exact amount of time before, on, or after triggering the GIF to be created. Handy for cameras which lag due to slow processors and buffering. These snapshots can be fetched either directly as they exist on disk, or via this url format. http://192.168.xxx.xxx:54321/snapshot0.jpg Where the IP is your Openhab server and the port is what is setup in the binding as the SERVER_PORT.
• The Image channel can be used but is not recommended unless the poll time is above 8 seconds. The snapshots.mjpeg is a better way or if using 1 second updates the newer autofps.mjpeg
• You can also read the raw image data directly from the image channel and use it in rules, there are some examples on the forum how to do this, however it is far easier to use the above methods.
• Also worth a mention is that you can off load cameras to a software and hardware server. These have their advantages, but can be overkill depending on what you plan to do with your cameras. Motion and Zoneminder opensource projects are two examples.

See this forum thread for examples of how to use snapshots and streams. https://community.openhab.org/t/ip-camera-how-to-clickable-thumbnail-overview-in-sitemaps-that-opens-up-to-a-larger-view/77990

How to get working video streams

IMPORTANT: The binding has its own file server that works by allowing access to the snapshot and video streams with no user/password for requests that come from an IP located in the white list. Requests from outside IP's or internal requests not on the white list will fail to get any answer. If you prefer to use your own firewall instead, you can also choose to make the ip whitelist equal "DISABLE" (now the default) to turn this feature off and then all internal IP's will have access.

There are now multiple ways to get a moving picture:

• HLS (Http Live Streaming) which can use high res h264. This can be used to cast to Chromecast devices and works well in iOS/Apple devices. Other platforms it may be necessary to install a plugin or updates to the browser before the stream can be seen.
• ipcamera.mjpeg whilst larger in size, it is more compatible at displaying in UI's. Ffmpeg can be used to create this stream if your camera does not create one for you, but this uses a lot of CPU. As most cameras limit the resolution in this format, consider using HLS or either autofps.mjpeg or snapshots.mjpeg which will be in higher resolution.
• snapshots.mjpeg which is a special mjpeg stream created from the cameras snapshots that are at the Polling rate. If the polling time is too long this will not work so I suggest using with 1000ms to 9000ms polling times.
• autofps.mjpeg This requires the poll time to be 1000ms and the motion alarm to be turned on or it will not work as intended. This feature is designed to keep data traffic to your mobile devices as low as possible by automatically sending 1fps when motion is occuring, but only 1 picture every 8 seconds when the picture has no motion. Why send lots of pictures if the picture has not changed as doing so only eats up your data plan.
• Animated GIF. This is small in size and very compatible and handy to use in push notifications, pushover, telegram, or emails.

See this forum thread for examples of how to use snapshots and streams. https://community.openhab.org/t/ip-camera-how-to-clickable-thumbnail-overview-in-sitemaps-that-opens-up-to-a-larger-view/77990

To get some of the video formats working, you need to install the ffmpeg program. Visit their site here to learn how https://ffmpeg.org/

Under Linux, Ffmpeg can be installed very easily with this command.

sudo apt update && sudo apt install ffmpeg

MJPEG Streaming

Cameras that have MJPEG abilities via HTTP (cameras with an API) can stream to openHAB with the MJPEG format with next to no CPU load and Ffmpeg does not need to be installed. The binding is now able to create mjpeg from a rtsp source and this will require Ffmpeg to be installed and will use the Openhab CPU to create the stream. Ffmpeg may require you to lower the resolution and/or the FPS to lower the CPU load down enough to run, you may need to experiment. The main cameras that can do mjpeg with very low CPU load are Amcrest, Dahua, Hikvision, Foscam HD and Instar HD. For cameras that do not auto detect the url for mjpeg streams, you will need to enter a working url for STREAM_URL_OVERRIDE otherwise ffmpeg will be the default and create the stream when asked. This can be skipped for the already mentioned brands but check for any special setup steps for your brand in this readme. If you can not find STREAM_URL_OVERRIDE, you need to click on the pencil icon in PaperUI to edit the configuration and then scroll to the very bottom of the page and click on the SHOW MORE link.

To request the mjpeg stream from the binding, all you need to do is use this link changing the IP to that of your Openhab server and the SERVER_PORT to match the settings in the bindings setup for that camera. ipcamera.mjpeg is not changed and stays the same for all of your cameras, it is the port that changes between multiple cameras, the rest stays the same. Also see the sitemap examples below.

http://OpenhabIP:ServerPort/ipcamera.mjpeg

Alternatively you can use 3rd party software running on a standalone server to do the conversion. Converting from h264 to mjpeg takes a lot of CPU power to handle the conversion, so it may be better to use HLS format as this will use h264 and not require a conversion that needs CPU grunt. You can run the open source motion software on a raspberry Pi with this project.

https://github.com/ccrisan/motioneyeos/wiki

snapshot.mjpeg and autofps.mjpeg a special kind of MJPEG Stream

These features allow you to request a mjpeg stream created by the binding with low CPU usage from the cameras snapshots. Snapshots are usually high resolution and look great, however they are limited to max 1 FPS. The reason this is more useful than snapshots on their own, is some UI's will flash white or black when a snapshot is refreshing, this does not happen with snapshots.mjpeg and is the same bandwidth and CPU load as just using snapshots!

Request the stream to be sent to an item with this url. NOTE: The IP is Openhabs not your cameras IP and the 54321 is what you have set as the SERVER_PORT.

http://192.168.xxx.xxx:54321/snapshots.mjpeg

Use the following to display it in your sitemap or the habpanel equivalent.

With motion alarm turned on and poll at 1000ms. Video url="http://192.168.0.32:54321/autofps.mjpeg" encoding="mjpeg"

With poll time below 9000ms Video url="http://192.168.0.32:54321/snapshots.mjpeg" encoding="mjpeg"

HLS HTTP Live Streaming

The channel called 'startStream' can now be used to have HLS run non stop to lower the startup delay that comes with using this type of stream. If the channel is OFF the stream will start and stop automatically as required but you will get a delay before the stream is fully running.

Cameras with h264 format streams (most cameras except ESP32 Cams) can have this copied into the HLS format which can be used to stream to Chromecasts and also display in browsers that support this format using the webview or Habpanel items. Apple devices have excellent support for HLS due to the standard being invented by Apple. Some browsers like Chrome may require a plugin or an update to be installed before they are able to display the video.

Google metadata support now allows you to ask Google to 'Show me the Front Door Camera'. Example of how this is done in your items file.

String FrontDoorCamHlsUrl "Front Door" { channel="ipcamera:DAHUA:FrontDoor:hlsUrl", ga="Camera" [ protocols="hls" ] }

To use the HLS steaming features, you need to:

1. Set a valid SERVER_PORT as the default value of -1 will turn the feature off.
2. Add any IPs that need access to the IP_WHITELIST surrounding each one in brackets (see below example) or DISABLE the whitelist feature.
3. Ensure ffmpeg is installed. How to do this in linux is shown in this readme, or visit their website or Google.
4. For cameras that do not auto detect the H264 stream which is done for ONVIF cameras, you will need to use the FFMPEG_INPUT and provide a http or rtsp link. This is used for HLS and many other features like the animated GIF.
5. For Onvif cameras the ONVIF_MEDIA_PROFILE needs to match the stream number you have setup for h264. This is usually 0 and is the main-stream, the higher numbers are the sub-streams if your camera has any. For non Onvif cameras you just need to check the url in the last step works and is provided to the binding.
6. Consider using a SSD, HDD or a tmpfs (ram drive) if using SD/flash cards as the HLS streams are written to the FFMPEG_OUTPUT folder. Only a small amount of storage is needed. I use micro SD cards and a ramdrive and have excellent performance.
7. If streaming to a Chromecast that is not 4k capable, you need to ensure the stream is in a resolution that your Chromecast is capable of, ie 1080p or 720p. Cameras with 3 streams are handy as you can have a 4k stream going to a NVR whilst a 720p stream can be cast to your TV whilst a 3rd can be for mjpeg format.

Ram drive setup

To create a tmpfs of 20mb at /tmpfs/ run this command to open the file for editing. Recommend using 20Mb per camera that uses this location although it could use less than half that amount if carefully streamlined for less ram. If using the ffmpeg -hls_wrap wrap option, you may even get away with 5Mb per camera.

nano /etc/fstab

Enter and save this at the bottom of the file using ctrl X when done.

tmpfs /tmpfs tmpfs defaults,nosuid,nodev,noatime,size=20m 0 0

Example thing file for a Dahua camera.

Thing ipcamera:DAHUA:001 [
    IPADDRESS="192.168.1.2",
    PASSWORD="password",
    USERNAME="admin",
    POLL_CAMERA_MS=2000,
    SERVER_PORT=54321,
    IP_WHITELIST="(192.168.1.120)(192.168.1.33)(192.168.1.74)",
    IMAGE_UPDATE_EVENTS=1,
    UPDATE_IMAGE=false,
    FFMPEG_OUTPUT="/tmpfs/camera1/", 
    FFMPEG_INPUT="rtsp://192.168.1.22:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0"
]

Sitemap examples: (Note the IP is for your openHAB server not the camera)

Text label="Android Mjpeg Stream" icon="camera"{Video url="http://192.168.1.9:54321/ipcamera.mjpeg" encoding="mjpeg"}

Text label="HLS Video Stream" icon="camera"{Video url="http://192.168.1.9:54321/ipcamera.m3u8" encoding="hls"}

Text label="HLS Webview Stream" icon="camera"{Webview url="http://192.168.1.9:54321/ipcamera.m3u8" height=15}

ffmpeg HLS Special settings

To get audio working you need to have the camera include audio in the stream and in a format that is supported by Chromecast or your browser, I suggest AAC. Then you need to change the from the first line to the second one.

For cameras with no audio in the stream (default setting)

-strict -2 -f lavfi -i aevalsrc=0 -acodec aac -vcodec copy -hls_flags delete_segments -segment_list_flags live -flags -global_header

For cameras with audio in the stream. Note will break Chromecast if the camera does not send audio which is why this is not the default.

-strict -2 -acodec copy -vcodec copy -hls_flags delete_segments -segment_list_flags live -flags -global_header

Some browsers require larger segment sizes to prevent choppy playback, this can be done with this setting to create 10 second segment files which increases the time before you can get playback working.

-f lavfi -i aevalsrc=0 -acodec aac -vcodec copy -hls_time 10 -hls_flags delete_segments

For use when a small ramdrive is used as it does not keep creating new files, but re-uses the old file names.

-strict -2 -acodec copy -vcodec copy -hls_wrap wrap

Animated GIF feature

The cameras have a channel called updateGif and when this switch is turned 'ON' (either by a rule or manually) the binding will create an animated GIF called ipcamera.gif in the ffmpeg output folder. Once the file is created the switch will turn 'OFF' and this can be used to trigger a rule to send the picture via email, pushover or telegram messages. This feature saves you from using sleep commands in your rules to ensure a file is created as the control only turns off when the file is actually created. The switch can be turned on with a rule triggered by an external zwave PIR sensor or the cameras own motion alarm, the choice and the logic can be created by yourself. The feature has two options called preroll and postroll to be aware of. When preroll is 0 (the default) the binding will use the RTSP stream to fetch the amount of seconds specified in the postroll config to create the GIF from. By changing to a preroll value above 0 the binding will change to using snapshots as the source and this requires the jpeg to be updating. The time between the snapshots is the polling time of the camera (2 seconds by default) and can be raised or lowered to 1 second if you desire. The snapshots are saved to disk and can be used as a feature that is described in the snapshot section above in more detail.

You can request the gif by using this url, or by the path to where the file is stored:

http://OpenhabIP:ServerPort/ipcamera.gif

.items

Switch DoorCamCreateGif "Create animated GIF" { channel="ipcamera:DAHUA:DoorCam:updateGif" }

.rules

rule "Create front door camera GIF when front doorbell button pushed"
when
    Item FrontDoorbellButton changed to ON
then
    //Start creating the GIF
    DoorCamCreateGif.sendCommand(ON)
    //Cast a doorbell sound using the Chromecast binding.
    KitchenHomeHubPlayURI.sendCommand("http://192.168.1.8:8080/static/doorbell.mp3")
end

rule "Send doorbell GIF via Pushover"
when
    Item DoorCamCreateGif changed to OFF
then
    sendPushoverMessage(pushoverBuilder("Sending GIF from backyard").withApiKey("dsfhghj6546fghfg").withUser("qwerty54657").withDevice("Phone1").withAttachment("/tmpfs/DoorCam/ipcamera.gif"))
end

Batch motion detection rules

In case you have more than one camera to manage, you might want to create a general rule that would react on the events.

Let's say you have a multiple cameras with motion detection, intrusion detection or others. You can create a Group item called gCameraEvent that would combine all these events:

*.items:

Group gCameraEvent

Switch   East_Camera_MotionAlarm                     "Motion alarm"   (gCameraEvent)  {channel="ipcamera:HIKVISION:East:motionAlarm"}
Switch   East_Camera_FieldDetectionAlarm             "Intrusion alarm"   (gCameraEvent)  {channel="ipcamera:HIKVISION:East:fieldDetectionAlarm"}
Switch   East_Camera_UpdateGif                       "Create an animated gif"   (gCameraGif)    {channel="ipcamera:HIKVISION:East:updateGif"}
DateTime East_Camera_LastMotion                      "Last motion [%1$tH:%1$tM %1$tY-%1$tm-%1$td]"

Then we can make a rule that would launch GIF recorder for each camera that caught motion alert:

camera.rules:

import org.eclipse.smarthome.model.script.ScriptServiceUtil

rule "Update last motion"
when
    Member of gCameraEvent changed to ON
then
    val camera = triggeringItem.name.split("_Camera_").get(0)
    val time = ScriptServiceUtil.getItemRegistry.getItem(camera + "_Camera_LastMotion") as DateTimeItem
    val gif = ScriptServiceUtil.getItemRegistry.getItem(camera + "_Camera_UpdateGif") as SwitchItem
    postUpdate(time, new DateTimeType())
    sendCommand(gif, ON)
end

NOTE: This approach implies that you follow a specific naming convention for your items: [Room]_Camera_[Action] where Action is either MotionAlarm, UpdateGif or LastMotion

Auto renaming archived GIF files

You can also group together all "updateGif" actions by making a gCameraGif group and assigning all your cameras there:

Group gCameraGif
Switch   Backyard_Camera_UpdateGif                   "Create an animated gif"               (gCameraGif)    {channel="ipcamera:HIKVISION:Backyard:updateGif"}
Switch   East_Camera_UpdateGif                       "Create an animated gif"               (gCameraGif)    {channel="ipcamera:HIKVISION:East:updateGif"}
Switch   Front_Camera_UpdateGif                   "Create an animated gif"                  (gCameraGif)    {channel="ipcamera:HIKVISION:Front:updateGif"}
Switch   West_Camera_UpdateGif                    "Create an animated gif"                  (gCameraGif)    {channel="ipcamera:HIKVISION:West:updateGif"}
Switch   Garage_Camera_UpdateGif                  "Create an animated gif"                  (gCameraGif)    {channel="ipcamera:HTTPONLY:Garage:updateGif"}
Switch   Driveway_Camera_UpdateGif                   "Create an animated gif"               (gCameraGif)    {channel="ipcamera:HTTPONLY:Driveway:updateGif"}
Switch   LivingRoom_Camera_UpdateGif              "Create an animated gif"                  (gCameraGif)    {channel="ipcamera:HTTPONLY:LivingRoom:updateGif"}

By default all GIFs are saved with ipcamera.gif name. Now we can archive the old ones by renaming them with a timestamp:

camera.rules:

var Timer timer = null // top of the file, optionally after imports

rule "Rename GIF Anims when Saved"
    when
        Member of gCameraGif changed to ON
   then
        val String timeNow = String::format( "%1$tY%1$tm%1$td-%1$tT", new java.util.Date ).replace(":", "")
        val camera = triggeringItem.name.split("_Camera_").get(0).toLowerCase + "/"

        // Wait 12 secs for ffmpeg to complete
        if (timer === null) {
            timer = createTimer(now.plusSeconds(12), [ |

                // Same as FFMPEG_OUTPUT parameter in Thing definition
                var filePath = "/etc/openhab2/html/cameras/camera-" + camera
                var oldFileName = (filePath + "ipcamera.gif")

                // Separator between filename and timestamp, e.g. '_', '-', '.', or whatever you prefer
                var fileDateSeparator = "_"

                // Substitute "ipCam2" to your new filename preference
                var newFileName = (filePath + "ipcamera" + fileDateSeparator + timeNow + ".gif")

                // Options are "mv" to rename file or "cp" to copy file
                var methodUsed = "cp"

                executeCommandLine("/bin/" + methodUsed + " " + oldFileName + " "  + newFileName)
                logInfo(oldFileName, "Copied to " + newFileName)
            ])
        } else {
            if(timer !== null) {
                timer.cancel
                timer = null
            }
       }
end

Note that the example above also implies that you use the same naming convention ([Room]_Camera_[Action]) and the folders where your GIF files are stored are called /camera-[room]/ where [room] is simply [Room] but in lowercase.

Reducing log sizes

There are two log files discussed here, openHAB.log and events.log please take the time to consider both logs if a fast and stable setup is something you care about. On some systems with slow disk access like SD cards, the writing of a log file can greatly impact on performance. We can turn on/up logs to fault find issues, and then disable them to get the performance back when everything is working.

To watch the logs in realtime with Linux based setups you can use this linux command which can be done via SSH with a program called putty from a windows or mac.

tail -f /var/log/openhab2/openhab.log -f /var/log/openhab2/events.log

CTRL+C will close the stream. You can also use SAMBA/network shares to open or copy the file directly, but my favorite way to view the logs is with "Frontail". Frontail is another UI that can be selected like paperUI, and can be installed using the openHABian config tool. This allows you to search and only show what you care about, ie a particular warning or error.

openHAB.log

This file displays the information from all bindings and can have the amount of information turned up or down on a per binding basis. The default level is INFO and is the middle level of 5 settings you can use. The OpenHAB documentation goes into this in more detail and is kept up to date. Using the KARAF console you can use these commands to turn the logging up and down to suit your needs. If you are having issues with the binding not working with your camera, then TRACE will give me everything in DEBUG with the additional reply packets from the camera for me to use for fault finding. Because the TRACE shows the cameras replies it often shows you in plain english what the camera is telling you is wrong greatly speeding up the diagnosis of any issues so please use this to find what is wrong before asking for help.

log:set WARN org.openhab.binding.ipcamera

log:set INFO org.openhab.binding.ipcamera

log:set DEBUG org.openhab.binding.ipcamera

log:set TRACE org.openhab.binding.ipcamera

events.log

By default openHAB will log all image channel updates as an event into a file called events.log, this file can quickly grow if you have multiple cameras all updating the image channel every second.

I believe it is possible for enough high resolution cameras to flood and swamp the event bus with more incoming data then the system can process even if the logs are disabled, so I highly recommend to not use the Image channel and instead use another method outlined in the snapshot section of this readme file.

If you still wish to use the Image channel (It now only updates every 10th Poll time), the following is how to deal with the log output that is created as the raw picture data in text format is ugly and makes the log very hard to read.

• You can switch to only updating the image channel on EVENTS like motion alarms.
• Turn off all events so Frontail does not get flooded. You could stop frontail from following both files.
• Filter out the events before they reach the log file.

The openHAB event.log does not allow normal filtering at a binding level due to the log being a pure output from the event bus.

To disable the event.log use this command in Karaf.

log:set WARN smarthome.event

To re-enable use the same command with INFO instead of WARN.

To filter out the events do the following:

sudo nano /var/lib/openhab2/etc/org.ops4j.pax.logging.cfg

Inside that file paste the following, save and then reboot.

############ CUSTOM FILTERS START HERE #################
# event log filter
log4j2.appender.event.filter.myfilter1.type = RegexFilter
log4j2.appender.event.filter.myfilter1.regex = .*changed from raw type.*
log4j2.appender.event.filter.myfilter1.onMatch = DENY
log4j2.appender.event.filter.myfilter1.onMisMatch = ACCEPT
################# END OF FILTERS ######################

You can specify the item name in the filter to remove just 1 camera, or you can use the above without the item name to remove all events from images updating which will be for other bindings as well.

Roadmap for further development

Currently the focus is on stability and creating a good framework that allows multiple brands to be used in RULES in a consistent way. Hopefully the binding is now less work to add a new function to instead of creating stand alone scripts which are not easy for new openHAB users to find, setup or use. By consistent I mean if a camera breaks down and you wish to change brands, your rules with this binding should be easy to adapt to the new brand of camera with minimal changes. Sharing rules with others also becomes far easier if all brands are handled the same way.

If you need a feature added that is in an API and you can not program, please raise an issue ticket here at this Github project with a sample of what a browser shows when you enter in the URL and it is usually very quick to add these features.

If you wish to contribute then please create an issue ticket first to discuss how things will work before doing any coding. This is for multiple reasons due to needing to keep things CONSISTENT between brands and also easy to maintain.

The following list of areas that could be added to are a great place to start helping with this binding if you wish to contribute. Any feedback, push requests and ideas are welcome just please create a github issue with your plans first.

Areas this binding could be improved are:

• ONVIF alarms: I have started writing some code for this already, see EventsRequest.java and compare it to how the working PTZRequest.java works, but it needs to be finished off. I am low on spare time as all my cameras work it is a very low priority for me.

• PTZ methods for continuous move so you can scan back and forth and wear your camera out faster. I wont spend my time on this as I feel that Absolute and Presets are far better in networks that can drop out in the middle of a move. But I will support any PR for it.

• 1 and 2 way audio. Keen to add this at some point for talking with people at my front door and baby monitor.

Example Onvif SOAP contents can be found here for most requests and responses. I have found these useful as often an example SOAP trace is not in the Onvif documentation. https://git.linuxmce.org/garagevibes/linuxmce/tree/08c52739954c0bfce7443eddc1ad4f6936a70fbe/src/Advanced_IP_Camera/onvif