Node Red Dashboard for Blue Iris ALPR

[Alan_F]

@Alan_F

I am confused here;

• Create a separate folder to store the images where ALPR detected a tag (outside Blue Iris)
  • The original images are deleted when Blue Iris deletes the clip/alert. Copying them elsewhere allows you to keep them as long as you want
  • This folder should be local to the Node Red instance

Who is writing to this folder Blue Iris or Node Red? Do I have to put a path to it in node red? (My first time using node red)

I'm breaking this off into it's own thread since I expect as more people try this, the same questions will come up - thanks to my near total lack of details in the instructions

For anyone finding this thread, most of what you need to get up to speed is in this post: Blue Iris and CodeProject.AI ALPR

There are a few places you need to change things in the main flow to get things going:




In the source folder function node, replace the part in the quotes:

msg.sourcepath = "s:\\BlueIris\\Alerts\\" + msg.payload.Camera
return msg;

with the path to your Blue Iris alerts folder. Mine resides in s:\BlueIris\Alerts. Note the double backslashes. So if your Blue Iris Clips and Archiving tab has the alert folder location as c:\BlueIrisVideo\Alerts, this would read:

msg.sourcepath = "c:\\BlueIrisVideo\\Alerts\\" + msg.payload.Camera
return msg;

In the copy file node, put the path to the new folder you created in Destination Path. I copy my alert images to S:\BlueIris\LPRImages





While we're listing the configuration steps for the main flow:

- In the MQTT listener, make sure the Topic is the same as the topic you set in Blue Iris in the On Alert action

- In the SQL database node (labeled "LPR") you have to click the edit icon (pencil) next to the Database field and set up the connection to your database.

I think that is everything that has to be configured in that flow for your environment.

 

[kccustom]

In the source flow you attached there is no source folder or copy file

 

[Alan_F]

Sorry. I must have messed up the export. Here is the flow, and I tried importing to it verify all the nodes are included.

Spoiler: Node Red Main Flow

[{"id":"4e4757364b6290fb","type":"group","z":"9796107b389bdb9e","style":{"stroke":"#999999","stroke-opacity":"1","fill":"none","fill-opacity":"1","label":true,"label-position":"nw","color":"#a4a4a4"},"nodes":["c76f238773caf170","87d44d61fefcfd9a","902c1a6918c0db03","5a78a14f6887f171","1ca1a7c8197a712f","4b7b582067b02d1b","2edbc803fde92f3e","efeb83d79c2edc7f","9e119b47c49a583b"],"x":14,"y":19,"w":592,"h":242},{"id":"c76f238773caf170","type":"mqtt in","z":"9796107b389bdb9e","g":"4e4757364b6290fb","name":"","topic":"BlueIris/LPRdata","qos":"2","datatype":"auto-detect","broker":"a44c57ac297015e5","nl":false,"rap":true,"rh":0,"inputs":0,"x":140,"y":120,"wires":[["87d44d61fefcfd9a","902c1a6918c0db03","9e119b47c49a583b"]]},{"id":"87d44d61fefcfd9a","type":"debug","z":"9796107b389bdb9e","g":"4e4757364b6290fb","name":"debug 53","active":true,"tosidebar":true,"console":false,"tostatus":false,"complete":"true","targetType":"full","statusVal":"","statusType":"auto","x":140,"y":180,"wires":[]},{"id":"902c1a6918c0db03","type":"sqlstring-format","z":"9796107b389bdb9e","g":"4e4757364b6290fb","name":"","query":"REPLACE INTO lpr_images (tag,file,image_description,filedatetime,camera) VALUES \n(?,?,?,?,?) ","vars":"payload.plate,payload.AlertImgPath,payload.Alert_AI,payload.Date,payload.Camera","outField":"topic","x":310,"y":100,"wires":[["5a78a14f6887f171"]]},{"id":"5a78a14f6887f171","type":"mysql","z":"9796107b389bdb9e","g":"4e4757364b6290fb","mydb":"17c59737.09ace9","name":"LPR","x":450,"y":100,"wires":[["1ca1a7c8197a712f"]]},{"id":"1ca1a7c8197a712f","type":"debug","z":"9796107b389bdb9e","g":"4e4757364b6290fb","name":"debug 54","active":true,"tosidebar":true,"console":false,"tostatus":false,"complete":"true","targetType":"full","statusVal":"","statusType":"auto","x":460,"y":60,"wires":[]},{"id":"4b7b582067b02d1b","type":"debug","z":"9796107b389bdb9e","g":"4e4757364b6290fb","name":"debug 55","active":true,"tosidebar":true,"console":false,"tostatus":false,"complete":"true","targetType":"full","statusVal":"","statusType":"auto","x":480,"y":220,"wires":[]},{"id":"2edbc803fde92f3e","type":"comment","z":"9796107b389bdb9e","g":"4e4757364b6290fb","name":"BlueIris/LPRdata to database","info":"","x":160,"y":60,"wires":[]},{"id":"efeb83d79c2edc7f","type":"fs-ops-copy","z":"9796107b389bdb9e","g":"4e4757364b6290fb","name":"Copy file","sourcePath":"sourcepath","sourcePathType":"msg","sourceFilename":"payload.AlertImgPath","sourceFilenameType":"msg","destPath":"s:\\BlueIris\\LPRImages","destPathType":"str","destFilename":"payload.AlertImgPath","destFilenameType":"msg","link":false,"overwrite":true,"x":520,"y":160,"wires":[["4b7b582067b02d1b"]]},{"id":"9e119b47c49a583b","type":"function","z":"9796107b389bdb9e","g":"4e4757364b6290fb","name":"Source folder","func":"msg.sourcepath = \"s:\\\\BlueIris\\\\Alerts\\\\\" + msg.payload.Camera\n\nreturn msg;","outputs":1,"noerr":0,"initialize":"","finalize":"","libs":[],"x":330,"y":160,"wires":[["efeb83d79c2edc7f"]]},{"id":"a44c57ac297015e5","type":"mqtt-broker","name":"Pi MQTT","broker":"192.168.0.12","port":"1883","clientid":"","autoConnect":true,"usetls":false,"protocolVersion":"5","keepalive":"60","cleansession":true,"birthTopic":"","birthQos":"0","birthPayload":"","birthMsg":{},"closeTopic":"","closeQos":"0","closePayload":"","closeMsg":{},"willTopic":"","willQos":"0","willPayload":"","willMsg":{},"userProps":"","sessionExpiry":""},{"id":"17c59737.09ace9","type":"MySQLdatabase","name":"","host":"192.168.0.12","port":"3306","db":"LPR","tz":"America/New_York","charset":"UTF8"}]

It should look like this:



For anyone new to Node Red, you don't need those debug nodes. Once everything is working you can delete them or just click the green rectangle sticking out the right side to deactivate them. With them active you can see the messages that are flowing out of the nodes by using the debug window on the right side of the Node Red interface.

I'll also attach the dashboard JSON here to make this thread more complete

 

[kccustom]

Thanks!

Is the "Copy File" the folder that you are supposed to attach to the webserver?

 

[Alan_F]

Thanks!

Is the "Copy File" the folder that you are supposed to attach to the webserver?

Yes, you want the web server pointed to that folder, so when you go to

http://web_server_ip:port/name_of_alert_image.jpg

your browser displays the image.

You'll put the same URL in the "Set URL Here" node on the dashboard flow... minus the "name_of_alert_image.jpg"... so

http://web_server_ip:port/

goes in that node.

 

[kccustom]

I think I am close, I am trying to get this to run on unraid and I keep getting this node red error

[error] [fs-ops-copy:Copy file] Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, copyfile '/data/Alerts/EastLPR/EastLPR.20230203_003704.522739.3-1.jpg' -> '/data/ALPR/EastLPR.20230203_003704.522739.3-1.jpg'

for some reason it looks like the mqtt message is trying to create an extra folder that I don't have "/EastLPR"

 

[Alan_F]

Are all of your alert images in a single folder under Blue Iris? As in, are they NOT in subfolders for each camera?

If so, try putting the source path for the Blue Iris alerts folder in the source path box in the copy node. Enter it just like the destination path is entered.

If that works, you should be able to remove the function node that is labeled "source folder" and reconnect a wire directly from the MQTT node to the copy file node.

The purpose of that function node is to add the camera name as a subfolder to the main Blue Iris alerts path as my alerts are in subfolders.

 

[Alan_F]

Since the original Node Red LPR dashboard doesn't work well on small screens, I created a separate UI tab for use on my phone. The attached flow json is for a mobile-scale version of the dashboard. I'm using a Pixel 5a. Depending on your phone resolution you might have to tweak the element widths for your phone



Edit: uploaded a tweaked V2 version. As soon as I posted I saw a few things that needed attention.

 

[Vettester]

Thanks for sharing this! I had to tweak the formatting a bit for my iPhone but it works great!

 

[Alan_F]

Thanks for sharing this! I had to tweak the formatting a bit for my iPhone but it works great!

View attachment 152943

Take a look at the V2 version I uploaded a little while ago. It gets rid of the "Database Search" title, fits the from/to dates on one line, and hides the date picker icons. That gives you a little more vertical room for the data table. I added the updated version screenshot to the original post.

 

[Vettester]

That's better, thank you!

 

[Alan_F]

Someone asked for a list of all the nodes that are used in these flows, as some of them are not packaged with the standard install of Node Red. These are all the items listed in the palette in my Node Red.

node-red
node-red-contrib-fs-ops
node-red-contrib-moment
node-red-contrib-sqlstring
node-red-dashboard
node-red-node-mysql
node-red-node-ui-table

 

[Alan_F]

That's better, thank you!

View attachment 152990

There's still space being reserved for the invisible calendar icon, which is causing your from: date to get cut off. Try changing the template node in the LPR Mobile flow to this:

Spoiler: Improved template node

<style>
    .md-datepicker-button 
    {
    display:none !important;
    }
 
    .md-datepicker-input
    {
    text-align:center !important;
    }

    .md-datepicker-triangle-button 
    {
    display:none !important;
    }
</style>

and see if that looks better.

 

[Vettester]

Try changing the template node in the LPR Mobile flow to this and see if that looks better.

It does look better, thanks again!

 

[Alan_F]

Under the heading of "More options, more better"

If you want to use Grafana instead of Node Red to search and display the images, you can do that too.

This Grafana dashboard uses the Dynamic Image Panel plugin. It displays the images within the selected timeframe using the 'tag' search box at the top to filter them. The colored bar below each image indicates what camera it is from, and the text below the image is the time of day and the tag. If you hover on an image, it pops up a tooltip with the elapsed time and full date/time ("11 hours ago - 2023-02-25 05:01:30"). If you click on an image, it opens the full size image in a new tab. If you're familiar with Grafana, this is pretty easy to set up once you install that plugin using the data from MySQL. If you want a copy of my dashboard.json, let me know and I can share it.

 

[Vettester]

If you want a copy of my dashboard.json, let me know and I can share it.

I'd like to take a look at your json file.

 

[Alan_F]

Updating this old thread, I have been having some problems with Blue Iris MQTT messages getting delayed somewhere. They eventually come through, but only after Blue Iris reconnects to the MQTT server. I've been corresponding with Ken about it and I'm pretty sure the issue is in Blue Iris rather than elsewhere in my network, but that's not 100% confirmed. The problem can be seen in my database where I have multiple LPR reads from a 20 or 30 minutes period that get stored in the database at the exact same time, and the Blue Iris logs show an MQTT disconnect/reconnect at that time.

As a result, I've modified some of my processes to use HTTP requests instead of MQTT messaging. The added advantage is that no MQTT server is needed, only Blue Iris and Node Red. I still have my MQTT server running for other things, but if you're setting this up from scratch you don't need to spin up an MQTT server just for this.

To switch from MQTT to HTTP messaging, only a few things need to be changed.

In Blue Iris, change the alert action for LPR alerts from "MQTT" to "HTTP". Set the address to "{noderedIP}:1880/blueiris_lpr" (insert you node-red IP)

In Node Red, replace the MQTT-in node with three nodes, a HTTP-in, a HTTP response, and a JSON node



In the HTTP-in node settings, select "POST" and enter "blueiris_lpr" (or whatever you used in the alert action) as the URL

Connect the HTTP-in node to a HTTP response node. (the one just labeled "HTTP" above".

Connect the HTTP-in node to a JSON node.



Set the JSON node as above and connect it to the SQL node.

 

[Vettester]

I have been having some problems with Blue Iris MQTT messages getting delayed somewhere.

I’m still using this and I haven’t seen any MQTT issues. I went through my BI logs for the last two months and the only MQTT disconnects I found correspond with reboots of my MQTT server.

 

[James1402]

Thanks for this. I have everything working well except I am having issues getting the image to display. Using "file://G:/LPR/imagefilename.jpeg" displays fine in my browser, but wont display in the dashboard. How do I correctly link the images into the dashboard? I have BlueIris, Node-red, codeproject and MQTT are all running on the same window PC.

 

[Vettester]

Thanks for this. I have everything working well except I am having issues getting the image to display. Using "file:/G:/LPR/imagefilename.jpeg" displays fine in my browser, but wont display in the dashboard. How do I correctly link the images into the dashboard? I have BlueIris, Node-red, codeproject and MQTT are all running on the same window PC.

Are you using Google Chrome? If so, try using a different browser.