Alert Actions won't fire with zone A to B motion.

C

ClayBronco

n3wb
Jun 29, 2020
4
0
United States
Hey Folks,
I'm trying to setup different alert actions based on the zones within a single camera.
Zone A (Street) - I want to play a sound
Zone B (My driveway) - I want to play a different sound
Zone B (My driveway) - I also want to execute a python script
(Eventually I might replace the Zone A sound with a different python script).

The problem I'm having is that the Python script will not execute when a vehicle travels from A to B. It will only execute when a vehicle travels from B to A (which is the least useful of the directions). I've tried a few different iterations, and moved the order of the events around, and it hasn't made a difference. It's a little hard to test, because my street, nor my driveway get much activity.
Any suggestions to send me in the right direction? Thanks!


Alert clips.png Zones.png


Alert Details.pngAlerts tab.pngRecord Tab.png
 
Try adding a zone C** that covers the entire image. This is required to track objects moving between zones.

** or I prefer G in case I want to add additional partial zones for tweaking.
 
jaydeel said:
Try adding a zone C** that covers the entire image. This is required to track objects moving between zones.

** or I prefer G in case I want to add additional partial zones for tweaking.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I will give that a shot. Does the zone lettering matter in terms of order? ie: Is there a technical difference whether the road is A, B, C, or G? or the zone that covers the entire image is C, D, or G?
 
jaydeel said:
Try adding a zone C** that covers the entire image. This is required to track objects moving between zones.

** or I prefer G in case I want to add additional partial zones for tweaking.
Click to expand...

I tried that without any luck. I also started sending the &TYPE macro (and &MEMO - but it appears to be empty since I"m not using AI) to my script, to help with troubleshooting and more refinement. Here is what I learned:
  • When motion travels from Zone A (street) to Zone B/driveway (with or without Zone C overlaying the entire screen), Zone B is NEVER included in the type.
  • When motion travels from Zone B (driveway) to Zone A, the &TYPE macro is MOTION_ABC (with the zone C overlay), and the script executes as expected.

However, the clips/alerts view always displays "Motion ABC" no matter which direction the motion is traveling. It seems that when motion starts in Zone A, any other zone that doesn't completely overlay Zone A is not included in the list of triggering zones.
I'm using the "Also re-triggers" option as seen below, though I have tried it both ways.

Any other ideas?

Thanks folks.
Just a quick recap when looking at these thumbnails. It's trigger on the way out (because the trigger includes zone B), but will not trigger on the way IN to the driveway, because the trigger type doesn't include zone B).
MOTION_BC.pngMOTION_AC.png

Alert Configuration.png
 
Tinman said:
yes, look at this:
Click to expand...

I read that, and I've seen that screen - but since I want zone A to trigger an action on it's own, and B to trigger an action on it's own, in ADDITION TO when A&B trigger, I'm reading these instructions as them not applying to me correctly? Not to mention, by setting this option, wouldn't I be preventing a "zone a"-only motion event from showing up in my alerts/timeline? That would be a problem for me if so.

Additionally it doesn't seem to matter, because my &TYPE macro is showing that it's not even triggering B at all, when the motion starts in A. so even if I exclusively limited this alert to A>B, I'm not sure it would ever even fire... see my most recent screenshots.
 
I missed that you were not using zone crossing. I assumed you were wanting to trigger A>B. Zone crossing is what requires a zone spanning the entire image.

Edit: If I recall correctly, Blue Iris tracks the center of the object to determine crossing, not the object's edge. So draw your zones with this in mind.
 
Last edited:
A possible way to get this to work may be to clone a camera and have separate zones on each one of the clones, rather than trying to get them all to work in a complex way on one camera! The additional clones should not change the load on BI
 
Yeah, I have had this type of problem for ages, and the conclusion is that the action sets don't work exacty like the trigger/zone-crossing logic. Even if you can get the zone-crossing working as desired for basic Alert (triggered recording), the Action sets don't recognize quite the same granularity.

I know that clone cameras are often proposed as the solution, but to me they are an ugly kludge solution at best. If all you wanted was a simple alert (push notification or Pushover) for later review, fine, perhaps adequate. However, if you want the kind of more useful Pushover notifications with UI3 links to the video alert, then you are back to fully recording a duplicate stream, negating the touted advantage of clone cameras.

I've had discussions with Ken on this subject, and made some suggestions that I am hoping that he includes into the upcoming (eventually?) BI6 release. No promises, TBD....
 
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