Change PTZ Presets based upon BI Motion Zones?

MakingCoffee

MakingCoffee

n3wb
Aug 17, 2019
6
3
USA
Hello -

Have PTZ camera. Have BI 5.

Trying to have a starting PTZ Preset (Preset 1) that is wide.
Would have multiple trigger zones on this wide image.

Emample:
If Zone A is triggered, goto Preset 2.
If no motion detected for X seconds, goto Preset 1.
If Zone B is triggered, goto Preset 3.
If no motion detected for X seconds, goto preset 1.

Hoping that within the last year of development this has been implemented.

Any guidance?
 
Yes, it can be done. I call it the poor man autotrack LOL.

You simply clone the spotter camera for each zone you want to use to trigger. So in your case two clone cameras - one for Zone A and the other for Zone B.

Then you go to the camera setting and configure the motion for the Zone you want, then under "When Triggered", select the camera group for the PTZ (you may need to make a group for it), and then select the Move to preset and select the preset number you want.

You can also set it up under the Alerts tab as well, but this one is the easiest.

1599697713661.png
 
You could/can do the same with v4 and with triggers from other cams. I do with a PTZ at the front of the house that swings to different presets. i.e, Front door cam triggers, it moves to provide another angle for that. Driveway cam triggers, it moves to view that. Returns after N time. One of the more useful functions of the PTZ I think.
 
Back with an update.

Thank you to @wittaj and @Mike A. for your assistance! It took some figuring out but I now have a trigger setup when someone walks to my porch and is triggered by a bullet camera the PTZ camera zooms from a different angle. The item that was holding me up and may assist someone else is that the 'spotter camera' as referenced above is the camera that is viewing a specific area not (in my case) a PTZ camera -- it was the bullet camera.

Working well now. :) Thank you.
 
I wouldn’t call it “the poor man auto track” wittaj, I’d call it brilliant! All the many who who criticise the sometimes very unpredictable autotracking built into PTZ cams should give this a whirl. I certainly will.

I’m pleased it’s working reliably for you MakingCoffee. Does your evidence of reliability stretch back to last September or did you get around to implementing it just now over your Xmas holiday?
 
OK so other things got in the way and I didn’t try this out. However, I have now moved my main PTZ to a corner of the house where its normal preset position is to supervise the garage door with motion triggering but can swing round approx 180 degrees to a different preset when triggered by another camera to take a second view of someone at the front door. This is an excellent feature.

The snag is, prior to transferring the PTZ to this new position, I hadn’t realised that, with motion only at the garage door, it also still moves to the front door preset when I don’t want it to. I can now see why this happens from my settings but, despite having been a BI user for years, I don’t appear to have the talent to figure out how to stop this from happening.

Any help please? Or point me to where, hopefully the required settings have already been described.
 
Dave Lonsdale said:
OK so other things got in the way and I didn’t try this out. However, I have now moved my main PTZ to a corner of the house where its normal preset position is to supervise the garage door with motion triggering but can swing round approx 180 degrees to a different preset when triggered by another camera to take a second view of someone at the front door. This is an excellent feature.

The snag is, prior to transferring the PTZ to this new position, I hadn’t realised that, with motion only at the garage door, it also still moves to the front door preset when I don’t want it to. I can now see why this happens from my settings but, despite having been a BI user for years, I don’t appear to have the talent to figure out how to stop this from happening.

Any help please? Or point me to where, hopefully the required settings have already been described.
Click to expand...

Simply uncheck the When Triggered boxes below on the camera by the front door. If those are not checked, then go to the alerts tab and turn disable it there.

1615743490298.png
 
wittaj said:
Simply uncheck the When Triggered boxes below on the camera by the front door. If those are not checked, then go to the alerts tab and turn disable it there.

View attachment 84605
Click to expand...
Crikey wittaj that was quick! But if possible please give me a bit more info. On the (spotter) camera by the front door, I had trigger camera groups checked to make the PTZ respond. When I uncheck that, the PTZ doesn’t respond. On the alerts tab, did your computer wrongly autocorrect ‘turn disable it there’?
On the PTZ, move to PTZ preset is checked but trigger camera groups is not checked. The PTZ still moves to the front door for a garage door trigger. In PTZ’s alert tab, unchecking the ‘Group’ box in trigger sources and zones doesn’t seem to make a difference.
On both cameras, the ‘move camera groups‘ box is not checked.

I’m sorry wittaj, but I don’t understand what I need to do.
 
This is all done within the spotter camera settings, not the PTZ settings.

For any spotter camera that you now do not want to trigger the PTZ, uncheck the 3 check boxes in the When Triggered area (Trigger camera groups, Move to Preset, and Move camera groups). If you want it to move to a different preset number, simply change the preset number and leave the boxes checked.

So now go to another camera and make sure that these 3 boxes are not checked - you may have another camera acting as a spotter or maybe a clone camera that you have hidden and forgot about!
 
Hi wittaj, sorry for the delay - here in the UK, it’s Mother’s Day and I’ve just been in the bad books for not preparing dinner.

I now see that my post was not sufficiently clear. Sorry. The unwanted PTZ operation is not a legacy from where it was mounted previously. The spotter camera for the front door moves the PTZ to the preset required with the PTZ mounted in its new position perfectly. The problem is that the PTZ has its own trigger settings when pointing at a different target. Therefore, when the PTZ picks up motion from it’s own trigger settings, I don’t want it to move to anywhere else.

May I ask you to read my short message #6 again with that in mind. Thanks wittaj.
 
OK - I think I know what you are referring to now (hopefully)

Go into the PTZ camera settings and then Edit Presets and then uncheck the Override Motion Zones.

Hopefully that takes care of it or I misunderstand what is happening/what you want to happen.
 
wittaj, many thanks for trying so hard to assist. Override Motion Zones are already unchecked for both preset positions in the PTZ - the identical motion trigger settings are fine for both presets.

One more go. There are two trigger sources for the PTZ:-

1. object detection in spotter camera (front door) - corresponding PTZ preset change is required (this works fine)
2. object detection in PTZ itself (garage door) - PTZ preset must not change (this does not work, preset changes to the front door)

Come to think of it wittaj, I had a clone set up that I wasn’t happy with. I guess I‘ll have another go. Please don’t waste more of your precious time on me unless I fail again. But it’s late, so that’s for tomorrow evening.
 
Last edited:
Bumping (my) old thread to keep all information in one place.

What I need:
When motion is detected in a particular motion zone... on the same camera... without a 2nd spotter camera.... I want the PTZ camera to go to a specific PTZ preset (set within the camera), only during certain hours (sunup - sundown), and stay there until the motion stops.


Camera Setup:
Newest version of BI.
A single PTZ ( SD1A404XB-GNR-W) camera watching wide angle. 2nd spotter camera is not possible in this location - I have this camera running on a 24/7 solar / battery setup.


Question:
What is the easiest / most streamline solution to accomplish this?


How I'm currently accomplishing this:

Original camera name: 'Road'
Camera Road is in a group, RoadZoomIn
Object detection enabled.
NO ZONES


Clone Camera. Cloned camera name is 'Spotter'.
Spotter has 2 profiles
During daylight hours 'profile 1' is active.
Object Detection enabled
Zone Enabled (zone is JUST THE ROAD)
Trigger PTZ Preset 1 (this zooms in on the area I need to zoom in on).
Trigger Camera Groups CHECKED
Move camera groups CHECKED
20 seconds to retrigger
60 seconds max trigger


The above profile runs during the daylight hours. Upon night the spotter camera will not trigger the 'road' camera s Profile 7 does not have that option. (this works).

The setup sorta works. What I would like to do is have the 'Spotter' camera trigger all alerts and send them to 'Road' camera. Then I can hide the 'Spotter' camera.
Right now I am getting alerts on the 'spotter' camera that are longer in duration than the 'road' camera or alerts on the 'spotter' camera that do not even exist on the 'Road' camera.

Shouldn't the setting 'Trigger camera groups' checked on the 'Spotter' camera immediately send an alert, and trigger, to the 'Road' Camera and force it to populate the alerts list as an alert?


Hope this makes sense!! Thank you!


TL;DR:

Make a single camera act as it's own spotter camera. If motion detected in a specific zone, during specific hours, send preset command. Return to starting preset when alert is finished.
 
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