DS-2CD2432F-IW DIO alarm trigger to send email via BI

[erkme73]

I set up a optical beam (like a garage door kid sensor) at my front porch. If the beam is broken, it opens/closes the input relays on my DS-2CD2432F-IW camera. The camera is configured to send an email when this happens.

I had originally set it up to use the integrated PIR sensor, but it was too sensitive to sunlight variations (particularly early and late sun). Both the PIR and external alarm inputs work great. But, I would rather have BI do the notification.

With the exception of this front porch camera, I've setup all of my cameras on a separate subnet, and killed all internet access to/from that subnet. I just don't like the phone-home capabilities of these cameras and don't trust the vendors not to access them.

Having BI be the gatekeeper for the camera alerts is the ideal solution.

I've followed these instructions which detail how to use external inputs or the PIR with BI, but it doesn't seem to work.

Does anyone (fenderman - I know you're on line 24/7) know how to configure BI so that it watches for the bit change on the alarm input?

 

[fenderman]

I was able to configure the motion detection settings to trigger blue iris using the same settings described in those instructions...so you should be able to use the line cross detection to do the same..follow the instructions instead of pir do it for the line cross..

 

[erkme73]

That's an interesting idea. I just tried it, but no matter what I do on the camera or BI, I can't seem to get BI to react to a change in state.

I've set the camera up to make an alarm sound, so I know it's being triggered. I have it set to trigger the alarm (A1) with either a change in state on the digital in put (from the optical sensor beam) or the line crossing feature. Both work. If I break the beam, the alarm wails. Same if I cross the line I drew in the line detection page.

I've attached a screen shot of the event page for the line crossing detection.

On the BI side, I checked the "trigger using the camera's digital input/motion". Incidentally, having that checked seems to disable BI's native motion detect - even though under motion/trigger (in BI) the "motion sensor" is still ticked. Not a huge deal, but you'd think these wouldn't be mutually exclusive.

The PTZ settings for the camera (in BI) are set to "Hikvision/Abus/Swann".

I'm sure I'm missing something simple.

 

[erkme73]

A bit more information... When I "trigger" either event (line crossing or optical beam/digital input), the speaker on the cameras sounds the wailing alarm. BUT, I just checked the status of the alarm bit with the URL http://192.168.X.X/IO/outputs/1/status/, and it comes back "inactive" - even when the alarm is actively tripped.

I don't know if or where a setting in the camera's GUI is that would change that, but clearly my settings are not correct.

 

[erkme73]

Doh... figured it out. It was staring me in the face. I completely misread the "alarm output" requirement in the instructions. I'm an idiot.

 

[erkme73]

Ok, a couple more observations, and questions...

1) When the "trigger using the camera's digital input/motion" option is checked in BI under the camera's video/configure properties, the native BI motion/trigger feature no longer works. It doesn't matter whether it's enabled or not, BI will only record when the camera triggers based on its own detection scheme. Is there no way to have both the camera AND BI motion capabilities working simultaneously?

2) When the alarm bit is tripped with the camera's PIP sensor, or any of the motion detection (line cross, intrusion, motion, etc), BI will trigger the record event - and within 10 seconds or so, it'll reset and stop recording. However, when I use the digital input to trip the alarm bit, BI starts recording, but then does not release - and continues recording indefinitely. When I verify whether the alarm bit is active or inactive, the camera's xml return shows it is INACTIVE. Therefore, there is something different in how BI manages the record-stop function whether it's an internal or external alarm (relative to the camera).

As to point 1, the reason I want both is because I'm using the camera's trigger (alarm bit) to notify me (push notification and email), but don't want to miss the general recording of events that are of interest, but didn't trigger the camera.

 

[fenderman]

Are you having the camera itself send you notifications?
To address the issue of higher threshold for alerts vs recording, I just set up a cloned cam that is only used for alerts..