How to trigger Blue Iris camera via external device - Anyone?

B

BruceWA

n3wb
Feb 27, 2018
10
2
Not sure if this is in the right part of the forum but.
Does anybody have a system set up with an external trigger setting a Blue Iris camera to record.
I installed my camera’s a number of years ago to detect the wildlife in my garden. I am quite happy with my cameras where they are detecting people or vehicles but have struggled in achieving satisfactory triggering of cameras when wildlife is concerned. No matter what I try I get so many false triggers either from moths flying about or spider webs in front of the cameras.
I would dearly like to set up an external dual sensor device and get it to trigger one or more of my Blue Iris cameras.
I have seen a few articles, one using a Raspberry Pi and a remote sensor but I have been unable to get the python script to work. Not being a programmer I can only copy what is written down.
So if anybody has a working system which uses an external trigger to activate the record on a Blue Iris camera and can show me how they did it I would be very grateful.
 
Have a look at the start of this thread, AITools externally triggers cams, might help or be of use?

[tool] [tutorial] Free AI Person Detection for Blue Iris

[tool] [tutorial] Free AI Person Detection for Blue Iris

This program analyzes motion in Blue Iris cameras in real-time using Artificial Intelligence. It notifies you if a human or an object of your choice is detected and can send alert images to Telegram. It is based on DeepQuestAI, a free multipurpose AI that you can install on your own server...
ipcamtalk.com ipcamtalk.com
 
Hi, thanks for that info, I have looked at that and tried it but not what I want. Sort of got it working but I dont think it is what I am looking for.
 
What I would actually like to be able to do is have an external PIR trigger a specific camera rather than using the Blue Iris Motion detection. It is a little while ago since I actually played with AITools and from what I remember you set a camera or more in Blue Iris to take regular snapshots and AI Tools checks the snapshot folder and loads those snapshots to DeepQuest Server. I have a feeling one issue with AI setup is if for instance you have a car parked on the drive the AITool/Deepstack sees a car regardless of it moving or not it triggers. Not what is wanted. I could be wrong about that but I seem to recall that is what I found. And I did not like Deepstack Server it seemed very clunky to me. I didnt want to to try the Docker Version, not sure I could have managed that.
 
Yes the external call URL isn’t going to help in your case. There is a fork to the AITools which does cope with static objects like cars but I’ve not personally tried this forked version.
 
A reply by @tangent back in July 2018 to Door Sensors with BI:

"You can add i/o to blue iris and use wired sensors using a sealevel device or a number of other things.
You can trigger blue iris using http commands from various home automation hubs that would work with zwave sensors."

P.S. - Welcome to IPCT! :wave:
 
But what sealevel device and what home automation hubs and how do you make that http command. None of it straightforward and it would have to be available in the UK
 
Meanwhile, when attempting to trigger a camera in Blue Iris with an http- string (this is my first attempt to do this)


is returning:

signal=green
profile=1
lock=0
clip=636651053
camera=1426 Porch2 10.0.0.178 9C:8E:CD:00:D1:65

This appears to suggest that the camara has been triggered, but nothing appears in the clips list (left side of screen).

What am I missing?

Thanks.
 
Might be worth checking that the camera is set to record when triggered.

1602704122087.png

Alternatively try curl -u user:XXXXXX "http://10.0.0.104:81/admin?camera=LOWPORCH&trigger" from the command line and see if that helps.

Remember to include the inverted commas or you will get an error trigger is not a known program. XXXXX is your password. I couldn't type user:password because the forum put a :P in
 
BruceWA said:
But what sealevel device and what home automation hubs and how do you make that http command. None of it straightforward and it would have to be available in the UK
Click to expand...
Samsung Smartthings has a BI integration (user-developed code called Blue Iris Fusion I believe) that allows you to trigger BI cameras with zwave or zigbee sensors connected to Smartthings. I have the integration set up but am using it to have my cameras act as sensors for smartthings and not the scenario you've described so I can't vouch for how well it works. I'm in the U.S. but I've seen many posts from people using Smartthings in the UK.
 
^I was looking into some of this automation 6-8 months ago and I read on a different forum that Samsung made changes and at some point in 2021 this integration using user-developed code Fusion would not work and the individual that wrote it said the overhaul would be substantial if at even all possible, so I gave up trying to implement something that sounded like would be obsolete in less than a year. Maybe I read it wrong or maybe something changed since then, but I remember deciding not to pursue it any further.
 
While your waiting for the Shelly egg - I'd suggest having a look around the Home Assistant stuff. It's a Open HUB that can connect nicely with BI and either take video or camera sensor data and include it in home automation or connect with most cloud and devices that support MQTT or Rest. Almost All other devices (including Shelly) can be bent to your will with ESPHome and Tasmota.
I really like have BI in mix to be BI but also it's the fastest RTSP to JPG convertor I've found. Think of it as a way to turn the lights on with motion, take a pic. grab video and send it via Telegram, Twitter, or whatever to whoever.
It does a lot that BI doesn't do just like BI does a lot the HA systems don't
 
It could take some effort to integrate these with BlueIris, but Inovonics makes a variety of security sensors and receivers with RS-232 and IP interfaces. They also make receivers that integrate with Vista-128, Vista-250 and some Bosch alarms. Bosch also makes some security sensors that use Inovonics radios.

Products - Inovonics

www.inovonics.com www.inovonics.com

Products - Inovonics

www.inovonics.com www.inovonics.com

There's potential for some pretty nice integrations with a bit of "glue" software.
 
I understand this is almost a 2 year old post but I thought I'd offer this info below in case a future search by someone will bring up this post and possibly help someone.

Shelly Wi-Fi devices can receive a hardwired input and then send an HTTP command to Blue Iris to trigger a cam, move a cam to a PTZ preset, change a cam's profile and likely more as those are the only 3 I've tried and used so far.

Additionally, Blue Iris can send an HTTP command to a Shelly1 device to close a relay and turn on a light, sound an alarm and more with it's 15A-rated "dry" contact.

More recent Shelly devices such as the Shelly Pro 1 can communicate not only via Wi-Fi but also via Bluetooth and hardwired LAN. It provides one 16A-rated "dry" contact.

Forum member @jaydeel uses a Shelly motion detector to tell Blue Iris when his mailbox is opened ==>> Mailbox monitor using Shelly Wifi Motion sensor & Blue Iris

You can find a lot more detailed info in my post regarding Blue Iris and Shelly Input/Output here from July 2021. Be sure to download that post's attached PDF file for specific setup and configuration examples.==>> Simple Blue Iris I/O using Shelly1 Wi-Fi Devices

Below are HTTP commands I've used successfully, allowing the Shelly device to provide input to Blue Iris.

TRIGGER
Trigger camera x (x = camera's short name)
http://BI-server-IP:BI-port/admin?camera=x&trigger=1

TRIGGER WITH AUTHENTICATION*
http://BI-server-IP:BI-port/admin?camera=x&trigger=1&user=username&pw=password

PTZ PRESET
Goto PTZ preset n on camera x (x = camera's short name)
http://BI-server-IP:BI-port/admin?camera=x&preset=n

PTZ PRESET WITH AUTHENTICATION*
http://BI-server-IP:BI-port/admin?camera=x&preset=n&user=username&pw=password

*NOTE : If user “anonymous” is NOT enabled in BI and you have created a user and password in BI to be used by Shelly, then you must also place that user/password at the end of the URL that Shelly sends to BI. That would add “?user=username&pw=password” to the end. Additionally, you must also go to “Web server” => “Advanced’ and UNcheck “use secure session keys and login page”.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: sebastiantombs and Priority
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom