Any using Homebridge to view their SecuritySpy cameras in HomeKit... how's the experience?
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What steps are required to enable recordings to iCloud? Currently, my cameras in Home app have no options to record (or use automation). So obviously there is still something to configure/enable I haven't gotten to yet.
This is where I'm at. As I use SecuritySpy for all of my recordings it's very low on the priorities, but a backup's a backup. I believe you need to associate a virtual button or switch with the camera in Scrypted and then have some means of triggering that. My approach would be to use SS's motion sensing to fire a script (which I do anyway) that sends an HTTP request which "pushes" the button.
But as I say, this is all conjecture.
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Record to HKSV... I wrote about this on Jan 24 in this thread. Take a look and let me know if you need more info. It's the comment talking about setting up dummy switches in Scrypted.
Do the 2nd photo first.... It's setting up a Dummy Switch Plugin in Scrypted. Then do the 1st photo, then the 3rd photo. :)
And then you'll need to go into the Home app on your phone and go into the settings for the camera and mess around with all its new settings. Might also need to reboot your Home Hub (AppleTV in my case)... it took awhile to get it working, rebooting, restarting Scrypted, etc etc...
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Super helpful! I can now do the recording of videos to iCloud - or at least I now see those options to configure! Thanks for posting those screenshots! Likely @andydvsn and others will find that useful as well.
So far the Dummy Switch isn't yet showing up in SecuritySpy for me to do the HomeKit trigger from SS. But as you mentioned, this may take further reboots/restarts of Scrypted, the hub (AppleTV for me as well) and SS. I'm sure it will show up shortly and then I'll finish configuring this.
Like @andydvsn having the iCloud recordings isn't a very big deal since I have them all (in higher quality) on the SS Mac. But what I am interested in is getting the notifications of people, vehicles and even packages that seem to be available. That would be cool. Looking forward to trying out the recording and notification options soon...seems I am very close now with the help given on this thread. So thanks again. Cheers!
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@CameronB Hey.. just to be clear. It's HomeHelper that isn't showing you the Dummy switch, right? SS triggers an Action you configure in HomeHelper, and then HomeHelper triggers the switch in HomeKit. BTW, I had an issue, that I also wrote about, where my HomeHelper Action would not show up in SS. Instead, they were showing up as Triggers. I had to remove my Actions and Triggers from HomeHelper and start from scratch, and only then did SS show them in the correct dropdown. Check the Triggers tab in SS and see if your Actions you created in HomeHelper are shwowing up in the HomeKit Trigger dropdown instead
This was my problem... In HomeHelper I have 2 Triggers and 3 Actions. But in SS, I had 5 Triggers. So I removed everything and started from scratch to fix it.
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@Senna_F1 Correct...HomeHelper wasn't showing the dummy switch earlier. After I restarted Scrypted and my Apple TV (hub) it shows up now - although the name is an older test name and location (room) that I have since updated in Scrypted (previous to the last reboot). So not sure why/how HomeHelper isn't getting the "memo" that the name has been updated hours ago. Maybe it will change at some point (but I assume under the covers since the "ID" is the same, that it won't matter).
I have used HomeKit actions and triggers before...but it's been a while so I shall review. I guess I assumed that SS would just cause the Action to turn on the Scrypted dummy button directly (and I set a reset time of a few minutes). But it sounds like you are saying that I need both an Action and a Trigger?
I'll check your screenshots. Thanks for that tip.
-Cameron
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I have multiple cameras recording successfully for HKSV working Scrypted with SS. But there is at least 1 camera that is stubborn and will not record video.
It looks to be a problem with that camera not sensing motion (through SS). I am trying to debug this but I'm running into a challenge with SecuritySpy and the Actions. Here's what I am trying to do. Maybe someone can tell me what I am doing wrong or at least why this doesn't do what I think it should:
My Test:
I have a camera (#10) that has a HomeHelper Action that is connected to a fake 'DummySwitch'. This dummy switch shows up in HomeKit as a simple on/off switch. When this 'Porch Motion (Scrypted)" dummy switch is triggered, that lets HomeKit know (via Scrypted) that motion has occurred and HomeKit can then record it.
What I am trying to do to debug why this isn't working is to
1) manually force SecuritySpy to trigger motion (i.e. right click on the camera and select 'Trigger Motion Detection')
2) I assume this should then run the Action to toggle the dummyswitch.
3) I have configured the camera in HomeKit to send notifications when motion is detected
When I run the above test...I do NOT get a notification from HomeKit saying that camera has detected motion. In other words, it looks like the Action isn't getting run. But I'm not sure why not.
If I manually go into the Home app and toggle the same dummy switch...I DO get a notification from Home saying the camera has detected motion.
But shouldn't selecting Trigger Motion Detection from SS also give me the same result? If not...why not?
Getting closer and closer to having everything working. Thanks in advance
-Cameron
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- So you have other cameras using the same method you described, and they all work with HKSV?
- Is SS recording video when Motion is triggered?
- With the Home app open (Phone or Mac), can you see your Dummy switch get toggled when Motion is triggered manually?
- Does HomeKit record a video at all?
In Security Spy, under Triggers make sure 'Enable video motion detection' is checked
Make sure the camera is armed for Motion and Action, the 'M' and the 'A' are orange
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I've not looked into this for a while, but my Scrypted cameras stopped responding.
Have things changed during plugin updates? My SS feeds are working perfectly, but I no longer see the "snapshot URL" area in the RTSP camera plugin on Scrypted, so I'm wondering what else has been altered. Must have happened in the last few days, as that's when my camera feeds in HomeKit were last updated.
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I just ran into this. The Stream plug-in no longer handles snapshots. You must install a Snapshot plug-in. Then put Check Mark next to all your cameras in the Snapshot Plug in settings.. Then the hidden part.... Click each camera so you can see where you put in your Stream URL. Notice Snapshot URL input is gone. It's now a gray button just above this area. Where all the HomeKit buttons are also located
Grab your Snapshot URLS before you install the plugin if you can. Mine were gone, not sure if that happens after Snaphot plugin install or when I upgraded the Stream plugin.
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Thanks, @Senna_F1, appreciate the help! What a faff. It would seem that the plugin no longer allows 127.0.0.1 addresses either, I'm having to use the general network IP. No big deal, just another hoop to jump through.
I need to reinvestigate HKSV at some point too, because the solution of using HomeHelper to trigger the button doesn't work for me. I'm not comfortable keeping an iCloud account signed in on the server, particularly one tied to the iCloud Family account, as it would need to be in order to be of use. A way of triggering the Scrypted virtual button via HTTP is the ticket - just haven't had any time to look into it so far.
Edit: I had to delete and reinstall the HomeKit plugin and re-pair Scrypted as a Bridge to get the changes to register on the Home app. However, though the snapshots are now working perfectly, video is not, despite it loading just fine on the Scrypted web interface.
Sigh, time for bed.
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Make sure the camera is armed for Motion and Action, the 'M' and the 'A' are orange
This was it! Thanks!
Here's the weird thing though...when I had right-clicked the camera and looked under the "Motion Capture Schedule" menu it had already said "Armed 24/7" and that's how it worked in SS itself.
But even though the menu item had already (and for years) said "Armed 24/7", somehow the actual "orange M" was not selected. They are supposed to be "linked" but in my case the menu said one thing and the M icon said something else (i.e. it was grey and not orange). I guess there was some esoteric SecuritySpy UI bug or something.
Anyhow, as soon as I clicked the M icon - it started working. Everything is good now. And FWIW, the menu item and the "M" icon are now correctly "linked" as they should be - turning one on/off toggles the other (icon->menu or menu->icon). But for whatever reason, it wasn't linked before.
Thanks again for mentioning this as it drew my attention as to why the M wasn't orange and that led me to find out about the odd UI bug I was suffering from before I explicitly clicked the M.
Super happy with my current setup with SS and Scrypted. I've disabled the notifications from the SS mobile app as I find the HomeKit ones better. They not only will identify a person, vehicle or package but it also will (try to) identify the person (if you've enabled face detection) - and so far it's been pretty good. Also, I like HomeKit's "live" preview video on the notification - a real-time saver.
Thanks @Senna_F1 for your assistance. If anyone needs any help let me know - happy to pay it forward now that my setup is working 100%.
-Cameron
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Finally back in action.
First off, 127.0.0.1 could no longer be used as a source; fine, switched to the local IP.
Second, Bridge wouldn't update on HomeKit. Had to delete Scrypted bridge and re-added it to HomeKit.
Third, snapshots vanished from the plugin. Okay, install the Snapshot Plugin as directed by @Senna_F1. Apply Snapshot Plugin to RTSP Camera Plugin. Settings lost, naturally, so URL re-entered. Snapshots are back.
Fourth, video. Turns out transcoding was disabled in the plugin and for whatever reason HomeKit won't accept the feed straight from SS). Instructions and presets now assume 16:9 aspect ratio, my cameras are 4:3 (as are iPads). Turn on both Transcode Streaming and Transcode Remote Streaming, turn on hardware acceleration in both Video Decoder Arguments...
-hwaccel auto
...and H264 Encoder Arguments...
`-c:v h264_videotoolbox -b:v ${request.video.max_bit_rate * 8}k -vf scale=1280:-1`
I request 1280x960 video from SS, scale=1280:-1 just keeps the ration the same - it could be set explicitly as 960. Eight times multiplier on the bitrate as HomeKit still requests a really poor quality. Camera burst back into life.
Have to say, not terribly impressed with these breaking changes from Scrypted. Given that everything is largely configured the same way surely it wouldn't have been much to carry over the settings, despite needing the new plugin?
Previews on the plugin (though not the Dashboard) remain squashed into 16:9 ratio, because we're all watching a film here, aren't we.
Tired and grumpy today, can you tell? ;)
