From 71d3ec059ffe751134c0d953c1fc75435a0a6916 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: John Bowdre Date: Fri, 24 Nov 2023 17:01:10 -0600 Subject: [PATCH] new draft: automating security camera notifications with home assistant and ntfy --- .../index.md | 116 ++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 116 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/posts/automating-security-camera-notifications-with-home-assistant-and-ntfy/index.md diff --git a/content/posts/automating-security-camera-notifications-with-home-assistant-and-ntfy/index.md b/content/posts/automating-security-camera-notifications-with-home-assistant-and-ntfy/index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b1fdb80 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/automating-security-camera-notifications-with-home-assistant-and-ntfy/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,116 @@ +--- +title: "Automating Security Camera Notifications With Home Assistant and Ntfy" +date: 2023-11-24 +# lastmod: 2023-11-23 +draft: true +description: "This is a new post about..." +featured: false +toc: true +comment: true +series: Projects +tags: + - api + - automation + - homeassistant +--- +A couple of months ago, I [wrote about](/easy-push-notifications-with-ntfy) how I was using a self-hosted instance of [ntfy](https://ntfy.sh) to help streamline notification pushes from a variety of sources. I closed that post with a quick look at how I had [integrated ntfy into my Home Assistant setup](/easy-push-notifications-with-ntfy/#home-assistant) for some basic notifications. + +I've now used that immense power to enhance the notifications I get from the security cameras scattered around my house. I'm using a [Reolink NVR with 8 PoE cameras](https://reolink.com/us/product/rlk16-820d8-a/). I selected Reolink cameras specifically because I knew it was supported by Home Assistant, and for the on-device animal/person/vehicle detection which allowed for a bit of extra control over which types of motion events would trigger a notification or other action. I've been very happy with this choice, but I have found that the Reolink app itself can be a bit clunky: + +- The app lets you send notifications on a schedule (I only want notifications from the indoor cameras during work hours when no one is home), but doesn't make it easy to override that schedule (like when it's a holiday and we're all at home anyway). +- Push notifications don't include an image capture so when I receive a notification about a person in my backyard I have to open the app, go select the correct camera, select the Playback option, and scrub back and forth until I see whatever my camera saw. + +I figured I could combine the excellent [Reolink integration for Home Assistant](https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/reolink) with Home Assistant's powerful Automation platform and ntfy to get more informative notifications and more flexible alert schedules. Here's the route I took. + +### Alert on motion detection +{{% notice note "Ntfy Integration" %}} +Since manually configuring ntfy in Home Assistant via the [RESTful Notifications integration](easy-push-notifications-with-ntfy/#notify-configuration), I found that a [ntfy-specific integration](https://github.com/ivanmihov/homeassistant-ntfy.sh) was available through the [Home Assistant Community Store](https://hacs.xyz/) addon. That setup is a bit more flexible so I've switched my setup to use it instead: +```yaml +# configuration.yaml +notify: + - name: ntfy + platform: rest # [tl! --:8 collapse:8] + method: POST_JSON + headers: + Authorization: !secret ntfy_token + data: + topic: home_assistant + title_param_name: title + message_param_name: message + resource: ! secret ntfy_url + platform: ntfy # [tl! ++:3] + url: !secret ntfy_url + token: !secret ntfy_token + topic: home_assistant +``` +{{% /notice %}} + +The Reolink integration exposes a number of entities for each camera. For triggering a notification on motion detection, I'll be interested in the [binary sensor](https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/binary_sensor/) entities named like `binary_sensor.$location_$type` (like `binary_sensor.backyard_person` and `binary_sensor.driveway_vehicle`). + +So I'll craft start with a simple automation which will push out a notification whenever any of the listed cameras detect a person (or vehicle): +```yaml +# torchlight! {"lineNumbers": true} +alias: Exterior Motion Alerts +description: "" +trigger: + - platform: state + entity_id: + - binary_sensor.backyard_person + - binary_sensor.driveway_person + - binary_sensor.driveway_vehicle + - binary_sensor.east_side_front_person + - binary_sensor.east_side_rear_person + - binary_sensor.west_side_person + from: "off" + to: "on" +condition: [] +action: + - service: notify.ntfy + data: + title: Motion detected! + message: "{{ trigger.to_state.attributes.friendly_name }}" +``` + +{{% notice tip "Templating" %}} +That last line is taking advantage of Jinja templating and [trigger variables](https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/automation/templating/#state) so that the resulting notification displays the friendly name of whichever `binary_sensor` triggered the automation run. This way, I'll see something like "Backyard Person" instead of the entity ID listed earlier. +{{% /notice %}} + +### Capture a snapshot +Each Reolink camera also exposes a `camera.$location_sub` entity which represents the video stream from the connected camera. I can add another action to the notification so that it will grab a snapshot, but I'll also need a way to match the `camera` entity to the correct `binary_sensor` entity. I can do that by adding a variable set to the bottom of the automation: + +```yaml +# torchlight! {"lineNumbers": true} +alias: Exterior Motion Alerts +description: "" +trigger: # [tl! collapse:start] + - platform: state + entity_id: + - binary_sensor.backyard_person + - binary_sensor.driveway_person + - binary_sensor.driveway_vehicle + - binary_sensor.east_side_front_person + - binary_sensor.east_side_rear_person + - binary_sensor.west_side_person + from: "off" + to: "on" # [tl! collapse:end] +condition: [] +action: + - service: camera.snapshot # [tl! ++:start focus:start] + target: + entity_id: "{{ cameras[trigger.to_state.entity_id] }}" + data: + filename: /media/snaps/motion.jpg # [tl! ++:end focus:end] + - service: notify.ntfy + data: + title: Motion detected! + message: "{{ trigger.to_state.attributes.friendly_name }}" +variables: # [tl! ++:start focus:start] + cameras: + binary_sensor.backyard_person: camera.backyard_sub + binary_sensor.driveway_person: camera.driveway_sub + binary_sensor.driveway_vehicle: camera.driveway_sub + binary_sensor.east_side_front_person: camera.east_side_front_sub + binary_sensor.east_side_rear_person: camera.east_side_rear_sub + binary_sensor.west_side_person: camera.west_side_sub # [tl! ++:end focus:end] +``` +