Home security

[Casmo]

Hello all,

 I'm looking to set up a basic home security system based around a Foscam ip cam/cams and webcamxp. So camera detects motion, triggers some events, sends SMS, records video to the cloud etc.. I'm Hoping to be able to use vc to arm and disarm, tts to issue alerts and hue plugin for flashing lights. I've yet to look at webcamxp in any detail, I'm just wondering if anyone here has done anything similar or has any idea how well vc and webcamxp will work together if at all..

Many thanks

[jitterjames]

It mostly depends on which IP camera you buy.

Mine can detect motion and send a message directly to VC to trigger an event etc.

Most can probably do this, and most can also probably automatically record video.  You may not need any additional software depending on your needs and what hardware you get.

[Casmo]

Cool, sounds promising. I've ordered a Foscam FI8910W, I look forward to getting my hands on it and seeing what's possible...

[Casmo]

Hi James,

 Could you point me in the right direction as to how your cam sends a message to vc to trigger an event?

Cheers

[jitterjames]

I started by reading the manual for my camera and  exploring the menus and options available on the camera's web UI settings. Your camera will probably be different from mine but I expect it will offer similar functions.  On the administration settings for my camera I was able to customise motion detection parameters and to define what should happen when motion was detected.  Some options included doing an http get which can be used in combination with VoxCommando's TCP plugin.

I don't have the same camera so I can't tell you exactly what you need to do.

[nime5ter]

If you can't find a solution directly within your camera's options, there was a post a while back on using iSpy: http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=1015.0

... I seem to remember that we also had some threads on interacting with foscam products. One of those may link you to useful documentation as well.

[Kalle]

Hi James,

 Could you point me in the right direction as to how your cam sends a message to vc to trigger an event?

Cheers

I can help you with a command group to control your cam with VoxCommando like - move to a direction, nightvision ON/OFF, patrol ...
I use the Foscam 8918W, but I think it has the same API as yours.
You must change in the VC actions the IP-address with your Cam-IP and also the Username and Password to get access to your cam. In the CamControl.xml are all available functions to control your cam stored.
Copy and past the command group to your VC command tree and save also the attached "CamControl.xml" and "FoscamdirectionEnDe.xml" in your VC payload folder.
The "ipcam_cgi_sdk.pdf" will give you a lot of information to control your cam

Code: [Select]

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<commandGroup open="False" name="move cam" enabled="True" prefix="" priority="0" requiredProcess="" description="">
  <command id="680" name="cam control" enabled="true" alwaysOn="False" confirm="False" requiredConfidence="0" loop="False" loopDelay="0" loopMax="0" description="">
    <action>
      <cmdType>Scrape</cmdType>
      <cmdString>http://192.168.0.13/decoder_control.cgi?command={1}&amp;user=YourUserName&amp;pwd=YourPassword</cmdString>
      <cmdRepeat>1</cmdRepeat>
    </action>
    <phrase>move</phrase>
    <phrase>cam</phrase>
    <phrase optional="true">to</phrase>
    <payloadFromXML phraseOnly="False" use2partPhrase="False" phraseConnector="by" Phrase2wildcard="anyone" optional="False">payloads\CamControl.xml</payloadFromXML>
  </command>
  <command id="699" name="cam stop" enabled="true" alwaysOn="False" confirm="False" requiredConfidence="0" loop="False" loopDelay="0" loopMax="0" description="command=1 (stop up)&#xD;&#xA;command=3 (stop down)&#xD;&#xA;command=5 (stop left)&#xD;&#xA;command=7 (stop right)">
    <action>
      <cmdType>Scrape</cmdType>
      <cmdString>http://192.168.0.13/decoder_control.cgi?command=1&amp;user=YourUsername&amp;pwd=YourPassword</cmdString>
      <cmdRepeat>1</cmdRepeat>
    </action>
    <phrase>cam stop, stop the cam</phrase>
  </command>
  <command id="579" name="move cam slow" enabled="true" alwaysOn="False" confirm="False" requiredConfidence="0" loop="True" loopDelay="600" loopMax="50" description="">
    <action>
      <cmdType>Scrape</cmdType>
      <cmdString>http://192.168.0.13/decoder_control.cgi?command={1}&amp;onestep=1&amp;degree=5&amp;user=YourUsername&amp;pwd=YourPassword</cmdString>
      <cmdRepeat>1</cmdRepeat>
    </action>
    <phrase optional="true">move</phrase>
    <phrase>cam</phrase>
    <phrase>slow</phrase>
    <payloadFromXML phraseOnly="False" use2partPhrase="False" phraseConnector="by" Phrase2wildcard="anyone" optional="False">payloads\foscamdirectionEnDe.xml</payloadFromXML>
  </command>
</commandGroup>
I hope this will help you

[nime5ter]

@Casmo - I took a look at the software you mention in your first post, webcamxp.

Based on the pdf documentation, it seems very full featured, and it looks like there would be various ways to have it communicate with VC.

In terms of motion detection, you can do the following when tripped:

- send a Windows message w/ text parameters
- http post
- run an exe or bat file, w/ text parameters

It should be possible via one or more of these methods to trigger an event in VC when motion is detected (in one of the usual ways of sending messages to VC - http://voxcommando.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=API_Application_Programming_Interface).

This comes with the same downside as with iSpy. Both applications need to be constantly analysing the camera's images in order to detect motion -- i.e., a change in the image. So, more processing and network bandwidth waste compared to when we can access a camera's "on-board" motion detection directly.

[nime5ter]

Hi James,

 Could you point me in the right direction as to how your cam sends a message to vc to trigger an event?

Cheers

@Casmo -- see http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=1679.0 for another, less processing-intensive solution. Please feel free to ask for help adapting that code, if it's of use to you.

Since I don't know the specifics of your camera's email notification system, I couldn't really provide a "custom" example.

In my code, a specific incoming mail subject line ("motion detected") triggers the event in VC. This could be changed to a different subject line, or to the sender address, etc.