I know with DropCam you can trigger lights based on motion sensors that’s intended purpose is to light the area to take a burst of photos. But is there a way to simply use DropCam’s and Nest’s motion sensor purely as an initial trigger for any other actions available for multi-sensors?
Nest doesn’t expose motion data.
I don’t know about DropCam.
That’s a bummer. Right now, I have to use another motion sensor to trigger Dropcam to take pictures (using Photo Burst SmartApp). It would be nice if Dropcam can automatically take pictures when detecting motion (and/or sound). If Dropcam (& hopefully the Nest thermostat too, as they are under the same company) exposes these events, please keep us all posted.
You might be able to use IFTTT to do it with Dropcam. There are a few Dropcam recipes that look for the activity emails in your inbox and do things when activity is detected.
Just wanted to bump this to see if anything has emerged since this was last talked about? I am in the same exact situation, looking to use my Dropcam in a bedroom to trigger the light to come on, which saves me the cost of having to buy another motion sensor. Already have the dropcam permanently installed, so if it has motion detection, and integrates with SmartThings, why should I have to buy another motion sensor?
I know that you can (as the OP mentioned), tell Dropcam to turn on certain lights when there is motion, in order to take burst photos. Has anyone used this? Things are finicky enough right now simply using a regular motion sensor and a zwave light switch - I can’t imagine this jenky workaround of turning the light on “to take burst photos” would actually work very well. But, maybe so. Anyone using that right now?
Either way - I’d love to hear if anyone has created an app that somehow allows Dropcam to just be used as a motion sensor without having to use the workaround of setting it up to turn on the light to take burst photos? I don’t think ST currently recognizes it as a motion sensor device type.
A native Smartthings smartapp would definitely be ideal here to take advantage of the motion and sound sensor data.
I can confirm that the IFTTT route “does” work per @Jesse_Stay 's suggestion. You set up a gmail trigger that searches for the Dropcam alert email and attach it to a Smartthings action. However, there is severe latency with this method. (upwards of 20 minutes for it to all pan out.)
Not ideal, but might be helpful depending on someone’s application.
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Yeah, the best I could do was a 3 minute gap in between receiving an email from my camera and IFTTT actually acting upon it.The gap between motion detection by the camera and receiving the email was actually quite fast.
@ultrazero hey man - thanks for the suggestion, but unfortunately I think we are all on the same page that IFTTT is completely irrelevant for any real-time triggers like turning a light on with motion.
Like in @cdikland 's case…imagine standing in the dark room for 3 minutes waiting for the lights to come on. 
There needs to be an app for this. The only thing I can foresee that might be preventing one is some limitation with the Dropcam API.
I use an NVR server (iSpy) to connect to a virtual motion sensor. If you have a lot of cameras you probably need a dedicated CMS/NVR anyway. If this is what you’re looking into let me know and I’ll share code
@Kristopher - hey dude - thanks for the note. I am only using 2 Dropcams. Not enough going on to need a CMS. Thanks so much for hitting me up though!
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Hey guys, after months of collecting dust, I plugged my Wink hub and their drop cam integration is so much better than Smartthings. Connecting the nest cams was a breeze and I was totally floored to see that they can use the motion detectors within the hub. So it’s possible! I have high expectations that Hub 2.0 will make things better for the Smartthings community.
ST as it stands doesn’t even recognize Nest camera’s.
I’m also looking for a way to use a Dropcam HD (not the new Nest cam) as a motion sensor device.
Has anybody been able to create a new device type or figure out another way?
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Bump. Any updates on this?