Camera Ideas

Devices & Integrations
1

I am new to this forum, and could not find discussions on cameras. Has anyone got experience with cameras for Smart Things other than the Netgear and Ring? I am looking to add cameras to my home, but, the selection for Smart Things seem slim. Thanks for any help.

2

I have/had the following cameras: Samsung smart cam, arlos and drop cam. I will have a wyze cam shortly.

I really don’t find it necessary to have the cameras integrated with ST. I believe the best option at this time is to choose a camera that works for you and use that camera’s storage option either paid or unpaid.

If you need to turn cameras on/off based on your preferences just plug the camera into a smart outlet and program that logic in ST. Personally I have my outside cameras running 24/7 and my inside cameras only running when I’m away or asleep.

If you really have unique use cases where you want to record clips when certain things are opened or with movement etc that might be outside of the camera’s internal motion sensor (but inside their view area), then integrating with ST is probably your best bet. My arlo’s work well.

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3

I wouldn’t worry about full SmartThings integration. I have some using Blue Iris and a couple Wyze cams. Both systems automatically arming and disarming based on SmartThings modes.

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4

I am new to Smart Things. Does Smart Things find the cameras automatically?

5

Thanks Greg. I may end up doing cameras separately. I was just trying to have everything in one app.

6

Thanks Jim.

7

I had some Netgear cameras integrated and they were simply slow. I ended up switching to Ubiquiti and their free cloud service (doesn’t record but redirects you to your NVR) and have been pretty happy with it.

8

If you want everything in one ‘app’, another option is to use the SharpTools.io web dashboard to bring together control of your SmartThings devices alongside displaying your cameras, weather, etc.

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And as Jimmy mentioned, there are systems like Blue Iris which can bring all your cameras together and then can integrate with SmartThings (BI Fusion) or cameras like Wyze which don’t directly integrate but have some tie-ins through IFTTT.

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9

If you’re looking for a solution to just re-broadcast (transcode) your rstp cameras to mpeg format to use with actiontiles, and you’re a fan of the Raspberry Pi, you should look at MotionEye. I have this running for my cams now and it works great. Not a resource hog and very easy to set up.

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10

If you want everything in one ‘app’, an option is to use the very popular ActionTiles web dashboard to bring together control of your SmartThings devices alongside displaying streams from MJPEG or JPG snapshot compatible cameras, weather, etc.

We have thousands of happy customers and over 160 positive ratings on Facebook with a net of 4.9-Stars. Facebook

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11

What are the “tie-ins” for Wyze cam through IFTTT? When I connect IFTTT to SmartThings, it looks for devices in locations. The Wyze cam isn’ t one of the things. I was trying to control notification from the Wyze cam based on SmartThings mode.Haven’t figured out how to do that.

12

In IFTTT, you’ll have access to both your SmartThings devices and Wyze devices. So you can use IFTTT as a middle man for controlling Wyze based on things in SmartThings.

Unfortunately, I don’t think the SmartThings IFTTT integration has Mode changes as a trigger, but you can get around this by creating a virtual switch in SmartThings (or set of virtual switches) which get turned on when your desired mode is active and then use that in IFTTT:

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Edit: You’re probably best off starting a new thread with a relevant title if you need more help. :smiley: