Will this allow SmartThings to activate the motion detection/recording using my routine for when I leave the house?
It will if you create a mechanism to do just that… by that I mean you can:
- Have your routine turn the “Amcrest Camera” switch ON/OFF for Away/Home.
- Create a CoRE Piston that reacts to some action (like a Virtual Momentary Button press) and turns the “Amcrest Camera” switch ON/OFF, which you can them “press” the virtual button within your routine.
- Create a CoRE Piston that executes the custom command toggleMotion().
- And so on…
BTW, the CoRE Piston approach can be used for any of the other exposed custom functions… like:
- Setting the Pan Speed: setLevelSpeed( some number 0…8 )
- Adjust the Motion Detection Sensitivity: setLevelSensitivity( some number 0…8 )
- Flip the camera image view upside-down (toggles 180º): toggleFlip()
- View a mirror image of the camera view (toggles 180º): toggleMirror()
- Toggle the video stream type between MJPEG/RTSP: toggleStreamType()
- Query whether the Motion Sensor is currently active (returns “OFF” or “ON”): queryMotion()
- Remotely Reboot the camera: rebootNow()
as well as others… be creative. 
Wait so does this allow smartthings to respond to motion that the camera pics up on? Just a little confused. Would be nice to have it notify me when there is motion.
No. You are reading the terms “activate the motion detection” and “respond to motion” to be synonymous. They most certainly are not.
Think of it this way:
- When you “activate the motion detection” feature of the camera you are telling the camera to pay attention to motion. This functionality is available through my DTH.
- When you want the camera to “respond to motion” by notifying SmartThings, then you are asking for it (Amcrest) to push information to you. This is not available in my DTH, nor could it be.
Since Amcrest does not “push” motion detection info, and there is no direct integration to SmartThings, this will never be possible, as far as I can tell.
This is true of every video camera that has built-in motion sensing but does not have direct integration to SmartThings… if you know of a case where this is not true, please, let me know.
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[RELEASE] [Universal] Foscam Camera Device Handler with Live Video Streaming, Motion Sensor/Alarm Integration (SD/HD/Ambarella)
I noticed that with this foscam integration there is a smart app that allows you to get motion notifications.
Yes, it does. If you read the thread you will see that it confirms exactly what I said in my previous post… requires the manufacturer to “push” notifications. To my knowledge, Amcrest does not have this ability. The SmartApp is working because it is monitoring the Foscam pushed notifications. Apples and Oranges.
If I could supply this functionality, I would happily do it… I just have not found a way to do it with the Amcrest API.
Ahh I see must have missed that part. Could you maybe clarify one last thing for me? I have read that amcrest is or I should say was foscam kinda. Like amcrest came from foscam but isn’t quite the same thing?
Glad to help when I can. Maybe I will get around to writing the SmartApp I keep telling myself I will write… hopefully things will have changed for Amcrest’s API by then.
As to the whole Foscam/Amcrest debate, I can certainly try to clear it up but, keep in mind, I do not work in the industry so I do not have any “insider knowledge”.
That being said, here is what I think the reality is:
Foscam US was the company that sold Foscam manufactured cameras in the USA for years.
About 18 months ago (give or take), Foscam US became “Amcrest”. Shortly after this takeover of the US import company, Amcrest stopped selling Foscam manufactured cameras and started selling re-branded Dahua cameras.
Foscam US was never Foscam the OEM camera maker and Amcrest does not actually make cameras. They sell re-branded Dahua (and, now, possibly others) manufactured cameras.
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Ah that makes sense. Thanks for helping clarify that for me. Your one of the people that makes this community what it is.
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Well, I tried to read through everything, but I still am not able to make it work. It works through the amcrest mobile app, but not smartthings or the amcrest webview. I am able to log into the webview chrome extension but no live feed, but it does control the movement of the camera.
In smartthings I got the device installed, found my ip address (192.168.*.**) so I assumed its local and I am using the default port 80 and the rtsp port 554. Camera Channel 0, Video Channel 1, but still no feed.
Thank you for any feedback!
This is job #1. If you can not get your live stream to work outside of the ST app, there is little chance it will work inside.
You need to go over your “Configuration” settings in the Amcrest WebView and diagnose why you are not able to see a video stream.
Check to make sure you have your Configuration → Video → Video configuration settings are as you expect them.
Also, turn on Debug Mode in my DTH and send along some Live Logging traces of your trying to take a picture or start the video streaming.
Send screen captures of your Web View configuration screens and I will try to help tomorrow.
In over my head here. I have read thru this thread twice. I do have Amcrest webview working. I do have the Amcrest app working on my phone and my tablet (android). I do have the DH able to PTZ, and turn motion on and off. I am on a private ip 192.168.xxx.xxx. I check that my phone and tablet are using the same wifi network as the camera…My camera shows active in my SmartThings app. … but for the life of me I can not get a live view. When I press it says camera unavailable…
The live view (ST streaming video) occasionally not working is not unusual. What concerns me more is that you stated that you could not see a live video stream in the Amcrest Web Viewer. Is that still the case?
If you do not have that working then something outside of ST is going on.
I am trying to help but I need more info to go on.
Me too… what bugs me is it used to work before. Now same situation as what you’ve described.
I just checked and none of my cameras are working either and there is no information in the logs… it appears the ST video API is failing. Not much I can do with that as I am not in control of what happens when I call their API.
I will try rebooting one of my cameras and try again but at this point it appears to be a ST issue.
No… I Do …have Web viewer working…I believe I have Everything
working except viewing in the SmartThings enviornment…well that and
triggering recording video if there is motion…not sure I have that
yet…
I have rebooted my cameras, my hub and still no love…
This is a ST issue. Everything but the video capability is working.
Sorry, but there is nothing I can do that I am aware of.
Whatever issues were going on with ST and video streaming seems to have been resolved… my cameras are working again.
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Updated to firmware: 2.420.AC00.17.R, Build Date: 2017-03-22 and it broke the app. Looks like the authentication switched to “Digest” instead of "Basic.
Model: IP2M-841B
Using the following string (testing purposes), it works with WGET and Chrome
http://Username:Password@192.168.0.20/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=setConfig&MotionDetect[0].Enable=true
MS Edge will fail authentication and prompt for username/password.
Update:
Was able to roll back the firmware. Amcrest tech said no way to download and downgrade. I managed going to archive.org and parsed the link for the older firmware.
http://web.archive.org/web/*/https://amcrest.com/firmware
https://s3.amazonaws.com/amcrest-files/Firmware/IP2M-841_IPM-721_V2.420.AC00.16.R.20160909.zip
Anyway, the firmware didn’t help. Next I am going to try is to reset the camera back to factory.
Getting a different error now then with newer firmware.
927207f0-bafb-44fc-aaff-f62e8409a535 5:53:54 PM: info ¦±- parse -> END
927207f0-bafb-44fc-aaff-f62e8409a535 5:53:54 PM: info ¦¦¦¦ parse -> Detected: Empty body response
927207f0-bafb-44fc-aaff-f62e8409a535 5:53:54 PM: info ¦¦¦¦ parse -> headers = HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="Device_CGI"
CONNECTION: close
CONTENT-LENGTH: 0
Update: Tried reset to factory didn’t help.
Updated again to the latest FW version (V2.420.AC00.17.R.20170322).
927207f0-bafb-44fc-aaff-f62e8409a535 6:37:42 PM: info ±-- parse -> END
927207f0-bafb-44fc-aaff-f62e8409a535 6:37:42 PM: info ¦¦¦¦ parse -> Detected: Empty body response
927207f0-bafb-44fc-aaff-f62e8409a535 6:37:42 PM: info ¦¦¦¦ parse -> headers = HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
WWW-Authenticate: Digest realm=“Login to AMC0006PxxxHxxxxx”,qop=“auth”,nonce=“2126494146”,opaque="xxxxxxxxxxmodifiedxxxxxxxxxx"
Connection: close
CONTENT-LENGTH: 0
Just read this… I have not updated any of my cameras to the latest firmware (and I will be very wary to do so now), but I will take a look as soon as I can.