Make sure your username has Administrative rights on your camera otherwise most features like motion detection, presets, cruises, LED’s etc will not work.
Custom motion detection area settings
If you camera supports custom motion detection area settings, you can configure them directly on your camera using the native Foscam mobile app or using the camera portal. The device handler will automatically read and use those settings. Tap the refresh tile to have the device handler read them again after making any changes. If you’re looking to manually configure the detection area on your camera see this post.
Troubleshooting tips:
- Please DO NOT change the Network Id. The device handler will set the appropriate Network Id. This field is used by ST to identify and communicate with the device, if you change this, ST has no idea how to communicate with the camera and all communication will stop. You should ONLY change settings available through the Device Preferences page on ST phone app after installation and not directly from the IDE.
- You should use the LAN IP of your camera first to test the basic camera controls from your ST app. Make sure your username (case sensitive), password (case sensitives) and ports (HTTP) match what’s configured on the camera. Also make sure that the camera username has admin rights on the camera otherwise it will not work. ST does NOT support HTTPS currently for LAN IP’s. Once the LAN IP is working, if you want to use a public IP address, then make sure you’re configured your router to forward the necessary ports to your camera and enter your router’s public IP address into the ST camera configuration.
- Make sure P2P is disabled on your camera as this can mess up the IP address and even Classic app video streaming.
- Make sure your hub can communicate with the camera, they need to be on the same IP subnet and no firewall/rules should block the communication between them. This is number one reason why controls don’t work. You can verify this by opening the IDE Live Logging and looking at the commands sent by the hub to the camera, if you don’t see a BLUE INFO response from the camera that indicates that the hub and camera are not on the same network (assuming the IP address and ports are incorrect). If the username or password are incorrect you’ll see a RED response from the camera indicating the same. No response from the camera (BLUE INFO messages) indicates a communication issue between the hub and camera network setup.
- Reboot hub + camera + wifi router, this helps a LOT in reducing delays and improves communications (it’s like windows, it should be rebooted every one in a while to keep it running smooth and fast)
- Make sure your phone can contact the camera directly (most common issue, i.e. needs a way to reach, check subnets, network configuration, wifi setup, if you’re using an external IP then port forwarding, firewall etc). If you’re using a LAN IP address in your ST device settings then you phone should be on the SAME LAN subnet as the camera for streaming to work. If you’re using a public IP address than you can access it from outside the LAN but make sure port forwarding is enabled on your router for the appropriate ports. Also see the point above about network latency for cellular networks. If you’re trying to access your public IP address from within your LAN make sure your router supports/enabled NAT loopback otherwise it won’t work
- Double check device handler settings
- Make sure you used the Foscam Camera Manager SmartApp to add your Camera to SmartThings (don’t directly create a manual device)
Video streaming for the Classic App
FOSCAM C1 VIDEO CONFIGURATION (and cameras using Onvif RTSP)
FAQ: Folks using the Foscam C1 camera need to do the following steps to enable video through the ST app:
- Login to the Foscam Web GUI (also make a note of your camera’s HTTP port on your web page address)
- Click on Network -> Onvif
- Enable Onvif and set the RTSP port to 554
- Open the ST Camera settings page and enter 554 under the RTSP port
- Click Done AND CLICK REFRESH (if you don’t click on Refresh, the tile with the circular arrow, the settings won’t take effect. Anytime you change the camera settings you need to click Refresh thereafter).
- If you’re using an external IP make sure you enable port forwarding to port 554 to the camera (avoid UPnP)
FOSCAM C2/R2/FI9900P VIDEO CONFIGURATION (and other SD/HD/Ambarella cameras)
FAQ: These cameras do NOT use Onvif and instead use the HTTP port (get it from your Camera Web GUI login page URL)
- Open the ST Camera settings page and enter the HTTP port in the
Camera portsetting - Leave the
RTSP portblank/empty - Click Done AND CLICK REFRESH (if you don’t click on Refresh, the tile with the circular arrow, the settings won’t take effect. Anytime you change the camera settings you need to click Refresh thereafter).
- If you’re using an external IP make sure you enable port forwarding to the HTTP port to the camera (avoid UPnP)
Troubleshooting Video Streaming in the Classic App
If it helps we’ve been playing with a variety if phones and connection types (Anrdoid phones, iPhones, tablets etc), 3G, 4g LTE, wifi public wifi private, different cameras blink, foscam etc. we’ve realized a couple of things, basic checklist for getting video streaming to work:
- It can take multiple tries to get video streaming to work, this is due to the nature of the camera and ST video tile. It depends upon the quality of your connection from the phone to the camera (direct connection) and phone codecs.
- It also helps if, the first time you’re connecting, you first login to the Camera Web GUI and have the video streaming page open while trying to connect to the camera video stream from the ST Classic app.
- The Classic app video streaming ability depends upon the phone capabilities. It needs to support the codec and stream type parameters. Just because the native foscam app works doens’t mean the ST app will work because they work differently.
- The Classic app video tile is very sensitive to errors in the stream. The slightest delay or dropped packets can cause streaming issues. It isn’t very hardy yet hopefully ST could do something about it in future. Eg one camera works and another one only gives audio because it further away and has a low signal. Similarly connection of the Internet quality plays a role. When we have strong stable fast connection it works great but when the connection quality deteriorates (on either end) we start seeing streaming connection issues or only audio or stuff like that. Again very sensitive to streaming errors and delays.
- For the 9821 V2 and most SD/HD cameras there is no need for RTSP, it should work fine using the standard port, you can try toggling the MJPEG option on/off to see best compatibility with your phone
- If your camera uses RTSP ports make sure you use the default port 554 as Foscam doesn’t like using other ports (and enable port forwarding on your router for the same if you’re using a public IP address in your ST settings)
- If you want to use a Public IP/Hostname for streaming video in the Classic app, enter it in the
Router IP address/Public hostnameinput of the camera preferences. This way you can use your LAN ip address for configuring/controlling the camera (via theCamera IP Addressinput) and a separate Public ip for Classic app video streaming. - If you are seeing green video in the Classic app, this is an artifact of the ST Mobile app and phone codec combination (i.e. it’s phone dependent). It affects many ST cameras. Typical solutions to the problem are:
- Reboot hub, camera and phone (all three)
- Toggle IR Led On/Off
- Vary light intensity (dark / light) around the camera
- Try adjusting the video bitrate
- Try a different phone (it tends to affect some Android phone more than others)