I’m looking into adding a video doorbell and some security cameras and want to integrate with HA. I have some cameras that came with the house, but I don’t think they will work. The system has been discontinued and I don’t have the “base unit” that connects them. If there is a way to use them, I’d be happy to find out if they are operational and use them. Web search has not helped.
My first priority is a video doorbell. I don’t really understand much about how it works, and there is a lot of conflicting information out there. I have a wired doorbell, and I could probably manage to figure out how to run a data line if needed.
I want it to play nicely with any future system. The current camera system is wired, and I’m happy to run new wires if needed. I have plenty of storage on my home PC server, and I’d prefer to use it.
Any guides out there that really cover the overall process?
I love my Reolink one.
It’s powered by PoE, which means running an ethernet cable, and either using a PoE capable switch, or injecting the power just for that cable with an injector.
If you’re planning a few cameras, a switch is worth it, as you can power them all easily. Basic ones are £20.Because it’s powered, it will stream all day/night without worrying about batteries. It stores video locally on a microSD, and dumps clips to FTP happily.
The clip capture is pre-rolled too (30s, I think?), which is always nice.Currently, I have the feed in dashboards, and I have an automation that flashes the lights and sends a picture to my phone when someone presses the bell.
Eventually, I’d like to integrate it directly into HA so I can speak to people without using the Reolink application.I like Reolink’s other cameras too (they do quite a few). I have an 810A, and a 510, if you wanted any feedback on them.
Thank you for sharing these details! Very helpful.
I’ve been using a Reolink Wi-Fi doorbell connected to my own Frigate server over RTSP. Frigate talks to HA via MQTT and everything works from there.
I’m also using Reolink without an SD card, WiFi, hooked up to FTP, and streaming directly to HA. Old doorbell wires for power.
Reolink didn’t seem to have the type of stream ideal for Frigate? I don’t remember the protocol offhand.
I also use mine with Frigate, it works great!
How hard is it to really set up frigate? Having never done much, aside from router tweaks and basic networking. My self hosts have been through tailscale. But finding a good DVR is tough without cloud service BS.
Frigate can run as Home-Assistant addon easily. Then one does not have to manage / update the docker container.
Have you used docker before? That’s probably the most straightforward way to host Frigate. Frigate itself can have a learning curve, especially if you want to do fancy things. However, I think it’s well worth the setup because it’s so good. They do have pretty decent docs, it’s how I figured out my dozen or so camera setup: https://docs.frigate.video/
Frigate can either be very basic (just recording) or it can do things like object detection, facial and license plate recognition, and auto tracking, just to name some examples.
I have not used docker but over my time of using Linux in general, reading, and understanding I think I can figure it all out I was just worried I didnt want to jump in over my head then pay say 10 a month or something for a local service. I love FOSS and do what I can but there’s a win/ lose if the time gets too demanding. I think I’ll check it out. What would you say you spent total time I have about a dozen cameras or more myself. Like start to finish time frame to setup? Where do you store data PC hard drives? HDDs?
It really depends on how many features you want. If you’re just doing recording, then it would probably only take an hour or two to get fully configured and set up. What takes a lot of time, in my opinion, is if you want to set up object detection along with object masking. Getting the object masks just right took me a few hours.
I store all of my data on my NAS, so HDDs.
Does that mean that you have two devices, one running frigate, and one with HA? Or is it all on one server? Is there any beginner’s guide for setting up the hardware and software needed?
I’m not running Frigate, but I can offer some advice on this question: I use a NUC to run HAOS in Proxmox, which also can also run a Docker VM. That, in turn, can run any Docker container/stack.
You’d just need to make sure the appropriate devices are passed through in Proxmox between Docker/Frigate and HAOS. (Can’t offer much advice there, though…)
You can do it either way. I personally have HA running on a Pi4 while frigate runs on my server, but this is just because HA is running well and I don’t want to mess with it and move my zigbee/zwave radios.
I love my 3 POE reolink cameras, they are all local and just joined Home assistant officially. The integration is flawless and love that I don’t have to use frigate either. I have all my cameras recording directly to my NAS via FTP.
How do you record directly do your NAS? I like this idea. I also like frigate but never used any of these. I’m new. So any advices help. I have a dozen cameras but not installed or setup.
As long as you have cameras that have a web interface which I think all the POE reolink cameras have there is an option to record everything to an FTP server. Once you have them on your network just go to the IP of the camera and login with the username and password you set.
If you need more in depth help let me know and I can send you some screenshots of my nas ftp settings and reolink camera ftp settings
Awesome thanks. Let me tinker with it this coming Monday and see how much of a pain it is to get setup. If I have any issues I’ll surely message you back. We are definitely looking to swap out an old recorder box. I’ve got plenty of PC parts so this is a non issue.
What hardware setup do you need to implement POE?
PoE Switch. 100mbps ones are cheap and good enough for cameras
@gedaliyah A related question: We have an alarm.com installation, and I would like to know if it is possible to reuse their hardware on home assistant, or if that’s just too proprietary to use for anything. They are all wired.
I recently picked up a Ubiquity Dream Machine router, so I’d probably go with PoE Unifi camera if possible. Just got a find someone to run conduit, or I’ve gotta watch some home improvement videos.
I’ve got a Unifi switch and a gateway instead of a dream machine, but that’s not far from the setup I’m working on (just need the weather to cool down so that I can coexist with the sun in the attic so that I can do the run to the doorbell).
Ethernet’s not nearly as scary as mains power, I wired up our house with 10 runs though the attic and it’s super doable as a DIY project. Consult your local codes/ laws and all, but I was able to run my cable though j-hooks instead of having to put conduit up everywhere, the biggest gotcha was more in the trying to keep my lines away from existing AC power and finding the wall framing under the insulation in the attic. The company TrueCable has a YouTube channel with a bunch of helpful resources on pretty much everything Ethernet/ networking, I’d highly recommend it even if you aren’t buying cable from them (I ended up doing so because they were cheaper than everywhere else and I could get all my jacks, wall plates, and tools in the same order - this was also a year ago though, so prices may have shifted since).
I’m happy with my Reolink doorbell camera I just put in after my Nest doorbell gave up the ghost. Home Assistant has the integration for it. I just put a 256 gig SD card in the back of the device and set it up with the Home Assistant. Did not opt for the vendor’s cloud storage services. A few Google / YouTube search’s helped a lot.
Not sure what your current skill level is, but an IP POE intercom with the ability to initiate SIP calls is probably the most long lived way to go.
BAS-IP, Aiphone, hikvision and a few other manufacturers have them at various price points and quality of construction.
You would need a SIP connector or something into HA to make use of it, like I guess you would want to flick on a light when the doorbell is pushed after dark?
https://community.home-assistant.io/t/sip-doorbell/340798
I didn’t look into how well this works, I’m using the first party app for my video doorbell and I don’t have anything integrated into HA right now.
why do you want a camera doorbell? in any case I’m interested in your response.
I recommend to not have any cameras that record public areas. personally I hate doorbell cameras. who the fuck knows where will the recordings end up, but it’s almost 100 percent they won’t stay locally.
old ones that don’t involve modern tech, even a network cable, are… fine? but again, how do you tell them apart. and it’s not only about the doorbells.these are cameras that record public area, even if just those who pass by on the street. owners of these are basically letting tech companies snitch on their neighborhoods. where I live these are illegal, but of course lots of houses use either cameras disguised as doorbells, or even install their fucking cameras on the outside of the buildings and being pointed to the didewalk and the road.
The point of self hosting is that it all stays local.
Nobody but you can verify it. also others who commented implied that they control the cameras with the manufacturer’s app, and that the camera has not been blocked from the internet, so selfhosting brings almost no benefits in that cadse, but definitely not any for privacy
Okay, so don’t set up cameras in your house?
For everyone else: I’ve found on other forums that reolink can be set up without connecting to the manufacturer, and likely others. It’s relatively trivial for experienced users to insulate any given device from the internet while using HA.
Okay, so don’t set up cameras in your house?
don’t set up cameras that see public area. other than that you do what you want, but if a camera could see a neighbour’s yard then they have a say too.
I’ve found on other forums that reolink can be set up without connecting to the manufacturer, and likely others. It’s relatively trivial for experienced users to insulate any given device from the internet while using HA.
most IP cameras can be set up that way, yes. all you need is the camera to serve the video feed over RTSP, that’s a direct connection.
but that’s not everything. if you just connect it to your main network it’ll connect to reolink servers without issues, and reolink can do whatever they want with it, including stealing the video feed, or if they turn greedy they can remotely upgrade your camera and disable the RTSP feed.to prevent that, you should either create a separate VLAN for cameras, and configure your router (routing-wise) so that other networks (incl the internet) are not accessible from it. you need managed switches for that, or routers that allow you to configure VLANs.
alternatively get a dedicated dumb switch for cheap, and build a physically separate network for the cameras, and only connect the cameras and the server into it, without connecting it to the main network.finally, what I meant with my first sentence in the last comment is that a passerby cannot verify your setup, and they shouldn’t need to (or be able to) either. anybody can just claim “its self-hosted”, so it does not really matter with respect to your neighbors and all the people who may pass by
I have ubiquiti cameras and doorbell at home, all stored locally and i can access them through home assistant.
and did you take measures so that ubiquiti does not access them?
I chose to enable cloud access cause my home assistant died and I wanted to continue having external access, but it was not mandatory.
I agree with your point for most providers, like ring and eufy, but I don’t think it’s impossible to achieve.
the question is not whether it’s possible, but whether people subject the public near them to online surveillance systems. sorry, but other than being accessible from HA (which is something too) this is not better than how most people do it. at least to me it is more important than convenience to not leak strangers lives to whoever.
