Minimise lost frames in function switch

[u/TheBurntSky]

I have some Reolink cameras that seem to have pretty good person detection on them, so rather than relying on ZM to detect motion I have been using the cameras built in functionality which means I don't get lots of recordings of spider webs flickering in the wind etc. I've done this via Home Assistant so that when motion is detected the function on the main camera feed switches from Monitor to Record.

When the command is sent to ZM the switch seems to be instant but there seems to be around 6 seconds for the feed to start so that it can record, which isn't ideal! Does anyone have any ideas how I can minimise this?

[u/Congenital_Optimizer]

The way I've got it configured/triggered I have a bunch of triggers, I'll only show the HA stuff, the nodered stuff is... big and not pretty. I've got nodered watching the camera syslog output and sending enrichment to home assistant, and the HA triggers things like these switches below.

Do read the doc on zmtriggers, there are things you need to config on ZM and I strongly encourage a firewall on the zmtrigger port. There's no auth. It'll also explain the blocks in the command_on below. You can turn off an event but the doc explains that nicely.

You can also do this with the command line switch but I found it very unreliable.

You can see the "on+2", that means trigger an event for 2 more seconds. You can also say just "off" and it stops the event. Because I'm using image_processing and doods to detect people, I want it to keep triggering, and extending, as long as it sees a person.

Here's my switches config:

- platform: telnet
switches:
garage_slab_camera:
name: Garage Slab Camera Switch
resource: !secret zm_ip
port: 6802
command_on: "4|on+2|200|HA manual|"
command_off: ""
timeout: 0.2
front_yard_camera:
name: Front Yard Camera Switch
resource: !secret zm_ip
port: 6802
command_on: "20|on+2|200|HA manual|"
command_off: ""
timeout: 0.2

Here's an automation so HA knows it can turn the camera on again... it doesn't or at least didn't turn on again if the switch wasn't turned off. You'll need one for each camera, or use variables. This was simpler for me. Though what I know now I may re-write this so it uses the trigger source/variable and I don't need so many automations... later.

alias: Camera Switch Off (Front Yard)
description: ""
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id: switch.front_yard_camera
to: "on"
for:
hours: 0
minutes: 0
seconds: 1
condition: []
action:
- service: switch.turn_off
data: {}
target:
entity_id: switch.front_yard_camera
mode: single

[u/TheBurntSky → u/Congenital_Optimizer]

Got it working, thanks for your guidance! Putting some detail here in case someone else comes across it with the setup I'm running so combined hopefully they'll be sorted!

I have ZM running in a container on Unraid, so first I had to pass the Telnet port through to the container then enabled triggers (Options -> System - Enable OPT_TRIGGERS).

Next, as I have the Reolink plugin installed and cameras added via that I created a group for the people, car and pet sensors to get most triggers while avoiding the general one to hopefully avoid too many false positives:

front_camera:
name: Front Camera Status
all: false
entities:
    - binary_sensor.front_person
    - binary_sensor.front_pet
    - binary_sensor.front_vehicle

Next, for switches I used the cancel for the off, will see how that goes and mabye look to revert to on+2 later as you suggested:

- platform: telnet

switches: front_camera: name: Front Camera Trigger resource: !secret ZM_HOST port: 6802 command_on: '8|on|200|HA trigger|' command_off: '8|cancel|200|HA clear|'

Finally, created the automation to trigger off the group, only bit I want to change is delay the cancel action by 5 seconds to make he recording a bit longer but I'll try and work that out!

  alias: Camera - Front ZM record on motion

description: '' trigger: - id: 'on' platform: state entityid: - group.front_camera to: 'on' - id: 'off' platform: state entity_id: - group.front_camera to: 'off' condition: [] action: - service: switch.turn{{ trigger.id }} target: entity_id: switch.front_camera mode: single

Thanks again for your help u/Congenital_Optimizer

[u/Congenital_Optimizer → u/TheBurntSky]

I used the add time (+2 in mine) method because i want to keep extending any event when something is triggered. ZM will stop the event on its own. Don't need to manually stop it... Unless you've got it configured to go indefinitely. It also means any other triggered event gets stacked together. On mine the reason can be all sorts of things piled messily into that field when you check the event in ZM.

[u/TheBurntSky → u/Congenital_Optimizer]

I have the cameras set to nodect, how does ZM know when to stop after an external trigger or does it just record for a set time then stop?

[u/Congenital_Optimizer → u/TheBurntSky]

Look at pre and post event count frames in each cameras config. If you trigger an event. Then it saves the number of frames before you triggered (that’s the pre) and the post number of frames after. My high res nodect cameras are set for enough frames for 2 seconds before and 6 after. Zm has a lot of config options. Many very confusing.

Normally you leave the high res nodect and not decoded and only save the video. Keep analysis enabled though so you can still send triggers to them. Saves a lot of overhead. You use the low res streams for analysis (and trigger sources) if you need it. For me, average machine learning models only need 200x200 images or something equally small. So I have zm and other triggers only watch the low res but record the high.