homebridge-videodoorbell

Video-Doorbell plugin based on homebridge-camera-ffmpeg for Homebridge

Receive a "doorbell" notification with snapshot to your mobile phone! Use a HTTP request or any other HomeKit button to trigger the event.

Compared to a "simple" camera plugin this plugin uses the HomeKit video doorbell profile. A "doorbell" notification with snapshot is sent to all iCloud connected devices. If the same (HomeKit) room containing this camera also has a Lock mechanism accessory, the notification will show a working UNLOCK button. HomeKit/iOS will link them together automatically when they are in the same room.

Triggering HomeKit rich notifications

You can trigger a HomeKit rich notification from outside with a simple curl command: curl -X POST -d 'ding=dong&dong=ding' http://IP_OF_HOMEBRIDGE_RUNNING_DEVICE:PORT_DEFINED_IN_CONFIG

You can also show a trigger button in HomeKit that activates the doorbell notification. Use the HomeKit automation system to have other buttons or events in HomeKit trigger the doorbell notification.

Installation

1. Install ffmpeg on your computer, see here a for compilation guide on RasPi: https://github.com/KhaosT/homebridge-camera-ffmpeg/wiki
2. Install this plugin using: npm install -g homebridge-videodoorbell
3. Edit config.json and add the camera.
4. Run Homebridge
5. Add extra camera accessories in Home app. The setup code is the same as homebridge.

Config.json Example

{
  "platform": "Video-doorbell",
  "cameras": [
    {
      "name": "Camera Name",
      "port": 5005,
      "videoConfig": {
        "source": "-re -i rtsp://myfancy_rtsp_stream",
        "stillImageSource": "-i http://faster_still_image_grab_url/this_is_optional.jpg",
        "maxWidth": 1280,
        "maxHeight": 720,
        "maxFPS": 30
      }
    }
  ]
}

Optional Parameters

global per-camera parameters

• port is the HTTP port that the doorbell listens on, default = server disabled
• button show a trigger button in HomeKit that can be activated to trigger the doorbell, use with HomeKit automation to trigger your doorbell using any other event in HomeKit, default false
• motion a dummy switch and motion sensor are created as part of the camera. And by turning on the switch, it will trigger the dummy motion sensor, which will then send a Photo Notification to your iPhone/iPad. To turn on the switch, you can create an automation from your real motion sensor, and have it turn on the dummy switch attached to the camera, default false
• throttle is the amount of time in milliseconds that the plugin waits before sending a new doorbell message to HomeKit, for clients that spawn a lot of messages, default 10000
• manufacturer set manufacturer name for display in the Home app
• model set model for display in the Home app
• serialNumber set serial number for display in the Home app
• firmwareRevision set firmware revision for display in the Home app

  videoConfig Parameters

• maxStreams is the maximum number of streams that will be generated for this camera, default 2
• maxWidth is the maximum width of the generated stream to avoid unnecessary upscaling, default 1280
• maxHeight is the maximum height of the generated stream to avoid unnecessary upscaling, default 720
• nativeWidth is the native width of the camera stream to avoid unnecessary encoding, default -1 = off
• nativeHeight is the native height of the camera stream to avoid unnecessary encoding, default -1 = off
• maxFPS is the maximum frame rate of the stream, default 10
• maxBitrate is the maximum frame rate of the stream in kbit/s, default 300
• vcodec If you're running on a RPi with the omx version of ffmpeg installed, you can change to the hardware accelerated video codec with this option, default "libx264"
• audio can be set to true to enable audio streaming from camera. To use audio ffmpeg must be compiled with --enable-libfdk-aac, see above, default false
• vflip Flips the stream vertically, default false. Ignored if you use vcodec with copy value.
• hflip Flips the stream horizontally, default false. Ignored if you use vcodec with copy value.
• mapvideo Select the stream used for video, default 0:0
• mapaudio Select the stream used for audio, default 0:1
• videoFilter Allows a custom video filter to be passed to FFmpeg via -vf, defaults to scale=1280:720. Ignored if you use vcodec with copy value.
• packetSize If audio or video is choppy try a smaller value, set to a multiple of 188, default 1316
• debug Show the output of ffmpeg in the log, default false

{
  "platform": "Video-doorbell",
  "cameras": [
    {
      "name": "Camera Name",
      "port": 5005,
      "button": true,
      "motion": true,
      "throttle": 3000,
      "manufacturer": "ACME, Inc.",
      "model": "ABC-123",
      "serialNumber": "1234567890",
      "firmwareRevision": "1.0",
      "videoConfig": {
        "source": "-re -i rtsp://myfancy_rtsp_stream",
        "stillImageSource": "-i http://faster_still_image_grab_url/this_is_optional.jpg",
        "maxStreams": 2,
        "maxWidth": 1920,
        "maxHeight": 1080,
        "nativeWidth": 1920,
        "nativeHeight": 1080,
        "maxFPS": 30,
        "vcodec": "h264_omx",
        "audio": true,
        "packetSize": 188,
        "debug": true
      }
    }
  ]
}

Using another Video Processor

• videoProcessor is the video processor used to manage videos. eg: ffmpeg (by default) or avconv or /a/path/to/another/ffmpeg. Need to use the same parameters than ffmpeg.

{
  "platform": "Video-doorbell",
  "videoProcessor": "avconv",
  "cameras": [
    ...
  ]
}

{
  "platform": "Video-doorbell",
  "videoProcessor": "/my/own/compiled/ffmpeg",
  "cameras": [
    ...
  ]
}