BI5 motion detection and HS4(3) events

[Traction Tim]

I have had this plug in for quite a while, but had never got around to swapping my existing Json BI5 motion commands (BI5 camera motion triggers HS events for lights) to it, as it was working well enough. On Friday, I tried HS4 beta, and decided to use this plug in instead of my existing Json commands to trigger the events. It looked so easy, and logical to set up, so I then waited for my first trigger. It didn't work.
I tried the same changes in HS3, and it didn't work there either. I've had to go back to HS3 and my old Json commands (I noted that the BI5 Json commands didn't work in HS4 either).
Can anybody tell me how to make this work with the plug in ? I use 24/7 recording, so I expect the motion detected by ticking all zones (except hot spot) in the plug in should have covered it. The BI plug in appears to be working well enough, as I can see the status of the BI cameras in Homeseer.
The logic is simple:
Camera detects motion and informs HS4(3). Homeseer checks if it is night time, and puts a light on for five minutes if it is. It's just the BI5 to Homeseer part that is't working.

[ServiceXp]

This is a known issue that has been around since BI5's release. From Jay's absence/silence about it,... It's not likely to get fixed. Search the forum, you'll find some workarounds.

[STCook]

...
The logic is simple:
Camera detects motion and informs HS4(3). Homeseer checks if it is night time, and puts a light on for five minutes if it is. It's just the BI5 to Homeseer part that is't working.

I do just this with BI5, this PI and HS3.

What you need to do is setup blue iris (not the plugin) to send notifications to HomeSeer so it knows something happened. There is no BI5 API for the plugin to do this for us (but that would be nice), so you have to set this up yourself.

• In BI5 open your camera of choice, settings, go to alerts tab, select the "on alert" button
• Add a web alert by clicking the + sign, select http/https depending on whats right for your system, then enter the following as the endpoint.
• http://<homeseer IP : port if not 80>/JSON?request=pluginfunction&function=Alert&plugin=Blue-Iris&P1=&CAM&P2=&TYPE
• Be sure to select which profiles you want this active in as well by selecting them in that window.
• Do this for each camera that you want to get notifications from

In that same window, you can use the "lightning bolt" icon to test the event, this WILL fail in HomeSeer but don't worry about that, you just want check in the HomeSeer log to verify that BI5 sent the alert. You will probably see something along the lines of "Error in PluginProc:Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation." thats good, it means you have the endpoint setup correctly.

I *think* that error is because when using that test button BI5 does not send any zone information with the test alert (as there really is none when you manually trigger), the plugin expects this zone info, sees none and logs the error. In real use, the zone of motion is sent and things work just fine.

Now back in HomeSeer you can setup your event , my example is below (my group conditions are weather items to avoid lots of false hits when its snow or fog etc)

[Traction Tim]

I have it working in HS3 without the plug-in, and my command in the BI5 Alert is 192.168.2.2/JSON?request=controldevicebyvalue&ref=222&value=100 which works very well. If I swap over to HS4, it doesn't work even though the device number is the same in HS4.

I would like to get it working in HS4 with this plug-in. I think my error in the first post with HS4 is now clear; you need to set up the similar JSON command, which in my case should be: 192.168.2.2/JSON?request=pluginfunction&function=Alert&plugin=Blue-Iris&P1=&CAM&P2=&TYPE I had naively assumed without rtfm that it wouldn't need a JSON command in BI5. Ho hum. Testing....

[Dweber85rc]

I have it working in HS3 without the plug-in, and my command in the BI5 Alert is 192.168.2.2/JSON?request=controldevicebyvalue&ref=222&value=100 which works very well.

I do the same but do not have the plugin. Once I saw how to do this there was no need to buy the blue Iris plugin. It's a shame the dev has stopped showing up with no information on why.

[troy.lynch]

Have the same problem had to switch back to HS3 its weird cause if you push the url from a browser it works.

[Traction Tim]

I've had a bit more time to think about it now with Wuhan Flu (Formerly misnamed as Covid-19) being everywhere.

So JSON has been updated for HS4. The obvious conclusion (to somebody that doesn't know much about these things) was that security had been beefed up. The follow on logic was that we needed to use the name of a User account in HS4 for the JSON command from BI5. I created HS4 user TractionTimBI5 with password test (Both fakes, but written to illustrate my point) and used this command in BI5:

TractionTimBI5:test@192.168.2.2/JSON?request=pluginfunction&function=Alert&plugin=Blue-Iris&P1=&CAM&P2=&TYPE

Now when I "test" that from BI5 by using the lightning arrow, it appears in the HS4 log, and triggers the HS4 plug in. Tested as a "normal" user, and a "guest" user, and it works.

[Traction Tim]

And my night time lights are now working with HS4 and the Blue Iris plug in

[logman]

I have it working in HS3 without the plug-in, and my command in the BI5 Alert is 192.168.2.2/JSON?request=controldevicebyvalue&ref=222&value=100 which works very well. If I swap over to HS4, it doesn't work even though the device number is the same in HS4.

What happens if you use this JSON command instead?

http://192.168.2.2:80/JSON?request=setdevicestatus&ref=222&value=100

--Barry

[Traction Tim]

Hi Logman, I can't answer that as I am now primarily using HS4 Beta for test purposes

[Traction Tim]

And now it's not working again. I suspect the HS user*** details but aaarrrgghhh.......

[Traction Tim]

Annnnd working again with HS4 ! I need to take a rest.