BlueIris Blues

I am using BlueIris with 4 cameras. I added two cameras but when creating camera number 3 and 4 they disappear as soon as I set all the settings (IP address, port, CameraName). First I suspected that this is an issue with the camera naming as I set the camera names to Front, Back, Front2, Back2 (with the appropriate “Short name” adjustment in BlueIris). However, even after changing it to Front, Back, WTH (standing for What The Heck) the WTH camera still suddenly disappeared from the list of cameras. I tried this many times but without success. I also noticed that after creating a new camera in the BlueIris plugin the name first is “IP Camera Ext” but then changes to “#xx Blue Iris CAM #xx”. I tried a few times waiting until this change happened but still with the same result, i.e. the cameras disappear. The first two cameras are still there and working fine. Any input is appreciated.

Hi Maja

Specifically what four cameras are you using and what is their firmware version? Also, what version of Blue Iris are you using? I have had great success with Blue Iris and I’m running 9 cameras.

Also, what is your computer host configuration.

Thanks

Don

Altho I didn’t have the disappearing problem I found alot of unwanted load on VERA due to running 6 cameras. I have since removed the Blueiris plugin and run direct threw my vera mobile APP.

I have been hearing people complain about not only cameras, or just BI cameras, but other plugins disappearing in the latest UI7 after a reload.

Don, my new cameras that have the issue are DS-2CD2132F-IS with firmware version V5.20 build 140721. I am running BI 3 (not exactly sure about the subversion). My computer has an Intel Core I7-2600K with 16GB of memory.

integlikewhoa, you said you removed the vera plugin for BI. How do you setup notifications if there is some activity? Do you solely depend on the functionality the HikVision camera provides? Or are you using different cameras? If so which ones?

I relay on the cameras for nothing other then streaming the pictures to BI.

Notifications are set to me from VERA Alerts.

You can use scenes to trigger an alert but I use PLEG conditions based on many factors. (Anyone of us is home, have we been inside and not went outside for several min, and so on so Io only get notifications when I need them)

I currently use Virtual motion sensor Plugin with a child device for each camera. I have 6 cameras I use with motions.

Under the alerts tab in BI you can choose what you want to do when there is an alert (I choose to send a Http command to trigger the virtual motion in VERA to say we have motion) This is the same thing the BI plugin does. The difference is I’m using only this function and not the streaming of the camera to VERA.

In my mobile apps (ImperiHome) you can stream the camera direct and add it to your app mixed in. So from the APP there is no difference in looks when I had the cameras in VERA or direct. But the performance difference is huge and there is no load on vera and all the image data that was going threw it.

Only thing that is still in the works, is VERA ALERTS can attach a snap shot when it sends an alert. It used to do this for me, but it gets its image from VERA which is no longer there. So currently that’s the only drawback and Richard already has a solution and is in the works, but who knows when it will be finished.

integlikewhoa, thanks for the clarification. I am actually getting way too many notifications. I was planning to use similar conditions that you use to limit these notifications. You said you use an http command. How exactly are you setting this up?

FYI, I use the Cam/Sensor plugin for Blue Iris (GitHub - undert03/vera-blueiris: Cam / Sensor plugin for Blue Iris IP Cam DVR) to trigger an event on the vera. Then in BI under Camera Properties->Alerts I say “Run a program or execute a script” and execute a batch file that uses wget from the tools included with the plug in.

I didn’t make the change to handle notifications by vera yet because:

  • I want to get text messages but Vera Alerts does not seem to be able to include an image. This is rather essential so I can see what has triggered the event. It looks like there is an update in the works for that.

  • Right now I also email a small video. The idea is that I can go a few seconds back before there was a trigger. I don’t like getting a text message and an email, though and I don’t see any solution to include a video in a text message. This is not essential but would be nice. Maybe the updated VeraAlert can send a couple of images from before and during the alert.

  • If I remember correctly, Vera Alerts isn’t great with text message. In particular each message appears to come from a different sender which means multiple text messages are not bundled into one “conversation”. This is also a roadblock for me.

[quote=“maja, post:6, topic:186696”]integlikewhoa, thanks for the clarification. I am actually getting way too many notifications. I was planning to use similar conditions that you use to limit these notifications. You said you use an http command. How exactly are you setting this up?

FYI, I use the Cam/Sensor plugin for Blue Iris (GitHub - undert03/vera-blueiris: Cam / Sensor plugin for Blue Iris IP Cam DVR) to trigger an event on the vera. Then in BI under Camera Properties->Alerts I say “Run a program or execute a script” and execute a batch file that uses wget from the tools included with the plug in.[/quote]
Right below that “run program or execute a script” is “request from web service”. You can input the url you need and it will run it when the motion goes off. For me to trip a virtual motion sensor with my vera IP 192.168.1.212 and this motion sensor ID# 124 this is the command I use in that field. I can also change how long I want the sensor to be tripped with the last number. Which mine is 15 secs.

http://192.168.1.212:3480/data_request?id=action&output_format=xml&DeviceNum=124&serviceId=urn:dcineco-com:serviceId:VMotion1&action=SetTripped&OnTime=15

You would obviously use your vera ip and what ever device number your sensor is.

[quote=“maja, post:6, topic:186696”]I didn’t make the change to handle notifications by vera yet because:

  • I want to get text messages but Vera Alerts does not seem to be able to include an image. This is rather essential so I can see what has triggered the event. It looks like there is an update in the works for that.[/quote] Vera Alerts does do a snap shot (picture) or a short video when it is tripped as long as your cameras are in vera right now. (which I have removed mine now, but had this before)
    If you have used Vera alerts in the plugin where you override the message to your custom message you use this “{Picture(XXX)}” at the end of that message and it will show a picture. For example my message over ride for a camera ID #123 would be:

Front Porch Motion Detected {Picture(123)}

That would send me an alert with a snapshot of device number 123 (assuming its a camera) attached to it.

This just got to much for me. Vera alerts can do it, but it puts a toll on the VERA. I would look at the snap shot and if it was the mail man ignore, if it was someone I didn’t know or expect I click the Blueiris shortcut in my ImperiHome app and view the footage or live shot to see whats going on.

[quote=“maja, post:6, topic:186696”]* If I remember correctly, Vera Alerts isn’t great with text message. In particular each message appears to come from a different sender which means multiple text messages are not bundled into one “conversation”. This is also a roadblock for me.[/quote]I personally use the app for this reason (never tried text tho) The vera alerts app keeps everything nice and organized and listed by day and time for record keeping. It also speaks my message. And with custom messages you get just what you want not a cluttered Sensor ID # blah blah message.

Plus what about non Camera messages. Vera alerts tells me a ton of things. If wife or kids get home it says Blah is home, then I no longer get alerts, doors unlock motion here or there everything stops since one of us are home. If no ones home I get any alert. Garage door opened, gate opened, motion on porch, driveway, side gate and so on. All of these have custom messages so when they speak it, it sounds professional.

Are you on Andriod or Crapple? I use Prowl app on Apple devices with vera alerts plugin sending them to prowl.

I have installed the Virtual Motion Sensor and can trigger it from BI. So this is all great but is there a solution now for VeraAlert so that images (and maybe even a short video) can be included with a notification? You mentioned that Richard is working on a solution but I could not find anything in the latest description.

You mentioned “But the performance difference is huge and there is no load on vera”. Are you referring to the performance of PerioHome? Also have you faced issues running 6 cams through your vera? Which vera? I am currently only at two cams but will expand to 7.

We are mostly on Apple mobile devices but also have a couple of Kindles. I tried PerioHome on the Kindle and from my limited experience like it a lot. I hope the finally come out with the Apple app because I want an universal experience across devices.

I have mine configured as a sort of hybrid, or perhaps where “integlikewhoa” was when he first started before he got smarter through experience :slight_smile:

I have two Vera 3 units, NOT bridged but tightly communicating with each other for a keep-alive, to transfer state information and triggers. Vera-1 handles almost all the ZWave devices, sensors lights, etc.; Vera-2 handles the DSC Alarm Panel and the Blue Iris Plug In. The two Veras have a home-grown “keep alive” between them (many thanks to Rex Becket for helping resolve the bug) All the cameras are fed to Vera-2 via the BI Plug in. On Vera-1 I have Rex’s Virtual Motion Sensor triggered by BI directly using the HTTP facility to tie outside camera activity to flood light control , along with a MultiSwitch to track the four Wi-Fi camera Loss-of-Signal.

I bring this up because of “integlikewhoa” comments about utilization and loading. My BI Vera-2 has a fairly high Memory Usage, 114% but a remarkably low CPU usage, 3%-7% considering all the video being rammed through it. I get about 1-2 unplanned restarts (it only has two ZWave devices so it doesn’t do the nightly heal/restart) a week on that Vera so it doesn’t appear the BI load is having much impact.

I’m using ImperiHome for merged system management on several wall tablets and on everyone’s smartphones and tablets. I have camera displays on ImperiHome using the Vera-2 BI Plug-In devices. Now that “integlikewhoa” has focused my attention, absent the feed to ImperiHome its no longer clear what the BI Plug in feed is accomplishing for me so I want to think about perhaps removing it all together, retaining only the BI Motion Detection direct update of Vera-1.

NOw you have me wondering what I am doing wrong (or doing right?) I have 10 camera’s (4 are 720P) setup from BI 4 (on a Lenovo TS140 with Xeon 1225 v3 CPU) pushing into Vera via the BI plugin.

I access one of the camera’s (640x480) 5 days a week for about 9 hours straight via either AuthomationHd or recently the Vera Android beta app and get an image every few seconds. (Keeping an eye my dogs when I am at work via an HP Touchpad)

My Vera 3 with UI7 has roughly the load as shown attached and is relatively stable. Last reboot was 3 days ago due to me having to change UPS systems.

Panel courtesy of rstrouse’s Virtual Panel plugin

[quote=“maja, post:8, topic:186696”]I have installed the Virtual Motion Sensor and can trigger it from BI. So this is all great but is there a solution now for VeraAlert so that images (and maybe even a short video) can be included with a notification? You mentioned that Richard is working on a solution but I could not find anything in the latest description.

You mentioned “But the performance difference is huge and there is no load on vera”. Are you referring to the performance of PerioHome? Also have you faced issues running 6 cams through your vera? Which vera? I am currently only at two cams but will expand to 7.

We are mostly on Apple mobile devices but also have a couple of Kindles. I tried PerioHome on the Kindle and from my limited experience like it a lot. I hope the finally come out with the Apple app because I want an universal experience across devices.[/quote]

Richard did release and update that allowed you to use a URL to get the snap shot from. I have had problems with it tho and still don;t have a working solution.

See reply #402 when he added it and for post after I started to post my problems which have not yet been fixed to my knowledge. Also not sure if its only me or others as I seem to be the only one reporting it. Maybe you guys can weigh in on it also.

Don;t know anything about periohome.

[quote=“clippermiami, post:9, topic:186696”]I have mine configured as a sort of hybrid, or perhaps where “integlikewhoa” was when he first started before he got smarter through experience :slight_smile:

I have two Vera 3 units, NOT bridged but tightly communicating with each other for a keep-alive, to transfer state information and triggers. Vera-1 handles almost all the ZWave devices, sensors lights, etc.; Vera-2 handles the DSC Alarm Panel and the Blue Iris Plug In. The two Veras have a home-grown “keep alive” between them (many thanks to Rex Becket for helping resolve the bug) All the cameras are fed to Vera-2 via the BI Plug in. On Vera-1 I have Rex’s Virtual Motion Sensor triggered by BI directly using the HTTP facility to tie outside camera activity to flood light control , along with a MultiSwitch to track the four Wi-Fi camera Loss-of-Signal.

I bring this up because of “integlikewhoa” comments about utilization and loading. My BI Vera-2 has a fairly high Memory Usage, 114% but a remarkably low CPU usage, 3%-7% considering all the video being rammed through it. I get about 1-2 unplanned restarts (it only has two ZWave devices so it doesn’t do the nightly heal/restart) a week on that Vera so it doesn’t appear the BI load is having much impact.

I’m using ImperiHome for merged system management on several wall tablets and on everyone’s smartphones and tablets. I have camera displays on ImperiHome using the Vera-2 BI Plug-In devices. Now that “integlikewhoa” has focused my attention, absent the feed to ImperiHome its no longer clear what the BI Plug in feed is accomplishing for me so I want to think about perhaps removing it all together, retaining only the BI Motion Detection direct update of Vera-1.[/quote]

With BI direct streaming to Imperihome, there is no need for me to have cameras in VERA. Motion detection is sent from BI (http) to virtual motion plugin in VERA. so everything still works the same but without all the camera images in VERA and few sec refresh rate of live video.

[quote=“integlikewhoa, post:12, topic:186696”][quote=“clippermiami, post:9, topic:186696”]I have mine configured as a sort of hybrid, or perhaps where “integlikewhoa” was when he first started before he got smarter through experience :slight_smile:

I have two Vera 3 units, NOT bridged but tightly communicating with each other for a keep-alive, to transfer state information and triggers. Vera-1 handles almost all the ZWave devices, sensors lights, etc.; Vera-2 handles the DSC Alarm Panel and the Blue Iris Plug In. The two Veras have a home-grown “keep alive” between them (many thanks to Rex Becket for helping resolve the bug) All the cameras are fed to Vera-2 via the BI Plug in. On Vera-1 I have Rex’s Virtual Motion Sensor triggered by BI directly using the HTTP facility to tie outside camera activity to flood light control , along with a MultiSwitch to track the four Wi-Fi camera Loss-of-Signal.

I bring this up because of “integlikewhoa” comments about utilization and loading. My BI Vera-2 has a fairly high Memory Usage, 114% but a remarkably low CPU usage, 3%-7% considering all the video being rammed through it. I get about 1-2 unplanned restarts (it only has two ZWave devices so it doesn’t do the nightly heal/restart) a week on that Vera so it doesn’t appear the BI load is having much impact.

I’m using ImperiHome for merged system management on several wall tablets and on everyone’s smartphones and tablets. I have camera displays on ImperiHome using the Vera-2 BI Plug-In devices. Now that “integlikewhoa” has focused my attention, absent the feed to ImperiHome its no longer clear what the BI Plug in feed is accomplishing for me so I want to think about perhaps removing it all together, retaining only the BI Motion Detection direct update of Vera-1.[/quote]

With BI direct streaming to Imperihome, there is no need for me to have cameras in VERA. Motion detection is sent from BI (http) to virtual motion plugin in VERA. so everything still works the same but without all the camera images in VERA and few sec refresh rate of live video.[/quote]

That actually does make sense. I’m not sure I see any upside to having the camera feeds into Vera since I already have the motion sensing coming direct from BI. The only thing it makes easier is setting up multiple ImperiHome setups, yo ujust select the feed from the device list. Feeding direct you have to keep creating web interfaces but that’s not a big deal. The remaining question would be how many direct accesses my cameras can support but i’ll have to look into that. I wonder if ImperiHome can access the cameras in BI? Is that what you are doing or going direct to the camera?

[Update]
I created a camera in ImperiHome using the address/name of the camera in BI so that works. Does this work for you local and remote i.e. not on the same LAN?

[quote=“clippermiami, post:13, topic:186696”][quote=“integlikewhoa, post:12, topic:186696”][quote=“clippermiami, post:9, topic:186696”]I have mine configured as a sort of hybrid, or perhaps where “integlikewhoa” was when he first started before he got smarter through experience :slight_smile:

I have two Vera 3 units, NOT bridged but tightly communicating with each other for a keep-alive, to transfer state information and triggers. Vera-1 handles almost all the ZWave devices, sensors lights, etc.; Vera-2 handles the DSC Alarm Panel and the Blue Iris Plug In. The two Veras have a home-grown “keep alive” between them (many thanks to Rex Becket for helping resolve the bug) All the cameras are fed to Vera-2 via the BI Plug in. On Vera-1 I have Rex’s Virtual Motion Sensor triggered by BI directly using the HTTP facility to tie outside camera activity to flood light control , along with a MultiSwitch to track the four Wi-Fi camera Loss-of-Signal.

I bring this up because of “integlikewhoa” comments about utilization and loading. My BI Vera-2 has a fairly high Memory Usage, 114% but a remarkably low CPU usage, 3%-7% considering all the video being rammed through it. I get about 1-2 unplanned restarts (it only has two ZWave devices so it doesn’t do the nightly heal/restart) a week on that Vera so it doesn’t appear the BI load is having much impact.

I’m using ImperiHome for merged system management on several wall tablets and on everyone’s smartphones and tablets. I have camera displays on ImperiHome using the Vera-2 BI Plug-In devices. Now that “integlikewhoa” has focused my attention, absent the feed to ImperiHome its no longer clear what the BI Plug in feed is accomplishing for me so I want to think about perhaps removing it all together, retaining only the BI Motion Detection direct update of Vera-1.[/quote]

With BI direct streaming to Imperihome, there is no need for me to have cameras in VERA. Motion detection is sent from BI (http) to virtual motion plugin in VERA. so everything still works the same but without all the camera images in VERA and few sec refresh rate of live video.[/quote]

That actually does make sense. I’m not sure I see any upside to having the camera feeds into Vera since I already have the motion sensing coming direct from BI. The only thing it makes easier is setting up multiple ImperiHome setups, yo ujust select the feed from the device list. Feeding direct you have to keep creating web interfaces but that’s not a big deal. The remaining question would be how many direct accesses my cameras can support but i’ll have to look into that. I wonder if ImperiHome can access the cameras in BI? Is that what you are doing or going direct to the camera?

[Update]
I created a camera in ImperiHome using the address/name of the camera in BI so that works. Does this work for you local and remote i.e. not on the same LAN?[/quote]

I feed the cameras from BI to Imperihome using the create an IP camera like u just found. I found I can control the image size/ quality better then direct streaming from the camera. I feel I have more control. But either should work. Remote or local works as long as you have blueiris setup to work remotely. Use your settings like you would when remoting into BLUEIRIS.

And setting up multiple Imperihome is as simple as emailing the setup file to the next device and running the config file. I use no web interfaces.

[quote=“integlikewhoa, post:11, topic:186696”]Richard did release and update that allowed you to use a URL to get the snap shot from. I have had problems with it tho and still don;t have a working solution.

See reply #402 when he added it and for post after I started to post my problems which have not yet been fixed to my knowledge. Also not sure if its only me or others as I seem to be the only one reporting it. Maybe you guys can weigh in on it also.[/quote]

integlikewhoa, I looked into VeraAlerts and sending images and videos yesterday. Videos doesn’t work and seems to crash vera. At least the message with the video never comes through and instead I am getting a vera startup message (I enable vera status notifications).

Sending images works fine most of the time. I am saying most of the time because in a few instances I got a message but the attached file could not be displayed. Also the vera did send a restart. However, it’s possible these failures were actually related to video rather than images. Today I got about 50 messages with images (I obviously need to add some logic to reduce the amount of messages) and none caused any problems. Considering this, I now ditched the Blue Iris plugin. I just the video would work (maybe it’s my settings, or maybe VeraAlerts)

Image: {Picture(http://192.168.1.101:5999/image/Front1)}
Video: {Video(http://192.168.1.101:5999/mjpg/Front2, 5)}

192.168.1.101:5999 is the “LAN IP address” under Blue Iris Options->Web server
Front1 is the “Short name” of my camera under Camera Properties->General
Front2 is the “Short name” of another camera

I dropped the Blue Iris plugin and switched over to VeraAlerts.

[quote=“maja, post:15, topic:186696”][quote=“integlikewhoa, post:11, topic:186696”]Richard did release and update that allowed you to use a URL to get the snap shot from. I have had problems with it tho and still don;t have a working solution.

See reply #402 when he added it and for post after I started to post my problems which have not yet been fixed to my knowledge. Also not sure if its only me or others as I seem to be the only one reporting it. Maybe you guys can weigh in on it also.[/quote]

integlikewhoa, I looked into VeraAlerts and sending images and videos yesterday. Videos doesn’t work and seems to crash vera. At least the message with the video never comes through and instead I am getting a vera startup message (I enable vera status notifications).

Sending images works fine most of the time. I am saying most of the time because in a few instances I got a message but the attached file could not be displayed. Also the vera did send a restart. However, it’s possible these failures were actually related to video rather than images. Today I got about 50 messages with images (I obviously need to add some logic to reduce the amount of messages) and none caused any problems. Considering this, I now ditched the Blue Iris plugin. I just the video would work (maybe it’s my settings, or maybe VeraAlerts)

Image: {Picture(http://192.168.1.101:5999/image/Front1)}
Video: {Video(http://192.168.1.101:5999/mjpg/Front2, 5)}

192.168.1.101:5999 is the “LAN IP address” under Blue Iris Options->Web server
Front1 is the “Short name” of my camera under Camera Properties->General
Front2 is the “Short name” of another camera

I dropped the Blue Iris plugin and switched over to VeraAlerts.[/quote]

Thanks for the heads up.

My BI is secured and requires a user and password in the URL. I was also using
/image/Front_door?q=50&s=100

To receive my image.

I’m starting to think maybe the user and password is my issue and will test with that off today.