Vera Event triggering an Action on Windows 7?

Community Playground General Discussions
1

I’ve searched the forum and wiki, and so far I’ve been unable to find a method on how to do this. If this has been asked and answered before, please point me in the right direction!

I have a system being controlled by a Vera Lite. This system includes a Fosam IP camera that watches the front door. I also have several computers that are hooked up to TVs functioning as HTPCs. What I’d like to do: Whenever motion is detected on the front door camera, automatically launch a web-browser to my IP camera’s address so I can view who (or what) is at the door. I want this to happen on all my Windows 7 HTPCs.

Here are the steps that need to happen to accomplish this

  1. Motion on the camera triggers Vera event
  2. Vera event does… something… to notify a set of Windows 7 PCs on my network
  3. Windows 7 PCs launch a web browser to view the webcam stream
  4. Windows 7 PCs automatically close the browser window after 5 seconds or so

Steps 1, 3 and 4 I know how to handle. Step 2 is where I need help!

What can a Vera Lite running UI5 do to trigger an event log entry or other action in Windows that the OS can detect? My initial plan for step 3 is to use the Windows Task Scheduler to open the web browser whenever a particular event is put into the Event Log. Though I’m not sure how the Vera can reach out and alter anything on my Windows 7 systems, let alone put an log an event in the Event Log.

2

Have a look at eventghost for windows. This will allow you to perform actions based on events. In eventghost you would use the web server plugin to use a url to have eventghost use that as a trigger. You would then have vera call that url to trigger the event. Do a google search on eventghost and you should be able to get the required information on how to set it up, etc.

  • Garrett
3

You can also check out MCE Controller. It is meant to control Media Center functions, but you can add your own actions to the configuration. This is what I use to have Vera shutdown my PC every night, and I have used it in the past to have Vera exit and start XBMC on my HTPC when I change inputs on my AVR.

This is the LUUP code I use in a scene to shut down my PC after a 15 second delay. Shutdown is a built-in function in MCE Controller"

function shutDown(host)
	local socket = require("socket")
	c = assert(socket.connect(host, 5150))
	c:send("shutdown\r")
	c:close()
end

luup.call_delay("shutDown", 15, "10.0.0.1")

You would just need to add the motion sensor trigger to the scene. If you only need this to occur when the alarm system is armed, then you can use the Virtual ON/OFF Switches app to create a switch that reflects the state of the alarm system, so you can check the state of the virtual switch in the trigger. I hope this helps.

4

I think he would be better off using event ghost. Lots of things you can do with it.

  • Garrett
5

MCE is easy.

6

[quote=“garrettwp, post:2, topic:172597”]In eventghost you would use the web server plugin to use a url to have eventghost use that as a trigger.

For the OP’s situation, Vera will send ‘events’ like: ‘Vera.Office Entrance.Office Motion Sensor.ARMED.TRIPPED’ which you can then use to do all sorts of things in EventGhost. It is extremely flexible.

7

Awesome! Thanks for the pointer to EventGhost. I’ve successfully set up a EventGhost webserver and am receiving events through it. Here’s how my sequence of events has evolved:

  1. Motion on the entry way IP camera triggers Vera event
  2. Vera does… something… to navigate to each of my Media Computers’ IP address/index.html?EntryMotion
  3. EventGhost running on each of my media computers sees the ?EntryMotion event; launches new Chrome window to view IP camera
  4. EventGhost waits 10 seconds then closes the chrome window it just launched

I’m even able to do stylish little things with EventGhost, like size down the chrome window to fit the video stream, then place the window in a corner of the screen so not too much is blocked on the media computers. That program is badass! Steps 3 and 4 complete.

Now I’m having trouble with step 1. I can’t seem to get my Foscam IP camera’s motion sensor to trigger. Hrmm… off to searching the cameras forum I go.