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Using MQTT to inform ioBroker that an Alarm was Triggered

Q: I found your guide to use the INSTAR (HTTP) Alarmserver. Wouldn't it make more sense to publish those events through the MQTT service that every Full HD cameras offers? This way I would be able to be sure that every alarm event is registered by my ioBroker installation.

Mike Polinowski
INSTAR MQTT
Firmware Update
Full HD Series
INSTAR Deutschland GmbH
INSTAR MQTT

Make your camera the heart of your smart home

INSTAR MQTT

Using the MQTT interface of your INSTAR Full HD cameras you can connect them to an existing smarthome system (Home Assistant, OpenHAB, Node-RED, Athom Homey, Homematic, ioBroker, Loxone, homee) can be added. Or even make it the main broker for your MQTT sensors. MQTT allows you to automate ALL functions of your camera and link them to other services in your smarthome.

Mike Polinowski
IFTTT Applets
Firmware Update
Full HD Series
INSTAR Cloud
INSTAR Deutschland GmbH
INSTAR IFTTT Applets

Control your camera via the IFTTT online service

INSTAR IFTTT

On the IFTTT platform, we provided a service called INSTAR. The INSTAR applets provide you with the ability to control some settings of your INSTAR camera or INSTAR Cloud with IFTTT. You can connect INSTAR with triggers for location (Geo Location) and date & time, send notifications and much more. For example, you can connect INSTAR applets to the IFTTT location service and automatically disable the alarm when you arrive home. You can also use the INSTAR applets to create your own automation and connect them to other third-party applets.

A: All alarm events that published by the INSTAR HTTP Alarmserver can now also be accessed through the MQTT Service!

MQTT Alarmserver

The corresponding MQTT Topic is:

alarm/triggered

All you need to do is adding a subscription to the Status Topic and you will receive updates about alarm events as well as what service triggered the alarm:

Alarmauslöser anhängen
  • Alarmbereich 1 ausgelöst: 1
  • Alarmbereich 2 ausgelöst: 2
  • Alarmbereich 3 ausgelöst: 3
  • Alarmbereich 4 ausgelöst: 4
  • Alarm-In / PIR ausgelöst: 5
  • Audio Alarm ausgelöst: 6
  • Bewegungserkennung & ausgelöst (Bereich 1): 7
  • Bewegungserkennung & ausgelöst (Bereich 2): 8
  • Bewegungserkennung & ausgelöst (Bereich 3): 9
  • Bewegungserkennung & ausgelöst (Bereich 4): 10

Setting up ioBroker

We already published a guide on how to use Node-RED to interact with your MQTT Alarmserver. You can follow this guide if you installed the Node-RED adapter in ioBroker.

In this guide we want to use the Blockly Script Engine instead of Node-RED. You can start by installing it from the Adapter tab:

INSTAR MQTT Alarmserver for the ioBroker

Now switch to the Scripts tab and select Blockly to add a new script:

INSTAR MQTT Alarmserver for the ioBroker

You can now start using the Blockly UI to create your alarm server script:

INSTAR MQTT Alarmserver for the ioBroker

In the following example I re-created the Motion Tracking Example that we previously solved in Node-RED. Please refer to this turorials for details on how to set up your camera for this to work.

Whenever we receive a status update for alarm/triggered, we have to check if the alarm was triggered by Area 1 - payload will be {"val":"1"} - or Area 4 - with the payload {"val":"4"}. If Area 1 was triggered - which is the motion detection area we added to the left side - we have to move our camera one step to the left. For Area 4 we have to go right to center the moving object in our cameras field of view.

INSTAR MQTT Alarmserver for the ioBroker

Note that the camera that I am using here has the MQTT ID 10D1DC21F5DB. If you import the Blockly script you have to changes this according to your personal cameras ID!

The topics that are used here are:

  • /status/alarm/triggered: INSTAR MQTT Alarmserver Status Topic
  • /features/ptz/movestep/raw: Command topic to move your pan&tilt camera one step to the left or right.

And in addition I added a script that will move my camera to preset position 2, if the camera's Audio Alarm {"val":"6"} was triggered. This can be done with the following:

  • /features/ptz/presets/raw Command topic to move your camera to position 0 - 7
  • /alarm/pushalarm Command topic to trigger an audio alarm on your camera and trigger the preset function in Blockly

XML Export

You can import the complete script into Blockly with the following JSON code. Note that you will have to replace the MQTT ID 10D1DC21F5DB with your personal cameras ID:

<xml xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  <block type="on_ext" id="5:E8z%?$kF2:_228=Fsl" x="-62" y="-112">
    <mutation items="1"></mutation>
    <field name="CONDITION">ne</field>
    <field name="ACK_CONDITION"></field>
    <value name="OID0">
      <shadow type="field_oid" id="7K},E#*On`zsq^jhPQ9v">
        <field name="oid">mqtt.0.instar.10D1DC21F5DB.status.alarm.triggered</field>
      </shadow>
    </value>
    <statement name="STATEMENT">
      <block type="controls_if" id="2%z$7WDJUl-dSz+miU(-">
        <value name="IF0">
          <block type="logic_compare" id="9]pjLD{[W^26TPYM6liS">
            <field name="OP">EQ</field>
            <value name="A">
              <block type="on_source" id="-?/H,NwcYjPh~{p`fc`~">
                <field name="ATTR">state.val</field>
              </block>
            </value>
            <value name="B">
              <block type="text" id="hKDWmg?WzR9@$Wo4RHj5">
                <field name="TEXT">{"val":"1"}</field>
              </block>
            </value>
          </block>
        </value>
        <statement name="DO0">
          <block type="control" id="g@M?e*b1_8ezO{_(PUcP">
            <mutation delay_input="false"></mutation>
            <field name="OID">mqtt.0.instar.10D1DC21F5DB.features.ptz.movestep.raw</field>
            <field name="WITH_DELAY">FALSE</field>
            <value name="VALUE">
              <block type="text" id="u2H{{k$7nO+({(J4,2,C">
                <field name="TEXT">left</field>
              </block>
            </value>
          </block>
        </statement>
        <next>
          <block type="controls_if" id="}uq*%|F/Nt=*`rn`|hV4">
            <value name="IF0">
              <block type="logic_compare" id="|x2u0AR*aTmVC=lfROzF">
                <field name="OP">EQ</field>
                <value name="A">
                  <block type="on_source" id="In|(S^y0YVoVN#Y^[.5m">
                    <field name="ATTR">state.val</field>
                  </block>
                </value>
                <value name="B">
                  <block type="text" id="uC/+7LgdO]A`UdHW*sHC">
                    <field name="TEXT">{"val":"4"}</field>
                  </block>
                </value>
              </block>
            </value>
            <statement name="DO0">
              <block type="control" id="K58]j^_|1M4|}D2aF?{u">
                <mutation delay_input="false"></mutation>
                <field name="OID">mqtt.0.instar.10D1DC21F5DB.features.ptz.movestep.raw</field>
                <field name="WITH_DELAY">FALSE</field>
                <value name="VALUE">
                  <block type="text" id="13|%(`^fM,_w499|gkt-">
                    <field name="TEXT">right</field>
                  </block>
                </value>
              </block>
            </statement>
            <next>
              <block type="controls_if" id="JhXZ,A)R?fQ}!et!,!/7">
                <value name="IF0">
                  <block type="logic_compare" id="560g5G|oV?rEcXER(oOD">
                    <field name="OP">EQ</field>
                    <value name="A">
                      <block type="on_source" id="9[A80k}o*RpbflDD2h/:">
                        <field name="ATTR">state.val</field>
                      </block>
                    </value>
                    <value name="B">
                      <block type="text" id="._5?cn:Mi%DWgz;OL}v4">
                        <field name="TEXT">{"val":"6"}</field>
                      </block>
                    </value>
                  </block>
                </value>
                <statement name="DO0">
                  <block type="control" id="]KIbdkEE?:DEhmZ`)wE=">
                    <mutation delay_input="false"></mutation>
                    <field name="OID">mqtt.0.instar.10D1DC21F5DB.features.ptz.preset.raw</field>
                    <field name="WITH_DELAY">FALSE</field>
                    <value name="VALUE">
                      <block type="text" id="1HbkwoM-U/]J2go|iNoe">
                        <field name="TEXT">2</field>
                      </block>
                    </value>
                  </block>
                </statement>
              </block>
            </next>
          </block>
        </next>
      </block>
    </statement>
  </block>
</xml>