I remember reading someone on here that was using a motion sensor to inform his camera to take a still picture.
I can't seem to find who that was 
I am trying to figure out if I can instruct my IP Cam to text me a still shot when my HE motion alarm activates.
Any input?
Thanks!!!
Do you want to talk directly to the camera or are you using any software like Blue Iris?
I run my camera's using QNAP's Surveilance Station. Perhaps I could get the functionality I seek from that-- although that software seems a little dicey... I am sure Blue Iris would be better.
Ideally I'd just like to tell the camera to text me a pic on command...
I haven't done my research much yet so I'll spend some time on seeing how possible this is too.
Okay, I doubt you'll be able to talk directly to that system but if it is an IP cam you may be able to talk directly to it. What brand/model of camera is it? Can you view just that camera in a browser using it's IP address?
It is a hikvision camera.
I can indeed view the image from an IP address so maybe I can just execute a WGET command to get the image (using a another computer I suppose- and if I can avoid having to log into the camera) and then somehow email the image to my text address....
You might want to look into the api docs I posted for ezviz cameras as they are also made by hikivision/Foscam. It might give you some other ideas/options to consider.
That good that you can see the video from a browser. Take a look at code in my BI Control app. It won't work directly with the camera they way it is, but you can see how I send the commands to BI. It will be very similar to how you can send the commands to the camera.
That post might have been mine. I have several IP cameras and use iSpy on a Windows PC as well as their cloud portal to remotely access the system.
ISpy has several commands that can be sent to it over the LAN to take a picture, a clip, turn a camera on or off, etc. These can be triggered with an http command. I use motion detectors on Hubitat to trigger pictures by iSpy.
Where would I find your API docs?
No API needed. Just use Rule Machine to send an http to the iSpy server.
Ok. Thanks. But actually, i'm looking at my Amcrest camera (or DVR) to see if there is a snapshot available to put on my dashboard and/or when a Hubitat alarm occurs. I have seen some exciting dashboards with security camera pics in this community. Currently doing research to adapt mine. Any suggestions appreciated.
So here’s how I do it.
I use HomeKit and homebridge. Homebridge is connected to my axis camera.
I then I have a virtual sensor exposed through maker.
In the axis camera I set the trigger as a http post to the maker API motion sensor to turn it on.
In HomeKit ios13 I have an automation when this turns on to turn on the camera switch.
And boom I get a snap shot from HomeKit.
Ok. So, is the Hubitat getting the pic via Maker API then sending it to the clients, or is it just triggering the snapshot, and the client is getting it directly from the camera server?
HomeKit is connected to my camera through homebridge to the direct feed.
The motion sensor is the trigger to say it detected motion. HomeKit does the snapshots natively.
Two options may be if you can send a command to your DVR via an http or to your camera. iSpy has a database of cameras (to help you hook them up to iSpy) and it appears some Amcrest cameras will accept some commands via an http string (Connect to Amcrest IP cameras). If you can write it to a file share that you can easily access, then you should be able to pick it up. Hard to be more specific not knowing your setup.
Hubitat never gets the picture. It simply instructs your browser where to obtain the picture to embed in the webpage. That's how image times work. The picture need to be on a web server accessible to your device. Otherwise the image cannot be displayed.
Download the Hubitat app
