homebridge-hik-alerts

Description

This homebridge plugin exposes the Hikvision(R) NVR alerts to Apple's HomeKit. Using simple HTTP requests, the plugin triggers the camera sensor switches in camera ffmpeg.

Platform

Tested on IOS 15.

Installation

1. Install homebridge
2. Install this plugin: npm install -g homebridge-hik-alerts
3. Update your config.json file (see below)

Dependencies

This plugin feed the alerts into the Camera FFMpeg plugin. You must have set the Http Port in the Global Automation section to enable this.

For each camera in Camera FFMpeg plug, also switch on the Enable Motion Sensor and Enable Dummy Switches.

In the NVR, make sure:

• the WEB Authentication (under Security | Authentication) is set to digest/basic to allow this plug-in to connect,
• the events Linkage method includes Notify Surveillance Centre to push the events to the NVR's AlertStream

Configuration

"accessories": [
    {
        "name": "Hik Alerts",
        "accessory": "Hikvision Alerts",
        "nvr_host": "0.0.0.0",
        "camera_ffmpeg_porthttp": "8800",
        "user_name": "you user name",
        "password": "your password",
        "sensors": [
            "Cam 1",
            "Cam 2",
            "Cam 3",
            "Cam 4"
        ]
    }
]

Core

| Key | Description | Default | | --- | --- | --- | | accessory | Must be Hik Alerts | N/A | | name | Name to appear in the Home app | N/A | | nvr_host | Root URL of your Hikvision NVR | N/A | | user_name | your user name to log into the NVR | N/A | | password | your password to log into the NVR | N/A | | camera_ffmpeg_porthttp | port you defined in the camera ffmpeg config | N/A | | sensors | must correspond with the cameras list in camera ffmpeg plugin* | N/A |

Important: for the sensors, make sure that

• the names of the sensors (=cameras) are identical to those in Camera FFmpeg (towards Camera FFmpeg, cameras are matched by the name) and
• the order corresponds with the order in which the cameras are defined in the NVR (towards the NVR, cameras are matched by their sequence nr.).

Configuration in Homekit

After setting this up in Homebridge, you need to configure the following in Homekit:

• create an automation for each sensor/camera pair ('when motion is detetected, turn on the Camera Motion Trigger'),
• switch on Activity Notifications for each camera (to get a notification when motion is detected). This works best if each camera/sensor pair is in a separate room.