# weirdtangent/amcrest2mqtt
Expose multiple Amcrest cameras and events to an MQTT broker, primarily
designed to work with Home Assistant. Also exposes a webrtc link, if you have one,
so a live feed can be viewed from within Home Assistant (on a dashboard, not on the
entity page for the camera)
Uses the [`python-amcrest`](https://github.com/tchellomello/python-amcrest) library.
Forked from [dchesterton/amcrest2mqtt](https://github.com/dchesterton/amcrest2mqtt)
## Docker
For `docker-compose`, use the [configuration included](https://github.com/weirdtangent/amcrest2mqtt/blob/master/docker-compose.yaml) in this repository.
Using the [docker image](https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/graystorm/amcrest2mqtt/general), mount your configuration volume at `/config` and include a `config.yaml` file (see the included [config.yaml.sample](config.yaml.sample) file as a template).
## Configuration
The recommended way to configure amcrest2mqtt is via the `config.yaml` file. See [config.yaml.sample](config.yaml.sample) for a complete example with all available options.
### MQTT Settings
```yaml
mqtt:
host: 10.10.10.1
port: 1883
username: mqtt
password: password
qos: 0
protocol_version: "5" # MQTT protocol version: 3.1.1/3 or 5
prefix: amcrest2mqtt
discovery_prefix: homeassistant
# TLS settings (optional)
tls_enabled: false
tls_ca_cert: filename
tls_cert: filename
tls_key: filename
```
### Amcrest Camera Settings
```yaml
amcrest:
hosts:
- 10.10.10.20
- camera2.local
names:
- camera.front
- camera.patio
port: 80
username: admin
password: password
storage_update_interval: 900 # seconds, default = 900
snapshot_update_interval: 60 # seconds, default = 60
# WebRTC settings (optional)
webrtc:
host: webrtc.local
port: 1984
sources:
- FrontYard
- Patio
```
### Media/Recording Settings
You can optionally mount a media volume at `/media` to store motion recordings.
```yaml
media:
path: /media
max_size: 25 # per recording, in MB; default is 25
retention_days: 7 # days to keep recordings; 0 = disabled; default is 7
media_source: media-source://media_source/local/videos # HomeAssistant media source URL
```
### Environment Variables
While the config file is recommended, environment variables are also supported. See [ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLES.md](ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLES.md) for the full list of available environment variables.
It exposes through the new 2024 HomeAssistant `device` discovery a `service` plus a `camera` with multiple components for each camera you specify:
- `homeassistant/device/amcrest2mqtt_service` - service config
- `homeassistant/device/amcrest2mqtt_[SERIAL_NUMBER]` per camera, with components:
## Snapshots/Eventshots plus Home Assistant Area Cards
The `camera` snapshots work really well for the HomeAssistant `Area` cards on a dashboard - just make this MQTT camera device is the only camera for an area and place an `Area` card for that location on a dashboard.
An "event snapshot" (`eventshot`) is separately (and specifically, by filename) collected IF the camera automatically records a snapshot because of an event. Note, that if the Amcrest camera is configured to record 3 or 5 snapshots on an event - each of those may be seen and updated by `amcrest2mqtt` and you will very quickly end up with the last snapshot.
## WebRTC
The WebRTC option works with the go2rtc package which is a streaming server that works very well for (my) Amcrest cameras. If you setup the WebRTC config here, there will be a `camera. webrtc` which you can put on a dashboard with the entity card. It will show a small camera icon and likely say "Idle", but if you click on it (and give it a little time to warm up) you will see the live-streaming feed from the webrtc server.
## Device Support
The app supports events for any Amcrest device supported by [`python-amcrest`](https://github.com/tchellomello/python-amcrest).
## Running the app
For Docker Compose, see the included [docker-compose.yaml](docker-compose.yaml).
The app expects the config directory to be mounted at `/config`:
```
CMD [ "python", "-m", "amcrest2mqtt", "-c", "/config" ]
```
## Healthcheck
There is a simple healthcheck that can be run, as seen in the sample docker-compose. The app simply touches a file in /tmp every 60 seconds, so while the app is functional, that file should keep getting hit. /app/src/healthcheck.py will check that and return true or false.
## Mounted Volume Permissions (Synology)
If you mount a host folder into /media for saving recordings, ensure the container has write access.
On Synology NAS, shared folders use ACLs that can block Docker containers even when chmod 777 appears open.
To reset permissions and make the volume writable by the container’s default user (uid=1000, gid=1000), run the following via SSH (alter for your path):
```
sudo synoacltool -del /volume1/photo/Amcrest
sudo chmod 777 /volume1/photo/Amcrest
sudo chown 1000:1000 /volume1/photo/Amcrest
```
Then verify inside the container:
```
docker exec -it amcrest2mqtt ls -ld /media
```
You should see permissions like:
```
drwxrwxrwx 1 appuser appuser ... /media
```
Once configured correctly, you should see new recordings appear in your mounted folder with ownership 1000:1000 and a symlink to the latest file.
Also, make sure you have
```
environment:
- TZ=America/New_York
```
in your docker-compose if you want the recording filenames to by local time and not UTC.
## Out of Scope
### Non-Docker Environments
Docker is the only supported way of deploying the application. The app should run directly via Python but this is not supported.
## See also
* [blink2mqtt](https://github.com/weirdtangent/blink2mqtt)
* [govee2mqtt](https://github.com/weirdtangent/govee2mqtt)
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