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Dahua smart home integration, free and open source

Dahua integration for Gladys Assistant

Dahua cameras, recorders and doorbells, locally: images, detections, rings and controls.

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Brings Dahua cameras, recorders (NVR, XVR) and doorbells (VTO) into Gladys, locally, through their HTTP API: camera images, motion, line crossing and intrusion rules, persons and vehicles, audio alarms, doorbell rings, and the controls of the cameras that have them (motion detection, night vision, floodlight, siren, privacy mask). It also works with the brands built on Dahua that keep its API, such as Amcrest and Lorex. No cloud account, nothing leaves your network.

Developed without the hardware: feedback welcome. This integration was written from the public Dahua HTTP API, the work of the Home Assistant dahua integration and real answers of devices, without a Dahua device at hand. If something does not work as described, please open an issue on github.com/guim31/gladys-dahua/issues with the integration logs (LOG_LEVEL=debug).

This integration is not affiliated with Dahua. Dahua, Amcrest and Lorex are trademarks of their owners.

What you need​

  • A Dahua camera, recorder or doorbell (or a white-label model running the Dahua firmware) reachable from Gladys on your network, its web page working (port 80, or 443 in HTTPS).
  • A local account of the device, ideally an administrator: an account without the rights can read but not change the settings. On recent firmwares, the authentication must accept Digest MD5 (the default).
  • Gladys 5.1 or later.

Brands that moved to a cloud-only app (IMOU / Lechange models without a local web page) cannot be used.

Set up​

Settings​

In Gladys, open the integration, then its Configuration tab:

  • Device addresses: the IP addresses (or names) of your devices, separated by commas, with :port if it is not 80, and https:// in front for HTTPS. For a recorder, its address is enough: each of its cameras becomes a device in Gladys. Never put a password in an address.
  • User name and Password: the account of these devices (admin by default). The password is sent to the devices only, never to a cloud.
  • Other device addresses, Their user name, Their password (optional): devices with other credentials, typically the doorbell.
  • Camera images: how often the image of each camera added to Gladys is refreshed (every 5 minutes by default, or only on events). A person or a ring always sends a fresh one.
  • Control the sirens: adds a Siren switch to the cameras that have one. Off by default.
  • Allow opening the door: lets scenes open the door or gate wired to a Dahua doorbell. Off by default, see Doorbells.
  • Language of the names: the language of the feature names and of the texts sent to the scenes (French by default). Names are set when a device is added to Gladys.

Save: the status under the integration name turns to connected, and the devices appear in the Discover tab. Add the ones you want.

A wrong password is tried once. A Dahua device locks the account for 5 to 30 minutes after a few refused passwords: at the first refusal, the integration stops talking to that device (the others carry on) until you change the configuration or click Test the connection.

Configuration actions​

  • Test the connection: reads every device again and shows, for each one, its model, its kind and its number of channels, or why it does not answer. It also tries once more a password refused before.
  • Show the video stream address: pick a camera, and the RTSP address of its video stream is shown under the button, ready for the "RTSP camera" integration of Gladys (see Live video). The password is never shown: replace PASSWORD yourself.

The devices​

Cameras​

One device per camera, with the features its own settings show:

  • Image: the camera image, refreshed at the chosen interval, at every person and ring, and on demand;
  • Online: on while the device answers;
  • Motion: on while the camera reports motion;
  • Line crossing, Intrusion: on while a tripwire or intrusion rule (IVS) of the camera is triggered — only when an enabled rule exists;
  • Person, Vehicle: on while the smart motion detection sees one, or for 10 seconds when a line crossing or intrusion rule reports a person or a vehicle;
  • Audio alarm: on while the camera reports a sudden sound. It appears at the first audio alarm: click Update on the camera in the Discover tab;
  • Motion detection: turns the motion detection of the camera on or off;
  • Night vision: the infrared light, Auto, On or Off;
  • Floodlight: the white light of the cameras that have one. Turning it on forces it on; turning it off gives it back to its previous mode;
  • Siren: sounds the siren of the cameras that have one, only when Control the sirens is ticked. The siren stops by itself after 10 to 15 seconds;
  • Privacy mask: covers the lens (privacy mode). While it is on, the camera image is not refreshed by the timer.

A rule enabled after the device was added appears after a Search in the Discover tab, then Update.

Recorders​

A recorder is not a device in Gladys: each of its Dahua cameras is, named as in the recorder, with Image, Online, Motion, Motion detection, and Person and Vehicle on the channels with smart motion detection. Cameras added to the recorder in ONVIF cannot be driven through the Dahua API and are left out. A recorder has one event stream for all its cameras.

Doorbells​

A Dahua doorbell (VTO) is a camera with Doorbell ring: it turns on for 10 seconds at each press of the button, and Gladys shows when it last rang.

Opening the door is disabled by default and is never a switch: no dashboard toggle, no voice assistant can open it by mistake. Once Allow opening the door is ticked, only the scene action Open the door of a doorbell can do it, and the command is sent once, never retried.

Dashboard​

The Dahua widget shows at a glance:

  • the cameras online (3/4) and the persons and rings of the last 24 hours;
  • the last persons and rings, newest first, each with the image taken when it happened;
  • the state of each camera.

In its settings, pick a camera to show only that one. The events are kept in memory: the list starts empty after a restart of the integration.

Scenes​

Triggers​

  • Person detected by a camera: a camera saw a person. Filters: the camera, and what detected it (smart motion detection, line crossing rule, intrusion rule); left empty, any matches. The actions can use the camera name, what detected the person and the name of the rule. One event per camera in 15 seconds: a person seen by two rules starts the scene once. When the scene starts, the image of the camera in Gladys is already the one of the detection.
  • Someone rang the doorbell: the button of a doorbell was pressed. Filter: the doorbell. The actions can use its name. The doorbell image in Gladys is already the one of the ring.

The states of the devices (motion, line crossing, audio alarm…) are also available to the usual "device state" trigger of Gladys.

Actions​

  • Refresh a camera image: takes a fresh image of a camera for Gladys, so that the next action ("send a camera image" in a message) sends what the camera sees now.
  • Open the door of a doorbell: opens door 1 or 2 of a doorbell. Refused unless Allow opening the door is ticked.

Scene ideas​

  • Someone rings: trigger "Someone rang the doorbell", then "send a camera image" of the doorbell to your phone with the message "Someone at the door".
  • Person in the driveway at night: trigger "Person detected by a camera" (camera Driveway), a condition on the time, then turn the garden lights on for 5 minutes.
  • Quiet when you are home: when the house becomes occupied, turn Motion detection off on the indoor cameras; turn it back on when everybody leaves.
  • Night vision for the porch light: when the porch light turns on, set Night vision of the entrance camera to Off (no reflection on the glass); back to Auto when it turns off.

Live video​

The Image feature shows still images. For live video, use the "RTSP camera" integration of Gladys:

  1. Run Show the video stream address with the camera.
  2. Add the camera in the "RTSP camera" integration with this address, where you replace PASSWORD with the password of the device (rtsp://admin:PASSWORD@<address>:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0; subtype=1 gives the lighter sub-stream).

Refresh and limits of the API​

Gladys never polls these devices: the integration follows the event stream of each device live, and reads the settings again every 5 minutes (every minute while an event stream is down). The values are sent to Gladys only when they change, and again every 6 hours when they do not.

The web server of a Dahua device is small: the integration sends at most two requests at a time to each device, reads whole tables (a recorder costs the same few requests as a camera), and waits 20 seconds at most for an answer. Images: at most one every 6 seconds per camera (Gladys accepts 12 a minute). Each request appears in the log of the device: a refresh every 5 minutes keeps it readable.

Troubleshooting​

  • "The device does not answer": check the address, that the device is on, and that Gladys can reach it (same network, firewall).
  • "Password refused": correct the user name or password of that device, save, then click Test the connection. If the device locked the account, wait for it to unlock (5 to 30 minutes) or restart it.
  • "No Dahua HTTP API at this address": the address is not the one of the device, or the CGI API is disabled on it (on recent firmwares: Network, Port, or Security, "CGI").
  • "This account is not allowed": use an administrator account.
  • "The device refused the setting": this model or this channel does not support it; the feature stays as it was.
  • "live events are interrupted": the states still follow, every minute; persons and rings wait for the stream to come back. It reconnects by itself.
  • A rule, a light or a mask is missing: enable it on the device, then Search in the Discover tab and Update the device.
  • No image: the integration resizes images of up to 4K; a progressive JPEG larger than 1080p cannot be resized in the memory of the container. The logs say so once.
  • For more detail, set LOG_LEVEL=debug on the integration and read its logs. They never contain a password.

Limits​

  • Developed without the hardware: tested against real answers of the API and a simulated device, not against real devices.
  • The doorbell ring is read from the HTTP event stream (BackKeyLight, PhoneCallDetect). Some doorbells report it only over their other protocol (DHIP, port 5000), not used yet: tell us if a ring does not show.
  • Sirens are recognised on the models known to have one and on the cameras that report a speaker; the siren of the cameras behind a recorder is not driven.
  • No PTZ control, no recording or alarm control, no two-way audio.
  • Multi-sensor cameras: only their first channel is used.
  • The list of events of the widget starts empty at each restart.
  • Images are resized to 960 pixels wide at most (the limit of Gladys is 150 KB per image).

Configuration settings​

These are the settings Dahua asks for in its configuration screen in Gladys.

SettingTypeRequiredDescription
Your Dahua devicessectionNoCameras, recorders (NVR, XVR) and doorbells (VTO) of Dahua and of the brands built on it (Amcrest, Lorex…), on your network, through their HTTP API. Use a local account of the device, ideally an administrator. Nothing goes through a cloud.
Device addressesstringYesIP addresses or names, separated by commas, with :port if not 80, https:// for HTTPS. For a recorder, its address is enough: each camera becomes a device.
User namestringNo
PasswordsecretYesSent to the devices only, never to a cloud. A device locks the account after a few wrong passwords: the integration stops at the first refusal.
Devices with other credentialssectionNoOptional: a doorbell or a camera whose user name or password differs from the ones above.
Other device addressesstringNo
Their user namestringNo
Their passwordsecretNo
Camera imagesselectNoHow often the image of each camera added to Gladys is refreshed. A person or a ring always sends a fresh one.
Control the sirensbooleanNoAdds a siren switch to the cameras that have one. Off by default: a siren sounded by mistake wakes the neighbourhood.
Allow opening the doorbooleanNoLets scenes open the door or gate of a Dahua doorbell (scene action only, never a switch). Off by default.
Language of the namesselectNoLanguage of the feature names and of the texts sent to scenes. Names are set when a device is added.

How to install Dahua in Gladys​

  1. In Gladys, open Integrations: Dahua appears in the catalog, next to the native integrations, with a community badge.
  2. Click Install. Gladys pulls the Docker image (ghcr.io/guim31/gladys-dahua:1.0.1), starts it in a sandbox isolated from the core, and generates the integration's interface (devices, discovery and configuration).
  3. Open the Configuration screen of the integration, fill in the settings, and save.
  4. You can also install it directly from its repository URL: https://github.com/guim31/gladys-dahua.

Dahua requires Gladys >=5.1.0. The catalog inside Gladys refreshes every hour, so a new version becomes available at most one hour after its release.

Not running Gladys yet? It is free and open source: follow the installation guide to get started.

About external integrations​

Dahua is an external integration: a community integration packaged as a Docker container and published on GitHub, that Gladys installs in one click and runs in a sandbox isolated from its core. It is published and maintained by guim31, not by the Gladys core team.

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