Blue Iris Tools - Weather Overlay, Watchdog & more!

Blue Iris Tools - Weather Overlay, Watchdog & more! 1.6.0

Mike

Staff member
Mar 9, 2014
3,000
2,842
New York
I'm very happy to introduce Blue Iris Tools to everyone. Blue Iris Tools was created to act as a companion to Blue Iris and has a bunch of features built in to help maximize your Blue Iris experience.

Some of the core features of Blue Iris Tools are:
  • Weather Overlays
    • Easily add the local weather to your camera feeds,
    • Easily create Macros for Blue Iris right from BI Tools,
    • Ability to assign all weather conditions to 1 Macro!
    • Retrieve & overlay weather from multiple locations
  • Watchdog
    • If Blue Iris crashes or closes, BI Tools will re-open it
    • Monitor Blue Iris (whether running 'normal' or as a service)
    • Monitor Blue Iris' web server. If BIT cannot connect, activate alerts
    • CPU monitor + CPU Overlay
    • BI folders monitor
    • IP Address monitor (notify if change)
    • Notifications - Get notified if BI crashes via e-mail, push notifications via Pushover (download BIT icon here), by playing a sound, pinging / launching a URL.
  • Web Server File Management
    • Insert Google Analytics into web server files easily,
    • Search & Replace in web server files - manually or automatically
  • Language
    • Create and import custom language phrases and definitions. Language files are available in the 2nd post of this thread. If you created your own, please share it!
    • Click here to download or share language files
  • DDNS Updater & IP Management
    • Automatically update DDNS providers when your IP address changes
    • Integrated with IPCT DDNS. Our free DDNS solution.
  • Log
    • Log all BIT related actions (BIT open / close, etc.)
    • Watchdog (Anytime the Watchdog is triggered - if BI is closed, etc.)
    • Weather Updates (anytime the weather is updated)
    • DDNS Updater (when your IP changes, etc.)
    • CPU Usage (log CPU usage during alerts, etc.)
    • Overlay IP address on camera
  • BI Update Manager
    • Keep previous versions of Blue Iris
    • Easily restore previous BI versions
  • BIT Cloud
    • BIT Cloud Remote - Connect to BIT from another remote BIT to view / manage settings and control BIT / BI, etc.
    • BIT Cloud Web Server - A personal website for you to connect to from any browser on any device to check your BIT / BI, including stats, weather, log, cpu, settings, etc.
    • BIT Cloud Watchdog - Remotely monitor a BI or BIT install - with watchdog alerts.
  • Add-ons
    • Create your own or install from the community for more control of BI and BIT
    • BIT Event Handlers installed for interaction with BIT & BI
    • View add-ons wiki here
  • Key Manager
    • Easily retrieve your license key from your machine
    • Store other license keys
  • Batch Config Tool (BI4)
    • Update multiple camera's settings at once

BI Tools uses WUnderground to gather the weather. You can find your nearest station here. I plan on adding more weather providers in the future.

Here are some screenshots of Blue Iris Tools.
weather-tab.pngwatchdog-tab.pngoptions-tab.jpgweb-server-tab.pngweather-overlays.pngmacros.pngresults.jpgsettings-screen.pngupload_2019-1-22_15-30-29.png upload_2019-1-22_15-34-44.pngddns-ip-management.jpgddns-ddns.jpglog.jpgupload_2018-4-25_20-0-14.pngupdate-manager.jpgbit-cloud.jpgbit-cloud2.jpgbi-watchdog.jpglanguage.jpgwebserver.jpgweb-server-screen.jpg

Here are a few examples of the weather on your video feeds. You can select which conditions to show, what units to display and more.
weather1.jpg weather2.jpg weather3.jpg

I have put together athread to act as a 'help file' or a place that provides details and explanations on how to use the software, what each feature and setting does, etc. If you cannot find the answers you are looking for in the help file then you may ask for support in this thread. Please view the add-ons wiki for information on how to use the add-ons system.

A big thanks to the beta team for helping get BIT where it is! Blue Iris Tools was built by me and is offered for free to everyone. I ask that you don't redistribute the software, rather direct people here to download it. I am not a programmer by trade, I just wanted to put together this software to help out the Blue Iris community. I expect bugs to crop up throughout the early releases but I plan on building and maintaining BI Tools long term, so if you do find bugs or have issues don't worry, whatever it is I will take care of. Just let me know. Please don't hesitate to leave your suggestions or feedback as well. I want to build and expand BI Tools as much as possible and have a lot of really good ideas that will make their way into future releases.

I plan on updating this thread when I release updates and will use it as a centralized location to discuss BI Tools. Please visit this thread for the help file and see the 2nd post in this thread for language files.

Current Release
Jan 18, 2020 - v.1.6.0 - If you already have BIT then update via BIT. If not, download the installer using the link on the top of this page.

Upcoming
-Send commands via BIT Cloud Web Server pages
-More info & controls from BIT Cloud Web Server and BIT Cloud Remote
-"My BIT Cloud" - Personal storage space to backup BIT, BI & more.
-BIT Cloud API
-Add custom CSS and HTML to the web server pages

Download & Installation Instructions
  • Blue Iris Tools v1.6.0 Installer.zip - For new installations download Blue Iris Tools v1.6.0 Installer.zip and extract the files. From there, run setup.exe. If your web browser or firewall flags it, disable during installation. If you encounter errors during the install, please 'ignore' them if possible. If you have a previous version of BIT, make sure it is closed. Always check for an update after installation.

  • bit-update.zip - If you are upgrading from a previous version of BIT that did not use the installer then download the bit-update.zip file, close BIT if it is running and extract the contents over your previous installation of Blue Iris tools. You may also download and install via the installer if you like. All future versions will be updated via BIT itself.

  • error-files only for issues.zip - Only use this if you are unable to properly install or run BIT, then download the contents of "error-files only for issues.zip" and extract them to a directory of your choice. Run BIT from there. If you are still having issues then please post in this thread.
Donate
I have been asked several times about accepting a donation for my work, so I finally decided to set up an easy way to do so. While it's not obligated, it's certainly appreciated. Blue Iris Tools is free and always will be free, but if you would like to make a donation, you may do so by clicking here - Donate to Blue Iris Tools

The link to download has been moved to the top of the page.
 
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Click here to view Blue Iris Tools Changelog

Language Files
To use the language files in BIT, download the file and put it in your BIT/lang folder. Next, click Options -> Language / Definitions. Select the language in the 'Language' drop-down and click "Use this language". I encourage you to create and share language files. You can create them in BIT and share them here easily by clicking the "Share" button in BIT. A big thanks to those who have shared so far!

Click here to download language files
 
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Worked like a charm!! Now I can't wait for my new Hikvision 2632 to arrive for a better pic...



FI8905w-11_25.20140331_214933.jpg

Is there a way to get just the Wind direction instead of the full description?
 
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Thank you Thank you Thank you, Blue Iris just started crashing on me with the latest update (3 times per day avg) Yes there are other programs that can monitor B I but this one is simple, works great and has extras that are nice.
 
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Mike,

Do you know a way to add a blank camera to blue iris?
Of course at first such a question sounds strange, but i have the following in mind.
I like the weather overlay very very much.
There is only one concern: having to much information hovering around at your camera view would interfere with the basic functionality of BI as being our primary cam tool for security and protection.
There is of course no objection to have a temp or RV sign somewhere in the corner of specific cams, but why not make an entire screen filled with all kinds of extra info?
And with an entire screen i mean that we would be able to project all kinds of information that is part of the videowall/collection of view offered by BI.
So: i have 20 cams with actual cams displaying their views, and 1 or 2 screens just filled with all kinds of additional information:
Think of weather information, but also internal information from our installation/heatingsystem etc could be displayed on a seperate screen.
Now we know that the only 'limitation' is that we should provide the information in a txt file, we could bring up a dozen extra info items.

Now back to the question: for making such an infoscreen work, we would need to be able to add one or two 'blank' (completely black or white) pages where we can project the info by means of the macrofunction.

Any thoughts on that?

Is there a way to run your software as service (just like blue iris)?
I see that currently your software does not 'live' anymore after a reboot of the server (since your software assumes that a user should always log in and BI tools can start together with that user).
In our situation we run Blue Iris on a seperate machine that just is running as dedicated server without any user logging in.

Atoombunker
 
Mike,

Is there a way to run your software as service (just like blue iris)?
I see that currently your software does not 'live' anymore after a reboot of the server (since your software assumes that a user should always log in and BI tools can start together with that user).
In our situation we run Blue Iris on a seperate machine that just is running as dedicated server without any user logging in.

Atoombunker

Hi @atoombunker,

As of right now it cannot be run as a service, but it can be automatically started and minimized (to tray or not) when the computer turns on. Check out the 'Options' tab. Will this help you? Maybe in the future I can add the option to run as a service.

Mike,

Do you know a way to add a blank camera to blue iris?
Of course at first such a question sounds strange, but i have the following in mind.
I like the weather overlay very very much.
There is only one concern: having to much information hovering around at your camera view would interfere with the basic functionality of BI as being our primary cam tool for security and protection.
There is of course no objection to have a temp or RV sign somewhere in the corner of specific cams, but why not make an entire screen filled with all kinds of extra info?
And with an entire screen i mean that we would be able to project all kinds of information that is part of the videowall/collection of view offered by BI.
So: i have 20 cams with actual cams displaying their views, and 1 or 2 screens just filled with all kinds of additional information:
Think of weather information, but also internal information from our installation/heatingsystem etc could be displayed on a seperate screen.
Now we know that the only 'limitation' is that we should provide the information in a txt file, we could bring up a dozen extra info items.

Now back to the question: for making such an infoscreen work, we would need to be able to add one or two 'blank' (completely black or white) pages where we can project the info by means of the macrofunction.

Any thoughts on that?

Atoombunker

I'm not sure of a way to add a blank camera but you could duplicate one of your cameras, add the weather information and not record the new camera. I will see what else I think of :D
 
It is easy to add a blank camera!

  1. Create a jpg image that is a flat color (use ms paint or something).
  2. Put this jpg image on a web server accessible to BI
  3. Create a Jpeg refresh camera pointing at the image you created
 
It is easy to add a blank camera!

  1. Create a jpg image that is a flat color (use ms paint or something).
  2. Put this jpg image on a web server accessible to BI
  3. Create a Jpeg refresh camera pointing at the image you created

Could you point out which cam from the entire cam list to just load a jpg?

Atoombunker
 
It is called "JPEG/GIF/etc. image requests" and it is hiding at the very top of the list. Set it to a nice low frame rate with Adjust automatically disabled.
 
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Great tool Mike! Would it be possible to add metric option for Pressure and Precipitation? Or even better replace Units "Fahrenheit/Celcius" with "Imperial/Metric" then you could drop Speed "MPH/km/h". I know it's a lot to ask but it would be really nice if you could do it.
 
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Great tool Mike! Would it be possible to add metric option for Pressure and Precipitation? Or even better replace Units "Fahrenheit/Celcius" with "Imperial/Metric" then you could drop Speed "MPH/km/h". I know it's a lot to ask but it would be really nice if you could do it.

Thanks @toonwolf! I could probably add a metric option for Pressure and Precipitation. Can you shoot me a PM with the units and conversion from standard to metric? Thanks!
 
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Mike,

Is there a way to run your software as service (just like blue iris)?
I see that currently your software does not 'live' anymore after a reboot of the server (since your software assumes that a user should always log in and BI tools can start together with that user).
In our situation we run Blue Iris on a seperate machine that just is running as dedicated server without any user logging in.

Atoombunker

@atoombunker In the meantime you can use NSSM (The Non-Sucking Service Manager) It will let you run any application as a service. It's very easy. It took me longer to write this than to install the service itself (and I'm a fast typer) :)

toonwolf
 
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Hi @atoombunker,
As of right now it cannot be run as a service, but it can be automatically started and minimized (to tray or not) when the computer turns on. Check out the 'Options' tab. Will this help you? Maybe in the future I can add the option to run as a service.
@Mike, I had problems with this setting, my computer reboots every night at 3 am, and even if BIT was in the startup folder it would not start. Problem solved by installing and running the application as a service instead.
 
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@Mike, I had problems with this setting, my computer reboots every night at 3 am, and even if BIT was in the startup folder it would not start. Problem solved by installing and running the application as a service instead.

Interesting. BIT is in the Startup folder but still wouldn't start? You're positive it didn't start in the minimized (check tray too) state?

Thanks.
 
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Interesting. BIT is in the Startup folder but still wouldn't start? You're positive it didn't start in the minimized (check tray too) state?

Thanks.
Yes, I've checked in Task Manager and it does not start minimized. Other applications in my startup-folder does start as expected. Running BIT and BI on Windows 8.1 - 64-bit. It's not a big deal as I'm running all applications on this pc as services using NSSM. I guess the option in BIT "Start when Windows Boots" only create a shortcut in the startup-folder for the current user. Maybe you could add the startup to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run but then again maybe I'm the only one that have this problem.
 
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Yes, I've checked in Task Manager and it does not start minimized. Other applications in my startup-folder does start as expected. Running BIT and BI on Windows 8.1 - 64-bit. It's not a big deal as I'm running all applications on this pc as services using NSSM. I guess the option in BIT "Start when Windows Boots" only create a shortcut in the startup-folder for the current user. Maybe you could add the startup to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run but then again maybe I'm the only one that have this problem.

Thank you for the bug report, I will incorporate this into the next release (releasing it next week)!
 
duplicate a camera, go to Paint program, fill a blank canvas with all black..save to folder... go to camera, add image of all black and expand to cover whole screen, set camera to 1 frame every minute... add overlays..done..works awesome, thanks for bringing it up



oops, guess I was late with the response, others beat me to it... back to work for me...
 
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