How to turn cameras on and off with alarm setting?

[ivarsand]

Is there a way to turn off cameras so live view is disabled or shows dummy picture and no new recordings are created.
The reason I want this functionallity is that I want to have all cameras off when alarm is off. Outdoor cameras on when alarm set to intruder protection and all cameras on when alarm is set to total protection.

The easiest is turning power to the cameras off and on, but is this advisable? They might switch on and off many times a day and the cameras spend some time booting up connecting to the network etc.
I am able to switch power or relays anywhere on the property on alarm changes, and also trigger tailor made software if needed.
Anyone done anything like this?

Any ideas welcome.
Thanks

 

[Tennis Guy]

Hi Grasshopper,

I was wondering the same thing.

For cameras with alarms I think you can trigger the camera based on an Alarm linkage and set an Alarm schedule for the camera. At least that's what the 5.3.0 firmware that I'm using implies via the configuration UI. I assume this works but unfortunately, the 5.3.0 firmware may have a bug that seems to affect the alarm...still investigating since I just did this upgrade and there seems to be a problem firing alarms in general.

Since I also would like to stop recording for privacy sake when I'm home, I don't care about the camera being off or not being able to view, I just don't want recordings. If you really don't want a video stream to be viewed (not just recorded) or you have a camera without an alarm, another approach seems necessary as you suggest. I have a few cameras that don't have alarms and some that do so I was going to write an app myself that toggled the motion detection configuration, which I suppose could also effectively disrupt a valid video configuration, e.g., turn the brightness all the way down (I'm a software developer by trade).

I may be able to shut the POE down where there is a centralized switch as well and control that with an app but I'd rather not have the lag time or need to wait the boot time to check if the system is back "on-line".

Let me know if you discover another way.

thanks,

Bill