Need help with motion trigger / alert settings... I don't know if this can be done

[Dan Miller]

Hi Everyone... long time listener, first time caller.

I have Blue Iris / DeepStack setup currently with four cameras - 3 of them are Lorex E892AB and the fourth is a Dahua IPC-HDW2831TM-AS-S2. Main Streams for all four are 4k/15 and substreams are 704x480/15 with I-frame intervals of 15.

They all are arranged along the front of my house, with overlapping views of the front yard and the full street.

Below are the four views (the blocked out area on each is a mailbox which DeepStack constantly IDs as a person with over 80% confidence - I'm open to suggestions as to fixing this as well):

Here is what I am trying to alert for:

• Any vehicles that are moving too slow to be considered reasonable in either direction - it takes about 2 1/2 seconds normally to pass from the beginning of camera 1's view to the end of camera 4's.
• Any vehicles that drive into frame and stop in front of the house - either side of the street.
• Movement on the property itself of any speed. Originally I used a make time of 3 seconds for motion detection because I figured that would handle the above points. Then I missed some beautiful deer that ran across all four frames in less than 2 seconds.
• Alerts for people coming up the front walk as early as possible. I don't have a doorbell camera yet and the camera pointing down the walk is mounted directly above the door - people can get under its view. So early warning allows me to ID them before I decide if I need to leave my home office and come upstairs to answer the door.

Here is what I have tried (so far):

All of the cameras have the same basic setup for motion and zones:

• Zone A is the entire frame
• Zone B is my property
• Zone C is a block on the street which is centralized.
• I am not using any motion or IVS capabilities of the cameras.

If I reduce the make time to 1 second or less to capture things like deer running across the lawn (not a necessity, but cool. The kids like to see them) then I will get alerts for every car that passes the house.

I have not attempted to use the "timers" function under the alerts tab. Could this be my answer? This software is so complete that I know I'm missing something. I don't think what I am trying to do can be that unique.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Dan

 

[wittaj]

Depending on the BI version you are on, you could unhighlight the mailbox in the zone area and that will eliminate DS thinking it is a person and thus eliminate that ugly black mask LOL.

With timers and other features in the alerts you can accomplish what you want....but it won't all be on one camera (unless you give something up or spend a lot of time figuring it out LOL).

That is where the clone cameras come in to play.

So you set the Master camera to be just your alert camera that fits the requirements you want to be alerted.

Then do a clone camera to capture each of the other things you are looking for.

I run several of mine that way.

 

[Dan Miller]

Depending on the BI version you are on, you could unhighlight the mailbox in the zone area and that will eliminate DS thinking it is a person and thus eliminate that ugly black mask LOL.

With timers and other features in the alerts you can accomplish what you want....but it won't all be on one camera (unless you give something up or spend a lot of time figuring it out LOL).

That is where the clone cameras come in to play.

So you set the Master camera to be just your alert camera that fits the requirements you want to be alerted.

Then do a clone camera to capture each of the other things you are looking for.

I run several of mine that way.

So the way the zones work... A>C - does that mean originating in A and moving into C and not leaving C? Because if the object continued and left C back into A again that would be A-C correct? Because maybe I am using that part of the street notifications wrong.

I hate feeling stupid about this stuff.

 

[wittaj]

A>C means you only want an alert or trigger if something moves from A into C. If they go from C into A, then it will not trigger with A>C

 

[Dan Miller]

A>C means you only want an alert or trigger if something moves from A into C. If they go from C into A, then it will not trigger with A>C

So if I clone the cameras... Run a camera just for street level alerts. I could use one just for slow moving vehicles - cut the frame in half vertically with one half A and the other half B. I would use a long make time - like 3.5 seconds or more and use A-B. Then use another clone using the zones as set up above just for vehicles that pull up and stop. I could get away with a shorter make time, because stopping in B will be the arbiter in this case.

Is this the kind of methodology you are thinking?

Oh, and how long does an object need to remain in a zone before it is no longer tagged as having originated in a different zone? In other words... I am using A>C. Car originates in A and moves into C and stops. I get alerted. If it starts to move again after 10 seconds, is this a new motion or part of the one that I was alerted on? Which parts of BI's setting control this variable?

 

[wittaj]

Yes, that would be correct.

Make sure that you make the main camera the master and have that checked and then the clones should not have master checked. Your clone cameras should then have an * after the name. This means it is a clone and not pulling the video feed again from the camera. If it does not have the * then it is pulling it from the camera and you will start to see CPU raise.

As long as the camera is still in a triggered state, all of that motion and alert would be from that instance that started it. Through trial and error you could probably figure it out with alerts, but I prefer the clone approach as it is then easier to set up and troubleshoot.

So in your case of A>C and it stops in C - if you have a long break time, then it will not retrigger when they move if it is within that break time.

So you would want a short break time and then another zone on the outside of C to trigger when it moves if that is what you want.

 

[Dan Miller]

Thank you so much...

Gotta start playing now. It would be so easy if I had a helper who could be in a vehicle so we could test in real time. Nonetheless, I will get this figured out.

Has anyone ever written up a flowchart for alerts? Something that lays it all out like that amazing post I read about camera settings. This software is so thorough that it might need it. I know I could use it. The help file is great but I can tell it was written over time because there are many disconnects. Not a criticism at all - I've been in the electronics industry for 50 years. I know well how this stuff goes.

Thanks again -- I will let you know how it goes if you are interested.

 

[Dan Miller]

I still cant get the one part of this worked out.

I have cloned one camera. I am eliminating all street alerts from the other cameras until I wrap my head around this. For the clone, I just want to figure out how to fire an alert if a car stops in front of the house.

On the clone camera I kept the zones the same - A is everything. B is my property, C is a rectangle covering the street directly in front of the camera - about three car lengths wide.

I emailed Blue Iris and asked them. They responded pretty quick, but I have no clue what they are telling me to do, besides add the extra zones. Here is their response:
--------------------------------------------------------------
The way to do this today ...

Setup a zone on each side of that block on the street ... D and E

Trigger for D-C and E-C


Then on the action set for the alert:

Add a WAIT action for the time you think it would take someone to exit C with the option to ADOPT new zones.

Fire actions only with motion == ACD or ACE. You may need to add 2 actions for these cases (for the OR operation).

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I need to understand the logic flow here. And I don't. The way I had it set up before was definitely not working. If only there was a "NOT" operator in the zone detection setup, this would be so easy.

Can anyone help to break this down for me?