This script can run on your Unifi Video server and push MQTT messages to a broker when motion is detected.
This can be useful for systems like Homeassistant that are lacking motion detection integration with Unifi Video.
Currently, the script is only setup for one camera but others can be added easily by modifying the script.
Unifi Video writes to /var/log/unifi-video/motion.log and it ouputs logs like this. This script parses this log:
1529536461.847 2018-06-20 19:14:21.847/EDT: INFO Camera[F0xxxxxxxxxx] type:start event:13 clock:11856432 (Front Door) in ApplicationEvtBus-7
1529536479.865 2018-06-20 19:14:39.865/EDT: INFO Camera[F0xxxxxxxxxx] type:stop event:13 clock:11874454 (Front Door) in ApplicationEvtBus-16
- Unifi Video Server
- MQTT Client
- MQTT Server
- Inotify Tools
The installation should be done on your server that is running Unifi video
Debian based install
apt install -y inotify-tools mosquitto-clients
cd /tmp
git clone https://github.com/mzac/unifi-video-mqtt.git
cd /tmp/unifi-video-mqtt
cp unifi-video-mqtt.sh /usr/local/bin
chown unifi-video:unifi-video /usr/local/bin/unifi-video-mqtt.sh
chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/unifi-video-mqtt.sh
cp unifi-video-mqtt.service /etc/systemd/system
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable unifi-video-mqtt
Before starting the service, make sure to edit /usr/local/bin/unifi-video-mqtt.sh with your specific settings:
# MQTT Vars
MQTT_SERVER="192.168.x.x"
MQTT_TOPIC_BASE="camera/motion"
# Camera Defs
CAM1_NAME="camera_name"
CAM1_ID="F0xxxxxxxxxx"
Test it to make sure it works:
/usr/local/bin/unifi-video-mqtt
Create some motion on your camera and subscribe to your MQTT server and see if you see motion:
root@pi3:~# mosquitto_sub -h 192.168.x.x -t "camera/motion/#" -v
camera/motion/front_door on
camera/motion/front_door off
Once all changes are done, go ahead and start the daemon
systemctl start unifi-video-mqtt