Adding Septekon camera via Homebridge

[z0gster]

I'm trying to get a Septekon 761JBU camera to talk to Apple Home… having installed Homebridge Camera FFMPEG, and adding the rtsp stream details to settings, selecting unbridged… I can see the camera as an accessory in Home but I cannot connect to it.

Here's what I'm seeing:

Clicking Add Accessory in Home gives me the pop-up window to select an accessory. I can 'Outdoor camera' so I select it, and dismiss the "Uncertified Accessory" warning and Add Anyway.

At this point it asks me for an 8-digit Homekit Setup Code, which obviously I don't have, and the only other option appears to be "Use Camera" to scan a setup QR Code, which again I don't have.

What am I missing or doing wrong?

[Sunoo]

It uses the same code as whatever you configured for the rest of Homebridge.

[z0gster]

Thanks, but I'm not sure quite what to do with that information… is there a setting for Homebridge that I'm missing?

[Sunoo]

If you run Config UI X, it will be displayed there. It is also available in the startup logs or your config.json.

[z0gster]

I believe I've added the camera correctly in Homebridge, and can see it on the config page (see below)

The problem is in the Home app on my iPhone when I try to add the camera there… I can't see a way around the request for a valid setup code

[Sunoo]

It’s the same code used by your main Homebridge hub…

[z0gster]

OK, but how does that help me add the camera in Home?

[Sunoo]

I don’t know what else to tell you dude, add the camera like you said you were able to start, then key in the same code you used when adding Homebridge to HomeKit.

[z0gster]

Ah, got it! I think.

I was getting the two meaning of "code" confused. As in lines of code, and Homekit setup/login code.

Camera is now added, just trying to work out why the video stream isn't showing up, trying other codecs…

Thanks!

[z0gster]

Hmmm… so I have the camera added in Home, and I can select it, but it only shows a blank screen for a while, then "This camera is not responding". I can view the camera feed via Septekons's own app, so the feed is definitely there.

In the Homebridge logs on the home screen, I keep seeing:

[1/7/2022, 5:00:53 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] FFmpeg exited with code: 1 and signal: null (Error)
[1/7/2022, 5:00:53 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] Stopped video stream.

[Sunoo]

Can you view the RTSP from the camera in VLC or similar?

[Sunoo]

Actually I just noticed your config posted above, your source line starts with -I and it should be -i. Case matters.

[z0gster]

Good catch - I think that was an autocorrect intervention!

Changed it, but still seeing a blank feed

[Sunoo]

Please enable debug on the camera config and share your logs.

[z0gster]

I can't view in VLC (password stuff, might be able to figure it out), but I can view in the camera maker's own app

[Sunoo]

If you can’t view in VLC, most likely that’s the same problem you’re having with this plugin.

[z0gster]

Ah, interesting.

Log-wise, this is what happens when I try and view the camera in Home:

[1/7/2022, 5:30:09 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] Starting video stream: 1280 x 720, 30 fps, 299 kbps
[1/7/2022, 5:30:09 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] FFmpeg exited with code: 1 and signal: null (Error)
[1/7/2022, 5:30:09 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] Stopped video stream.

[z0gster]

It may not be the only issue in VLC, but one reason why I can't view the stream is password related.

I paste the stream URL into VLC ("Open Network…"), but at the RTSP authentication stage it rejects all my password attempts. The password, I assume, is the second part of the text string for the URL of the video stream, coming after the user name that VLC is extracting from the same.

[Sunoo]

I recommend getting this camera working there first.

[z0gster]

In that case I think I'm at a dead end… I've tried all the passwords that I think I can get out of that URL, along with the obvious default passwords, and nothing works

[Sunoo]

Reach out to the manufacturer?

[z0gster]

Ah, progress! Can now view the stream in VLC, but it's still not viewable in Home

[Sunoo]

Progress is good. I assume you tweaked the URL or something. Have you enabled debug on the plugin? Do you get anything in the log?

[z0gster]

Well it's one of those "I don't know why that worked" spots

I just used the same password that I'm sure I'd tried before, among others, but this time I typed it rather than using cut and paste. And it is indeed the second part of that URL text string

I enabled debugging, and what I see in the main log is this:

[1/7/2022, 6:45:35 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] Starting video stream: 1280 x 720, 30 fps, 299 kbps
[1/7/2022, 6:45:35 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] FFmpeg exited with code: 1 and signal: null (Error)
[1/7/2022, 6:45:35 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] Stopped video stream.

[Sunoo]

Looks like that may just be debugging on Homebridge, and not on the plugin? There should be a bunch of output from FFmpeg in there.

[z0gster]

Hmmmm… I can only see the main log.

Here's more - I might not have restarted after enabling debugging, so maybe that explains previous brevity

[1/7/2022, 6:58:19 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] Video stream requested: 1280 x 720, 30 fps, 299 kbps
[1/7/2022, 6:58:19 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] Starting video stream: 1280 x 720, 30 fps, 299 kbps
[1/7/2022, 6:58:19 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] Stream command: /usr/local/lib/node_modules/homebridge-camera-ffmpeg/node_modules/ffmpeg-for-homebridge/ffmpeg -i rtsp://v6jDOvVY:[email protected]:554/live/ch0 -an -sn -dn -codec:v h264_omx -pix_fmt yuv420p -color_range mpeg -r 30 -f rawvideo -filter:v scale='min(1280,iw)':'min(720,ih)':force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,scale=trunc(iw/2)*2:trunc(ih/2)*2 -b:v 299k -payload_type 99 -ssrc 14492681 -f rtp -srtp_out_suite AES_CM_128_HMAC_SHA1_80 -srtp_out_params aPDwEZjJBV8PCKXvRZ6bLHvBQdYcVCHHYUcH9j7M srtp://192.168.1.140:55669?rtcpport=55669&pkt_size=1316 -loglevel level+verbose -progress pipe:1
[1/7/2022, 6:58:19 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] [info] ffmpeg version 4.3.1 Copyright (c) 2000-2020 the FFmpeg developers
[1/7/2022, 6:58:19 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] [info] built with Apple clang version 11.0.3 (clang-1103.0.32.62)
[1/7/2022, 6:58:19 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] [info] configuration: --enable-videotoolbox --pkgconfigdir=/Users/runner/work/ffmpeg-for-homebridge/ffmpeg-for-homebridge/build/workspace/lib/pkgconfig --prefix=/Users/runner/work/ffmpeg-for-homebridge/ffmpeg-for-homebridge/build/workspace --pkg-config-flags=--static --extra-cflags=-I/Users/runner/work/ffmpeg-for-homebridge/ffmpeg-for-homebridge/build/workspace/include --extra-ldflags=-L/Users/runner/work/ffmpeg-for-homebridge/ffmpeg-for-homebridge/build/workspace/lib --extra-libs='-lpthread -lm' --enable-static --disable-debug --disable-shared --disable-ffplay --disable-doc --enable-openssl --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-nonfree --enable-pthreads --enable-libvpx --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopus --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-libfdk-aac --enable-avfilter --enable-libopencore_amrwb --enable-libopencore_amrnb --enable-filters --enable-decoder=h264 --enable-network --enable-protocol=tcp --enable-libspeex --enable-demuxer=rtsp
[1/7/2022, 6:58:19 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] [info] libavutil 56. 51.100 / 56. 51.100
[1/7/2022, 6:58:19 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] [info] libavcodec 58. 91.100 / 58. 91.100
[1/7/2022, 6:58:19 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] [info] libavformat 58. 45.100 / 58. 45.100
[1/7/2022, 6:58:19 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] [info] libavdevice 58. 10.100 / 58. 10.100
[1/7/2022, 6:58:19 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] [info] libavfilter 7. 85.100 / 7. 85.100
[1/7/2022, 6:58:19 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] [info] libswscale 5. 7.100 / 5. 7.100
[1/7/2022, 6:58:19 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] [info] libswresample 3. 7.100 / 3. 7.100
[1/7/2022, 6:58:19 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] [info] libpostproc 55. 7.100 / 55. 7.100
[1/7/2022, 6:58:19 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] [tcp @ 0x7ffd25804140] [verbose] Starting connection attempt to 192.168.1.157 port 554
[1/7/2022, 6:58:19 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] [tcp @ 0x7ffd25804140] [verbose] Successfully connected to 192.168.1.157 port 554
[1/7/2022, 6:58:19 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] [rtsp @ 0x7ffd24808c00] [error] method DESCRIBE failed: 401 Unauthorized
[1/7/2022, 6:58:19 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] [error] rtsp://v6jDOvVY:[email protected]:554/live/ch0: Server returned 401 Unauthorized (authorization failed)
[1/7/2022, 6:58:19 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] FFmpeg exited with code: 1 and signal: null (Error)
[1/7/2022, 6:58:19 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] Stopped video stream.

[Sunoo]

That’s the logging I was looking for. Looks like it’s a credential issue still:

[1/7/2022, 6:58:19 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Outdoor camera front] [error] rtsp://v6jDOvVY:[email protected]:554/live/ch0: Server returned 401 Unauthorized (authorization failed)

Not sure what you did to get it going in VLC, but it looks like you need to do it here still.

[z0gster]

OK, that's helpful… at least I know what sort of things to tinker with

So basically I have to do something to that text string for for video stream URL? That seems to be the only place I can play with authentication

[Sunoo]

Correct. The URL will be formatted along the lines of rtsp://username:password@ipaddress/therest , unfortunately there are so many cameras on the market, I can’t help much more than that.

[z0gster]

Sorted. Just wanted to say thanks for the help David - I now have the camera working in Home as planned, and I'm sure I'd still be baffled without your input

It also turns out that in this case the codec has to be set to h264_videotoolbox

There seems to be some problem with the handling of upper and lower case letters in the password in the Septekon app, whereby it incorrectly showed a lower case letter which should be upper case in the URL for the video stream,

[Sunoo]

Fantastic, glad you were able to get it going.

[z0gster]

Apologies for revisiting this, but… having got things working, I realised that I needed to run Homebridge on a different computer (because laptop/desktop reasons), and while I've been able to add cameras to Homebridge and Home, I'm not seeing any video streams, just "No response" on a greay background. The video streams are viewable in VLC.

This is what I believe is relevant from the logs:

[1/23/2022, 7:33:30 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Cam C] Video stream requested: 1280 x 720, 30 fps, 299 kbps
[1/23/2022, 7:33:30 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Cam C] Starting video stream: 1280 x 720, 30 fps, 299 kbps
[1/23/2022, 7:33:30 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Cam C] Stream command: ffmpeg -i rtsp://FZDABKnP:[email protected]:554/live/ch0 -an -sn -dn -codec:v libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -color_range mpeg -r 30 -f rawvideo -preset ultrafast -tune zerolatency -filter:v scale='min(1280,iw)':'min(720,ih)':force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,scale=trunc(iw/2)*2:trunc(ih/2)*2 -b:v 299k -payload_type 99 -ssrc 2561149 -f rtp -srtp_out_suite AES_CM_128_HMAC_SHA1_80 -srtp_out_params uBmeBXCZdbwwrZ8aSreBbE0ZEHKHPas5AUUQxPsK srtp://192.168.1.140:50238?rtcpport=50238&pkt_size=1316 -loglevel level+verbose -progress pipe:1
[1/23/2022, 7:33:30 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Cam C] FFmpeg process creation failed: spawn ffmpeg ENOENT
[1/23/2022, 7:33:30 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Cam C] Stopped video stream.
[1/23/2022, 7:33:32 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [cam b] Snapshot requested: 1280 x 720
[1/23/2022, 7:33:32 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [cam b] Snapshot command: ffmpeg -i rtsp://vCOJuVEA:[email protected]:554/live/ch0 -frames:v 1 -f image2 - -hide_banner -loglevel error
[1/23/2022, 7:33:32 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [cam b] FFmpeg process creation failed: spawn ffmpeg ENOENT
[cam b 3AFD] Snapshot request handler provided empty image buffer!
[1/23/2022, 7:33:32 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Cam C] Snapshot requested: 1280 x 720
[1/23/2022, 7:33:32 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Cam C] Snapshot command: ffmpeg -i rtsp://FZDABKnP:[email protected]:554/live/ch0 -frames:v 1 -f image2 - -hide_banner -loglevel error
[1/23/2022, 7:33:32 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Cam C] FFmpeg process creation failed: spawn ffmpeg ENOENT
[Cam C 7D1E] Snapshot request handler provided empty image buffer!
[1/23/2022, 7:33:32 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [cam b] Fetching snapshot took 0.011 seconds.
[1/23/2022, 7:33:32 PM] [Camera FFmpeg] [Cam C] Fetching snapshot took 0.005 seconds.

[Sunoo]

FFmpeg isn’t installed on whatever system you’re using: FFmpeg process creation failed: spawn ffmpeg ENOENT

[z0gster]

Thanks again David, apologies for asking a dumb question.

Installed, working ;-)

I think ffmpeg must've already been installed on my laptop, as I don't recall installing it when I was setting Homebridge.

[Sunoo]

It should be installed when you install the plugin, but sometimes that fails. Usually because you’re running a OS or architecture that the included version wasn’t compiled for.