Q-See Camera System

Hello,

I have a Q-See Knox 4K NVR. The model number of the NVR is K8CN1.1. It came with 4 Cavalier 5MP bullet cameras, which are PoE. They work great. My main issue is getting motion detection and notifications to happen as desired.

Their software is, to put it lightly, terrible. They ship an iOS app, a macOS app, and a Windows app (all 3 of these apps are called "Presidio"). These have extremely limited functionality. There is much more functionality present in the browser configuration page. Unfortunately, this is only about 50% workable on a Mac browser, because seeing the video feed and modifying the video motion detection range, etc., requires a browser plug-in that is only compatible with Internet Explorer.

I thought I might turn back to Indigo as an alternative to this terrible software. I'm trying to use the "Security Camera" plug-in with Indigo. I understand that this software depends entirely in my ability to view the cameras with a network address, though, and unfortunately the only way to do that which I have found is via Internet Explorer, and a plug-in that only works there. I cannot seem to find a way to get the raw refreshing image or video feed, by itself, to appear.

I've lost track of all the things I have tried. This post is mostly to determine whether anyone has used these cameras with this NVR successfully with Indigo. I am not asking for help with the Q-See or Presidio software, as I acknowledge they are absolutely horrible, but that is outside the scope of this thread.

Thank you!

I have not used that specific one yet.... but I think my cameras have a similar parent as yours....

to get a refreshing image for a control page, try:

Code: Select all

http://username:password@ipcameraaddress:port/cgi-bin/snapshot.cgi?

For getting an image from a camera to put into a text message or pushover notification... try this in python: (This will require setting up a couple folders on your indigo desktop and having a Pushover API & User number.

Code: Select all

# Step 1 - Camera Snapshot to File

import requests
from requests.auth import HTTPDigestAuth
r = requests.get('http://IPCameraAddress:port/cgi-bin/snapshot.cgi?', auth=HTTPDigestAuth('username', 'password'))
r.raise_for_status()

with open('/Users/YourUserName/Desktop/IPCamRotate/R.jpg', 'wb') as image_file:
    image_file.write(r.content)


# Step 2 - Create Unique filename

import datetime

Time = "{date:%Y%m%d_%H-%M-%S}".format(date=datetime.datetime.now())
Title = "CameraName.jpg"

FileName = u"{}_{}".format(Time, Title)


# Step 3 - Copy Rotation Image to Log Image

from shutil import copyfile

copyfile('/Users/YourUserName/Desktop/IPCamRotate/R.jpg','/Users/YourUserName/Desktop/IPCamLog/'+ FileName)

# Step 4 - Send Image via pushover

theFile = "/Users/YourUserName/Desktop/IPCamLog/" + FileName

import requests
r = requests.post("https://api.pushover.net/1/messages.json", data = {
  "token": "YourPushoverTocen",
  "user": "YourPushoverUserNumber",
  "message": FileName
},
files = {
  "attachment": ("image.jpg", open(theFile, "rb"), "image/jpg")
})
print(r.text)


To get indigo to recognize motion events, I'm using the SMTPd plugin to basically run a fake SMTP server in indigo. Then, when there is motion, my cameras email the fake indigo SMTP plugin for a near instant motion update...: https://forums.indigodomo.com/viewtopic.php?f=216&t=16348 (Once on GetHub, make sure you get the most current version of the plugin. I'm using version 2.03 and it's working flawlessly.

Good luck.