When will the Reolink Argus 2 become smart?

jc

Hi

Do you have any plans to enable modern features in the Argus 2 camera?
When I backed the Reolink Argus Indiegogo project (a long time ago) you had great visions about the future and this amazing cloud service... well... Nothing yet (in Europe at least).
Also, integration with home automation is impossible (like SmartThings, Home Assistant, <insert any product name here>).
The usual argument is battery consumption which is not an argument at all... You could enable support for webhooks or similar that would not change battery usage noticeably. If battery consumption should be optimized, make the 6s wakeup cycle a parameter you can adjust so it only connects to WiFi every x seconds (just to give one example on how to improve battery life).
Also, why not enable S3, FTP or some other way of remote storage? I purchased this camera because I want to use it for surveillence if something happens while I am not home, but the value of that is zero if the thief runs with the camera. Also, it is super anoying that I need to manually turn on surveillence when I am not home. My home automation knows that, and all other devices I have will adjust to me not being home.
So: Do you have any plans to enhance the SW in a way so that Argus cameras can integrate with a modern home or should I put my cameras for sale and look elsewhere for a modern camera solution?

Best Regards
Jens Christensen

Cynthia

Hi, We are still trying to add more features/functions to the camera, and currently we are still working on that.
At present, the Cloud service is not available in EU countries, but if you update the Reolink App to the latest version, then you can find the Smart Home section to enable Google Home/Alexa function for the camera.

jc

Hi Cynthia

Thank you for your reply.
I still dont think I got any answers to my questions...
I am aware of the Goole Home/Alexa integration, but I cannot say things like "Hi Google, enable motion detection for all cameras".

Imagine if you made an integration using webhooks or something Hubitat, SmartThings Home Assistant or similar could use. Then everyone could easily make a rule that would turn on light inside the house if motion outside is detected. How cool would that be? Or turn on all outside light in case motion is detected to get better footage. There are so may possibilities with devices that integrates with smart home systems.
Storing pictures and video on any server would also be nice. Some S3 compatible interface, Google Drive, you name it. Something except your closed cloud solution.
So, could you enlighten me a little more? Is any of what I have listed on your roadmap?

Thanks.
Jens

Vincent Le Bourlot

It's a shame no one is answering... I'm also very disappointed by the battery power cameras and the lack of possible integration with home automation solutions... At least could you activate access to the API. Battery powered cameras can be plugged to a solar panel for instance, battery is then not a real issue, an not a good reason not to activate remote access through the web or api.

Vincent Le Bourlot

FYI: as a workaround, I'm using mailgun as my smtp server on my argus 2 cameras. This allows me to send a webhook to my Home Assistant instance alongside the email, with a link to the snapshot sent in the email, that I can retrieve using a small python script and display in my HA interface. This is not ideal, but at least, I get something...

jc

Hi Vincent
Thank you for your reply. I think we just have to accept that Reolink do not have an interest in creating products like that. They just want to create as many new products as possible and not focus on usability...more is more I guess...
I backed the original Angus project where they promised this cloud integration... Still I have no cloud integration in Denmark...and they are announcing next version of Angus as we speak. That is Angus camera version 4 without having implemented the features scoped for version 1.
This idea of using a SMTP that calls a webhook is good. Personally I use IFTTT with integration to a mail box used for receiving mails from the cameras. Then IFTTT fires an event. But it is slow and not super reliable. Also, I fail to copy the images automatically. Imagine how cool it would be if they opened up the cameras just a little and could provide a webhook and an interface to easily get picture or video stream...oh well...

Vincent Le Bourlot

The mailgun solution is very responsive and reliable! Major drawback though, after the 3 months trial period, it is pay as you use: $0.80/1,000 messages. They also have a free plan that can be used, but you have to use their own domain, which didn't suit my setup. So far, with 3 cameras firing, I have about 150 emails a day. If needed, I can provide you with my script to retrieve the image from the data in the webhook.

Note that I don't understand why using webhook cannot be considered when they do send emails...

Cynthia

Hi Vincent, thanks for sharing your tip about this issue.
We'll forward your request to our R&D department to see if we can make the cameras which supports this function in the near future.
Thanks for your understanding!

jc

Hi Vincent
That would be awesome, I would love a copy of that
Thanks alot!!!

Best Regards
Jens

jc

Cynthia - no need to ask them. The answer is "yes - we can make it, it is dirt simple". You need to ask the persons in charge of this product and have them create a story for the SW developers. But... I actually wrote a similar mail to you when you where promoting the project on Indiegogo (Reolink Argus) and got the same reply that you just gave Vincent - In one week that is exactly 3 years ago! The reply back then was similar...only the sky was the limit with regards to features. Then the camera was released and everything stopped.

Best Regards
Jens

Vincent Le Bourlot

There's also a resize thrown in there.
to use, save as retrieve.py (or whatever name you choose): python3 retrieve.py storage_key filename

it's quite crude but it does the job


# View a message using it’s Mailgun storage key, available in the webhook data
# and save it as filename

import io
import requests
import sys

if len(sys.argv) != 3: 
    print("Usage: retrieve.py key filename") 
    sys.exit(1) 
key = sys.argv[1]

print(key)
# keep it in secret!
api_key = "xxxx" # This is your api key to retrieve in your mailgun account
headers = {"Accept": ""}
domain = "your.mailgun.domain"

# let's make the url for retrieval
url_attach = "https://storage.eu.mailgun.net/v3/domains/%s/messages/%s/attachments/0"
url_attach = url_attach % (domain, key)

# this will help us to get the raw MIME
print(url_attach)
# let's make a request to the API
r = requests.get(url_attach, auth=("api", api_key), headers=headers)
if r.status_code == 200:
    # dump the body to a file
    print(r.status_code)
    from PIL import Image
    image = Image.open(io.BytesIO(r.content)) 
    image2 = image.resize((420,235))
    image2.save("key+".png", "png")
    image.save("filename+".png", "png")
else:
    print("Oops! Something went wrong: %s" % r.content)

jc

Hi Vincent

Awesome, thanks!
So you put this into a function, that is called by the webhook?

Best Regards
Jens

Vincent Le Bourlot

no, not exactly, the webhook is recieved by my Home Assistant instance (https://www.home-assistant.io/). On reception, it triggers an automation that executes the python script that retrieves the image.

I also have scripts on a mac that sort of "automates" the snapshot taking from the mac os client app. this is not exactly as a smart cam, but it allows to trigger snapshots from Home Assistant as well. This is very dirty though, using click simulation from bash...

@Cynthia, having a proper command line interface to the app would also be a nice improvment!

rauno huttunen

Hi Vincent!

I've just recently bought Reolink Go and was disappointed to find out I can't get time lapse images delivered to my raspberry in a sensible way. I guess your code does something like that? I failed to understand the home assistant part. If I was to setup similar thing I'd need to setup the home assistant? Seems so simple problem to solve, if I'd just want an image from the camera every 5/15/30 min for instance.

Cynthia: Count me in when you make the API available.

Best, Rauno

Vincent Le Bourlot

Hi Rauno,

Home Assistant is a home automation server, much like Jeedom, Domoticz or any other home automation software.

My script is reactive rather than proactive. It offers a workaround to retrieve the snapshot picture the camera sends by email when it detects a movement. It wouldn't help for a time lapse as it doesn't help with the triggering part.

The way it works is like this: the camera is configured to use mailgun as SMTP server, and mailgun is set up to send a webhook while transmitting the email. That webhook is received by "something" that can act on it. In my case, Home Assistant, but it could be anything, like IFTTT for instance. The URL of the snapshot is contained in the webhook data, and the script is just there to download that snapshot.

Hope this helps. So far I haven't found a way to trigger a snapshot other than through the app or the desktop client...

Bests
Vincent

rauno huttunen

Hi Vincent!
Thank you for the explanation. I guess we'll be waiting for Reolink to open up the camera's then...
Best, Rauno

Vincent Le Bourlot

IMHO you'll be waiting for a while...

rauno huttunen

Yeah, it looks that way, unfortunately. I managed to get the notification images stored to my Google Drive folder automatically with Zapier. Doesn't help with the timelapse and Zapier also costs something if I get more than 100 hits per month.

I also found this: https://pypi.org/project/p2pcam/
I guess that works with IP cams only. I'd love to know how the authentication with UID is done to implement it to that.

gerald

Hi,

I fully subscribe to other participants messages.

I have been waiting for IFTTT for very long time now for smart home integration and it never came despite being announced repeatedly for almost years now...

However I had the good surprise to see Alexa support added and was very happy about it up until I saw that it only does video streaming. I am sorry to say that, but that feature is useless to me and probably most other users while super useful actions are not there (in particular PIR activation/deactivation, notification to/from Alexa so that for example when alarm goes on my smart lamps outside the house will light up).
I guess that the bulk of the work is now done for compatibility with Alexa, so quickly adding just already those 2 above-mentioned features would change my life and finally make those cameras great again.

As for others, I was really happy about those products at the beginning and chose those cameras (Argus Pro in my case) because IFTTT was announced. Now, what was once a great camera is clearly lagging behind competitors because of the lack of integration with other systems, that is a huge deception.

I have planned for long to buy many cameras for my family but have waited that those announced features are available but after waiting so long I am about to go to other brands especially also cause the only answer to users asking for those features is that Reolink is working on it and it will come this year (postponed by 1 year every year...). So I do not trust anything Reolink says now and the lack of actual plans/dates is even more troubling.

Thank you.

Cynthia

Hi, sorry for inconvenience. We will forward your request to our R&D Department for consideration.
Currently, most of our cameras are compatible with Google Home and Alexa, we believe IFTTT will be our next plan soon.
It will take time to evaluate the request and to implement it. We appreciate your kind patience and understanding.