Automatic Camera Profile Switch for Day and Night Profiles

[TurboStreetCar]

Hello, i was looking to improve my cameras quality by utilizing day and night profiles. The normal auto profile works ok, but being able to specify faster shutter speeds would make images sharper, however the issue becomes what works for shutter speed and gain during the day, will absolutely not work at night.

Cameras have day and night profiles, but need to either be programed on a time based schedule, or have an external method of switching them.

The time based schedule would work, if the seasons never changed and sunrise/sunset was always at a fixed time.

My cameras have the ability to have the profile switched using a http request to the camera in the format of:

http://username:password@IP-ADDRESS/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=setConfig&VideoInMode[0].Config[0]=profileNumber

Using this http request, with the correct username, password, and profile number (0=Day, 1=Night ,2=Normal) you can switch the cameras profile to the desired profile. It also returns a "OK" when the profile is successfully changed.

I would utilize a python script to do this externally but i have concerns about using an external method failing, and rendering my cameras useless until i realize something is wrong.

Open-Meteo has a simple to use python api that will return a 0/1 isDay request based upon lat/lon coordinates and is free to use.

I believe it would be easy to implement this feature. Would it be possible to implement a zipcode or lat/lon based day/night logic that can send requests to the cameras to switch their profiles automatically?

[hawkeye217]

This would be difficult to support for all Frigate users and cameras. In general, using an automation platform like Home Assistant is the recommended solution.

I've had a day/night automation for my cameras in Home Assistant for years now. I also use Frigate's Home Assistant integration to change my motion detection values with the same automation.

[TurboStreetCar]

I see it being implemented as an option in the config similar to PTZ controls.

Something in the config to enable the day/night monitoring, a place for latitude and longitude coordinates, and then the request to send for day and the request to send for night.

For example:

profileControl: true
lat: "40.773155"
lon: "-73.972559"
offset: "30"
dayRequest: "http://username:password@IP-ADDRESS................"
nightRequest: "http://username:password@IP-ADDRESS................"

The logic would use the lat and lon to determine sunrise/sunset, Offset to specify an optional time offset in minutes, then the http text string to send to switch profiles. So if a particular camera offers the feature with a different request, you would just enter the request for your particular camera.

Just an idea.

[NickM-27]

The issue is that onvif is a standard. To support what you're suggesting we'd have to support every proprietary camera API and deal with all the bugs and issues that come with that

Or if it was open ended users would have to figure it out on their own and we'd be providing support for all users who want to do it but don't know how.

[TurboStreetCar]

I was thinkin something more open ended, just the capability of doing it for those who seek the answers.

But I understand the flood of support questions might be a thing as a result.