lovelace-hass-arlo

Version 0.2

Be warned, 0.2 is in alpha

It's working for me, but it's very alpha so be prepared to return to version 0.1 if things go wrong.

I've put it out there so people can try it if they want. The underlying architecture is very different and (I hope) a lot more efficient.

The library_sizes config is a good place to start.

The card now supports localisation with English, French, German and Spanish provided at the moment. If anybody fancies translating into other languages, look at en.js here, you just need to translate the strings in quotes.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Installation
• How it looks
• Configuration
• Further Documentation
• Old Configuration

Introduction

Lovelace card designed specifically for the AArlo Integration.

Features

It provides:

• Motion and sound notifications.
• Access to the camera library recordings.
• Live streaming.
• Support for doorbell and door opening notifications.
• Support for toggling lights during streaming.

Notes

This document assumes you are familiar with Home Assistant setup and configuration.

Thanks

Many thanks to:

• Button Card for a working lovelace card I could understand

• Translations: Spanish by alceasan; German by TheDK Italian by QuakeGio83; Swedish by pierrebengtsson

• JetBrains for the excellent PyCharm IDE and providing me with an open source license to speed up the project development.

  

Installation

Use one of the following 2 ways to install the card, I recommend HACS.

If, after installation, you can't see the card, you might need to clear the browser cache and reload the page. On Chrome you can force this with CTRL+SHIFT+I to open the developer tools and then CTRL+SHIFT+R to reload the page.

HACS

Aarlo is part of the default HACS store. If you're not interested in development branches this is the easiest way to install. See hass-aarlo-hacs for some hints on installing and setup using HACS and the home assistant interface.

From Script

You don't need to run this if you used HACS to install.

install /config
# check output looks good
install go /config

Add the following to the top of your UI configuration file.

resources:
  - type: module
    url: /local/aarlo-glance.js

The card type is custom:aarlo-glance.

How it looks

Reading from left to right you have the camera name, motion detection indicator, captured clip indicator, battery levels, signal level and current state. If you click the image the last captured clip will play, if you click the last captured icon you will be show the video library thumbnails - see below. Clicking the camera icon (not shown) will take a snapshot and replace the current thumbnail. (See supported features for list of camera statuses)

Clicking on the last captured clip will display thumbnail mode. Clicking on a thumbnail starts the appropiate video. You can currently only see the last 99 videos. If you move your mouse over a thumbnail it will show you time of capture and, if you have a Smart subscription, a reason for the capture. > takes you to the next page, < to the previous and X closes the window.

Configuration

From version 0.2 onwards the configuration settings have changed.

To continue using the previous configuration make sure to leave the show option in your settings.

Card Type

You have to tell lovelace the card type.

Simple or Multi Camera Configuration

Choose a single camera configuration or multiple camera configuration. One of entity or entities must be used, if you supply both entity and entities at the top level entities will take priority.

• Single Camera Configuration

• Multi Camera Configuration

A multi camera configuration is an array of single camera configurations. You can specify a shared configuration for most options so a multi camera configuration can be as simple as:

entities:
  - entity: camera.aarlo_front_door_camera
  - entity: camera.aarlo_front_camera
# shared options

Global Options

These are the options that determine the overall behaviour of the card.

• active; for multi camera cards, the image will change to the most recently updated camera
• muted; start in a muted state, mute state is remember across recordings and streams
• square; use a square image; useful for Arlo Video Doorbells; this affects the library view as well.
• blended; for multi camera cards; the library view will display all camera recordings spliced together
• small; use smaller fonts and icons
• tiny; use even smaller fonts and icons

Image Options

These are the options that determine the overall behaviour of the card when showing the image view.

• start-stream; the card will start streaming when opened
• start-recording; not implemented yet, the card will play recording when finished
• direct; when streaming the card will access Arlo directly rather than go through Home Assistant
• modal; open the recording or stream in a modal window
• smart; open the recording or stream in a modal window on a desktop machine, show inline otherwise.
• numeric; have the library display the number of entries. After nine it will display 9+.

These options determine what information and functions are available on the image view. image_top controls what appears at the top and image_bottom what appears at the bottom. If you leave one of the options blank nothing will appear at that place on the image.

• name; camera name
• date; date/time of last capture
• status; current camera status - for example, Idle, Recording
• motion; motion detection status, click for history
• sound; sound detection status, click for history
• battery; current battery level, click for history
• signal; current wifi strength, click for history
• library; library status - are there any recordings today, any recordings at all, click to open the library view
• stream; click to start a live stream
• onoff; click to turn the camera on and off
• snapshot; click to take a snapshot

If you have multiple cameras showing on one card the following options are available:

• previous; click to move to the previous camera
• next; click to move to the next camera

The following options can be used if you used any Device Options. You can always SHIFT+CLICK to see a device history.

• door; door status
• lock; lock status; click to lock and unlock
• bell; door bell status, if you supply a mute switch then click to mute/unmute
• door2; door2 status
• lock2; lock status; click to lock and unlock
• bell2; door bell status, if you supply a mute switch then click to mute/unmute
• light; light status, click to turn off and on

Notes

To get the aarlo Device sensors to work correctly you need to enable the corresponding binary_sensor or sensor. For example, to get motion notifications working you need the following binary sensor enabled:

binary_sensor:
  - platform: aarlo
    monitored_conditions:
    - motion

This option determines what happens when you click the image

• stream; start a live stream
• recording; play the last recording

This option lets you change the image update retry times. If you find the snapshot image doesn't update all the time try adding extra time outs.

Library Options

This option determines the overall behaviour of the card when showing the library view.

• start-recording; not implemented yet, automatically show the recording when finished.
• download; show an icon to download the video when the mouse hovers over the recording thumbnail
• modal; open the recording or stream in a modal window
• smart; open the recording or stream in a modal window on a desktop machine, show inline otherwise.
• duration; show how long the recording is

This option sets the available library sizes. It is a comma separated list of integer values; for example 3,6,1 and you can cycle through the sizes from the library view. When you open the library view it will return the previous size used.

This option sets the library sizes that will highlight the object that caused the recording. The default value is library_size. This is useful for hiding the highlight for larger library sizes.

These options determine the color of the highligh box.

• library_animal; color to use when highlighting an animal
• library_vehicle; color to use when highlighting a vehicle
• library_person; color to use when highlighting a person
• library_package; color to use when highlighting a package

This option specifies the maximum number of recordings to show in the library. It is per camera.

Device Options

These options are useful if the camera is pointing at a door.

As well as reporting camera status the card can report on and operate other devices. The card can tell you if doors are open, show and operate door locks, show and operate lights and show and operate door bells.

The door lock and light controls will appear on the live stream.

Arlo Device Options

If you don't change the device names aarlo gives you won't need to change these options, they are based on the entity you set. If you do change the name or want to use a device not provided by aarlo then use these.

binary_sensor:
  - platform: aarlo
    monitored_conditions:
    - motion

Advanced Options

You won't generally need to change these.

Customizing the Layout

You can use image_top and image_bottom to customize the icons and text in the image. The card will keep the order you entered the icons in and will allow you to groups items together. And unlink previous versions you can place the icons at the top of the screen.

For example, the following entry will place some camera icons at the bottom of the image. They are in the same group so the card will spread them across its entire width.

image_bottom: 'onoff,motion,library,stream,signal,sound,snapshot,battery'

In this example we create 2 groups using the | symbol. Now the first group is placed to the left of the card and the second group to the right.

image_bottom: 'onoff,motion,library,stream,signal,sound|snapshot,battery'

In this example we create an empty group at the beginning which forces all the icons to appear on the right of the card.

image_bottom: '|onoff,motion,library,stream,signal,sound,snapshot,battery'

And this one places them at the top:

image_top: 'onoff,motion,library,stream,signal,sound,snapshot,battery'

If you find the configuration is getting too wide you can also split the groups up this way:

image_bottom:
  - 'previous,sound,motion,battery,library,stream,snapshot'
  - 'door,lock,light,next'

If you find things too closely placed together a ,, will insert a gap.

Example Configurations

A Single Camera Card

This card is a single camera with custom library sizes that can monitor a door and control the door's lock.

type: 'custom:aarlo-glance'
entity: camera.aarlo_front_door_camera
name: front door
image_view: direct
image_top: 'name,status'
image_bottom: 'motion,library,stream,snapshot,battery'
image_click: 'recordings'
library_sizes: '3,4,2'
door: binary_sensor.front_door
door_lock: lock.front_door_lock

Multi Camera Card #1

This card is a multi camera card with custom library sizes where both cameras are monitoring the same door. The image will change to the most recently active camera and the library view is blended.

type: 'custom:aarlo-glance'
entities:
  - entity: camera.aarlo_front_door_camera
    name: front door
  - entity: camera.aarlo_front_camera
    name: front
global: active,blended
image_view: direct
image_top: 'name,status'
image_bottom: 'motion,library,stream,snapshot,battery'
image_click: 'recordings'
library_sizes: '3,4,2'
door: binary_sensor.front_door
door_lock: lock.front_door_lock

Multi Camera Card #2

This card is a multi camera card with custom library sizes where both cameras are monitoring their own door. The image will change to the most recently active camera and the library view is blended.

type: 'custom:aarlo-glance'
entities:
  - entity: camera.aarlo_front_door_camera
    name: front door
    door: binary_sensor.front_door
    door_lock: lock.front_door_lock
  - entity: camera.aarlo_back_door_camera
    name: back door
    door: binary_sensor.back_door
    door_lock: lock.back_door_lock
global: active,blended
image_view: direct
image_top: 'name,status'
image_bottom: 'motion,library,play,snapshot,battery'
image_click: 'recordings'
library_sizes: '3,4,2'

Further Documentation

See hass-aarlo for general Aarlo documentation.

Old Configuration

From version 0.2 onwards the configuration settings have changed.

This way of configuring the card is deprecated. It will continue to work for for now but it will be going away. Please use Configuration instead.

The card supports the following configuration items:

entity vs camera

You only need one of these. entity is the full camera entity id - for example, camera.aarlo_front_door while camera is just the name portion - for example, aarlo_front_door.

Naming

If you don't change entity names you don't need to worry about this.

The code tries to be smart about mapping cameras to device names and as long as you follow certain rules the card can automatically generate device names.

Given the entity id camera.aarlo_front_door, you get a prefix of "aarlo_" and a camera_name of "front_door".

Given the entity id camera.front_door, you get a prefix of "" and a camera_name of "front_door".

The device names are calculated as:

• motion device = binary_sensor.${prefix}motion_${camera_name}
• sound device = binary_sensor.${prefix}sound_${camera_name}
• battery device = sensor.${prefix}battery_level_${camera_name}
• signal_device = sensor.${prefix}signal_strength_${camera_name}
• capture_today_device = sensor.${prefix}captured_today_${camera_name}
• last_capture_device = sensor.${prefix}last_${camera_name}

If you rename any of the aarlo using a different scheme you will need to provide the full device name to get motion, sound, battery, signal, capture or last capture notifications to work. See the corresponding *_id configuration item.

show options

• motion: an icon that indicates when motion is detected
• sound: an icon that indicates when sound is detected
• battery_level: an icon that shows current battery level
• signal_strength: an icon that shows wifi signal strength
• snapshot: an icon that takes a snapshot when pressed
• captured_today: an icon with descriptive text showing how many recordings have been captured today.
• image_date: an icon with descriptive text showing when the last image was taken
• on_off: a switch allowing the camera to be turned off and on

image_click and library_click

These are comma separated lists that describe how to handle a click on the image or library window.

• stream: play the live stream, does nothing on library click
• recording: play the last recording, does nothing on library click which always plays the selected recording
• modal: force a modal window, might not work well on mobile devices
• smart: use a modal window on desktops and non-modal on mobile devices.

Notes

To get the first four show items to work correctly you need to enable the corresponding binary_sensor or sensor. For example, to get motion notifications working you need the following binary sensor enabled:

binary_sensor:
  - platform: aarlo
    monitored_conditions:
    - motion

Example

The following is my front door camera configuration.

type: 'custom:aarlo-glance'
entity: camera.aarlo_front_door_camera
name: Front Door
show:
  - motion
  - sound
  - snapshot
  - battery_level
  - signal_strength
  - captured_today
  - image_date
top_title: false
top_status: false
top_date: false
image_click: play
door: binary_switch.front_door
door_lock: lock.front_door_lock
door_bell: binary_switch.aarlo_ding_front_door_bell
door2: binary_switch.front_door
door2_lock: lock.front_door_lock
door2_bell: binary_switch.aarlo_ding_front_door_bell
light: light.aarlo_front_light

You don't need to reboot to see the GUI changes, a reload is sufficient. And if all goes will see a card that looks like this: