fEVR (pronounced fee-ver) An Event Video Recorder using Frigate

[BeardedTek]

fEVR - frigate Event Video Recorder

fEVR works along side of frigate and home assistant to collect video and snapshots of objects detected using your existing camera systems.

Notable Mentions

Value 4 Value

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Screenshot

Features

• Stores video independently of frigate
• Home Assistant generates notifications
• fEVR stores, sorts, and makes browsing frigate events a snap.

Support

• The Official fEVR.video website
• Our Discussion on Github
• File an Issue on Github

Cloud Instances of fEVR

• I will be offering cloud instances of fEVR soon.
• Click here for more details.

Known Bugs

• See Issues for known bugs.

Requirements:

• frigate

Suggested:

• home assistant
• TPU Accelerator

Install

The easiest and recommended method of install is docker-compose.

• Included is a container running tailscale to securely access fEVR. This is not 100% necessary, but far more secure.

• Create .env file

cp template.env .env
nano .env

• Edit .env file and

# Bridge Network Details
NETWORK_NAME=beardnet
NETWORK_SUBNET=192.168.200.0/24
NETWORK_GATEWAY=192.168.200.1

# Tailscale Container Variables
TAILSCALE_IP=192.168.200.3
TAILSCALE_IMAGE=ghcr.io/beardedtek-com/tailscale:main
TAILSCALE_CONTAINER_NAME=tailscale-devel
TAILSCALE_CONTEXT=./docker/tailscale/
TAILSCALE_DATA=./vol/tailscale/data
TAILSCALE_VAR_LIB=./vol/tailscale/var_lib
TAILSCALE_COMMAND=/opt/tailscale/tailscale

# fEVR Container Variables
FEVR_IP=192.168.200.2
FEVR_IMAGE=ghcr.io/beardedtek-com/fevr:main
FEVR_CONTAINER_NAME=fevr-devel
FEVR_CONTEXT=./docker/fEVR/
FEVR_DEBUG=true
FEVR_TITLE=Home
FRIGATE_URL=http://192.168.2.240:5000

# OPTIONAL NAS
NAS_IP=192.168.18.10
NAS_EVENTS=/export/fevr
NAS_DATA=/export/fevr_data

# MQTT
MQTT_BROKER_URL=192.168.18.10
MQTT_BROKER_PORT=1883
MQTT_USER=
MQTT_PASS=

# comma seperated list of topics
# Default: 'frigate/available,frigate/events,frigate/stats'
# Debugging: 'frigate/+
# limited to 5 topics, all extras will be dropped.
MQTT_TOPICS='frigate/available,frigate/events,frigate/stats'

• Bring the stack up:

sudo docker-compose up -d

• After stack is up, issue the following command to bring up tailscale:

sudo docker-compose exec tailscale tailscale up --advertise-routes=192.168.200.0/24 --accept-routes

• Follow the Auth URL and either add to your existing account or create a new one. Its free and easy to use.

• Configure Home Assistant Automation provide notifications:

Home Assistant Automation

Home Assistant Automation adds a "break" using an input boolean helper.

alias: fEVR Backyard Person Alert
description: fEVR Object Detection Alerts
trigger:
  - platform: mqtt
    topic: frigate/events
condition:
  - condition: template
    value_template: '{{ trigger.payload_json["type"] == "end" }}'
  - condition: template
    value_template: |-
      {{
      trigger.payload_json["after"]["label"] == "person"
      }}
  - condition: template
    value_template: |-
      {{
      trigger.payload_json["after"]["top_score"] > 0.76
      }}
  - condition: template
    value_template: |-
      {{
      trigger.payload_json["after"]["camera"] == "backyard"
      }}
action:
  - choose:
      - conditions:
          - condition: state
            state: 'off'
            entity_id: input_boolean.fevrbackyardanimal
        sequence:
          - service: notify.mobile_app_sg20plus
            data:
              message: '{{ trigger.payload_json["after"]["label"] | title }} Detected'
              data:
                notification_icon: mdi:cctv
                ttl: 0
                priority: high
                sticky: true
                actions:
                  - action: URI
                    title: fEVR
                    uri: https://fevr.local:5080/?action=event&id={{trigger.payload_json['after']['id']}}
                image: >-
                  /api/frigate/notifications/{{trigger.payload_json['after']['id']}}/snapshot.jpg?bbox=1
                tag: '{{trigger.payload_json["after"]["id"]}}'
                alert_once: true
          - service: input_boolean.turn_on
            data: {}
            target:
              entity_id: input_boolean.fevrbackyardanimal
          - delay:
              hours: 0
              minutes: 0
              seconds: 30
              milliseconds: 0
          - service: input_boolean.turn_off
            data: {}
            target:
              entity_id: input_boolean.fevrbackyardperson
    default: []
mode: single

Help!

If you have any issues, please reach out and file an issue or start a discussion.

I hope you find this useful!

[DrSpaldo]

Can you elaborate what benefit this is vs just using Frigate itself? Is this something that is done with @blakeblackshear's blessing?

[BeardedTek]

The aim is to make frigate easier for non technical types. I'm sure you'd agree that setting it up can be a bit cumbersome. I want to make this accessible for mom or grandpa to use.

For now it's a nice interface that automates notifications, viewing, and sorting through things.

On my list of Todos are:

• Auto configuration of notifications via Home Assistant also using it's API.
• A wizard to guide setup of frigate's config file
• A login system so web access can be enabled with more peace of mind.
• Provide a way to easily and securely share events with family or friends.

This builds on top of Blake's amazing work using frigate's API. It being licensed under the MIT license allows for derivative work. This code, however, does nothing to modify frigate, just sits next to and communicates with it.

[kbrouder]

Can this take in events from multiple instances of Frigate? With the scarcity of TPU and chips in general I have been toying with how to setup multiple "worker" nodes but still have a unified interface.

I would have to agree with the other comment that it would seem to make more sense to add features to Frigate rather than a separate app, but maybe I am missing the idea.

[BeardedTek]

That is an absolutely wonderful idea and fairly easy to implement. I will add that to my development path for the next release! If you file an issue on the repo I will notify you as soon as it's available in a dev release.

I believe in the unix/linux pipe philosophy in which multiple tools can build upon each other. Blake has delivered an awesome API that is very powerful and easy to build upon.

I've also begun working on an Android app that works as a viewer for fEVR that will also power notifications as well taking Home Assistant out of the loop. I'm not an Android dev whatsoever so that will take some time.

[BeardedTek]

What I would have hoped was that @BeardedTek made these changes as proposed commits to Frigate to expand the good work that @blakeblackshear has already done.

While I appreciate your position, there are several reasons why I did not submit it as changes under @blakeblackshear amazing work.

• I do not believe in the MIT License.
• I feel that the GPL v3 is much more sustainable for the continuation of someone's work and proliferation of open source / free software.
• It is not hidden anywhere that it is built upon frigate.
• Once Frigate+ is fully implemented I plan on purchasing a subscription for EACH cloud instance of fEVR.
  Most open source software is built upon the backs of giants, and IMHO, @blakeblackshear is one of those giants. Also, I have made NO modification to his code and don't plan on it. This is merely an extension of his API.

I would gladly love to hear @blakeblackshear 's opinion on the topic.

No matter what, the project needs to be local and free for those users who want the data to stay their own…

I completely agree that self-hosting is important. That is why I have shown everyone not only in this post but also on the fEVR GitHub Repository how to self host fEVR. This is the number 1 use case for fEVR.

Unfortunately I fear the motivation to be two fold, both “making it easier” but also making money by implementing another subscription service on the back of @blakeblackshear’s work…
That is true. However, look at Red Hat, Suse, Android, etc. They all built upon the work of giants.

Even every distribution that relies on the Linux Kernel, they all stand on the backs of someone else with their own independent code. This effect of the open source community allows more people to find more software they never knew existed before.

In this case, it's frigate, an AMAZING piece of software. The more people that potentially use fEVR will need to install Frigate as well, and will be tempted into purchasing Frigate+, which I'm VERY excited about myself.

This IS the open source philosophy at work, and a VERY good argument for the Value 4 Value System which I fully support.

[DrSpaldo]

Thanks for the reply, makes sense. I’ll check out your project.

[BeardedTek]

Thank you for the frankness and questioning.
Honestly, any input is valuable. The Value 4 Value system is not just about "treasure", its about input, feedback, providing data, bug reports, usage statistics.

I need to get off my butt and get the docs up. Coding is the fun part, now that other people are looking at it, I need to document it to make it easier to use.

[DrSpaldo]

Yep, if you want to make it popular, in particular for those that aren’t as tech minded as some of us, then you really need the docs when you release it ;)

[blakeblackshear]

Just so everyone is aware of my official position here, I don't have any issues with this. I see this as an expected outcome and the very nature of open source. You can't make a project open source and also prevent others from using it for other purposes. I also believe the popularity of this project is in large part due to it being available as an open source project. Others making contributions and building services on top of it only stand to increase the overall popularity of the project as a whole.

@BeardedTek I would be interested to hear why you think GPL v3 is a better license choice for open source work. It seems to me like most major open source projects are moving to MIT or Apache 2.0.

[BeardedTek]

@BeardedTek I would be interested to hear why you think GPL v3 is a better license choice for open source work. It seems to me like most major open source projects are moving to MIT or Apache 2.0.

@blakeblackshear I've been doing some thinking the past couple days. I'm still going to keep fEVR as GPLv3, but I would like to contribute parts of it back to frigate under the MIT License, specifically a guided command line tool to generate config.yml.

This was probably the hardest part for me to wrap my mind around when I first discovered this project.

[blakeblackshear]

@BeardedTek did you consider the AGPLv3? It seems more appropriate for your project. See here: https://plausible.io/blog/open-source-licenses

I found a few other "open source products" that have taken the same approach. Another popular one is Metabase.

I originally released Frigate under AGPL, but then decided to switch to MIT. All of the reasons outlined in that blog post resonate with me and my target end user isn't a large company either. Maybe I should switch it back.

[BeardedTek]

@blakeblackshear

@BeardedTek did you consider the AGPLv3? It seems more appropriate for your project. See here: https://plausible.io/blog/open-source-licenses

I have, and have teetered back and forth about converting it to AGPLv3. I may actually go that direction after looking into it more. My grey beard just automatically chose GPLv3 because, well, that's the license I grew accustomed to growing up.

Maybe I should switch it back.

That may actually be a good idea since you're making Frigate+ a service.

But it becomes a bit more complicated once you have contributions to your project, doesn't it? You would have to have either:

• Before you accept contributions, have a disclosure to everyone who contributes agreeing that as the original author you have the right to change the licensing to any contributions as you see fit in the best interests of the project
• Have everyone who ever contributed document that they agree to have their code changed to this new license.

That's what makes it so difficult to pick a license that is as open as MIT.

All of this stuff seems easy when you're having fun writing a neat project, but when things start involving money or you want to make a business out of it, it makes it much more complicated, doesn't it?

By the way, I'm really looking forward to Frigate+ being fully released. I may even write some code into fEVR that automatically (upon user acceptance) uploads images to frigate+ to help improve the models. What you're doing with that will advance self-hosted object detection to a whole new level!

May I suggest limiting the Plus subscription level to personal/familial use and monetizing commercial use as a per instance model?
What would stop a commercial entity from using a Plus subscription at $5/mo from using it to create models for many different clients?

[Curid]

Switching Frigate to AGPLv3 seems a bit overkill. It's not a cloud service and Frigate+ isn't open-source.

[BeardedTek]

Switching Frigate to AGPLv3 seems a bit overkill. It's not a cloud service and Frigate+ isn't open-source.

This is true, but it could be used as a cloud service with modification and none of the benefits of rewritten code would have to be shared.

@blakeblackshear I'm currently rebasing fEVR on flask and I think I will be going with AGPLv3.