lovelace-hass-arlo

Version 0.3

Be warned, 0.3 is in alpha

It's working for me, but it's very alpha so be prepared to return to version 0.2 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.

Breaking Changes

The "Old Configuration" format has been deprecated, this code throw an error if it detects the old style.

smart has been replaced with smart-modal

direct is ignored, the default is a smart stream mode where it chooses to stream directly from Arlo if it thinks it can. arlo-stream replaces direct and ha-stream is new.

Localisation

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

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

Card Type

Name	Value	Description
type	custom:aarlo-glance	Tell lovelace this is an aarlo card.

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

Name	Type	Required	Description
entity	entity_id	No	Full entity id of camera this card is controlling - for example, camera.aarlo_front_door_camera
name	String	No	Display name.

• Multi Camera Configuration

Name	Type	Required	Description
entities	array	No	An array of single camera configurations.

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

Name	Type	Required	Supported Values
global	list	No	active, muted, square, blended, small, tiny

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

Name	Type	Required	Supported Values
image_view	list	No	start-stream, start-recording, arlo-stream, ha-stream, modal, smart-modal, numeric

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
• arlo-stream; when streaming the card will access Arlo directly rather than go through Home Assistant
• ha-stream; when streaming the card will always go through Arlo directly
• modal; open the recording or stream in a modal window
• smart-modal; 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+.

You only need to specify arlo-stream or ha-stream if you run into streaming issues, the card will try to do the correct thing if neither of these is specified.

Name	Type	Required	Supported Values
image_top	list	No	name, date, status, motion, sound, battery, signal, library, stream, onoff, snapshot...
image_bottom	list	No	name, date, status, motion, sound, battery, signal, library, stream, onoff, snapshot...

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

Name	Type	Required	Supported Values
image_click	list	No	stream, recording

This option determines what happens when you click the image

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

Name	Type	Required	Default
snapshot_retry	seconds	No	2,5

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

Name	Type	Required	Supported Values
library_view	list	No	start-recording, download, modal, smart-modal, duration

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-modal; open the recording or stream in a modal window on a desktop machine, show inline otherwise.
• duration; show how long the recording is

Name	Type	Required	Default
library_size	Integer list	No	3

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.

Name	Type	Required	Default
library_regions	Integer list	No	3

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.

Name	Type	Required	Default
library_animal	css color	no	orangered
library_vehicle	css color	no	yellow
library_person	css color	no	lime
library_package	css color	no	cyan

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

Name	Type	Required	Default
max_recordings	Integer	No	100

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

Device Options

Name	Type	Description
door	entity_id	A door contact switch.
door_lock	entity_id	A door lock switch.
door_bell	entity_id	A door bell.
door_bell_mute	entity_id	A switch to mute door_bell.
door2	entity_id	A door contact switch.
door2_lock	entity_id	A door lock switch.
door2_bell	entity_id	A door bell.
door2_bell_mute	entity_id	A switch to mute door2_bell.
light	entity_id	A light switch.

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

Name	Type	Description
motion_id	String	Override the calculated motion device name
sound_id	String	Override the calculated sound device name
battery_id	String	Override the calculated battery device name
signal_id	String	Override the calculated signal device name
capture_id	String	Override the calculated captured today device name
last_id	String	Override the calculated last captured device name

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.

Name	Type	Default	Description
card_size	integer	3	Tell lovelace how much space to allocate for the card.
id	string		Override the HTML element id the card uses.
logging	boolean	false	Set to true to enable logging to the browser console.
modal_multiplier	float	0.8	Set this to change how much space the modal window will try to take.
swipe_threshold	integer	150	Set this to change how long a swipe has to be to register.

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.