How to send SMS

Hello all,

I will use Hikvision cameras and I want them to send SMS on motion detection (using my own GSM modem).

Is there a way to do it ?

Theorically, here is my proposal :

1. On motion detection my camera sends something to my server (a small windows or linux server).
   What can be sent ? only emails ?
   
2. On reception, my server launch a small script to connect to my GSM modem and send a SMS

Does someone have any idea for the first point ?

Is it possible to log into the camera (SSH or Telnet) ?

If yes does someone know where to find the script on the camera OS that launches emails (I would modify it - create a new one - to send the informations to my server through ssh for example).

Thanks for your help.

It is quite easy to set up a Hikvision camera to send email. You could make a script that opn receiving an email on a given address will send it to you by SMS?

You might also want to Google "email to sms", you have many platforms that will do that for you, and might save you some headaches.

Most providers can do SMS via email. You can have the cameras send an email to say @vtext.com for SMS or @vzwpix.com for MMS on Verizon Wireless. You carrier should be able to give you that info.

@MindTwist : I know google can do email to SMS but is it really reliable ? Until now, the only google feature I tried is to connect to other mailbox I own to download all my emails on my google account and this simple feature doesn't work !!!

About the script on receiving an email how can I do ? I mean I don't have a local email server so I can't receive any email locally sent by the camera (so I would have to write a script that reaches my mailbox on the web checks the emails and then sends a SMS ? that would give me a headache for sure ! )

@buellwinkle : I know that, but it only works with US providers. In france we don't have this feature (you are so lucky !), our providers don't allow such cool things

Thank you guys for helping me ! Do you have other ideas ?

An other idea came to me : I can send my alert through FTP (hikvision cameras can do this easily) to my small server. Then I just need to write a script that checks my FTP directory and send an SMS when something is put in it. I don't have to rely on anybody and I don't have to modify my hikvision scripts. Sounds good, doesn't it ?

For my knowledge :

Is the operating system based on Linux or Unix ?

Can I write PERL or BASH scripts on it ?

@MindTwist : I know google can do email to SMS but is it really reliable ? Until now, the only google feature I tried is to connect to other mailbox I own to download all my emails on my google account and this simple feature doesn't work !!!

About the script on receiving an email how can I do ? I mean I don't have a local email server so I can't receive any email locally sent by the camera (so I would have to write a script that reaches my mailbox on the web checks the emails and then sends a SMS ? that would give me a headache for sure ! )

Well, you would need to write the same script to check a local inbox, or a remote inbox. Locally it would be way faster, but you would also need to set up your email server, of course.

I also do not know of any mobile company in Spain that gives a gateway for emailing directo to SMS, that would be cool. There are of course reliable options (I was not talking about Google, I did not even know they did this; I was talking about googling "email to sms"). I can tell you this one I know a customer of mine uses, but it is in spanish. They give you 10 free SMS, and then you can buy in packs (like 100SMS 7.5E, that is 0.075E each). I have never had the need of an email to SMS gateway since I receive emails on my mobile, but if I needed the option, I would not bother creating my own solution.

http://www.textlocal.es/

Yes, I saw the "email to sms" companies on the web.

For me, two disadvantages :

1. the cost : my GSM modem (40€) + unlimited SMS (2€/month) costs me 64€ the first year, then 24€/year. Using "email to sms" companies, if I send only 1 SMS per day it will cost me about 27€ which is already more than my own solution (maybe you think 1 SMS per day is huge, but in fact when I will send an alert, I will send it to several mobile phones from 2 to 10 at a time. So 1 SMS per day is not huge from my point of view)
   
2. the reliability : in France mobile networks are far more reliable than internet networks

Then feel free to code your own solution. If you will need to send many SMS, in the long run it will be cheaper for you.

In fact I don't know how many SMS will be sent, because if there is no alert at all, there will be 0 SMS, but I keep the control on what I pay each month (sort of money security).

I now have a technically question: Is there a way to control how often alerts are sent ?

For example, a thief walks in my camera's field. An alert is sent. A few seconds later he's not in the camera's field anymore but he forgot his tools to break my door (what a bad thief ) and goes back to his car so again my camera see him in the field...an other alert is sent ???

With all the tools he comes back...again in the camera field ! Alert ?

When all is finished he return to his car (again in the camera's field, alert ?)

So for a same action, 4 alerts are sent, aren't they ? (and it costs me up to 40 sms ! )

Or is there a way to control it (after an alert is sent, wait X minutes before sending a new one) ?

i would monitor the camera via ONVIF with a script to trigger actions when motion is detected. Then you can control what actions to take (e.g. SMS) and how often they are sent.

I use this to optionally show alerts on my TV, XBMC, mute the volume, beep speaker when motion is detected etc.

You can write bash scripts on the camera but it doesn't have perl, php etc on it. You could cross compile these and store them on your NAS or SD card though. If you have a server I would run the montior script on that instead.

Email alerts are handled by the camera control binary davinci (which does pretty much everything).

@CBX : The more I read you, the more I hate this "davinci binary" !

I don't know the ONVIF standard very well.

From my Linux server, how can I establish ONVIF connection with my hikvision ? is there an ONVIF rpm/deb for linux ?

How can I make a bash script interact with ONVIF cameras ?

If I have a hardware NVR and a linux server, can they both establish an ONVIF connection to a single camera ?

@CBX : The more I read you, the more I hate this "davinci binary" !

 

I don't know the ONVIF standard very well.

From my Linux server, how can I establish ONVIF connection with my hikvision ? is there an ONVIF rpm/deb for linux ?

How can I make a bash script interact with ONVIF cameras ?

 

If I have a hardware NVR and a linux server, can they both establish an ONVIF connection to a single camera ?

The ONVIF standards are all online.

You can create a script (bash, php, perl etc) to connect to your camera and subscribe to ONVIF alerts via http.

Yes, more than one device can connect to the ONVIF handler on your camera.

Ok, thanks for the informations !