Temporarily suspend PTZ return to home possible?

[Jessie.slimer]

I've got a SD49225XA-HNR with multiple presets set up in Blue Iris. I also have the Resume cycle/schedule after inactivity (sec): setting in PTZ set to 120 seconds. It works great and reliably returns the cam to home/preset 1 after 120 seconds of inactivity.

However, we sometimes want to leave the camera fixed on something using a preset or manually panning to it for much longer than 2 minutes. Is there any way to disable the return to home command in Blue Iris without going into the program and manually changing it? I'm hoping for something like an http command that I can send to BI, or to the camera to ignore BI preset commands. This http command could be sent using my Hubitat hub or as a preset with an http request in Blue Iris.

Any ideas? I use the Blue Iris android app but nothing in there to shut it off. We are forced to make minor ptz adjustments every minute or so to keep the camera on the target.

 

[Alaska Country]

One can turn auto tracking on/off with the correct API. Used this to stop the SD5A425XA-HNR from tracking during certain hours as the kids would play in the street and the PTZ would work overtime tracking away. Used a Hubitat C7 for this function or one could also set it up with Window's Power Shell with perhaps a desk top shortcut to stop/start the service.

 

[Jessie.slimer]

That's good to know. I would be interested in this as well for times there are a lot of people in our driveway.

I'm worried there may not be a way to disable the return to home function, though. Since the function is built in to Blue Iris, I can't think of a way to quickly bypass it.

 

[Jessie.slimer]

Looking through the manual, I found this for Http commands:

/admin?camera=x&ptz=n PTZ command n on camera x (short name). n=0,1... for
left,right,up,down,center,zoom+,zoom-


I'm going to experiment with this command. If I can't find a way to directly disable return to home, perhaps I can have Hubitat send a single zoom out, then zoom in command every 115 seconds when needed. Not ideal, but better than manually doing it myself.

 

[Flintstone61]

Would changing the Profile from 1 like 2 or 3 work?
Like setting up the auto-track in Profile 2 or 3 to "no-Off" or switching off return to home?
Maybe you can manually select the profile rather than being on a schedule?

 

[Flintstone61]

 

[Tinman]

Not sure if this is what you need or want, but I use this for holding mine during storms or certain observations. The center button will hold the cam and put the gray square on the feed till you click it off. This works well for manual holding. Also you must use a long press to turn and off.

 

[Jessie.slimer]

Yes, this is exactly what I needed, thanks. I tried it on the cpu and it works as expected, but the Blue Iris android app does not do anything when holding down the square. No box in the feed and no holding of the ptz in place.

I wonder if this feature is not available in the app.

Can someone with the app and a ptz try it to see if it works for them?