Anyone who has security cameras around their home or business will know that night-vision has become a lot better over the years but it doesn’t compare to light. Some camera manufactures advertise ‘full-colour night-vision’ but what they really mean is there is a light that comes on when movement is detected.
Unfortunately UniFi don’t currently do this, but the good news is that you can get the same functionality using HomeAssistant.
UniFi does however have a Floodlight product (UP-FloodLight) and these can be paired to a camera so that any movement either the lights sensor or the camera will trigger the other.
Also there is a UniFi Protect integration for HomeAssistant (see my other article on the G4 Doorbell integration to get it setup).
Using HomeAssistant I’ve setup an automation so that when the Floodlight comes on, the camera’s night-vision is disabled. Then when the light turns off, the night-vision is re-enabled.
In HomeAssistant create a new blank automation and select your Floodlight device as below
My device is called ‘Back Garden Floodlight’ select yours as the device and then choose ‘turned on’ as the trigger.
Next under the ‘Then Do’ section disable night vision
Save the automation with a name that makes sense.
Repeat the above for when the light switches off. I set the infrared mode back to ‘Auto’ when the light turns off. This way during the night when there is no movement I can see. Please note that I’ve found spiders or insects that get attracted to the infrared can set the floodlight on (since in UniFi the camera and floodlight are paired – bare this in mind in case this could cause the light to come on regularly.
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