ha-frigate

Home Assistant and Frigate NVR configuration for intelligent doorbell person detection with debounced notifications.

Overview

This repository contains configuration files for a doorbell camera setup using Frigate NVR for object detection and Home Assistant for smart notifications. The system detects people approaching the door and sends a single notification per approach, with thumbnails showing the exact moment of detection.

Hardware

• Camera: Amcrest AD110 Video Doorbell
• Detection: CPU-based (3 threads)
• Server: Unraid with Docker
• MQTT: Home Assistant MQTT broker

Features

• 🎯 Person detection optimized for doorbell camera positioning
• 📸 Event snapshots with accurate thumbnails in notifications
• 🔕 Smart notification debouncing (max 1 per minute)
• 💾 5-day motion-based recording retention
• 🚀 Low CPU usage with optimized detection parameters

Files

• config.yml - Frigate NVR configuration
• doorbell_notification.yaml - Home Assistant automation

Frigate Configuration Highlights

detectors:
  cpu:
    type: cpu
    num_threads: 3

objects:
  filters:
    person:
      min_area: 2000
      min_score: 0.6
      threshold: 0.5  # 0.5s detection time before triggering

Detection Parameters:

• min_area: 2000 - Minimum pixel area for person detection
• min_score: 0.6 - Confidence threshold (60%)
• threshold: 0.5 - Person must be detected for 0.5 seconds

Home Assistant Automation

The automation triggers on new person detection events and includes:

• mode: single - Prevents concurrent runs
• 60-second cooldown between notifications
• Dynamic event snapshot URLs
• Deep link to camera dashboard

Setup

Frigate

1. Copy config.yml to your Frigate config directory (typically /config)
2. Update the following values:
   • MQTT credentials (host, user, password)
   • Camera RTSP URLs and credentials
   • Camera IP address in the snapshot URL

Home Assistant

1. Import doorbell_notification.yaml as a new automation
2. Update notify.household_phones to your notification service
3. Adjust the camera dashboard URL if needed

Tuning

Too many notifications?

• Increase cooldown delay in Home Assistant automation (currently 60s)
• Increase threshold in Frigate config (higher = longer detection time required)

Missing detections?

• Lower min_score (currently 0.6)
• Lower threshold (currently 0.5)
• Lower min_area (currently 2000)

Detection too slow?

• Lower threshold to 0.3-0.4 seconds
• Ensure cooldown in HA automation prevents spam

Network Configuration

• Frigate Web UI: http://192.168.0.5:5341
• Camera IP: 192.168.0.118
• MQTT Broker: 192.168.0.205:1883

License

MIT

Credits

Optimized through iterative testing for the Amcrest AD110 doorbell form factor and typical approach patterns.