Introduction
The 3dEYE Gateway is plug-and-play hardware device designed to seamlessly bridge large quantities of cameras residing on your local network with the cloud.
It effortlessly auto-discovers and connects any ONVIF-compliant camera or NVR from your local network to the cloud. The Gateway provides hassle-free support for remote access, sensor integration, and home automation by utilizing the device's RTSP stream. The 3dEYE Gateway boasts a compact design and weighs approximately 100 grams - offering convenience for space-restricted locations. Additionally, it has a power consumption of around 1-1.5W while still being able to provide powerful capabilities.
Getting Started With the 3dEYE Gateway
The gateway seamlessly connects to the local network and automatically identifies all ONVIF cameras within the network range to which it has been configured. Using the user-friendly web interface of the gateway, you can effortlessly add up to 50 devices to a single gateway - each with an assigned and distinct P&P registration code.
For detailed instructions on initiating and managing the gateway, please refer to this page↗️.
Several Use Cases of the 3dEYE Gateway
1.) Adding Cameras
To add a camera to the gateway, click on the Discovery tab to open the Discovery menu, then click on the 'Plus' button for every camera you want to integrate.
Note: In order for the Discovery to work on the gateway properly, the cameras must have ONVIF enabled and the firewall should allow multicast traffic for the gateway.
For more information on how to start up the Gateway and add cameras to it, please visit this page↗️.
2.) Connecting NVRs/DVRs
Connecting an NVR to the 3dEYE gateway is a convenient way to add the NVR and its attached cameras to the 3dEYE platform. The user needs to ensure that ONVIF is enabled in the NVR and, if necessary, that an ONVIF user is also created.
To add an NVR and its connected cameras via the gateway, please reference the following steps:
- Register the NVR in the gateway ensuring proper HTTP and RTSP ports of the device.
- If your NVR has multiple cameras, add the NVR multiple times in the Gateway using the Add Camera button.
- Use the same local address and ports for each copy of the NVR added to the Gateway. This will generate unique registration codes for the cameras
- Add the camera with the unique registration code to the Admin Portal via the P&P method or ONVIF Reg code method.
- From camera settings, select the appropriate camera profile corresponding to the camera.
For more information on how to add an NVR/DVR and the cameras connected to it using the gateway, please visit this page↗️.
For information on typical issues faced when adding an NVR/DVR, please visit this page↗️
⚠️Note: When integrating cameras into the NVR, it is strongly recommended to use the RTSP (Generic) method, or at minimum, the ONVIF protocol
3.) Connecting Non-ONVIF Devices
To add non-ONVIF compliant devices to the gateway manually, press the Add Camera button. In the resulting pop-up window, enter the local IP address and ports of your camera, then click 'Add Camera' at the bottom of the pop-up.
Once added, you can then copy the camera registration code and add it using the P&P method↗️ in the Admin Portal:
- Navigate to the Cameras menu, then click the green 'Add' button and choose P&P Camera.
- Enter the Registration code as copied above.
- Designate a name for the camera (which can be changed later)
- Input the ONVIF user credentials.
- Select your preferred plan for the device.
- Click 'Create' to complete the camera addition process.
NOTE: It is important to note that adding a non-ONVIF compliant camera from the gateway using the P&P method will not convert the camera to ONVIF compliance. Functionality such as analytics will not work, because the camera is not sending any event data due to it not being ONVIF compliant.
If you need to add the camera using the ONVIF method, once you select the method, you'll have the option to switch to using the 'Registration Code' instead of the URL. One advantage of using the ONVIF method to add a camera with a registration code is the ability to add the same camera to the platform multiple times simply by reusing the same registration code.
4.) Adding a Local Server and Controlling it Using Webhooks
You can add virtually any device on your local network to the gateway. Doing so will allow you to use the gateway as a tunnel to reach the local device in question from anywhere. This allows you to configure all sorts of exciting automation based on events generated by cameras, or by operators using our alarm station.
An example of such an automation could potentially be a local license plate logging server that registers all detected license plates and structures the data it gathers. One way to achieve this would be to connect a Raspberry pi (or similar) board that has been configured with a web server and a Python script that listens to a webhook as an input, and then interprets the data from the webhook. To configure such a webhook in our platform, you would need to know what HTTP command triggers your Python code, and then use this command as a path when creating the webhook. You will need to select "Push gateway" as a destination for the webhook, and use the registration code that the device configured as the web server received from the gateway.5.) Setting up the Gateway to use its GPIO Pins Upon Receiving Webhook Data
A webhook is a system that allows an application/device to receive notification messages from another application, without requiring any manual interaction. For more information on webhooks, please visit this page↗️.
Users of the 3dEYE gateway can utilize its included GPIO pins to automate certain tasks based on received webhook event data. For example, if a camera sends a motion event at night, then the gateway can be configured in such a way that it can turn on a light or sound an alarm from a speaker connected to it using the GPIO pins. Alternatively, the gateway can also be used for event data coming from a camera using 3dEYEs API, and then save that data into a file so the events can be analyzed later on.
For more information on how to use the gateway's GPIO pins, please visit this page↗️.
Learn how to control a high-powered device using the gateway's GPIO pins by visiting this page↗️.
Using the Gateway in Networks With Restrictive Firewalls:
The 3dEYE gateway can be used in networks with restrictive firewalls without any issues. It will be connected to the internal network, and does not communicate with any other site other than 3dEYE. The gateway creates an encrypted tunnel to the 3dEYE website which means any data being sent is also encrypted. As long as the gateway is allowed to send traffic through port 443, and the 3dEYE domain is in the whitelist on the firewall, the gateway will be able to establish a secure tunnel and securely communicate between the local network and our cloud servers.