Project 1: Get the Ring Camera Recording Without a Subscription

I could have bought a subscription, sure. But that's not how we do things here. After much research, Ring-MQTT and Eclipse Mosquitto, an MQTT Broker, seemed the best solution. There are many tutorials on getting that setup with HomeAssistant (HA) in OS or Supervised mode, but I wanted to use Docker.

It took some fiddling, but I got it all set up. Below is a short and sweet summary of my process. Just a note: I'm using this only on my local network and not opening it to the internet. The settings I'm using are not correct for WAN access.

Steps to Integrate Ring with HomeAssistant with Recording Capabilities

1. Set Up Eclipse Mosquitto (MQTT Broker)

Run the latest Eclipse Mosquitto container, eclipse-mosquitto:latest, with the following binds:

/mosquitto/config
/mosquitto/data
/mosquitto/log

Make sure a mosquitto.conf file exists in the config directory and includes:

listener 1883
allow_anonymous true

This allows you to connect to the MQTT Broker without setting up a username and password on port 1883.

2. Set Up tsightler/ring-mqtt

Run the latest tsightler/ring-mqtt container with the following bind:

/data

In data, create a config.json file and ensure the MQTT URL points to your broker:

{
    "mqtt_url": "mqtt://[MQTT_BROKER_IP_HERE]:1883",
    "mqtt_options": "",
    "livestream_user": "",
    "livestream_pass": "",
    "disarm_code": "",
    "enable_cameras": true,
    "enable_modes": false,
    "enable_panic": false,
    "hass_topic": "homeassistant/status",
    "ring_topic": "ring",
    "location_ids": []
}

On the first run, log in with your Ring account credentials. This setup uses the Ring API to pull actions/notifications/etc. and push them to the MQTT Broker. We'll then use an integration in HA to capture that data via a generic camera for recording and other actions.

3. Set Up HomeAssistant

Run linuxserver/homeassistant:latest with the following bind:

/media

This ensures recordings can be saved. Then:

1. Complete the default setup process.
2. Add the MQTT Broker Integration and point it to your MQTT Broker IP address.
3. Wait a few minutes for HomeAssistant to detect your Ring devices.

4. Configure Ring Camera in HomeAssistant

Find your camera's RTSP address:

1. Go to Settings → Devices and Services → Integrations → MQTT.
2. Click the device → Scroll down to the Diagnostic Card.
3. Click Info → Expand Attributes → Copy the RTSP address.

Add a Generic Camera Integration and set the stream source to the RTSP address.

5. Automate Recording

Set up automation to record using the generic camera (not the MQTT device) and save it to /media/recording{{now()}}.mp4 so each event creates a new recording.

• Trigger: Motion detected or ding event from the MQTT device.
• Action: Start recording on the generic camera device.

Project 2: Self-Hosted Remote Desktop Support

I've been using TeamViewer, but it keeps locking me out, assuming I'm using it professionally. Sessions kept self-terminating after 10 seconds, so I decided to manage my own remote desktop solution.

I tried MeshCentral but ran into issues. It requires an FQDN and proper SSL, and without that, it wouldn’t work the way I wanted. Instead, I opted for Remotely, which was super easy to set up via Docker.

Setting Up Remotely

1. Run the latest Remotely container:

   docker run -d --name=remotely -p 5000:5000 immybot/remotely:latest
   

2. Set up the default account.
3. Download the client.

It works great! It’s running over HTTP, so clipboard sharing doesn’t work, but I can transfer text files easily.

Conclusion

This was a super successful night of self-hosting, expanding my home’s functionality at no additional cost!