Amcrest AD410 Doorbell

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44

I mean, I’m not completely sure but I think the answer is “yes” given I’m pretty much just trying to implement what I found here: Standard Attachments | Home Assistant Companion Docs

I spent the last hour or so playing around trying to do things with two separate actions: save a temp image then directly attach it, but I’ve pretty much hit a wall trying to figure out the (probably pretty basic aspects) of doing that. oh well ¯_(ツ)_/¯

45

Probably best to ask for help with notifications in the Companion thread. Just took a quick glance at the doc and see the URL needs to be internet-accessible. Because of that requirement you should definitely focus on using a snapshot jpg as an attachment instead.

46

Looks like Standard Attachments | Home Assistant Companion Docs was very relevant (voodoo requiring me to add /local/ in the middle of a path when trying to attach an image, which was necessary and did work). To your point it’s about “Internet” accessible (which I think includes just plain LAN) as opposed to “filesystem” accessible.

I ended up tacking in another direction after I learned I can reference the camera entity directly in the notification.

Here’s the complete YAML. This intentionally notifies all mobile devices (hence notify.notify as opposed to a specific mobile device). This displays a static thumbnail and after the correct amount of clicking it gets to the live stream for this device.

- id: doorbell_button_pressed
  alias: Doorbell button pressed
  trigger:
  - platform: event
    event_type: amcrest
    id: DoorbellPress
    event_data:
      event: CallNoAnswered
      payload:
        action: Start
  action:
    service: notify.notify
    data:
      message: 'Ring pressed at {{ now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S") }}'
      data:
        entity_id: camera.ENTITYNAME
      title: 'Doorbell'

I have things to adjust or improve here:

  1. I think these are literal LAN subscribed alerts only, which isn’t good enough. I want these to work seamlessly home or not. I think that’s why folks suggest using various third party services.
  2. The number of clicks required to get to the video feed is, well, more than one so I want to optimize that.
  3. I’d love to get proper 2way audio working.
47

2-way talk in HA is now possible, but it may be a fairly large rabbit hole to drop into. You’re looking at having to merge a number of additional components to put it all together. Frigate, Go2RTC to name a few.

Start with this Youtube video to check it out… Amcrest Smart Doorbell w/ Home Assistant & Two-Way Audio - YouTube

48

Noted! I’m also toying with Scrypted as an HA add on, which I hear has great support for doorbells if you want to engage with them via iOS ecosystem (which happens to be the case for me at the moment… but mobile-os-agnostic is still important).

49

Thought I’d drop this here, because OMG!

My AD410 has some difficulty staying connected to WiFi. The AP is less than 20’ away, which makes this odd to begin with. What’s worse, is when it drops WiFi it attempts to reconnect with spoofed MAC addresses, until the unit is power cycled. This is a problem because I reserve addresses on my network and MAC filter.

I contacted Amcrest about this behavior for a solution, hoping to have an option to turn off hardware address spoofing. The answer I received is mind-numbingly obtuse.

After inquiring about my network, they chose part of the topology on which to place the blame. In this case Ubiquiti UniFi APs. Claiming that this is a problem with UniFi that they’ve heard about before and cannot solve themselves. MMMMk, so pfsense is actually where the MAC is registered, and the IP address reserved. There is no value in UniFi nor pfsense in wrecking device registration by spoofing their hardware addresses. Not that that is even a thing.

They didn’t even think through this answer before setting forth the lie. My frustration with Amcrest has widened to the point where I’m done with them. Their software (including firmware) is an abomination, and their hardware is from Sino manufacturers. And now this kind of service.

50

Sorry to hear about your frustrations, but I have an AD110 that works flawlessly.

51

Do you use RTSP?

52

I use the built-in Amcrest integration with the default of mjpeg. While I have other cameras (not Amcrest) that uses RTSP, I had no need to set it as it was working fine.

53

Interesting, not an option for as I use DW Spectrum. None the less, the point of my post was the incredulous claims support was making, to claim MAC spoofing is occurring at the AP.

54

I generally keep my AD410 isolated from the Internet, but the picture was all washed out and I wanted to see if I could change any settings in the app… so I allowed it to connect to the Internet so I could log into it. A firmware update popped up and, without thinking, I clicked “update.” Fortunately, everything still seems to be working, but it required the Dahua integration to be restarted.

Old version: 1.000.0000000.7.E.210220
New version: 1.000.00AC001.0.R.20230221

55

I went back and forth with Amcrest Support for weeks with them making the same ridiculous claims about my network. My issue was I could not link the doorbell to my Amcrest NVR at all, it worked fine in every other aspect. Ultimately updating the firmware to the latest and changing two fields in their Amcrest IP Config Utility or Amcrest Surveillance Pro app, my issue was resolved. The “Issues” with my network occurred with all 3 RMA’d doorbells (Also had the lens flare issue with IR on)… Anyway my post is the last one on this thread: New Firmware for AD110 and AD410 Available - Page 7 - Amcrest Forum
Changing the IP and Subnet mask (but only with updated firmware) resolved all of my network issues, hopefully it will help you as well.

1 Like
56

I have the latest. Simply put, Amcrest seems to suck, unfortunately. what’s even better is it appears the operating temperature is incapable of withstanding a US South Summer. Went tits up yesterday at 100 degrees F.

57

Hey everyone, I only get unknown States on all the entities. The firmaware is: 1.000.00AC001.0.R.20230221

my configuration.yaml is:

amcrest:
  - host: 192.168.1.105
    username: !secret amcrest_username
    password: !secret amcrest_password
    name: Timbre Amcrest
    resolution: high
    stream_source: rtsp
    scan_interval: 15
    binary_sensors:
    - online
    switches:
      - privacy_mode

  - host: 192.168.1.105
    username: !secret amcrest_username
    password: !secret amcrest_password
    name: Timbre Amcrest sub
    resolution: low
    stream_source: rtsp
    scan_interval: 10
    binary_sensors:
    - online
    switches:
      - privacy_mode

here is my log:

Home Assistant Core
<Unconnected @ 192.168.1.105> Trying again due to error: ConnectTimeout('')
5:37:37 PM – (WARNING) components/amcrest/__init__.py - message first occurred at 11:53:31 AM and shows up 25 times
amcrest: Error on device update!
July 26, 2023 at 10:04:27 PM – (ERROR) Switch - message first occurred at July 26, 2023 at 10:04:27 PM and shows up 2 times
Error while setting up amcrest platform for camera
July 26, 2023 at 10:04:26 PM – (ERROR) Camera - message first occurred at July 26, 2023 at 10:04:26 PM and shows up 2 times
Error while processing events from Timbre Amcrest sub camera: LoginError()
July 26, 2023 at 10:04:23 PM – (WARNING) Amcrest - message first occurred at July 26, 2023 at 10:04:23 PM and shows up 2 times
Timbre Amcrest sub camera offline: Login error:
July 26, 2023 at 10:04:23 PM – (ERROR) Amcrest - message first occurred at July 26, 2023 at 10:04:23 PM and shows up 2 times

What can I do???

58

Long time ago I tried setting up both a high and low res config for the same camera. I found it isn’t supported - at least, not with the Amcrest integration. The integration gets confused in a number of ways when the same IP is used for multiple camera entities.

Now I’m not exactly sure that is the reason for your particular errors. There wasn’t this privacy switch option back then. Try removing the lo res sub camera config and see if everything works OK.

59

Still the same problem. Note I also have Dahua integration. Could that cause a problem?

60

The Dahua integration should be able to coexist with the Amcrest integration, but ideally it would be sensible to use one or the other if possible. I’m not sure what would happen if you used 2 different integrations for the same camera IP, but theoretically I think it should work.

You should also review RRollers Github page for his Dahua custom integration for known issues.

61

any feed back on the new firmware 1.000.00AC002.0.R.20230810?

62

I contacted Amcrest Support 2 weeks ago when this update first came out asking for full release notes. He replied that none were available to him but he would ask the dev team and post them online in the Amcrest forum. Nothing has been posted yet.

I also mentioned that my AD410 has been disconnecting/rebooting during very hot (>100F) days. He admitted that this has been a problem and for me to go check my doorbell to see if the bottom case has split open due to a known issue with its internal lithium battery swelling like a gas balloon. Fortunately, mine hasn’t - but I have seen a number of reports online from others that have had this happen.

I also learned that the new firmware has tweaked how the AD410 charges its lithium battery to supposedly minimize damage from overheating. So that is the extent of what I know this firmware update provides. I haven’t installed it yet, hoping like you, to learn more about it and to see if any Home Assistant users have had any issues with it.

3 Likes
63

Wow if only I had updated, I got the spicy pillow a couple weeks ago.

Good news is, if you remove it everything still works. Just mentioning for those who may run into this.