I only have experience with Skybell, Amcrest AD110, and AD410 WiFi doorbells. Of these, the AD410 is clearly the best with HA that I’ve used. It has better features, especially AI human detection and resolution.
The integration with HA works well with multiple choices on how to do it. Use the Core Amcrest integration or custom Dahua integration for streaming, recording and event processing (button press and motion). There are also other options for processing the video via RTSP by Blue Iris, Frigate, and others.
Just keep in mind that in order for 2-way talk to function, the SmartHome mobile app is required as is an Internet connection, although streaming and events are all local.
Describe what’s not working. Any errors in the log? The core Amcrest integration has supported RTSP streaming on both the AD110 and AD410 since they’ve been released. Human detection/doorbell press detection requires event handling.
Previously I’d seen URL errors in my logs, but for some reason I’m not seeing them now. When I add in the camera all I get is a single entity for the camera (camera.amcrest_camera) and I can get what looks like some sort of stream, but nothing else. No events, no other entities other than a single camera entity. I’ve been running the amcrest2mqtt but would really prefer to have it all in HA
Ok…it took me re-reading the doc to see the ‘binary_sensors’ section in amcrest. Did a ‘listen to events’ and saw the amcrest event show up. Of course, now I have even more questions.
If I do a ‘enable_recording’ where does the video get stored?
Can you share some of your example configs and/or automations? Specifically around triggering something when someone rings the doorbell
If you are using the core Amcrest integration, the provided binary sensors aren’t of much use for the AD410/AD110 doorbells. The custom Dahua integration does a better job of creating useful sensors, but I prefer to stick with triggering on events as it’s more flexible since the event payload is exposed.
Here’s the automation for triggering on the doorbell press event.
trigger:
- platform: event
event_type: amcrest # Note: for the custom Dahua integration, use "dahua_event_received" here
id: doorbell button pressed
event_data:
event: CallNoAnswered
payload:
action: Start
Here’s the AD410 human detection motion trigger. On the SmartHome app, I recommend configuring human detection ONLY, and turn off general motion detection. If you must check for both types of motion, then you will need to add the VideoMotion event.
trigger:
- platform: event
event_type: amcrest
id: Human Motion
event_data:
event: CrossRegionDetection
payload:
action: Start
data:
ObjectType: Human
For you AD110 users out there, the core Amcrest integration motion binary sensor triggers on raw pixel changes within the grid (VideoMotion event). That creates a lot of false triggers. The AD110 has a PIR that creates motion events on heat signatures, but the Amcrest motion binary sensor ignores it. Here’s what you need to use instead:
trigger:
- platform: event
event_type: amcrest
id: AD110 Object Motion (from PIR sensor)
event_data:
event: AlarmLocal # or ProfileAlarmTransmit can be used
payload:
action: Start
Perfect! I’m going to stick with the Amcrest integration now that I understand it better! Thanks for those configs. And yes, I really like the fact it does ‘human’ detection instead of just motion detection that is usually a false positive.
Just a note for people that want to go fully offline regarding the two-way audio feature, I suggest looking into Amcrests View Pro app for android and Amcrest View Lite for apple devices. It uses ONVIF to connect to the doorbell and supports the two-way audio.
I have two devices: an old Nook HD with LineageOS installed, running Amcrest View Pro and iPad 1 with a Amcrest View Lite from the AppStore. Both of them along with the AD110 are on my IoT VLAN with no internet access and working fine.
As a precaution, I would if you are using the apps, do NOT modify any of the doorbell properties using them. Just use them to view and have two way talk audio.
Not that I’ve heard, and I’ve had no luck. When listening to ALL amcrest/ad410 events and sending a quick response via the SH app, no events are detected. The API extensions for SmartHome communications haven’t been publicly documented either.
Thanks for the response @GaryOkie, appreciated! Hopefully it can be figured out, would be a handy feature! Trying all I can to avoid having to use the awful Amcrest app
Sorry, less HA and more just doorbell, but do you guys get a snapshot in the event list in the Smart Home app when someone rings the doorbell? We don’t really use this doorbell often it’s more just for the camera POV… so I kinda ignored it for awhile… but was curious if it was worth looking into. I’m pretty sure I have occasionally got an image, but not at all recently.
My Android SH app (for AD410) is showing thumbnails in the event list just fine. Don’t think it matters, but I do have “push notification thumbnail” turned off. (I’m also sending snapshots with a link to recorded video via Telegram to our phones so my reliance on the SH app is mainly limited to answering the doorbell, which is quite rare).
You will need an integration that can provide push notifications with the ability to include pictures. I’m using Telegram. There are several other integrations that can do this - PushBullet and the HASS Companion to name a few.
Creating local snapshots is simply done with the camera.snapshot service.
Until we can send quick responses via home assistant I’ll need to use the app on my iphone,
Has anyone been able to change the orientation when getting a ‘call’ on the ios app? for some ridiculous reason when I answer it forces landscape mode and stretches the picture distorting it, truly rubbish.
