Amcrest video doorbell AD110 initial impressions

Hardware
102

Ok GaryOkie, here’s the update you asked for. I’m actually using a combination of the AD110’s motion detection and another motion detector that’s in the area. Turns out, motionEye is a bit resource intensive and difficult to tweak to eliminate false motion trigger events. I now have 5 cameras running, using the built in motion detection on each, and I don’t have an issue with false triggers. I use another utility to trigger motionEye to record and stop based on the ONVIF event stream from the cameras themselves.

Now, if anyone knows how to poll the AD110, or get the motion events from it, I’d be grateful. The HA integration insists on giving me a camera image that frequently doesn’t load…

103

Thanks @MYeager1967 for the update on MotionEye. I was testing it as well and saw a lot of promise, but it didn’t quite meet my needs. I’m also quite happy with the advanced tripwire motion detection in my Dahua Starlights, but the AD110 is still way too trippy on the alerts.

The HA Amcrest integration supports motion events on the AD110, but not button presses. I’m still using FFMPEG for streaming live video from the AD110 and getting motion and doorbell alerts pushed to a dedicated old phone running Tasker and SmartHome app (mentioned in detail in this thread).

104

It’s actually pretty easy to tame down the alerts on the AD110. My biggest issue with it right now is HA losing the connection to it. It’s an issue with the integration or something because I don’t lose the connection watching the feed from the app or VLC when HA does. Now that I’ve removed some other cameras from HA, it seems like it may be better. Who knows, time will tell.

I saw your in depth post on that. If I find myself needing it, I’ll be using it. :grinning:

105

My AD110 faces the sun in the morning with trees in between casting moving shadows with the wind. If there is a vehicle or bird passing in front, even outside detection zone, I will usually get an alert. So it seems to be a combination of the PIR detecting heat changes on the concrete/shadows + any kind of additional object movement.

Otherwise, it’s not too bad with the annoyance alerts. :laughing:

I’ve got 4 POE connected Dahua’s and the WiFi AD110 all streaming simultaneously in HA (RasPi4), and never lost connection. The WiFi has to pass through brick and 3 sheetrock walls, but it’s plenty strong enough.

106

I’ve determined that my connection issues aren’t with the doorbell itself anyway, they are issues with the HA integration for Amcrest. I can stream the video all day with VLC and motionEye has no issue staying connected, it’s the integration shutting down the connection. It mostly only happens at night though. I haven’t figured that out yet. I turned off the IR on the doorbell thinking it might be a power issue but that hasn’t made a difference. I wouldn’t think that an IR LED would use much power, but who knows…

107

“I can stream the video all day with VLC and motionEye”… @MYeager1967 - Hmm, did you also mean “all night” too without a drop?

I’m still not using the Amcrest integration for the AD110 since I can get alerts without it. The doorbell IR is set to auto, but with the bright porch lights, it doesn’t come on since the image remains in color. I’m happy with that.

Maybe try enabling debug to see if it is encountering a streaming error and just quitting? The problem is probably not with the Amcrest code, but with HA Stream.

EDIT: correction - if the problem was with stream, then ffmpeg should drop out in the same way, which it doesn’t. Hope debug log sheds some light.

108

Actually, I can still be watching it while HA says it’s offline. I’m also not the only one having issues with the integration. Others are having issues with other cameras. I just haven’t figured out why my issues are primarily at night.

1 Like
110

Is there a way from HA to turn Motion Detection On & Off, would like to enable it only when we are out of the house “Away Mode”.

Re firmware update, the word is don’t do it at night when the IR is on as the unit uses more power and you might brick it.

Regards Dave

111

@DaveTiff - You use the enable_motion_detection / disable_motion_detection services (a function of the CAMERA integration, not Amcrest). This will not toggle SmartHome motion notifications. There isn’t a way to do that via HA that I know of. (Maybe via Tasker’s AutoInput?)

The advice to not upgrade the AD110 firmware at night was just conjecture that if you have a borderline power supply that maybe the firmware update process plus night IR might cause the doorbell to crash/reboot before finishing. You could turn off the IR before the update as an extra precaution if done at night.

112

I really want to turn the motion detection recording on & off.

Not sure on the old firmware whether you could turn the IR off, I think on the new firmware you can turn the blue light off, would also be nice to do that via HA.

I have ask Amcrest support, not that I am expecting a useful answer.

Re Dave

113

In the SmartHome app, you can just select “Night Vision” and select off which turns off the IR. There is no known API for HA to be able to toggle Motion Detection options in the doorbell. This was a feature I have asked for, and one I do greatly miss that the Skybell doorbell integration could do.

114

I’m constantly having trouble with the amcrest app. I have video footage I want to download and save to my phone, but I don’t want to take out the SD card every time, and downloading just won’t work the way it should. I know the doorbell doesn’t have a web ui that I can access to download them from my computer, so is there any other way to fix the app issue?

115

@SeanMyth - With the latest firmware, you can download SD-Card recordings to your phone. The limitation is that your phone needs to be on the same network as the AD110. Is that what you mean by “downloading just won’t work the way it should” ?

I have my doorbell also connected to an NVR for recording. I can retrieve videos through its web interface, including remotely via VPN. You can also set up an automation to record video directly in HA, triggered by motion events.

116

I was doing some testing last night and some clips work, when you begin to download it will say “start to download. please view in list”. But of course for the one clip I want it says the message, but then stops downloading a fourth of the way through and creates a blank video file. I’m guessing it’s just the luck of the draw unfortunately whether or not it will download for me.

117

Dave - did you ever get a useful response from Amcrest support about this?

I’ve been doing some digging comparing before/after config changes and discovered that the AD110 motion detection settings are written differently from other Amcrest/Dahua cameras.

The settings are not saved in the Motion Detection section, but instead are written to the Alarm section! This explains why other software & NVR’s are not able to change motion detection settings, and worse, can freeze the doorbell live video forcing a factory reset.

If you really want to give it a shot to see if this API command works on the AD110 to turn off/on motion detection. well, here it is. I have not tested it.

http://<ip_addr>/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=setConfig&Alarm[0].Enable=false

You might also need to run this command, because I found it changes in lockstep with enabling/disabling motion detection via the app…

http://<ip_address>/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=setConfig&Alarm[0].EventHandler.SnapshotEnable=false

It seems that if turning off Motion detection via the SmartHome app, it will also disable the snapshot event handler for some reason.

I can’t guarantee this will work, but I think it has a very good chance it will since these attributes are returned successfully with a getConfig command.

I’m away from home, so I’m hoping you are wanting to be the first to try this. If it works, this will be fantastic to reduce so many AD110 false alerts via HA.

EDIT: I got home and tested the setConfig&Alarm command - it works to toggle motion detection! The SH app didn’t reflect the change though. I did not toggle the SnapshotEnable Event Handler. So far, that does not seem to be necessary.

118

Hi, still struggling with support, they did send me some API commands to try but as the App did not show motion detection status I assumed they did not work. I will have to retry.

How do you send an API command in HA, have not looked yet. Want to use when we are “AWAY” to set Motion detection On.

Regards

119

Hi Dave - Here’s how to set up a switch to toggle motion detection on the AD110 doorbell…

switch:
  - platform: command_line
    switches:
      doorbell_motion_detect:
        command_on:    '/usr/bin/curl -s --digest -u admin:<password> "http://192.168.x.xx/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=setConfig&Alarm[0].Enable=true" '
        command_off:   '/usr/bin/curl -s --digest -u admin:<password> "http://192.168.x.xx/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=setConfig&Alarm[0].Enable=false" '
        command_state: '/usr/bin/curl -s --digest -u admin:<password> "http://192.168.x.xx/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=getConfig&name=&Alarm[0].Enable" | grep -oPc "true"  || true'
        value_template: '{{ value == "1" }}'

Then in the automation, you can just use the switch.turn_off (or on) service with the entity: switch.doorbell_motion_detect

You can not rely on the status of the Motion Detection switch in the SmartHome app, as it is not updating when the motion detection is changed via the API. However, the status of the switch within Home Assistant will automatically update to the current state if changed by the SH app (within the scan_interval - 10 seconds by default).

EDIT:
@DaveTiff -

I’ve updated the switch to incorporate the switch status - something I just learned how to do. Have you tried these commands yet?

I still would like to know what the exact API commands were that Amcrest Support sent you to try. This would be the first time I’ve heard of anyone receiving API support for the doorbell from them.

Thanks for posting back.

EDIT: Updated code to fix grep return code “error” by forcing it true

120

I just ordered this camera and it should be here tomorrow. I have 4 other amcrest camera in zoneminder so I was hoping this was similar It doesn;t look like it has a web interface for configuration but it does look like the RTSP feed is the same as my others.

Anything I should know about before it arrives. I Am replacing a LaView doorbell that has frequent disconnect problems

121

Hi @faspina - correct, there is no web interface on this device, and yes, it supports RTSP. It’s this doorbell’s best feature IMO. Configurations are normally done via the SmartHome app but we are slowly discovering and testing API commands that can provide functionality outside of the app, which is what the previous post was about.

122

It works well, much better than the LaView. RTSP is the same as my other amcrest.