Amcrest Smart Home (ASH), No http web user Interface, Boooo!

[dive_instructor]

Hi,
All my Amcrest & Dericam cameras are normal but one. Normal cams, http or https right in, no problem. A while back I picked up an Amcrest ASH camera, & it sends video ok, I can ping it, but Amcrest disallows web u.i.
And so, the question becomes, "Why does Amcrest (and likely other ASH makers) omit web U.I.?"
Let me guess,
#1 - LABOR INTENSIVE, too hard to write the firmware source code
#2 - Consumer-grade camera users would never think to use web U.I. anyway

Anyone know if there's any way to telnet in or SSH in, in order to diddle with the firmware, and maybe it flash it to another Amcrest model's firmware?

 

[alastairstevenson]

"Why does Amcrest (and likely other ASH makers) omit web U.I.?"

Because they have designed it to be simply operated with their proprietary Android or IOS app.

#1 - LABOR INTENSIVE, too hard to write the firmware source code

This is never done from scratch, lots of ready-made solutions that just need a little customisation to work for the specific device.

 

[Revo2Maxx]

Just a heads-up, you can’t flash firmware from a different Amcrest camera like one with a full WebUI onto a Smart Home series Amcrest camera just to get missing features like the Web interface. Even if the cameras look similar or share the same resolution, the firmware is model-specific and closely tied to the hardware, partition layout, and software stack.

Smart Home models like the ASH21 or similar are designed primarily for use with the Amcrest Smart Home app. While many of them do support RTSP and ONVIF which is great for things like Blue Iris or NVRs, they intentionally don’t include the traditional WebUI you’d find on the full IP camera line like the IP2M-841 or IP4M series.

Trying to flash firmware from an IP model onto a Smart Home camera won’t work: at best it’ll fail the check, and at worst it’ll brick the camera. These firmware's are often signed or encrypted, and the bootloader expects a very specific layout and file structure. So unfortunately, there’s no "unlocking" the WebUI, it’s simply not built into the firmware for those models.

If you want full local access, WebUI, custom settings, etc., you’ll want to stick with Amcrest’s IP camera line. The Smart Home series is best used as-is for lightweight RTSP/ONVIF streaming and app access.