New Amcrest AD410 doorbell Cam Review

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concord

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Oct 24, 2017
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digiblurDIY just recently did a review of the new doorbell



amcrest.com

Amcrest 4MP Doorbell Camera 2.4GHz/5GHz WiFi Doorbell Camera AD410

AMCREST MODEL: AD410 DOORBELL CAMERA FEATURES: 4-Megapixel CMOS Image Sensor, HD 2560x1920p, 2K @15fps Focal Length: 2.27mm Max Aperture: F2.1 164° viewing angle Nightvision: Up to 16 feet Motion Detection up to 16 feet IP65 Weatherproof MicroSD Storage up to 128GB, Class 10 or higher...
amcrest.com amcrest.com
 
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concord said:
digiblurDIY just recently did a review of the new doorbell



amcrest.com

Amcrest 4MP Doorbell Camera 2.4GHz/5GHz WiFi Doorbell Camera AD410

AMCREST MODEL: AD410 DOORBELL CAMERA FEATURES: 4-Megapixel CMOS Image Sensor, HD 2560x1920p, 2K @15fps Focal Length: 2.27mm Max Aperture: F2.1 164° viewing angle Nightvision: Up to 16 feet Motion Detection up to 16 feet IP65 Weatherproof MicroSD Storage up to 128GB, Class 10 or higher...
amcrest.com amcrest.com
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Thanks @concord

Quick check of the youtube review and I enjoyed it.
 
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Since I enjoy playing around with Doorbell cameras apparently I went ahead and got one of these.

I like it better than the EZViz DB1C - it's Onvif compatible, easier to integrate in automations, and I like the video format and quality. I also think it does a better job with WDR but that is pretty subjective. Also my use case, while probably aligned with many here, isn't typical - mainly that I don't care about the functionality of the Amcrest Smart App app at all, or any of the notifications/motion/etc. it provides. I have it on my private camera VLAN with no external access and use BI+Deepstack for motion detection and Home Assistant for all my alerts.

For my use case this setup works better than any doorbell app (I get instant, and accurate, notifications with images when motion is detected and a separate video if the doorbell is pressed) with the exception of two-way audio (you can hear the doorbell but not talk through it) which I don't care about.

Most settings can be configured in the app and then forgotten about but one critical one is missing: the key frame interval, which you want to match to the frame rate for good BI detection. The default GOP (interval) is 30 for the main and sub streams which will result in an interval of .50 for 15fps - that's the max FPS of the substream and if you are using that for motion detection in BI you may run into trouble.

You can change this via the camera's web API just like other Amcrest/Dahau models like so (do at your own risk! Worked great for me but it is possible a bad API call could cause you problems so don't do this blindly, search the forums):

Code: 
http://camera.ip.address/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=getConfig&name=Encode

Will display all your current settings, which you may want to use. Also, the first time you access the API you'll be asked to authenticate and this is a good command to do that with (your login is the same as the Onvif user you put in BI i.e. "Admin/passwordyouset")

Assuming you've already configured your main and sub streams to 15 fps via the app (personally I use h.265/CBR/15fps for both) to match your key frame interval issue the following commands:

Code: 
http://camera.ip.address/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=setConfig&Encode[0].MainFormat[0].Video.GOP=15
Code: 
http://camera.ip.address/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=setConfig&Encode[0].ExtraFormat[0].Video.GOP=15


You'll be able to see it change immediately when viewing the BI Status panel (FPS/Key will show 15.00/1.00 for both main and sub).

You can do a bunch of other things through the IP but again, be careful. Fortunately many other settings around video & audio quality, IR, motion, etc. can be configured in the app so you don't need to mess with the API outside of changing the key frame interval.
 
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Will this doorbell cam allow you to have a fixed/static IP address?
I currently have a LAView Halo One and like it but it occasionally "forgets" it's IP even though I've reserved the IP via MAC address.
 
marklyn said:
Will this doorbell cam allow you to have a fixed/static IP address?
I currently have a LAView Halo One and like it but it occasionally "forgets" it's IP even though I've reserved the IP via MAC address.
Click to expand...

Yes, it does. I think it can be set in the Amcrest View app (I don't use it any longer) but you can also do it via the API i.e.

http://camera.ip.address/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=getConfig&name=Network

To get the current config

http://camera.ip.address/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=setConfig&NetWork.Domain=ttt&NetWork.eth2.DhcpEnable=false

To configure options (the example disables DHCP on interface eth2, which is the wireless interface for the doorbell).

Other options include Network.eth2.IPAddress and Network.eth2.DefaultGateway.

Full API reference is here:
Note this is an older document (they haven't updated it to my knowledge) and not everything applies to the 410, also with some commands you could risk bricking the unit or knocking it offline/etc. so, as always, use caution and don't do things blindly.
 
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Ugh. Looks like when this thing is blocked from the internet it disables the doorbell activation - completely. No events are fired, the external chime doesn't sound, and it doesn't even trigger the mechanical (or digital) chimes in the house. If it is in a disconnected state it will still stream RTSP video but that's it, looks like.

That's a dealbreaker if it can't be worked around. Obviously many people will want to use the internet-connected Smart app but I am not one of them, not a fan of "cloud" cameras.
 
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Ok, update from the guinea pig :)

Turns out the "no doorbell press/ring" event is due to disabling motion detection, not internet. The AD110 guys figured this out a while ago but I didn't have one of those so only found it through digging around. (edit: you can still disable motion notifications, just not the motion sensor itself)

So to be clear, right now I have it completely blocked from the internet (it is on my camera VLAN) and doorbell chimes (including my mechanical chimes) work, and I am receiving alerts pushed out by my BI NVR server, which has two interfaces one for the camera VLAN and one for regular. So from that perspective, so far so good.

However when it's blocked the button constantly blinks blue, a stupid yet sadly common "feature" of these types of doorbells that let's you (and everyone else) know your device is "offline". Especially annoying at night.

So far all I've found digging around the api is http://<ip:address>/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=setConfig&LightGlobal[0].Enable=false which turns the circle light off completely. This includes the steady blue glow it's supposed to show to make it easier to see the button at night. Since the leds are already white on black the button isn't hard to miss unless it is completely dark - I have motion lights that turn on when a person comes near the door so I'm not sure if I care about this or not (it's better than the blinking light) but it'd be nice to have it just come on steady.

My adventure with it continues - next I need to join my home assistant server to the vlan and set up events. They work from the NVR via a browser so not too worried on that front.
 
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Ok, continuing to make progress.

Can't take all the credit for this; the folks who did the Amcrest2mqtt addon parsed out a lot of stuff from the AD110 api and it appears to work the same for the AD410.

Warning: perfectly good, but wonky, workaround ahead!

So to enable the ring button light without having it do a little blinky-dance when it can't detect internet access, issue this:

http://ip:address/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=setConfig&VSP_PaaS.Online=true

Which as you can probably guess from reading force sets the Amcrest Cloud service as online even if it actually isn't. Do this (and make sure you re-enable the light per my instructions above if you disabled it) and it'll work like it should - solid light (that circles for 10 seconds when rung), doorbell chimes work, all appears normal. At this point you might think hell, a video doorbell with dual-band wifi, constant power, Onvif support, h.265 and WDR, with better than average 4mp video, that doesn't need to be connected to the internet and has a feature-rich local API exists. Hooray!

....Except it is never that easy. Present in the config is the url for an update server and neither the Amcrest2mqtt folks or myself can find a way to disable it. What happens is, every 24 hours the doorbell does an update check and if it can't reach the update server....you guessed it, it resets the config you set above back to false and you've got a spinning doorbell light again.

If you are using Home Assistant, you can automate this really easily - poll the API every 30 seconds (or whatever) to see if VSP_PaaS.Online is true or false and if it's the latter set it back to true. This is what I and others have done/are doing and while it is stupid to have to do it it works. If you aren't running automation, or what you're using won't let you do this, this would still be a pretty simple script to create.

Some other interesting commands:

If, for whatever reason, you can't block it from the internet or don't want to do so completely but don't want some of the p2p crap running anyway you can disable services like so:

Code: 
http://ip:address/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=setConfig&T2UServer.Enable=false

http://ip:address/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=setConfig&VSP_PaaS.CustomEnable=false

http://ip:address/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=setConfig&VSP_PaaS.Enable=false

Per AD110 users who've done this, if you do the first two but leave the last one as true you will not only not have the spinning light problem/workaround to deal with but the Smart App will still work for configuration. It won't receive video or remote notifications but it also appears to block the p2p crap. It will also still check for updates. Myself, I don't want it on the internet at all, but some might find this easier to live with.

Anyway right now I am finishing integrating the button presses, etc. in to my Home Assistant config. I'll post if something interesting comes up again.
 
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DO NOT change the settings suggested above for T2UServer.Enable or VSP_PaaS.CustomEnable on the AD410! Not sure about the VSP_PaaS.Enable since I hadn't tried that one but probably best to avoid that too.

I made the mistake of trying this on mine and nearly bricked it. Changing these settings initially didn't appear to do anything but, after rebooting the camera, it never came back up. The app showed it as offline and all TCP ports on the camera were closed/unresponsive, so I couldn't put these settings back the way they were. It was still connecting to my WiFi though and I could see it was still making DNS queries to various amcrestview and zencamcloud domains.

In this state, it behaved as follows:
  • On power-up, it would show a solid blue LED, then solid green for a bit, then solid blue again, where it remained.
  • While powered the speakers would occasionally make poping and clicking noises but no meaningful sounds.
  • It wouldn't respond to the doorbell button being pressed.
  • A port scan with it in this state showed no open TCP ports. (When it's working, ports 80, 554, 5000, and 8086 are open)
  • Amcrest Smarthome App showed the camera as offline.
While attempting to resolve this, I tried using the reset button on the back (above the SD card slot) to perform a factory reset using every sequence I could think of and nothing changed this behavior. Either the factory reset sequence is something very non-obvious, doesn't exist at all, or it was getting hung in a way that prevented it from responding to it. If anyone knows how to perform a factory reset on this camera, I would love to know in case it's ever needed again.

Thankfully I was eventually able to get it working again. In case anyone else encounters this issue, I was able to get it back by blocking the AD410's access to the Internet, so that it couldn't reach any of it's servers (an easy way to do this is to just disconnect your router from the Internet). Just blocking those domains probably would have worked too. Once it gave up trying to connect, I got the flashing green LED ring and it opened up port 80 again. This let me change those settings back to true.

It would appear that they didn't design the software on this camera to gracefully handle these parameters being set to false. If you want to disable the P2P features, you're better off just blocking them at the router or DNS level (i.e. pi-hole) rather than messing with these parameters.

If you want it connected to the app after changing these back, just reboot it again and reconnect it to the internet.

Hope this helps others avoid the hours of frustration I experienced dealing with this.
 
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Sorry to hear about your trouble. I didn't encounter this problem and my AD410 went through a series of reboots while I was testing it so not sure what triggered the problem for you. Edit: It's possible that I already had internet access blocked when I had those settings disabled since you mention the problem went away when you blocked yours. That seems strange it would only re-open if it thinks it is offline though, especieally since I force-set the doorbell to think it is online (setConfig&VSP_PaaS.Online=true) per my previous post to keep the button light from blinking.

I agree with you that the "proper" way to do this is block at the network level, which is what I do for all my cameras - in my case, they are on their own VLAN with restricted access to everything else.
 
I've got my AD410 set up and working in Blue Iris thanks to the tips from @planetix

I do have one question I'm hoping someone could answer. I got rid of the Amcrest logo through the app, but is there a way to move the timestamp and display a channel title? I tried with the commands in the API document just to display the GUI settings, but I got a bad request error. I'm not sure if you can't do that on these cameras or if I just didn't have the commands right.
 
I installed one a month ago for my buddy.
So far so good.
 
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Thank you for the review. I was looking for a doorbell with possibility to integrate alerts to Home Assistant and to record video via Motioned and it looks like perfect option.
But I have one question about this model: how securely it is mounted to the holder?
I read the manual and as I understood it just snaps to a plastic holder and can be easily removed. I am afraid that it may be stolen.
 
any updates to quality and reliability?

at 149 its at the top tier, and its not even POE
 
well it works with 5Ghz wifi now. i tried to install the 2.4 Ghz at my buddy's house, but his stepson (who works at Comcast) has changed his wifi to 3 Google home devices that were all on 5Ghz. So we ordered the new model. I haven't heard any complaints, but yes any of these things can be ripped off the wall. Cam's watching cams helps. I have a regular camera above the porch as well. So i can watch them run away with my Amcrest doorbell to the Pawn shop, so they can get a rock of Crack.
 
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I just installed this doorbell camera today. Very impressed with the picture quality and Wi-Fi performance. It connected to my 5 GHz network, which I was not expecting. The only thing I need to find out is if there is a way to update the key frame configuration to match the frames per second other than API calls. Also, it doesn't look like there's a web interface to connect via browser, is that right?
 
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