New Amcrest AD410 doorbell Cam Review

It's fixed as far as i can tell....I've attached a pic of it
 

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As long as you are still within the 1 year warranty from your first purchase, my advice is to go for another RMA replacement. Unfortunately, your first RMA does not extend the warranty.

FWIW, I have an AD110 working reliably for 2 years now . I also have an AD410 that had to be replaced after 6 months. (The issue with it was a permanently out of focus video). The replacement has been working reliably for several months now with no Wi-Fi dropouts. It is also just warm to the touch, and has never been hot that I've noticed. I have not measured the voltage/amperage of my 52 year old doorbell transformer. It is probably just 16VAC, given that was the most common for its age.

I agree with TechBill that since your doorbell is running very hot (which probably also caused it to reboot and drop connectivity), your transformer is the likely cause.
 
JazzRock said:
I’ve had my 410 installed since about last August. It is setup through my Synology via ONVIF. I’ve had wifi connection issues with it from the beginning. The signal is very strong throughout my house including the front door area where it is installed. From the beginning it will periodically go off line. No idea why….or what makes it rejoin the network. Seemed to happen every 2 weeks or so. Recently at least once per week. And just in the last 2 weeks every couple days. About 3 days ago it died completely. It will no longer come back online and the chime doesn’t ring. The unit is completely non responsive. A couple times I did notice the 410 was VERY hot to the touch. I should have investigated that but I ignored it.

My Transformer is 24VAC 40VA. The chime is not digital…it’s more of a traditional chime. Of course, there may be something wrong with my transformer but before I start replacing things I was hoping to get some feedback from those who are much more technically savvy than I. Are there any possible issues I should look for that might cause this behavior?

I’ve read through quite a few pages of this thread and I didn’t notice anything specifically related to my issue. I did see some conversation regarding power issues but don’t think they are similar to what I’ve been experiencing.

I will add this is my second unit. I had a very difficult time with the first one…..I tried getting assistance from their support and it was an absolutely a disaster. After about 2 weeks I returned it and got a replacement which I was able to get working. I am now hesitant to even begin trying to work with their support and I typically wouldn’t consider staying with the brand but I know of no other alternative that will allow me to use with my Synology (view & capture video) instead of a cloud based program and get the higher resolution I do with the Amcrest. If anyone is willing to offer some suggestions and/or advice I’d be really grateful.
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Mine has been dropping at about the same frequency as you’ve described. Hasn’t failed completely yet but it never reconnects on its own. Have to check if it is warm frequently (it does get hot eastern morning sun so this summer will be a real test) and the voltage on my transformer (believe it was in range).
By the way, Synology now has official support for this doorbell so you no longer need to make it generic Amcrest or ONVIF.
 
JazzRock said:
It's fixed as far as i can tell....I've attached a pic of it
Click to expand...


On their website, it suggesting 16V 30VA - .

First troubleshooting I would do is try using a lower amperage transformer.

Is there Home Depot nearby? Here a link for a 16V 30VA which in description state that its' perfect for all video doorbell. - Defiant 16VAC/30VA Transformer Compatible with All Video Door Bells HB-130-03
 
So let's see. A power supply that is within the rated output range of the input acceptable for the device is too much. Granted a 24V@40VA transformer may, and probably will have a output voltage higher than the stated, nominal, voltage it should be well within the range that the device, AD410, should be able t handle IF the AD410 and it brethren were properly engineered and designed. Bottom line is Ohm's Law. The device should draw no more power than it requires. If that were not the case every light bulb, LED or incandescent, would burn out as soon as it was turned on. If the regulator in these things is that weak and crappy, they are even more poorly designed and engineered than anyone would reasonably expect.

I say this after having a DB1C exhibit exactly the same behavior, multiple dropouts both day and night. The dropouts, in my case, are actual resets and all configuration is lost with every dropout. It has not changed after swapping out the transformer from 24V@40VA down to16V@30VA. Why can't somebody make these things with PoE so they are actually reliable?
 
Thanks for the replies. Though I don't feel much more confident I'll find a solution! Even if I got a replacement it sounds like the odds of it re-occuring are better than average.

I'd LOVE to have a POE device. Seems like a no brainer to me. I have a bunch of POE devices including security cameras around my home that just work.
 
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Also - I had my motion sensor settings reset themselves some time yesterday. I had it set to only notify on human detection and full motion detection alerts started around 15:30 EST yesterday. I know the app is finicky with resetting some settings when changing others but I made no modifications yesterday. Any idea how this happens?
 
From what I' gather here the transformer I have...24V 40VA should be fine with the a410 but the device itself may not be regulating properly. And Sabatiantombs stated above that he even swapped his 24 40 out for a 16V@30VA and still had problems. My question to those with experience or similar issues is whether I should just instll a new cam or put a smaller transformer in first? Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on the subject.
 
I would get a new transformer installed first. Your AD410 might start working better unless it is already fried. (BTW - Sebastian was referring to a different doorbell - an EZViZ DB1C that experienced a similar issue).
 
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New to forum and very immediate reaction is thanks to everyone who has posted great feedback on this thread.

I just wanted to see if anyone has figured a way to set off AD410 siren through an API call? I wanted to use it to deter deer from messing up my front yard but have spent considerable amount googling and cannot find an api action that could be used to turn on siren and then turn it off. The ios app allows to do it so I am guessing there is action behind it

any feedback is appreciated.

have a good day y'all
 
I can show you what the AD410 firmware configurations are for sound. Typically issuing an http API/CGI call using this info can control most camera/doorbell features. However, I wasn't able to trigger the siren via the API with the quick testing I tried.

http://<doorbell_ip_address>/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=getConfig&name=Sound
returns:
table.Sound.AlarmSound=/usr/data/Sounds/English/Siren.aac​
table.Sound.AlarmSoundDuration=30​
table.Sound.AlarmSoundEnable=false​
table.Sound.AlarmSoundVolume=100​
table.Sound.BootStrapSound=/usr/data/Sounds/English/Siren.aac​
table.Sound.SilentMode=false​
table.Sound.SoundTipsPlayEnable=true​
table.Sound.TouchScreenSound=false​
table.Sound.UnlockSoundEnable=false​

I tried using http://<doorbell_ip_address>/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=setConfig&Sound.AlarmSoundEnable=true
and this command was accepted (returns "OK") but the siren didn't sound. Unfortunately I did not see any other obvious config setting that could be used for the siren. (Note: the Amcrest HTTP API specs don't include any information for SmartHome devices, so discovering API settings for them can be an adventure).
 
GaryOkie said:
I can show you what the AD410 firmware configurations are for sound. Typically issuing an http API/CGI call using this info can control most camera/doorbell features. However, I wasn't able to trigger the siren via the API with the quick testing I tried.

http://<doorbell_ip_address>/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=getConfig&name=Sound
returns:
table.Sound.AlarmSound=/usr/data/Sounds/English/Siren.aac​
table.Sound.AlarmSoundDuration=30​
table.Sound.AlarmSoundEnable=false​
table.Sound.AlarmSoundVolume=100​
table.Sound.BootStrapSound=/usr/data/Sounds/English/Siren.aac​
table.Sound.SilentMode=false​
table.Sound.SoundTipsPlayEnable=true​
table.Sound.TouchScreenSound=false​
table.Sound.UnlockSoundEnable=false​

I tried using http://<doorbell_ip_address>/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=setConfig&Sound.AlarmSoundEnable=true
and this command was accepted (returns "OK") but the siren didn't sound. Unfortunately I did not see any other obvious config setting that could be used for the siren. (Note: the Amcrest HTTP API specs don't include any information for SmartHome devices, so discovering API settings for them can be an adventure).
Click to expand...

Thank you ... you are right though it is not straight forward and one have to fiddle around.

I was able to pull all the configurations and then I switched on the light through iOS app & took a dump of configurations again with light switched on. When you compare the response the following field is switched
table.All.Lighting_V2[0][0][1].Mode=ForceOn
But when I tried to do the same exercise with the Siren, none of the fields changed their state (even though AD410 siren was audible) so that makes me think its perhaps not straight forward.

I also found out that folks who have done HomeAssistant integration for Dahua were also not able to find the API. (AD410 Doorbell Alarm/Siren entity not exposed · Issue #131 · rroller/dahua)

appreciate your feedback though, I will continue to explore!
 
Yeah, the API discovery via CGI dump technique you used is exactly what I've done and documented before (perhaps in a different forum). This is one of those rare commands that does not show up in the "All" config dump as being changed. I ran into the same issue trying to determine how quick responses are activated on the AD410.

At this point, it would be good to try to sniff the actual packets from the phone to the doorbell, but I've not had much luck with that with these SmartHome devices.
 
GaryOkie said:
Yeah, the API discovery via CGI dump technique you used is exactly what I've done and documented before (perhaps in a different forum). This is one of those rare commands that does not show up in the "All" config dump as being changed. I ran into the same issue trying to determine how quick responses are activated on the AD410.

At this point, it would be good to try to sniff the actual packets from the phone to the doorbell, but I've not had much luck with that with these SmartHome devices.
Click to expand...

you are right on. i think the next step is to plugin wireshark and see if it can pickup anything. I will give that a shot sometime
 
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