New Amcrest AD410 doorbell Cam Review

[cybermage]

Hi @cybermage - your IR glare pic is among the worst I've seen posted. Do you plan on returning it or just live with it?

Nice example on your 2nd pic of how the AD410 handles direct sunlight. Do you have WDR enabled?

Tonight I'm going to try a few mods to see if I can minimize the IR glare - I've noticed that the camera edges extend further than the plastic that covers the IR LED's and I'm wondering if simply placing a thin strip of electrical tape around the sides of the lens mounting without covering the lens will eliminate it. Seriously though I'll probably just keep it regardless - while it's annoying I could still clearly see anyone in frame and the human detection worked fine.

And no, I don't have WDR enabled.

 

[waterside]

FWIW all three units I had tried were far worse, even with the intensity turned all the way down. If any of those was as good as yours I might have kept it.

You can try using the API to lower the intensity of the IR and see if you can lower it enough to reduce the glare. Note that when a person actually is standing directly in front of the doorbell the smart IR will reduce the intensity on its own, and that is really when you care about it. Otherwise faces would be blown-out making the point of the doorbell cam pointless. If you haven't tested with a person standing in front of the door yet you may want to try that and see the results.

Edit: That reflection from the post directly in front of the cam may already cause smart IR to minimize the intensity, so if a person is standing in front of it it could actually need to brighten the IR and the effect could get worse. This really needs to be tested with common scenarios of people walking up to and standing in front of your door to know how those cases look.

 

[cybermage]

As a test I did this with tiny pieces of electrical tape:



Here's what the image looks like now. Completely gone. I think some black nail polish on either side of the camera without covering the IR would probably do the job perfectly. The only way Amcrest will change this is by changing the plastic lens with a different design - so it's not "defective" it's just a bad design.

 

[GaryOkie]

Wow, great find and hack. Hope you can get it looking ok!

This apparent overly protruding lens flaw is something new. Never seen it reported before September.

 

[cybermage]

I wonder if they changed the part at the manufacturing plant ever so slightly and nobody realized it would be out of spec. So now the outer lens is bubbled out where the IR light can go direct to the camera. I checked and neither camera or lens moves when pressure is applied so it's not that one isn't seated all the way - at least as far as I could tell.

 

[GaryOkie]

Your outer lens is "bubbled out?"

EDIT: I see exactly what you mean now after a better look at your "fix". The camera lens is indeed a small bubble (dome) that should protrude from the surface a little bit, but apparently on yours it protrudes too far. So that's how masking each side of this protruding lens bubble solves the problem.

 

[foobar_user]

I have the same problem with the IR, the date is 2022-06, I bought it on Amazon. Seems like returning it will be hard, so I'll try @cybermage fix, thank you for that workaround.

Also, I'm outside of the US and my chime is 110 VAC, when the doorbell arrived I realized that my chime won't work with the device, so planning to set-up the doorbell in standalone mode and make the chime ring with a local automation.

 

[cybermage]

I've submitted a support ticket online with Amcrest providing the photos above to see what they say. Mostly out of morbid curiosity.

 

[TechBill]

There is a driver released for Amcrest and Dahua camera to use with Hubitat hub home automation. It all local using no cloud.

It’ll support events on push button, human detection, region detection or tripline detection etc.

Here the link to driver if you use hubitat hub home automation.

Dahua and Amcrest integration for cameras and doorbells

I wrote an integration for Dahua and Amcrest cameras and doorbells which likely also works with other brands that are Dahua hardware under the hood. All functionality is local-only and based on real-time events pushed to Hubitat with no polling. The code and readme are available here: I...

community.hubitat.com

It also got an app for those with Dahua NVR and it’ll add all your camera to Hubitat hub or you can just use driver to include only camera you want on the hub.

I did not develop it but I did beta test it during development stage and it started as a driver for Amcrest doorbell and during development, I asked developer if he would add support for other Dahua camera since it similar under the hood.

Enjoy

 

[Bret Sanders]

I've joined the AD410 IR lens flare club I'm afraid, so I opened a support case with Amcrest. I'm hoping to get a good replacement. I can still return to Amazon, or should I do an RMA with Amcrest?

 

[flynreelow]

I've joined the AD410 IR lens flare club I'm afraid, so I opened a support case with Amcrest. I'm hoping to get a good replacement. I can still return to Amazon, or should I do an RMA with Amcrest?

why dont u just return, and wait for the reolink to pop back up in stock

 

[Bret Sanders]

why dont u just return, and wait for the reolink to pop back up in stock

There are important differences for me. The AD410 suits my use case better.

1. I have no easy way to run CAT6/POE to the doorbell. I have 24VAC at the doorbell already.
2. I like my existing mechanical chime
3. The AD410 integrates easily into Home Assistant and Surveillance Station. The Reolink may also, but from initial reading, it has issues to work out.

 

[flynreelow]

There are important differences for me. The AD410 suits my use case better.

1. I have no easy way to run CAT6/POE to the doorbell. I have 24VAC at the doorbell already.
2. I like my existing mechanical chime
3. The AD410 integrates easily into Home Assistant and Surveillance Station. The Reolink may also, but from initial reading, it has issues to work out.

3 should be fine... but yea, i get 1 and 2. but yea, i couldnt live with that terrible pic and IR blow back.

 

[bryeartem]

You can add me to the IR Lens Flare club also... opened a ticket but haven't heard back. I also cannot get the doorbell to connect to my NV4216e-AI NVR...

 

[Iceman24]

There are important differences for me. The AD410 suits my use case better.

1. I have no easy way to run CAT6/POE to the doorbell. I have 24VAC at the doorbell already.
2. I like my existing mechanical chime
3. The AD410 integrates easily into Home Assistant and Surveillance Station. The Reolink may also, but from initial reading, it has issues to work out.

1. There is a WiFi version of the doorbell.
2. You could get some kind of relay to still use your mechanical chime, read about it somewhere.
3. I have read about some issues, but personally I had none when I set mine up with HA. I know some things were ironed out as well.

I have the WiFi version and find it amazing, coming from the Nest Hello. I was much looking forward to making my doorbell camera an IP cam, local only control, tight HA/etc integration. The only thing offhand I preferred on the AD410 for example was the ability to play TTS and media, but it is supposed to be coming on the Reolink.

 

[GaryOkie]

I've joined the AD410 IR lens flare club I'm afraid, so I opened a support case with Amcrest. I'm hoping to get a good replacement. I can still return to Amazon, or should I do an RMA with Amcrest?

You did the right thing contacting Amcrest. I would get an RMA going with them on the condition they can provide one without this defect. Their RMA department may not be set up to do this, but given the prevalence of this issue, they need to recall the whole lot and start inspecting them before sale.

Please reply back how Amcrest Support is addressing this.

 

[waterside]

I chose the route of working through RMA with Amcrest instead of returning to Amazon, hoping I might have a better chance of resolution.

After my second replacement when I had asked if they could validate a unit before sending me a new one they responded that unfortunately they wouldn't be able to do that. Each of my replacements was worse than the one it replaced, so ultimately ended up with a refund instead.

Maybe things will change after enough people return defective units. There are also a couple of discussions in the Amcrest forums about this.

 

[TechBill]

Amcrest may be in the same boat as us since they don't manufacture the doorbell and Dahua is not moving fast enough to correct this defect in their factory.

 

[GaryOkie]

Yeah TechBill, it sure could be that Amcrest OEM processes are at the mercy of Dahua manufacturing and supply chain going direct to Amazon and others. We know that Dahua is supplying the hardware guts but that final assembly could be done elsewhere that is specific to Amcrest contracts.

An Amcrest rep has stated to a reporter (source) that “Amcrest works with various contract manufacturers from around the world (Mexico and China) to complete the design, assembly, and physical manufacturing processes.”

The facts are the IR Lens Flare is occurring on one side or both or none at all, and only has started in the past few months. This sounds like a completion assembly issue is more likely. Add to this that the defect can be "cured" by a small bit of tape just because the lens may stick out a bit too much!

What if a more elegant weather resistant "skin" could be tolerated? Here's one business proposition idea...

 

[piggyman]

As a test I did this with tiny pieces of electrical tape:

View attachment 149446

Here's what the image looks like now. Completely gone. I think some black nail polish on either side of the camera without covering the IR would probably do the job perfectly. The only way Amcrest will change this is by changing the plastic lens with a different design - so it's not "defective" it's just a bad design.

View attachment 149447

Your little trick saved me. As I am living in the UK, RMA may cause me a lot from returning the product from UK to US.

I opened a case. If they request me to send back to old product, I may give it up at all.

Many thanks with your great findings and share!