New RCA HSDB2A 3MP Doorbell IP Camera

[KC8DKT]

The RCA DB is listed as 8v but when I bricked mine and had it on my desk working with it I could run it down to about 6vac with out the chime. I have no clue how hot it was getting on the 16v trans but the SDCard was almost too hot to hold when I pulled it out the day I bricked it.

On the 8v trans its hard to even tell if its on by putting your hand on it. Some one else in this thread pointed this out so I gave it a try when I had to spend the time and $$$ for a new chime anyways.

 

[David L]

The RCA DB is listed as 8v but when I bricked mine and had it on my desk working with it I could run it down to about 6vac with out the chime. I have no clue how hot it was getting on the 16v trans but the SDCard was almost too hot to hold when I pulled it out the day I bricked it.

On the 8v trans its hard to even tell if its on by putting your hand on it. Some one else in this thread pointed this out so I gave it a try when I had to spend the time and $$$ for a new chime anyways.

What Chime model did you get?
There has been several here state that dropping voltage drops heat on the DB. That 8-24 volt range I am sure is due to all the different Chime voltage requirements. Keep us informed how your DB/Chime performs at 8 volts...

RCA:


LaView:


Nelly's (Could not find it in Specs):



EZVIZ starts at 12 volts:

 

[David L]

So just found out Nelly's has a guide installing DB without App:

How to setup the NSC-DB2 using a PC (Windows)

This guide will walk you through setting up the doorbell using a Windows computer. This guide is useful for a few scenarios: You're unable to get the doorbell added to your wifi using the app ...

support.nellyssecurity.com

 

[alexdelprete]

So just found out Nelly's has a guide installing DB without App:

How to setup the NSC-DB2 using a PC (Windows)

This guide will walk you through setting up the doorbell using a Windows computer. This guide is useful for a few scenarios: You're unable to get the doorbell added to your wifi using the app ...

support.nellyssecurity.com

This might help @gudmundurg. Should put a link to this guide in 101.

 

[KC8DKT]

What Chime model did you get?
There has been several here state that dropping voltage drops heat on the DB. That 8-24 volt range I am sure is due to all the different Chime voltage requirements. Keep us informed how your DB/Chime performs at 8 volts...

I have the RCA with Hik FirmWare and it runs great on the 8v trans. BlueIris has 3 to 5 disconnects a month listed in the logs. Like I said, it was some one on this forum that was helping some one else that had a heat problem that gave me the idea to try it. I killed my chime and figured I may as well give the 8v setup a try considering how hot mine was getting and I had to replace it anyways.

Night and day diff in how much cooler it runs now. Its bean running on the 8v setup for about 14 months give or take with out any problems.

 

[misally]

Brand new Hikvision HS-HD1, 30VA transformer
Latest Hikvision firmware
Configured using only batch config tool, never allowed to connect to internet or to an app.
Wifi 2.4 GHz Router about 12' away.
QNAP QVR Pro connecting to the camera via ONVIF at 3MP / 10 fps, recording all the time.
QVR has this camera and another camera connected (also via ONVIF and the same wifi SSID, different vendor)

So about every 3 mins, the camera stops streaming for about 15 seconds. It doesn't appear that the connection is lost, it just stops sending.
The other camera records constantly, also over the same wifi SSID/band, and there do not appear any drops in the wifi net overall.
So ran continuous pings to the device to see if the connection itself dropped, and lo and behold, not only did the connection not drop, but also the video never stopped recording.

It appears that some sort of "keep alive" might be needed to keep an ONVIF stream going?

Has anyone else run into this behavior and is there any simpler workaround?

Again, note that the camera has not been allowed to phone home or connect to any app but the BCT and an ONVIF connection, so that might be a bit different then most (and BTW, it's hammering my firewall trying to connect to litedev.ezvizlife.com:8666 ... denied...)

 

[KC8DKT]

Brand new Hikvision HS-HD1, 30VA transformer
Latest Hikvision firmware
Configured using only batch config tool, never allowed to connect to internet or to an app.
Wifi 2.4 GHz Router about 12' away.
QNAP QVR Pro connecting to the camera via ONVIF at 3MP / 10 fps, recording all the time.
QVR has this camera and another camera connected (also via ONVIF and the same wifi SSID, different vendor)

So about every 3 mins, the camera stops streaming for about 15 seconds. It doesn't appear that the connection is lost, it just stops sending.
The other camera records constantly, also over the same wifi SSID/band, and there do not appear any drops in the wifi net overall.
So ran continuous pings to the device to see if the connection itself dropped, and lo and behold, not only did the connection not drop, but also the video never stopped recording.

It appears that some sort of "keep alive" might be needed to keep an ONVIF stream going?

Has anyone else run into this behavior and is there any simpler workaround?

Again, note that the camera has not been allowed to phone home or connect to any app but the BCT and an ONVIF connection, so that might be a bit different then most (and BTW, it's hammering my firewall trying to connect to litedev.ezvizlife.com:8666 ... denied...)

Have you done a FirmWare update to the newest?

 

[misally]

Sure have (second line of post)... HikVision latest

 

[KC8DKT]

Sure have (second line of post)... HikVision latest

ya, sry missed it, looking for the post about the wifi security mode that has fixed this. The other fix a lot have posted about is turning the "Image Encryption" OFF in the App. This is NOT an option in BC (that I know of) so you would have to install the phone App for your VDB. When you try to turn this off its going to send you an email with a 4 dig code you have to type in. Will keep looking for that wifi security mode thing and repost if I can find it.

 

[misally]

Interesting, that sounds promising. This subnet uses WPA-PSK, not WPA2 because of compatibility with some of the IOT devices on it.

 

[TechBill]

So you guys got me checking, the C7 is suppose to support the S2 security. SmartStart too...

New Model C-7 Hub Coming Soon

We are making announcements today: The problems we’ve had with our supply chain have been resolved; a shipment of hubs will soon be headed our way. We expect to announce availabilty to place orders soon. If you want to be notified of this, send a note to orders@hubitat.com. We are...

community.hubitat.com

View attachment 71165

I would wait on C7 unless it offered with a discount or a limited time sale price .. I do have C7 sitting here in the box but I am still running on C5.

The reason I brought C7 because I was offered a discount on it so I grabbed it knowing that I am not going to be setting it up right away and it would be sitting in my drawer for some time.


As for security feature, I don't use any encrypted or security mode on basic home automation like light switches, fan or tv etc. I only used security on my door lock and garage door opener. Using security use up more processor power in hub and the devices itself so I avoid it. If the hacker want to hack into my light switch and start blinking my lights then I will just unpair it and repair it with security on that light switch but I doubt that will ever happen in my lifetime.

 

[TechBill]

I don't think it's the power kit, but you could try measuring voltages there to see what happens in normale state and when button is pressed. You have to be sure voltages are correct. It looks like the camera is keeping the power up at all times for the chime.

Try this: physically disconnect the wires from the doorbell, and keep it powered down for at least 1 hour. Then reconnect and reset it, reconfigure it like it was brand new. Just to be sure it's not the camera. Then do the same with the power kit.

I heard back from support saying the same thing .. go reset and reinstall it again

But interesting part is that they said before reinstalling it is to make sure I removed the DB1 from my EZVIZ account first. Also that QR code can be saved to the phone in the Setting -> About in EZVIZ app now ..

I was going to reinstall last night and I couldn't find that torx security screw driver. I cannot for the life of me remember where I put that damn thing. I do have a complete set of torx drivers somewhere that I use for building my drones.

 

[rafale]

Well the good thing is that I'm sure you now perfectly know how the fw/sw of the camera works in regards to the chime.

8v transformer is a little bit too low, IMHO. I think it doesn't respect the specs of the camera, wasn't 12v the minimum? I might be wrong...

Interesting that you solved your BI disconnections by lowering the voltage, did you measure the temps before and after?

Wahh I never knew there was such a thing as a 8v circuit for this type of wiring. The Joules power loss would be enormous since you need to pass a lot more current for the same power. Go 16-24V and obviously the chime along with it. This should go in the 101.

 

[KC8DKT]

Wahh I never knew there was such a thing as a 8v circuit for this type of wiring. The Joules power loss would be enormous since you need to pass a lot more current for the same power. Go 16-24V and obviously the chime along with it. This should go in the 101.

AC does not drop off as much as DC and the RCA works just fine at 6vac with out a mechanical chime connected.

 

[alexdelprete]

View attachment 71203

AC does not drop off as much as DC and the RCA works just fine at 6vac with out a mechanical chime connected.

The camera works in DC, it has an AC/DC converter. I even powered it up with a 16V DC transformer, it works fine. EZVIZ recommends at least 12V. I recommend 16V mimimum, if you record locally, and I didn't notice any significant temp differences if I use 12V or 24V. It's always hot.

 

[rafale]

AC will not drop as much, that is true but still will drop to the square of the current which is linearly higher as you drop voltage. Since you are not comparing AC to DC but AC to AC, the relative scale still applies. Non intuitively, the higher the voltage, the lower the temperature of the doorbell will be. I upgraded my setup when I installed mine from 12V to 20V for this reason. The 12V was generating a lot of heat. Another obvious factor is how long your cable run is... Over a longer run, a higher voltage will always be better. I wish I had numbers to use as guidance but I don't. Needless to say that I eliminated crash, stream drops and reboot problems after upgrading my transformer. The voltage at the transformer is not the voltage you get at the doorbell under load.

 

[alexdelprete]

AC will not drop as much, that is true but still will drop to the square of the current which is linearly higher as you drop voltage. Since you are not comparing AC to DC but AC to AC, the relative scale still applies. Non intuitively, the higher the voltage, the lower the temperature of the doorbell will be. I upgraded my setup when I installed mine from 12V to 20V for this reason. The 12V was generating a lot of heat.

That is also why I'm using 24V 40VA transformer. The current generates the heat. The lower the voltage, the higher the current, and higher the heat.

But I tried different voltages, and the camera is always hot anyway. At 8V we're talking about 0.6A, at 24V we're talking of 0.2A.

 

[KC8DKT]

I started out with a 16v 30va trans and it was hot as crap and always hot. Some one posted about it running cooler with a lower voltage trans so I gave it a try when I replaced the chime. Its running much cooler and stopped rebooting on hotter summer days like it was on the 16v trans. BlueIris logs about 5 or so disconnects a month for well over a year now with no problems on the 8v trans.

 

[alexdelprete]

I started out with a 16v 30va trans and it was hot as crap and always hot. Some one posted about it running cooler with a lower voltage trans so I gave it a try when I replaced the chime. Its running much cooler and stopped rebooting on hotter summer days like it was on the 16v trans. BlueIris logs about 5 or so disconnects a month for well over a year now with no problems on the 8v trans.

I run it at 24V and it never disconnects. BI disconnections are not related to the camera but to the way BI connects to it. Other users reported BI disconnections, but when we analyzed the camera logs, the camera was never disconnected. When BI says there's a disconnection, at network level it doesn't mean there's a disconnection. Somebody reported BI5 with ONVIF working way better than v4 regarding these "disconnections".

I use Synology Surveillance Station on my NAS as my NVR sw, and I have no disconnections, camera is configured via ONVIF.

 

[alexdelprete]

Interesting, that sounds promising. This subnet uses WPA-PSK, not WPA2 because of compatibility with some of the IOT devices on it.

You can't enable both WPA+WPA2 on your wifi AP/router?

But I don't think that's the cause of your issue. WPA/WPA2 come into play only when the camera connects to the wlan. Since you say the camera does not disconnect from the network, that can't be the problem.

Try opening the RTSP stream with VLC, watch the video for 5 minutes and see if the camera stops streaming, then report back.