New RCA HSDB2A 3MP Doorbell IP Camera

[KC8DKT]

This is out of line and out of control!

1. the power kit is required for mechanical chimes.
2. these doorbells are not designed for lower then 12 volts you should be running 12v, it's designed for a normal doorbell transformer. not sure if 24v was ever considered spec for this doorbell. the doorbell does run hot on 12v I can validate that.

Yep, your right, "is out of line and out of control!" because I NEVER said the power kit should NOT be used to ANYONE! I never said the power kit was the problem to anyone that is dealing with this new problem where multiple chimes stopped working in the same month.

Some doorbells list the min volts at 12vac but the RCA lists it at 10vac and some one else posted the pdf pic of the spec sheet NOT ME showing this!

So again, if anyone has a problem with some thing I DID TYPE or DID TELL SOME ONE TO DO let me know and we can talk about that, but it is total BS to say and argue about some thing I did not EVERY type/tell anyone they should do.

Shitting razer blades would be a huge pain in the butt. I am stating a fact, I never said I was doing it and I never said some one should do it.

I do not think I have even 1 post with anyone about this new problem with the chimes that stopped working all in the same month for multiple people as he is implying. Not much I can do about some one getting pantry's in a twist about something I did not type, or when I take the step to state as clear as I can be so no one takes it the wrong way but if he reads something more into it well not much I can do about that. You can call a friend all kinds of stuff in voice comes in a game with no problem (tone of voice is joking) but that same thing in a TXT msg / forum / email and so on some people take it the wrong way. I know MOST IF NOT ALL have dealt with this and I did my best to make sure NO ONE WOULD TAKE IT THAT WAY as best I could. If that was not enough sorry, I did my best to make it as clear as I could. And like the last time he had a problem, I asked him to let it go back then and asked him again to let it go or at least keep it out of the open forum. Have no clue what more I can do.

 

[KC8DKT]

What comes across serial NOW that it works from power up THRU a ring of the bell and connecting to it via app!.... Once uboot is done and it boots into firmware does serial go quite.

Because we can flash diff firmware to the door bells this would sujest it does not have encrypt or have a check going on with the DAV file right? Would this perhaps open the door up to some one (much smarter then me) doing an edit to the file like changing a 0 to a 1 to turn on a disabled option like I have done with some of the video cards I have had to over clock and over volt them?

 

[alexdelprete]

View attachment 74559

Yes, the yellow highlighter was added by me, but here is the link to the pdf

https://www.rcaaudiovideo.com/docs/common/HSDB2A/HSDB2A_QS.pdf

Again, you just typing something does not make it a fact or true and this is just getting sad. As asked before, Let it go already please or at least do this in a private chat because this is helping NO ONE.

In my previous post I wrote: "The FUSE is to be mandatorily used when you have NO CHIME connected. The POWER-KIT is mandatory when you have the chime connected."
So I don't understand your point here. You seem very confused, so I'll drop it here. And I don't want to continue in private because it makes absolutely no sense.

Last message from me.

 

[kentx2]

EDIT: oh man, I'm a goober sometimes. 200904 is EZVIZ, not Laview. That explains the missing ONVIF. I know somebody mentioned that they were waiting for somebody who had installed this firmware to chime in. Aside from the fact that ONVIF is still not supported, is there any information I can help provide?

I flashed Laview V5.2.4 200904 firmware on my EZVIZ DB1 and now I can not access the snapshot url (http://<IP_ADDRESS>/onvif/snapshot.jpg), though RTSP still works. It appears that port 80 is not even open on the device - just 554 and 8000). Does this mean that 200904 does not support ONVIF? Seems unlikely that they would have removed it. I have tried rebooting - no luck. Any ideas?

If it matters, I performed the firmware upgrade via the EZVIZ Android app . I had Laview firmware v190716 installed. Opened the EZVIZ Android app (it's worked quite well so far) and it informed me that there was a firmware upgrade - 200904. Now, I'm not entirely sure how the EZVIZ app alerted me to an updated Laview firmware. Anyhow, I clicked the Upgrade button in the EZVIZ app. Now both the EZVIZ app and BatchConfig report 200904 is installed. I probably should have just upgraded with Batch Config.

What I'm really after is video feed + motion alerts to Home Assistant. Last I looked into this (over 1 year ago), I needed to flash an ONVIF-capable firmware, point Blue Iris at the camera, then integrate Blue Iris into Home Assistant. I recall that Blue Iris could receive the ONVIF motion events and there was a way to expose that to HASS. Is there a better way now? I saw onvif2mqtt mentioned...

 

[alexdelprete]

1. the power kit is required for mechanical chimes.
2. these doorbells are not designed for lower then 12 volts you should be running 12v, it's designed for a normal doorbell transformer. not sure if 24v was ever considered spec for this doorbell. the doorbell does run hot on 12v I can validate that.

1. Correct
2. Wrong. These doorbells, as per specifications, work with 8v-24v range.

 

[alexdelprete]

look at your app CLOSELY! if the device is internet facing and you can see the VDB from app while not home then you should see 3 hours of video recorded to the cloud. look in settings related to cloud storage also. 2 options from what I remember: Free 3 hours or paid subscription.

No, CloudPlay is active and needed only when you want to watch live feed and you're not on the VDB lan.




To prove it: I just disabled wifi on my mobile and accessed EZVIZ app to watch live feed. You cannot go back in time, not even 10 minutes since you start watching live feed. You can watch recordings from the SD Card, not from the cloud, if it is disabled. When I'm not watching live feed, or SD card recordings, I see zero traffic to the internet from the camera. The cloud is used only when someone with access and the mobile app starts a session outside the LAN, so the camera sends the stream to the cloud and the mobile app connects to the cloud to do what it needs. When you close the app, the traffic to the cloud stops. It is a proxy service for that session, there's no permanent and unsolicited video traffic from the camera to their cloud otherwise (with cloudplay disabled obviously). Do your tests and let me know.

 

[alexdelprete]

TLDR: Unbricking via TTL Serial was successful!

I was able to get connected with the TTL Serial adapter, and found that the Config file of the camera is what is causing it not to load. The magic bullet was to interrupt the boot and issue a format command to erase everything but the bootloader, then issue an update command (with sdcard inserted, having RCA firmware renamed to digicap.dav as the only file present). This loaded successfully and the doorbell booted to a blue flashing ring and voice prompt to configure via phone app.

Full details:

The USB TTL Serial adapter arrived this afternoon and I tinkered with it after work. For reference, I purchased this one which uses a Prolific chipset. Win10 picked it up and automatically installed functional drivers.

I'm already familiar with using Putty (years of IT work) but for anyone who's not, there are detailed instructions for setting up the connection on the thread I was referencing earlier about resetting Hikvision devices via TTL Serial.

Because of the packaging of the doorbell, Hik didn't put a JST-ZH connector on the 4-pin TTL Serial header. It does use the 1.5mm pin spacing of the JST-ZH connector, though. Lacking a connector and wanting a reliable connection, I temporarily soldered some 22AWG wires onto the pin pads, with a 3-pin PC fan header on the other end of the wires so I could slide the TTL adapter leads on. Not a clean soldering job at all, just going for quick, functional, and easy to desolder afterward, since I'll need to remove this in order to close up the camera case.

Not to worry, a little heat shrink to keep those wires separated.

I connected ground, TX and RX from the USB TTL adapter to the leads coming from the board.
JST Pin 1 (my black wire) -> TTL Ground (black)
JST Pin 2 (my red wire) -> TTL RX (white)
JST Pin 3 (my orange wire) -> TTL TX (green)
JST Pin 4 -> NO CONNECTION (do not connect the TTL red wire to JST pin 4. The TTL adapter outputs 5V and the camera runs at 3.3V.)

I powered it up, and my Putty window sprang to life with output from the camera. After pressing CTRL+U at the prompt to interrupt the bootloader, I found there is an update command which tries to read digicap.dav from the sdcard. I ran this, and it completed successfully and rebooted. BUT - the camera was still stuck in a boot loop, so I examined closer and found two errors:

[09 22:34:30][CONFIG][ERROR]config_file_to_json error
[09 22:34:30][CONFIG][ERROR]recover_config_file

I looked at the available commands (typing ? or help lists them) and found format - format flash except bootloader area. Sounded promising, so I executed format, followed by another update command to load the firmware from digicap.dav on the sdcard. Success! The doorbell booted to a blue ring and voice prompt.

I am going to further configure it on the RCA firmware I just loaded, flash it over to EzViz firmware, remove the EzViz logo from the video output (via Batch Config), then flash over to my final intended LaView firmware. That will get it to the same state as my other two RCA units. Once everything's done, I'll desolder my wires from the TTL header and close it up.

@davidew98 I am not really an expert on Linux and other embedded OS, but if there are any specific commands you'd like me to try to probe it with before I remove the TTL wires and close it up, let me know. In the Code block below is a listing of the commands available when the bootloader is interrupted (CTRL+U at the prompt).

I've attached the full text output from my Putty session to this post as a PDF file. For science!

I hope this helps someone who has a bricked doorbell kicking around and doesn't mind doing a little soldering and buying a $7 USB-TTL adapter to get it running again.

Amazing work. Unfortunately not everybody has the skills/tools to do what you did. But you can put up an unbrick service online.

 

[BobDoh]

The device rectifies the AC to DC and I've tested running it on about 7.5VDC. I tried running as low as 5VDC, and it runs, but it chokes when you press the button to ring. 5V is not enough juice to ring. Definitely not enough juice to ring and drive the mechanical chime.
It also emits 3.3V across the button terminals.
The rectified 8VAC works out to be about 10VDC with a lot of ripple.
The powerkit also rectifies the AC to DC for its own use.

 

[KC8DKT]

1. Correct
2. Wrong. These doorbells, as per specifications, work with 8v-24v range.

View attachment 74600

Easy now, pointing out some thing like this will get people mad at you, and posting a snippet from a PDF showing your right about what it says highlighted in yellow will get you accused of being confused.

And this was the type of posts I was talking about that your responding too, people post things and make it sound like it is a FACT when it is in FACT wrong. NOT a big deal, not looking to call anyone out or give anyone a hard time, I just think it would be nice if we all tried to keep the info posted correct as much as we can so the forum is full of HELP FULL info not wrong info as much as we can.

 

[davidew98]

1. Correct
2. Wrong. These doorbells, as per specifications, work with 8v-24v range.

View attachment 74600

good to know, thanks for the correction

 

[davidew98]

good to know, thanks for the correction

but I suggest staying away from the highside just to help with the voltage spike of a button push

 

[davidew98]

you are out of line!

drop the subject!

Easy now, pointing out some thing like this will get people mad at you, and posting a snippet from a PDF showing your right about what it says highlighted in yellow will get you accused of being confused.

And this was the type of posts I was talking about that your responding too, people post things and make it sound like it is a FACT when it is in FACT wrong. NOT a big deal, not looking to call anyone out or give anyone a hard time, I just think it would be nice if we all tried to keep the info posted correct as much as we can so the forum is full of HELP FULL info not wrong info as much as we can.

 

[davidew98]

Easy now, pointing out some thing like this will get people mad at you, and posting a snippet from a PDF showing your right about what it says highlighted in yellow will get you accused of being confused.

And this was the type of posts I was talking about that your responding too, people post things and make it sound like it is a FACT when it is in FACT wrong. NOT a big deal, not looking to call anyone out or give anyone a hard time, I just think it would be nice if we all tried to keep the info posted correct as much as we can so the forum is full of HELP FULL info not wrong info as much as we can.

FYI...

The forum is full of troubleshooting and right and wrong info that people conclude with the right info after testing and helping each other

The 101 is the RIGHT info after testing and finding the answers either in pdfs, sites, or our own tests. We can't weed out the whole forum of all wrong info. that's how this forum has worked together for a better good. Finding whats right and whats wrong. not constantly pinging someone OFF TOPIC to say they are right or wrong. Please STAY ON TOPIC.

 

[James92TSi]

What comes across serial NOW that it works from power up THRU a ring of the bell and connecting to it via app!.... Once uboot is done and it boots into firmware does serial go quite.

No, quite the opposite - it's talkative. I'll have to do some captures on it through various activities.... pressing the doorbell, remote live feed, 2-way convo, Batch Config tool, etc.

I already have captures from firmware updates and running Batch Config (DST adjustments and hiding the EzViz logo) last night and some various testing, but it'd probably be easier for me to capture those events in isolation than try to go back and identify them in last night's logfile.

 

[pete_c]

TLDR: Unbricking via TTL Serial was successful!

Great news James!!!

 

[KC8DKT]

you are out of line!

drop the subject!

I am out of line because some one said I typed some thing I NEVER TYPED and said I was telling people some thing I NEVER TOLD THEM TO DO OR TRY and because I posted a clip from a PDF as proof I was right about some thing that again, I was right about and they smarted off about and was wrong but I AM OUT OF LINE YOU SAY AGAIN. WOW.

Its ok to post off topic as long as your typing total BS about some one else and being a smart ass, but asking them to stop, do it in private, asking them to post helpful info not wrong info, or posting links to the right info again being called OUT OF LINE.

See, just like I said, posting the correct info if some one posts the wrong info is being called OUT OF LINE.

I have asked for the subject to be dropped how many times now or to take it into privet how many times now? BUT I AM THE ONE OUT OF LINE not the one who started it up AGAIN

 

[KC8DKT]

No, quite the opposite - it's talkative. I'll have to do some captures on it through various activities.... pressing the doorbell, remote live feed, 2-way convo, Batch Config tool, etc.

I already have captures from firmware updates and running Batch Config (DST adjustments and hiding the EzViz logo) last night and some various testing, but it'd probably be easier for me to capture those events in isolation than try to go back and identify them in last night's logfile.

Are the diff firmware options just turned off by setting them to 0 is like the RCA firmware and turned on by setting to 1 in say the EzViz firmware you think? Or is the code left out / added? Just wandering if you think we have a chance of some one who know how to edit the file can make changes and turn on options or not.

I know in the past way smarter people then me have done this with video card firmware to boost clock speeds or boost voltage. Wandering if you think we have any chance of some thing like that now that we know we can fix it if we brick it big time messing around with the files code a bit.

If its just a 1/0 On/Off setup it would be fun to see what we may be able to turn on and play with.

 

[davidew98]

I am out of line because some one said I typed some thing I NEVER TYPED and said I was telling people some thing I NEVER TOLD THEM TO DO OR TRY and because I posted a clip from a PDF as proof I was right about some thing that again, I was right about and they smarted off about and was wrong but I AM OUT OF LINE YOU SAY AGAIN. WOW.

Its ok to post off topic as long as your typing total BS about some one else and being a smart ass, but asking them to stop, do it in private, asking them to post helpful info not wrong info, or posting links to the right info again being called OUT OF LINE.

See, just like I said, posting the correct info if some one posts the wrong info is being called OUT OF LINE.

I have asked for the subject to be dropped how many times now or to take it into privet how many times now? BUT I AM THE ONE OUT OF LINE not the one who started it up AGAIN

im saying this one last time.
No one started something again.
You are the one continuing this and attacking everyone.
You are the one off topic.
You are the one attacking me privately now.
You have stated your piece. Everyone knows your postion
Drop the subject and end this NOW!

this is not the time or place for this!

I for one hope you NEVER private message me again unless you can drop your ego trip!

 

[KC8DKT]

im saying this one last time.
No one started something again.
You are the one continuing this and attacking everyone.
You are the one off topic.
You are the one attacking me privately now.
You have stated your piece. Everyone knows your postion
Drop the subject and end this NOW!

this is not the time or place for this!

I for one hope you NEVER private message me again unless you can drop your ego trip!

"You are the one attacking me privately now. "


I am attacking you in that msg? wow, never mind. I will never msg you telling you to have a nice day again. sorry that came off as an attack.

 

[David L]

TLDR: Unbricking via TTL Serial was successful!

OUTSTANDING!!! Wow what a discovery!!! Great Job!!!