New RCA HSDB2A 3MP Doorbell IP Camera

David L

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I gave up on doorbells connected to my NVR. I bought Eufy 2K with a coupon and got it for $100. It works very very very well. And, after I installed the Eufy skill, everyone of my Alexa devices (10) tells me someone is at the door ;) so it also fixed the issue of my needing to run extra chimes and speakers through the house (really out by the pool and in the garage). The biggest selling point is it handles multiple users, so my wife has no issues using it.
Nice Doorbell. I like the 1920k Res. compared to our 1536k AES-128bit is nice too, not sure what encryption our Doorbells use, would assume at least 128bit. Do you know if you have to turn off encryption to display on Echo Show or TV?, I would assume yes like we do, which kills the privacy selling points.
But no RTSP? 4Gig local storage? Those are deal breakers for me, since I record 24/7 with BI. As for native Alexa or Google I know for sure this will be available soon. I watched my Orbit B-Hyve sprinkler along with many of my other IoTs turn native with Google over time. When Google Home first came out there was only 4 native links :), I had all my stuff connect IFTTT back then, it was not long before they all went native. Our Apps support multi-users too but found it easier to have one account, funny thing is when our door bell rings, both our phones ring, who ever gets to their phone first talks to the visitor outside :)

Again nice Doorbell...thanks for sharing...
 

Optimus Prime

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I have no need for the door bell to record 24/7. I just need it to be a doorbell, recognize movement that is not trees and cars, and let me talk to the person on the other side of the door...and for my wife to feel good using it. I've had it for over a month with lost of amazon Christmas deliveries and friends coming by, and have still only used 1/3 of the 4 gig memory.
 

giomania

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I have no need for the door bell to record 24/7. I just need it to be a doorbell, recognize movement that is not trees and cars, and let me talk to the person on the other side of the door...and for my wife to feel good using it. I've had it for over a month with lost of amazon Christmas deliveries and friends coming by, and have still only used 1/3 of the 4 gig memory.
The EZVIZ will actually be my second camera recording 24/7 on my porch.

My first is a Dahua Starlight fixed lens in corridor mode looking parallel to the door. It has been in place for a couple of years, because I was not sure how long it was going to take for doorbell cameras to improve enough to be worth the hassle for me.




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David L

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I have no need for the door bell to record 24/7. I just need it to be a doorbell, recognize movement that is not trees and cars, and let me talk to the person on the other side of the door...and for my wife to feel good using it. I've had it for over a month with lost of amazon Christmas deliveries and friends coming by, and have still only used 1/3 of the 4 gig memory.
I hear ya. The whole reason we got this Doorbell is because of Porch Pirates, where I live they follow delivery drivers around and rack up on our hard earned money or our neighborhood kids steal for a thrill. We see live footage all the time on the news from people with Doorbell cameras who turn in their recorded footage. It is almost daily footage during the holidays.
Yesterday and this morning they showed several Ring hacking clips. Looks like they are targeting Ring users hard lately. Passwords, Passwords, Passwords People :)

I have to say this Doorbell Rocks with the PIR, when we get our one second or less notification of motion on our phones, we normally only get people footage, but every once in awhile we will get a big truck driving by but it is rare, of course with 24/7 recording, motion does not matter to us other than notifications. Being able to connect at 5GHz instead of only 2.4GHz is a plus for many here. Having the 128Gig SD card is a nice backup and having it removable is a big plus in case the Doorbell bricks, I would not trust an internal card only solution. Also being able to record Full Res. at 30 frames per second with BI is great. Enough about our Doorbell, I have a DOORBELL101 post of all the advantages of this Doorbell.

EDIT: Opps, I forgot one of the biggest advantages, 180 degree vertical view, I was able to zoom in and read the package labels on now two of my delivered packages, most of the time the labels are not upright. :), what's with all the smiley faces :)

We have a Smart Lock on our front door (No Internet/WiFi access, only Z-Wave notices) which family has their own codes and they just barge in :) and friends we have a guest code. Funny but even though we have this Smart Doorbell, the button rarely gets pushed, we could of just went with a 2-way camera :), family don't push it, friends don't push it, and now a days delivery drivers only drop of the packages without pushing it either, this is Amazon, Fed-Ex and UPS, USPS still pushing it :), of course they are are always behind the times with their snail mail :)

Here is something funny, I have a friend with a Nest Hello, he tried recording 24/7 on their cloud at Full Res., did you know a month of footage used 500 Gigs of his Internet bandwidth. Crazy huh. I will stick with my Local Private Recording :)

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Good price if anyone is interested...
 
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David L

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Oh, but they DO run on DC.

Mine is running off a 24v DC power supply.

I'm using a relay to sense doorbell presses and sending the signal to home automation
So question; does the AC transformer, that most of us have, convert to DC output or is it converted in the Doorbell?
 

rafale

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View attachment 52124
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Good price if anyone is interested...
The Eufy does not allow for local video stream the last time checked. Has anything changed? It is also not that great of a deal. I got an extra ezwiz for 89.99 a week ago.

And yeah the doorbell has an AC/DC converter in it. The reason why you want AC is to minimize power loss over these tiny doorbell wires. The voltage drop would be much more with powered through DC. For short cable runs DC should be ok.
 

David L

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The Eufy does not allow for local video stream the last time checked. Has anything changed? It is also not that great of a deal. I got an extra ezwiz for 89.99 a week ago.

And yeah the doorbell has an AC/DC converter in it. The reason why you want AC is to minimize power loss over these tiny doorbell wires. The voltage drop would be much more with powered through DC. For short cable runs DC should be ok.
Thanks
 

Necro

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Great, super informative thread (and love the 101 - on page 69 of this thread, nice job David L)!

Got mine all setup but wondering about a few things.
1. Is there anyway to have the button press activate/do something? (from a IFTTT,Alexa, or any other triggering perspective). If not, is it possible to put a relay or something in place that would accomplish that? (For example, the contacts on a z-wave door sensor - which I'm not sure could handle the voltage).
2. Can get the video to not be fish-eyed and stretched to a normal aspect ratio/shape?
3. Anyone removed the logo on the faceplates? I have the ezviz version and I'd like to remove the Ezviz logo from the faceplate, but don't want to scratch/damage it.
4. Is the camera always running? Or only when a stream is being access or the button pressed?
5. For recording at button press or on motion, where are settings for 'pre' recording? Haven't seen/found that yet if it exists.
6. Is there a way to set motion zones?

...and...uh...how do I change my account password? Setup an Ezviz account and there seems to be NOTHING online to do it or in the app...
 
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David L

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Great, super informative thread (and love the 101 - on page 69 of this thread, nice job David L)!

Got mine all setup but wondering about a few things.
1. Is there anyway to have the button press activate/do something? (from a IFTTT,Alexa, or any other triggering perspective). If not, is it possible to put a relay or something in place that would accomplish that? (For example, the contacts on a z-wave door sensor - which I'm not sure could handle the voltage).
2. Can get the video to not be fish-eyed and stretched to a normal aspect ratio/shape?
3. Anyone removed the logo on the faceplates? I have the ezviz version and I'd like to remove the Ezviz logo from the faceplate, but don't want to scratch/damage it.
4. Is the camera always running? Or only when a stream is being access or the button pressed?
5. For recording at button press or on motion, where are settings for 'pre' recording? Haven't seen/found that yet if it exists.
6. Is there a way to set motion zones?

...and...uh...how do I change my account password? Setup an Ezviz account and there seems to be NOTHING online to do it or in the app...
Thank you for 101 comment.
I have a few answers for you:

Question 2. NO, this lens is set at 180 degree vertical and I think 105 horizontal.
Question 3. I have not but you could spray paint it, just use a spray paint made for plastic...
Question 5. For more settings, use iVMS-4200 or Batch Configuration Tool
Question 6. YES, you can set zones in the EZVIZ App (under Settings/Alarm Notification/Alarm area setting or if you use Blue Iris.
 

Necro

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Thanks David (again).

For Q2, I was wondering more if there was an option like keystone settings on a projector. But...guess not.
For Q6, was wondering more from something more discrete than whats in the EZviz app w/o having to setup BlueIris. I'm actually tweaking the hell out of my MotionEye setup on a Pi now so things work smoothly, but would like to have the camera itself throw warnings/motion alerts at something between the lowest (no alerts seem to happen) and the mid setting (it detects cars driving by my house).

Thanks on the Q5, didn't see those settings in there but I'll dig more.
 

David L

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Thanks David (again).

For Q2, I was wondering more if there was an option like keystone settings on a projector. But...guess not.
For Q6, was wondering more from something more discrete than whats in the EZviz app w/o having to setup BlueIris. I'm actually tweaking the hell out of my MotionEye setup on a Pi now so things work smoothly, but would like to have the camera itself throw warnings/motion alerts at something between the lowest (no alerts seem to happen) and the mid setting (it detects cars driving by my house).

Thanks on the Q5, didn't see those settings in there but I'll dig more.
On Q5 look in Event Schedule/Advance Settings, I think this is what you were looking for. Sorry, I am not much help on your other questions...

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Necro

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You rock, thanks.

One suggestion (I'll add it here once I find it, because I know I saw it before) - you could add recommended video settings to tweak to from the default. I just turned on WDR for example and WOW. Image is 100x better (given, it's raining and at night but it's WAY better).

Also, from a logo perspective it seems the Ezviz's now have a logo in the screen. I'd like to get rid of it - do you need to do swapping of firmware to do so (per the 101) or can you just, for example, upload a transparent logo using the Hikvision tools?

Ok...and...last thing for tonight - the date/time stamp is in a god-awful place. Wondering if it's position is shiftable? I'm not seeing it in either iVMS-4200 or the batch config.

One other thing to add to the 101 - the CCD settings are only accessible (for me at least, on a Win10 PC) via the batch config app and not the iVMS app.
 

David L

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You rock, thanks.

One suggestion (I'll add it here once I find it, because I know I saw it before) - you could add recommended video settings to tweak to from the default. I just turned on WDR for example and WOW. Image is 100x better (given, it's raining and at night but it's WAY better).

Also, from a logo perspective it seems the Ezviz's now have a logo in the screen. I'd like to get rid of it - do you need to do swapping of firmware to do so (per the 101) or can you just, for example, upload a transparent logo using the Hikvision tools?

Ok...and...last thing for tonight - the date/time stamp is in a god-awful place. Wondering if it's position is shiftable? I'm not seeing it in either iVMS-4200 or the batch config.

One other thing to add to the 101 - the CCD settings are only accessible (for me at least, on a Win10 PC) via the batch config app and not the iVMS app.
As far as the Logo, if you are able to turn it On, or it shows On in Batch Config. Tool, then if you load LaView's firmware it will disappear, LaView does not have a Logo in the view screen so it's firmware will turn it Off (Remove it), it worked for the RCA Logo so I would assume it will work with the EZVIZ Logo.

Date/Time Stamp cannot be moved, we found out. You can turn it Off

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As far as the CCD section, it actually does show up in iVMS-4200, but you have to hit refresh several times, this is why most use the Batch Config. Tool.

Hope this helps...
 

elviso33

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Yep, I did get it working. Realtime person detection works great (I get notifications when a person is at my door as opposed to a cat or some other false trigger). Face detection is something I'm still tweaking a bit (though I'm always tweaking something it seems, haha) but I love local/cloud-free control and automation!
Dear Hawkeye217,
Would you mind sharing how you got the person detection working? I have the ezviz arriving and that's the one feature I would like. Also are you using google/nest hub or echo show?
Thanks
elviso33
 

silencery

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I'm quite sure it doesn't run on DC, Ezviz website says
Power Supply
8VAC ~ 24VAC
For whatever reason, it's not written in the spec, but it does run off DC. I'm running two of them off POE cat5 wiring. One powered from a POE hub, one powered from a dedicated DC power supply
 
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Yep, I did get it working. Realtime person detection works great (I get notifications when a person is at my door as opposed to a cat or some other false trigger). Face detection is something I'm still tweaking a bit (though I'm always tweaking something it seems, haha) but I love local/cloud-free control and automation!
Ordered the Coral USB device this morning. Would certainly appreciate some quick pointers on setup. Thanks!
 

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I've been following the home assistant person detection thread below for a while since it has Docker but haven't dabbled in it yet as I'm still interested in getting my RCA HSDB2A enabled for Alexa live viewing first. May have to play with Home Assistant in the new year to supplement my SmartThings home automation....
 

David L

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I've been following the home assistant person detection thread below for a while since it has Docker but haven't dabbled in it yet as I'm still interested in getting my RCA HSDB2A enabled for Alexa live viewing first. May have to play with Home Assistant in the new year to supplement my SmartThings home automation....
I too am interested, thank you for the info...
 

IPCamo

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Due to an unfortunate cascade of bad choices, I have the lifeless carcass of an RCA-badged doorbell available as an organ donor. A few pages back there was discussion of a cracked IR dome, for instance -- I have an intact one I can drop in USPS, no charge. I hate to see more tech waste if someone can use any of it, so if you need any parts send me PM and we'll work out delivery.

Interesting side note for those concerned about heat: the entire backplate of the unit is pot metal, and there are thermal conduction pads coupling the hottest board components to the backplate. In essence, the entire backplate is a heatsink, so I don't think temperature is likely to be a long term problem.

guts.jpg
 
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