New RCA HSDB2A 3MP Doorbell IP Camera

argus said:
Thanks for the model info.
Seems like strange advice. I assumed that the reserve power is there to allow any recording that is in progress to have the file closed properly and avoid corrupted files on the SD card. I have a dash cam that has no battery but uses a capacitor for the same reason (Lithium batteries locked in a car during an Australian summer = not pretty).
Did they happen to comment on the high temperatures you were seeing with your unit?
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I didn't raise the high temp issues with support as of yet -- right now it's off my bench and mounted again outdoors, and its going below freezing tonight :)

I think you're right, the thing is probably supposed to power itself down after closing out open files on the SD card. I guess they're saying that if the light stays on for long, then it means there's something wrong with the card. But the whole thing indicates to me that there is plenty of reserve power in there, so I'm not sure why all the reboots.

As an aside, we're calling the behavior of going offline and turning red a reboot, but really it could just be an indication that it lost the wifi connection and is re-establishing. It's such a black box, there's no real way to get any kind of indication of uptime from its internal OS. I did a portscan on it, and only RTSP is showing open. I wonder if there's a debug mode undocumented somewhere that we could put the thing into with the right press of the reset button. I'll try to cajole that out of the techs at either RCA or EZVIZ. :)

Chad, you had mentioned using IVMS-4200 software to change some settings on the camera -- how does that work exactly? I found this link Versatile video management software but its not clear what is involved in getting this going... or what the bang for the effort is :) would it tell me more definitively if the camera is rebooting or just restarting its wifi connection? (My Orbi Satellite has been challenged by the latest Firmware V2.2.1.210 and I'm trying to stabilize it so its complicating matters)
 
Glen Mark said:
I didn't raise the high temp issues with support as of yet -- right now it's off my bench and mounted again outdoors, and its going below freezing tonight :)
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If you are speaking to them again I'd be interested to know what they consider normal.

Stumbled across this the other day but have not had a chance to look at it in detail, not sure if already posted on here.
FCC ID VIXHSDB2 Video Doorbell by Voxx Accessories Corp.

Edit: Looking at the internal photos there is clearly a 3.7V, 220mAh LiPo battery in there made by Li-Fun Technology Co Ltd
 
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argus said:
Stumbled across this the other day but have not had a chance to look at it in detail, not sure if already posted on here.
FCC ID VIXHSDB2 Video Doorbell by Voxx Accessories Corp.

Edit: Looking at the internal photos there is clearly a 3.7V, 220mAh LiPo battery in there made by Li-Fun Technology Co Ltd
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Wow, Argus, you are VERY intrepid. I'd never looked at FCC filings. Smart move. There is a big cap, but it couldn't supply enough juice to do an orderly shutdown. BTW I was hoping that the big thing in the middle was a PIR to avoid false alerting, but, alas, it looks to me like it's just a big old speaker :( and the motion detection is via the camera. Explains why it falses so much from their app when a truck drives by, even at the lowest setting. Pfff. Turning that off in favor of Blue Iris, foh shooha. Hope I can get the thing stabilized.

If they call me back, I will ask about overheating.

By the way, I did get another note from the RCA people, definitely not interested in being helpful to this crowd or getting into the unit to learn what is actually happening:

Regarding the RTSP, Both RCA doorbell camera models are designed as a closed system between the camera and the RCA Security app. The IP interface and login are not supported features of this product. We don’t provide support for this nor can we guide you to access the RTSP feed in any capacity.​

Sounds like the finger to me. I'm still in my return window, so they better watch out or they will get a very used box of parts back lol

Chad, I'm going to try the download and let you know.
--glen
 
Chadsturgill said:
Possibly. I think you may be able to enable some extra logging. Here is the link.

Download | Client Software - Hikvision
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Chad, I got the IVMS software loaded and talking to the camera. For some reason it doesn't see to be able to pull a video image from the camera, and some settings are grayed like Motion configuration. But that's neither here nor there.

The one thing it did confirm for me (thanks to your help) is that the device is rebooting, since I can see that the date/time Blue Iris reports the video connection to the camera was restored coincides with the device start time in the (lower) discovery window, as well as in the log. So, looks like I have some more work to do on the wiring, or maybe I need to run the device with the electronic chime and power pak attached on the bench, rather than using the resistor to see if it reboots when the chime is in place. I think I'll check the wiring first (This Old House) before I pull all the components off onto the bench.
 
I honestly wondered about your wiring. Maybe there is an intermittent short, or the wire is too small. That would suck. A good ohm meter might be of some help in that regard. If it’s a break you may see more resistance than what would be typical on a copper wire.

I got mine back, installed it and it’s working like a dream. No reboots and the pink video artifacts are gone. I could re-enable push notifications in BI now.
 
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Chadsturgill said:
I honestly wondered about your wiring. Maybe there is an intermittent short, or the wire is too small. That would suck. A good ohm meter might be of some help in that regard. If it’s a break you may see more resistance than what would be typical on a copper wire.

I got mine back, installed it and it’s working like a dream. No reboots and the pink video artifacts are gone. I could re-enable push notifications in BI now.
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Hey Chad, just an update. I did some re-wiring -- but honestly most of my wire is buried in so many walls (one which is not accessible from the basement), that I would have to go fishing (and plastering and painting) to rework it all... ugh. My change made no material difference, really. Somehow it seemed to stay up longer at first, went about 12 hours without a reboot. Then it just started rebooting every few minutes. Makes no sense.

Without Blue Iris talking to the cam, it went two days with VLC playing the same exact stream as Blue Iris -- solid as a rock. It **has** to be something Blue Iris is doing to either cause extra current draw (which I can't spot on my ammeter) or a packet of death causing a crash somehow. I can tell you that I can make it crash pretty readily by restarting the camera video in Blue Iris a couple of times. I tried messing with the stream settings, lowering the frame rate and bitrate to slow down the wifi, but, alas, no change. Pfff.

Any thoughts? Where did you leave your settings at once you mucked with them in the IVMS app?
 
Glen Mark said:
Hey Chad, just an update. I did some re-wiring -- but honestly most of my wire is buried in so many walls (one which is not accessible from the basement), that I would have to go fishing (and plastering and painting) to rework it all... ugh. My change made no material difference, really. Somehow it seemed to stay up longer at first, went about 12 hours without a reboot. Then it just started rebooting every few minutes. Makes no sense.

Without Blue Iris talking to the cam, it went two days with VLC playing the same exact stream as Blue Iris -- solid as a rock. It **has** to be something Blue Iris is doing to either cause extra current draw (which I can't spot on my ammeter) or a packet of death causing a crash somehow. I can tell you that I can make it crash pretty readily by restarting the camera video in Blue Iris a couple of times. I tried messing with the stream settings, lowering the frame rate and bitrate to slow down the wifi, but, alas, no change. Pfff.

Any thoughts? Where did you leave your settings at once you mucked with them in the IVMS app?
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You will need to email blue iris support and give him access to the camera.
 
My RCA doorbell locked up from a BI perspective but was working fine in the RCA app. I used ivms 4200 to remotely reboot it and the RTSP came back alive. So there could be some issues at times. This happened after about 5 days of running continuously without any other issues.
 
Chad, When you go into IVMS the next time, check the Start Time timestamp on the device at the bottom half of the main Device Mangement screen and write it down -- see if it changes, this is the last boot time. Also, check the BI logs to see if you get a signal restored message from time to time.
 
It’s the same thing but it may have restricted firmware on it. It’s $219 on Amazon! Wow! Your link didn’t work BTW.
 
Chadsturgill said:
It’s the same thing but it may have restricted firmware on it. It’s $219 on Amazon! Wow! Your link didn’t work BTW.
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If they’re technically the same camera, is the difference in price with the RCA being cheaper because you’re saying the RCA is locked down with their firmware? Do you know if the RCA would work with a Hikvision NVR or if the EZVIZ version would?
 
To be clear, I am speculating that that are the same hardware platform based on the fact that the first generation version was the same across all branded versions. That being said, I can’t tell you why the EZviz is so expensive. The RCA doesn’t appear to be locked down other than what we know, which is no WebUI, no ONVIF, and even though RTSP exists, RCA/Vox claims its unsupported. I know from talking to Ryan at Nelly’s that the EZViz specifics devices have been known to have locked down firmware. That is his claims, not mine. The EZViz doorbell looks identical to the RCA from the exterior perspective and the specs look the same as well. If someone wants to be the first guinea pig like I was for the RCA, I would bet there would be a lot to be gained from an information perspective. For that price though I can understand if no one takes it on.
 
Chadsturgill said:
To be clear, I am speculating that that are the same hardware platform based on the fact that the first generation version was the same across all branded versions. That being said, I can’t tell you why the EZviz is so expensive. The RCA doesn’t appear to be locked down other than what we know, which is no WebUI, no ONVIF, and even though RTSP exists, RCA/Vox claims its unsupported. I know from talking to Ryan at Nelly’s that the EZViz specifics devices have been known to have locked down firmware. That is his claims, not mine. The EZViz doorbell looks identical to the RCA from the exterior perspective and the specs look the same as well. If someone wants to be the first guinea pig like I was for the RCA, I would bet there would be a lot to be gained from an information perspective. For that price though I can understand if no one takes it on.
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Thanks for the info. They’re not totally identical, the top lens looks different but that might just be aesthetics. I realize it’s not ONVIF compliant but do you have an RCA NVR and if so are you able to record to it? I read in some other comments that RCA owners cant record to RCA NVR’s. I have a Hikvision NVR so if the EZVIZ version would work with my NVR then the price hike is justified.
 
Pretty sure it's the same. I pulled these screenshots from iVMS 4200 when connected to my RCA Security Camera.
 

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Chadsturgill said:
Pretty sure it's the same. I pulled these screenshots from iVMS 4200 when connected to my RCA Security Camera.
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Hey Chad. Just got notice on the EZVIZ app of a firmware upgrade to 5.2.4 build 181121 (from 181024)

1. Solve the problem that no response for ring bell on certain conditions
2. Optimize performance for ring push
3. Solve the problem of inappropriate time zone display
4. Improve the stability of device

(The bad English is not me lol)

So I'm curious -- you seem to have gotten your IVMS 4200 to talk to your doorbell and display images. I have never gotten that to work on my doorbell. More mysteries with my unit.... Maybe I should try a factory reset again... pff
 
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