New RCA HSDB2A 3MP Doorbell IP Camera

[David L]

Did another outdoor with cover on temperatures test post installation of the 16VAC / 10VA transformer. Here mine is in the basement about 5 feet below the chime on the main floor and a short run of maybe 25 feet to the doorbell on the front door. I've switched the tranformer a few times now in the last few weeks so it now takes about 15 minutes to swap it out.

Here in the midwest.

Ambient temps outside a few minutes ago are 50 ° F.

Tested temps on sides and top cover.

All side plastic temps were around 60 ° F except for front face.

Front face / cover camera section was around 62°F. Middle PIR section was around 68 °F and bottom button section was around 60° F.

I am fine with these temps and not concerned any more.

Hmmm, on our Doorbell I found the hottest section to be around the Lens area and the temp. lowered as I went down the Doorbell from Lens area to PIR section then Button section being the lowest. Your middle PIR area is hotter than your Lens area, interesting...

My 16v/10va worked fine with our Mech. Chime while pressing the Doorbell button. Only reason I changed it out was my thought of running two to three 24/7 streams may bring on more load on the Doorbell. I stayed with 16v not to push more voltage to the Chime (Making it louder) and figured 30va should be able to handle any extra load. So now you got me thinking, which this has been brought up several times in this forum, if the range on these Doorbells is 8-24 volts, operating at the lowest voltage in theory should produce the least amount of heat, kinda like it does with CPUs. Chadsturgill posted message #32 & message #33 here stating 12va would probably be minimum load needed for this Doorbell. I do know each transformer will give off different voltage/amperage readings, usually higher than labeled, see video below...

Funny but the guy's name on this video is Chad too
16V 10va VS 16V 30va Doorbell Transformer

 

[vc1234]

According to my measurements, the doorbell consumes about 200mA at 19V when fed with a 10/16. It consumes about 125mA at 28V when fed with a 24/40 transformer , about the same 3.8VA. However, the camera is about 10F hotter when fed with 28V as opposed to 19V which is probably caused by the voltage regulator dissipating more energy to lower the voltage to whatever it needs. The bigger transformer is also running hotter perhaps due to poorly designed core despite the smaller current. The smaller one is barely warm, while the bigger one is about 120F hot.

I am not having any issues so far with a 16/10 and a mechyanical chime but if/when I do I'll probably move to a 16/30.

 

[pete_c]

Thank you folks.

Yes it was odd that the center of the cover of the doorbell was warmest after testing. Just tested it again and it is the temperatures are the same as before.

So here for time bean will leave the 16/10 transformer in place and see how the doorbell functions for the next few months.
Note too that my mechanical chime here is labeled 10VAC and is louder with the 16/10 transformer.

I never could get the Elk930 doorbell sensor circuit working with any of the transformers I used with the Hikvision Doorbell.
That and the original 10/5 transformer worked with the Ring Doorbell, mechanical chime and ELK-930 doorbell detector.

I installed a Ring Doorbell next door around same time I installed mine with same voltage transformer and mechanical chime and it has been working fine minus Elk doorbell sensor.

The ELK-930 Doorbell Detector monitors the current draw of a doorbell and produces an open collector output when the
pushbutton is pressed and the doorbell draws 900mA or more.

 

[David L]

According to my measurements, the doorbell consumes about 200mA at 19V when fed with a 10/16. It consumes about 125mA at 28V when fed with a 24/40 transformer , about the same 3.8VA. However, the camera is about 10F hotter when fed with 28V as opposed to 19V which is probably caused by the voltage regulator dissipating more energy to lower the voltage to whatever it needs. The bigger transformer is also running hotter perhaps due to poorly designed core despite the smaller current. The smaller one is barely warm, while the bigger one is about 120F hot.

I am not having any issues so far with a 16/10 and a mechyanical chime but if/when I do I'll probably move to a 16/30.

Thank you for the explanation, makes very much sense. I did not get rid of my 16v/10va trans, so I can always go back to it.

 

[David L]

Thank you folks.

Yes it was odd that the center of the cover of the doorbell was warmest after testing. Just tested it again and it is the temperatures are the same as before.

So here for time bean will leave the 16/10 transformer in place and see how the doorbell functions for the next few months.
Note too that my mechanical chime here is labeled 10VAC and is louder with the 16/10 transformer.

I never could get the Elk930 doorbell sensor circuit working with any of the transformers I used with the Hikvision Doorbell.
That and the original 10/5 transformer worked with the Ring Doorbell, mechanical chime and ELK-930 doorbell detector.

I installed a Ring Doorbell next door around same time I installed mine with same voltage transformer and mechanical chime and it has been working fine minus Elk doorbell sensor.

The ELK-930 Doorbell Detector monitors the current draw of a doorbell and produces an open collector output when the
pushbutton is pressed and the doorbell draws 900mA or more.

Maybe it is the Doorbells voltage regulator as vc1234 mentioned, that is different between the Ring and this Hikvision Doorbell?

 

[vc1234]

Some questions:

1. Is there a digital/electronic chime compatibility list similar to Ring's ?

2. What's the "best" current firmware supporting ONVIF ? Nelly's ? LaView's ? Or there's not much difference between those two ?

3. The RCA app can de-fisheye the image. My understanding is that if I record to an ONVIF capable DVR, such as Milestone, the playback will be fisheyed, correct ?

Thanks !

 

[Paul D]

I feel like i've read almost every post in here, but I'm sure I've missed something somewhere.

I received my doorbell today. RCA model
Downloaded iVMS4200 so that I could change firmware, clear logos, etc.
I'm stuck at first part. iVMS4200 sees the camera, I click on activate, and cannot get any further. Prompts for password (username is admin). The QR code is 6 digits, and iVMS4200 required 8-16. I tried ADMIN+the 6 digit code, and admin+the 6 digit code, etc. I've tried searching for password, and iVMS4200 password, and rca password, etc and cannot seem to find the answer in here. I'm sure its somewhere simple, but cannot seem to find it.

I already have the firmware (.dav) files I want and and also looking on how to turn off the outdoor "ding dong" noise. Have not found that either.

Sorry, just frustrated with myself. I spent most of the day looking through this forum preparing. I am replacing the 1st gen of this doorbell, so I feel like I know what I am doing. Anything thanks for any help.

EDIT:
OK I figured out how to get into the camera. I have updated the firmware, removed the logo, and got it added my laview NVR

Only two questions left. How do I turn off or turn down the outside "ding dong" sound, and how do I remove the Timestamp from the video image.
Thanks

 

[silencery]

IIRC, timestamp can be removed in laview app.

No one yet has found a way to disable the local chime on the doorbell

 

[Paul D]

IIRC, timestamp can be removed in laview app.

No one yet has found a way to disable the local chime on the doorbell

I’m using the app but don’t see the option. Can you give more details.
Disappointed about the bell sound but I’ll live with it. For now

 

[David L]

I feel like i've read almost every post in here, but I'm sure I've missed something somewhere.

I received my doorbell today. RCA model
Downloaded iVMS4200 so that I could change firmware, clear logos, etc.
I'm stuck at first part. iVMS4200 sees the camera, I click on activate, and cannot get any further. Prompts for password (username is admin). The QR code is 6 digits, and iVMS4200 required 8-16. I tried ADMIN+the 6 digit code, and admin+the 6 digit code, etc. I've tried searching for password, and iVMS4200 password, and rca password, etc and cannot seem to find the answer in here. I'm sure its somewhere simple, but cannot seem to find it.

I already have the firmware (.dav) files I want and and also looking on how to turn off the outdoor "ding dong" noise. Have not found that either.

Sorry, just frustrated with myself. I spent most of the day looking through this forum preparing. I am replacing the 1st gen of this doorbell, so I feel like I know what I am doing. Anything thanks for any help.

EDIT:
OK I figured out how to get into the camera. I have updated the firmware, removed the logo, and got it added my laview NVR

Only two questions left. How do I turn off or turn down the outside "ding dong" sound, and how do I remove the Timestamp from the video image.
Thanks

Yeah the iVMS-4200 software requires its own username/password account.

In iVMS-4200 you can remove Timestamp:

 

[pete_c]

Curious...

I have been asked if you can replace the RCA firmware with the generic Nelly firmware?

 

[Paul D]

Yeah the iVMS-4200 software requires its own username/password account.

In iVMS-4200 you can remove Timestamp:

View attachment 49398

Yeah the iVMS-4200 software requires its own username/password account.

In iVMS-4200 you can remove Timestamp:

View attachment 49398

Thanks, I was trying to move the date to a different area of the screen and see now that even though it moves in the configuration screen, it only will show in the bottom center of the screen.

Do any of the firmwares have an option to turn off the outside ring?

 

[David L]

Thanks, I was trying to move the date to a different area of the screen and see now that even though it moves in the configuration screen, it only will show in the bottom center of the screen.

Do any of the firmwares have an option to turn off the outside ring?

Not that I am aware of, But I cannot truly answer this since I have not tried any of the other firmwares, I did a search here and on the Net to see if anyone else has been able to turn it off and have not found anything yet. I will contact LaView today for you to see if they have any plans to add this feature to any future firmware, if it is even possible to do so. They are West coast and not there yet.

 

[jds580s]

I received my RCA HSDB2 yesterday and wanted to share a few quick thoughts in case anyone else runs into similar issues. I've seen most of this covered in earlier posts but will consolidate it here.

Phone Apps
The RCA Security app refused to allow me to complete the initial setup. It would crash on iOS during the wifi configuration stage so it was never able to connect to my network.
Next tried the Hikvision Hik-Connect app. It didn't crash but it would not progress passed the wifi stage, it appeared to be looking for the Hik ad-hoc network and I couldn't convince it that the RCA network was acceptable.
Third time was the charm. The LaView ONE app didn't give me any trouble at all. It discovered the network, didn't have any crashes, and proceeded through the rest of the setup process.

Network Settings
I logged into my router to assign it static IP and rebooted the camera

Desktop Configuration App
Next I installed the Hikvision Batch Config Tool on my computer. Connection settings are:
IP Address: IP_ADDRESS_OF_CAMERA
Port: 8000
User name: admin
Password: the verification code on the sticker that came on the doorbell

Updated Firmware
Then I used the Batch Config Tool to load the EZVIZ DB1 firmware CS-DB1-A0-1B3WPFR.dav
Once that was updated I turned off the RCA logo overlay using the Batch Config tool > Camera Settings > Image > Video Display, and saved changes.
Last I loaded the LaView firmware LV-PDB1630-U.dav which supports ONVIF

Temperatures
After the process above was finished I went to pick up the doorbell off my test bench, and it was seriously hot - as others have mentioned.
I took some measurements using a 16v 10va transformer to power it with the resistor installed and no chime. The faceplate was not installed.
Ambient room temp was roughly 22C / 72F
I let it cool to near ambient then plugged it in and imaged it every minute.
Measureing on the center of the back (between the two terminal screws) it rose from 27.1C to 49.3C over the course of about 40 minutes then stayed right around there. Then I took a few readings elsewhere to find the hottest external
Max temps:

1. Back center between terminals: 49.3C / 120.7F
2. Back hottest spot (upper left): 63.0C / 145.4F
3. Front Lens: 50.9C / 123.6F
4. Front Bell Button: 44.3C / 111.7F
5. Front PIR Sensor: 52.9C / 127.2F
6. Front hottest spot (upper left): 65.7C / 150.3F

Hopefully this thing doesn't cook itself during summer.

 

[vc1234]

1. Back center between terminals: 49.3C / 120.7F
2. Back hottest spot (upper left): 63.0C / 145.4F
3. Front Lens: 50.9C / 123.6F
4. Front Bell Button: 44.3C / 111.7F
5. Front PIR Sensor: 52.9C / 127.2F
6. Front hottest spot (upper left): 65.7C / 150.3F

Re. temp.

When I measured the temperature in the upper left corner (the hottest place for my camera as well), I had the cover on.

With a 24V(really 28V) transformer, it was 122-124F with a 88F ambient.
With a 16V(really 19V) transformer, it went down to 108-100F with about the same ambient. You could feel the difference with your hand.

What may be helping in my case to dissipate heat is that the camera is mounted on a concrete block wall. Now this temperature discussion makes me a bit uncomfortable to make a wooden wedge to improve the camera angle because wood would act as insulator. However, many folks mount the camera on a wood frame houses, so ...

 

[David L]

I received my RCA HSDB2 yesterday and wanted to share a few quick thoughts in case anyone else runs into similar issues. I've seen most of this covered in earlier posts but will consolidate it here.

Phone Apps
The RCA Security app refused to allow me to complete the initial setup. It would crash on iOS during the wifi configuration stage so it was never able to connect to my network.
Next tried the Hikvision Hik-Connect app. It didn't crash but it would not progress passed the wifi stage, it appeared to be looking for the Hik ad-hoc network and I couldn't convince it that the RCA network was acceptable.
Third time was the charm. The LaView ONE app didn't give me any trouble at all. It discovered the network, didn't have any crashes, and proceeded through the rest of the setup process.

Network Settings
I logged into my router to assign it static IP and rebooted the camera

Desktop Configuration App
Next I installed the Hikvision Batch Config Tool on my computer. Connection settings are:
IP Address: IP_ADDRESS_OF_CAMERA
Port: 8000
User name: admin
Password: the verification code on the sticker that came on the doorbell

Updated Firmware
Then I used the Batch Config Tool to load the EZVIZ DB1 firmware CS-DB1-A0-1B3WPFR.dav
Once that was updated I turned off the RCA logo overlay using the Batch Config tool > Camera Settings > Image > Video Display, and saved changes.
Last I loaded the LaView firmware LV-PDB1630-U.dav which supports ONVIF

Temperatures
After the process above was finished I went to pick up the doorbell off my test bench, and it was seriously hot - as others have mentioned.
I took some measurements using a 16v 10va transformer to power it with the resistor installed and no chime. The faceplate was not installed.
Ambient room temp was roughly 22C / 72F
I let it cool to near ambient then plugged it in and imaged it every minute.
Measureing on the center of the back (between the two terminal screws) it rose from 27.1C to 49.3C over the course of about 40 minutes then stayed right around there. Then I took a few readings elsewhere to find the hottest external
Max temps:

1. Back center between terminals: 49.3C / 120.7F
2. Back hottest spot (upper left): 63.0C / 145.4F
3. Front Lens: 50.9C / 123.6F
4. Front Bell Button: 44.3C / 111.7F
5. Front PIR Sensor: 52.9C / 127.2F
6. Front hottest spot (upper left): 65.7C / 150.3F

Hopefully this thing doesn't cook itself during summer.

View attachment 49430View attachment 49431View attachment 49432View attachment 49433View attachment 49434View attachment 49435

Nice write-up. Good starter Sticky.

 

[David L]

Re. temp.

When I measured the temperature in the upper left corner (the hottest place for my camera as well), I had the cover on.

With a 24V(really 28V) transformer, it was 122-124F with a 88F ambient.
With a 16V(really 19V) transformer, it went down to 108-100F with about the same ambient. You could feel the difference with your hand.

What may be helping in my case to dissipate heat is that the camera is mounted on a concrete block wall. Now this temperature discussion makes me a bit uncomfortable to make a wooden wedge to improve the camera angle because wood would act as insulator. However, many folks mount the camera on a wood frame houses, so ...

This is probably the best mount for cooling. Just need to be slightly modified. I have a family who has this mount with our Doorbell mounted in a corner, also I know a few people here has this mount.

Doorbell Mount



Oh and thanks for the voltage heat test. Explains a lot, more voltage, more heat...

 

[vc1234]

This is probably the best mount for cooling. Just need to be slightly modified. I have a family who has this mount with our Doorbell mounted in a corner, also I know a few people here has this mount.

Doorbell Mount

View attachment 49442View attachment 49443

Oh and thanks for the voltage heat test. Explains a lot, more voltage, more heat...

Thanks, I saw the mount, but it looks a bit fragile with wires exposed, so I decided to make a wedge from a pice of wood because the supplied wedge angle (about 20 degrees or so) is not quite sufficient. I need about 45.

Oh, there is a rubber nipple that can sort of protect wires, right ? I did not notice it when I saw the picture the first time.

 

[David L]

Thanks, I saw the mount, but it looks a bit fragile with wires exposed, so I decided to make a wedge from a pice of wood because the supplied wedge angle (about 20 degrees or so) is not quite sufficient. I need about 45.

Oh, there is a rubber nipple that can sort of protect wires, right ? I did not notice it when I saw the picture the first time.

Yes

 

[DilbertDonald]

My current DB is the RCA version (Latest Firmware 190124 - according to Ezviz App ) and my tests were taken directly on the surface of the unit (front and back) not mounted & with out the cover. It had been running for at least 30 minutes. Temps taken with a cheap infrared thermometer, back of wrist read 89 degrees, it was 70 degrees Fahrenheit indoors, test taken 6" away, no dedicated stream running yet, and using a 24VAC 40VA transformer. Depending on the accuracy of my thermometer, that is like 50-60 degrees hotter than the ambient temp. I am returning it to amazon and I have a Nelly version on the way so I will test and post the results of that here. I have not found any post of a hack to get into the web interface, does anyone think or know if that might be possible or has it been ruled out as not existing?

View attachment 49188

Update: The Nelly's version gets just as hot. I do like that is has no branding on it besides the plastic wrap that has a nelly's tag.