New RCA HSDB2A 3MP Doorbell IP Camera

David L

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me too since I save recording to the local card and having issue where it seem to stop when card are full.

(camera still work fine with card full and still send screenshot to phone when motion alert - just no playback available since card is full or something that causing it to stop recording to the local card.
Will do guys. So I just set it and will check it in 10 days. This has been a hard year, we lost our Mother back in January and our Father just passed away this past Sunday, busy week. Both our my parents in same year, wow what a year to remember.
 

David L

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I have an RCA branded doorbell with the latest Hikvision FW (200321). I use Unifi networking, and BlueIris NVR. The Android app is Guarding Vision. I am not recording anything locally.

I am having a similar issue where Unifi shows the doorbell connected and Guarding Vision works just fine, but Blue Iris shows the doorbell camera is not reachable. I have to either power off the doorbell or reboot from the iVMS-4200 app to get BlueIris to be able to access the video stream. The "problem" shows up again in 1-3 weeks. I used the stock RCA FW, and then the Nelly's 191216 FW with no issues for months. This problem has only occurred with the latest Hikvision FW. The RCA and Nelly's FW had poor color and made the greens look yellow. I'm willing to go back to an older FW if this really "fixes" this issue, but wanted to confirm what firmware versions people are using and having issues with HSDB2A/BlueIris.
Interesting; I can confirm I have had No disconnects recording 24/7 to Blue Iris (est. 10 months), other than when I was working on changing from an Asus AP to a TP-Link EAP Managed AP, I have a LaView running LaView's FW 190716.
So question, when did you get your RCA? Ran Nelly's FW? We had a major issue with newer RCA's bricking running on Nelly's FW earlier this year.
 

David L

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I found moving the RCA doorbell to 2.4GHz greatly reduced the disconnects. The stats in BlueIris show the disconnects significantly less vs. a "gut feel", so I too would recommend forcing 2.4Ghz if you can. I did install a mesh AP literally on the other side of a brick wall from the doorbell, and there were still several disconnects a day with 5GHz AP 1 foot away vs. 1 disconnect a week on 2.4GHz with the AP 50 ft away and through 3 brick/stone walls.
I found that too. My DB runs Much better on 2.4 instead of on 5Ghz band. I run 2 streams through Blue Iris, one 24/7, the other only motion. Also I have had a few VLC streams run while testing. Found out 3 RTSP streams is pretty much the limit for tis DB though.
 

David L

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Yes I did. Thanks for the response.
I can't believe no one else has seen this problem. As soon as anything gets too close to the camera, Blue iris locks up the ezviz cam and shows a connection loss. I have to reset it in BI then it's ok until the next intrusion
SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP!!! lol
I am still very new to BI, You might need to reach out to another Thread that focuses on BI issues. I just recently turned on Logging, you may try that to look at what the logs say. It is under Status 1598586248359.png
 

alexdelprete

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Will do guys. So I just set it and will check it in 10 days. This has been a hard year, we lost our Mother back in January and our Father just passed away this past Sunday, busy week. Both our my parents in same year, wow what a year to remember.
Condolences dear friend. It's been a tough and strange year. Be strong, I send you a big hug from Italy.
 

alexdelprete

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Atari guy here. First computer was Atari 400 (which I still have) with a cassette player attached to save the basic programs I typed from Antic Magazine articles :), one day hope to showcase it. And no I did not type on the bubble keyboard, I replaced the keyboard so in a way turning it into an Atari 800. Networking through the Atari XL/ST machines was through the MIDI port back then. Also had the first 8088 procs IBM PCs, and many clones. ARCNET? Remember that networking, BNC connectors :), I remember playing Doom with my 3 year old son, 27 years ago, he is now 30, though I think I may of been already been using a 10BASE-T network then.
I've used 10BASE-2 networks, cabling, crimping BNC connectors, the taps. When the network failed you had to find which of the connected nodes was the problem: a total pain in the ass. When you have to do any kind of maintenance, the whole network went down. :)
But you learn the foundations of networking and basics that let you understand how networks really work at low level (physical). When we switched to 10BASE-T ethernet and I saw the first hub it was incredible. Many years have passed. :)

1598613014340.png
 
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pete_c

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@alexdelprete

I like your use of the Shelly Uni device. Here was testing a modded Sonoff basic with a few soldered taps to GPIO pins, relay and temperature sensor and customized Tasmota firmware to the garage door. (up and down sensors, button and one temperature sensor). This worked fine with MQTT until last week when I decided to upgrade the firmware. It was a test devices as the current alarm panel is hard wired to the garage door. That said do you think the Shelly Uni device would serve my needs for the garage door (two analog sensors wired to it, button and temperature sensor). Analog sensors are just reed switches on the garage door up and down position, DS18xxx temperature sensor and a open/close button (which is an analog to digital conversion button).

Here too started with the Commodore 64 in the early 1980's. I did have a BBS configured here with a Pet Computer and then tapped in to a phone box outside for multiple phone lines using multiple Ventel modems with a customized hardware modem switcher running on the Commodore. Also had a Kaypro CPM "portable" computer that I used for bean counting at the time. In the 1970's played Star Trek on computer terminals in one building at school (very slow) and would use the teletype machines in water closets to play during long physics classes at the time. (6 hours of lab time). I remember in the 1960's never wanting anything to do with punch card programming. It was tedious. In the 90's went to using an Amiga computer / Toaster and helped a TV station migration over to using the Amiga Toaster for a business / stock reporting program that.
 

JimEPage

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I am having problems with this doorbell and Blue Iris that just started a month or two ago. 90% of the time that someone rings the bell, Blue Iris only shows the very top of the image in the video snapshots and on the app for live video. Recordings are still on the entire view. I fix this by disabling the camera in BI and then enabling it again. The problem typically begins again the next time someone rings the bell. I have two of these doorbells and they are both doing the same thing.

Has anyone else experienced this weird issue?
Yes, did you manage to fix this...?
 

JimEPage

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LOL this DB1 gets more and more weird with BI.
Now I noticed if I start video in the ezviz app, the screen splits into three in BI, and shows three images. It has to be reset, then sometimes it goes to a closeup view of the very top portion of the image, necessitating ANOTHER reset on BI.
I really wanted this DB1 to work specifically with BI, but it's really hit and miss. It seems any action in the ezviz app, someone pressing the bell or motion threshold being crossed starts a lockup in BI.
Starting to regret losing the Ring; if no one here knows how to solve this, I don't know who can!
Resetting the BI image every time someone approaches the DB1 is getting to be a real chore.
 
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pete_c

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Maybe it relates to BI sending ONVIF commands to the camera at the same time as the EZViz cloud application? Disconnect one or the other and see what happens?

Here do not utilize BI rather utilize RTSP on Zoneminder on Ubuntu Linux.

Looking at the doorbell camera here with the Onvif viewer see all kinds of uneditable ONVIF commands that state mobile at the top.

I have tried to tinker with the ONVIF mobile verbiage even though it is ghosted out and always debends the application in Windows 2016 server.
 

JimEPage

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Maybe it relates to BI sending ONVIF commands to the camera at the same time as the EZViz cloud application? Disconnect one or the other and see what happens?

Here do not utilize BI rather utilize RTSP on Zoneminder on Ubuntu Linux.

Looking at the doorbell camera here with the Onvif viewer see all kinds of uneditable ONVIF commands that state mobile at the top.

I have tried to tinker with the ONVIF mobile verbiage even though it is ghosted out and always debends the application in Windows 2016 server.
THAT did it! You, SIR, are a steely-eyed Missile Man!
Once I disabled onvif in BI (because EZVIZ doesn't support it), everything was fixed.
THANK YOU. You just solved a 10 hour mystery.
Very much appreciated for your suggestion.
 

pete_c

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Good news. Can you switch BI to using RTSP?

I am playing here with two open board Hikvision cameras. Everytime I change the location of country/china to America/Chicago it changes back to country/china on one of two cameras. The second on is a bit different and it stays in Chicago.

Here is some of the ONVIF code (I think that is what I am seeing) that EZViz is probably using to talk to your Video Doorbell).

Everytime I have tried to edit this stuff the ONVIF program locks up.

videoanalytics.jpg
 
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Interesting; I can confirm I have had No disconnects recording 24/7 to Blue Iris (est. 10 months), other than when I was working on changing from an Asus AP to a TP-Link EAP Managed AP, I have a LaView running LaView's FW 190716.
So question, when did you get your RCA? Ran Nelly's FW? We had a major issue with newer RCA's bricking running on Nelly's FW earlier this year.
I bought the unit in early Dec 2019. I installed between Christmas and New Years. I bricked it with the Nelly's FW in Jan or Feb, but revived with a trick I found on here. The video was so yellow, but after thinking I totally hosed the doorbell with the Nelly's FW I put up with the bad video color. In Early March or April I was willing to risk re-flashing to get away from the yellow tint and flashed the Hikvision FW (with zero issues) and the problems with Blue Iris disconnecting started about a month later. When it happens the Guarding Vision app still works, so I know the camera still works. The problem is with the method Blueiris uses to access the video.

Based on my theory the issues is how BlueIris access the video stream, this week I changed my camera type in Blue Iris from DS-2CD6... to "Other RTSP". The streaming path is different, so hoping this might help the reliability. If "Other RTSP" hangs I'll work my way through all of the Hikvision options to see if I find one path that is stable. The top option worked with the RCA and Nelly's FW so I did not change when I went to Hikvision.

I won't feel confident this "fixes" my problem for at least two months. I'll report back what I find.
 

usafltg

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Guys - Not sure if I just bricked my RCA or not.

After installing with the default RCA Security App, I then upgraded it to the stock latest firmware available successfully before doing anything else.

Then I downloaded the Batch Config, and the HikVision firmware, and hit upgrade.... of which I got the following screen:

2020-08-29_13-24-34.png

However, then I go out to the doorbell, and it's just a constant red led light on the button. Can't connect to the IP address, and can't ping it either. I took it apart, and manually disconnected the battery and it hooked it back up again, and goes right to red led light. There's no SSID or anything being broadcast from it.

Just looks like this.

IMG_2913.jpg

Is this thing bricked??? What the heck did I do wrong?
 

argus

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Had the same thing happen to me.
After reading through the 101 and various posts I did the following and it recovered.
Turn off power and wait for the red LEDs to go out
disconnect power kit box and chime if connected
remove sd card and format to FAT32
copy the HIK firmware to the card as downloaded
copy the HIK firmware to the card renamed to digicap.dav (so you have 2 files on the card)
reinstall SD card
press and hold reset button
apply power
LEDs will flash once, do not release reset button
continue to hold the reset button until LEDs turn blue and doorbell announces reset successful
This is a combination of various suggestions on here so not sure if all are necessary as I was trying different things as I read them.
The above is the combination I had when it came back to life..
 
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usafltg

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Had the same thing happen to me.
After reading through the 101 and various posts I did the following and it recovered.
Turn off power and wait for the red LEDs to go out
disconnect power kit box and chime if connected
remove sd card and format to FAT32
copy the HIK firmware to the card as downloaded
copy the HIK firmware to the card renamed to digicap.dav (so you have 2 files on the card)
reinstall SD card
press and hold reset button
apply power
LEDs will flash once, do not release button
continue to hold button until LEDs turn blue and doorbell announces reset successful
Just turned around my car from dropping this off to amazon. Am going to try this and will report back shortly!
 

argus

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Good luck
this is another variation that did not work for me
post 4519 by Skinah page 226
 
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