Review: EZVIZ DB1C

[kklee]

After lowering the sensitivity one notch lower than default, the human detection seems to have improved. It's definitely ignoring the area outside of the painted area now and triggering correctly.

 

[silencery]

Motion detection is working OK for me in the orange painted area only. It seems to properly exclude the area outside of the painted area. However human detection is broken for the painted areas. It definitely includes the entire scene. I've disabled it for now and am just using the MD.

I've also noticed that lots of settings with the Hikvision Batch Config can't be changed. I'm not able to turn WDR on at all using the Batch Config tool. I also can't change the exposure settings. The batch config tool throws an error and crashes when trying to change these items. I was able to remove the EZVIZ overlay logo on the top left of the image with the Batch Config tool however and add the name I wanted as an overlay ("Front Door").

Motion detection worked for me, but I had to greatly reduce the orange area to cover far less than expected. My suspicion is that the unusual aspect ratio of the image is not being correctly mapped 1:1 to the exclusion painting tool.

Which version of batch config are you using? I was able to successfully adjust WDR and exposure settings using Batch Config v3.0.2 build 20190520

 

[biggen]

After posting what I said about motion detection correctly ignoring non orange area, I was walking near the doorbell outside the painted area and it tripped the motion. I have the motion sensitivity set to 1 so there are definitely some issues. I am going to email them.

I just updated my batch config from 3.0.3.8 to 3.1.0.4. Now there are no settings to be found for WDR or FPS. There was a "CCD" menu topic to the left that those parameters were under with the older Batch Config but that is gone now with the updated version of the Batch Config tool.

 

[silencery]

After posting what I said about motion detection correctly ignoring non orange area, I was walking near the doorbell outside the painted area and it tripped the motion. I have the motion sensitivity set to 1 so there are definitely some issues. I am going to email them.

I just updated my batch config from 3.0.3.8 to 3.1.0.4. Now there are no settings to be found for WDR or FPS. There was a "CCD" menu topic to the left that those parameters were under with the older Batch Config but that is gone now with the updated version of the Batch Config tool.

You have to downgrade, not upgrade. They took out ccd for newer versions of batch config for some reason.

I was never able to successfully change the fps. Looks like they may have locked it?

 

[biggen]

You have to downgrade, not upgrade. They took out ccd for newer versions of batch config for some reason.

I was never able to successfully change the fps. Looks like they may have locked it?

Haha. Crazy Hikvision.

Well proper motion detection/people detection is really want I want. The other stuff is gravy. I'll email them and see what they say.

 

[kklee]

Well, I gave up on the human detection and disabled it. I thought I had it working, but now that it's dark out, cars driving by triggers it, even though the car is outside of the marked detection area. I tried clearing and resetting the detection area as well as lowering the sensitivity further, but that didn't help.

 

[biggen]

Yeah human detection is absolutely broken. Plain ole motion detection works reasonably well with the lowest sensitivity.

Email them. The more of us that do it the quicker it will get fixed. I emailed them earlier.

 

[silencery]

Do you guys have very busy environments? Also on the same firmware? I'm wondering why our results seem so different. I'll have to update the review to reflect this feedback so others are aware.

 

[biggen]

Not a busy scene at all. Just a neighborhood. Human detection is working for me but outside the bounds of the orange painted area. That is my issue.

 

[biggen]

EZVIZ sent me a reply but it was an empty email in the message body! In the return subject line of the blank email they sent me was my entire email I sent to them in one long sentence so I'm not sure how their automated email system screwed that up. So my hopes of getting through to them are diminished.

 

[kklee]

Do you guys have very busy environments? Also on the same firmware? I'm wondering why our results seem so different. I'll have to update the review to reflect this feedback so others are aware.

I'm not in a really busy location, probably a few cars an hour pass by. The way my house is situated and how the doorbell is mounted results in a view where the road is horizontally right in the middle of the picture. The detection area is configured to be the bottom half of the picture.

During the day, human detection seemed to be working once I turned down the sensitivity a bit, but once it was dark, cars driving by would trigger it, probably shadows being cast by headlights fooling the AI. Since I'm using BI with Sentry AI, I don't really need the doorbell's AI feature, but being a nerd, I have to play with it and try to make it work.

 

[planetix]

They may well improve it (and should) but no way will I believe the hardware in this thing is going to do any motion detection well, especially with no PIR sensor. External AI (Deepmind, Sentry (paid), Tensor, whatever) takes more effort to set up for sure but it will beat anything the hardware does.

 

[mangler]

Just tried to install mine today. Not off to a good start.

All the security screws/small screws were missing in my package. That includes the top torx screw and the wire connector screws. Does anybody know the size and thread for the wire connection screws? EZVIZ support so far has told me to contact the retailer...

The mounting screws are pure garbage, I nearly stripped them before I replaced them with the ones I removed from the builder doorbell button. The supplied screwdriver is surprisingly decent, adequate for the job.

 

[silencery]

Sorry to hear you ran into those troubles. In my review, you can see photos of how everything came out of the box. Screws were in sealed bags. Might you have received a used doorbell? Either way, I would take it up with the retailer.

I don't have a way of measuring the screw threads unfortunately. My best eyeball guess is they are M3 pan head screws. Probably about 6-7mm long. The pan head was the kind with the washer fixed to the screw head to give you more grip on the wire.

 

[David L]

I forgot to mention: some people probably want to know about alexa and Google connectivity. I didn't have a chance to check that, but I did notice the DB1C showed up in my list of devices in the alexa app.

Did you find out any more on Alexa/Google native support? Sounds like it has Alexa support...

 

[biggen]

I ended up hearing back from Ezviz about the motion detection ignoring the mask issues. They basically told me “The mask is just a rough guide but the detector can still detect objects outside the mask at times and cause alerts.”

Oh well. It still works well enough to do what I want it to do which is record those coming to the door.

 

[David L]

What alarm system do you have Konnected hooked to?

So Konnected is an Alarm System. They do have a INTERFACE board you can connect to an existing Analog System to make it Smart...
I have been running our Konnected Alarm system for over 2 years now...Actually found it on KickStarter Dec. 2017 but received/installed it mid-year 2018, it was a 6 month wait for development. The new Gen2 version took a year But it was very well worth the wait. Very nicely designed board:



My only complaint is you cannot set a Static IP on the device, your Router has to assign one via DHCP, you can of course Static Map an IP via the board's MAC address. I don't like the fact the board is dependent on a router for it's IP. Though I have been told by a few it will be fine Guess I am Old School.
I also read IT guys like managing IPs this way, instead of hunting down devices IPs. Being an old IT guy, I do remember IP conflicts when an old device got turned on (like a printer), hunting it down, so maybe I need to get with the times Back then you were only as good as your IP list

 

[Jessie.slimer]

So Konnected is an Alarm System. They do have a INTERFACE board you can connect to an existing Analog System to make it Smart...
I have been running our Konnected Alarm system for over 2 years now...Actually found it on KickStarter Dec. 2017 but received/installed it mid-year 2018, it was a 6 month wait for development. The new Gen2 version took a year But it was very well worth the wait. Very nicely designed board:

View attachment 78046

My only complaint is you cannot set a Static IP on the device, your Router has to assign one via DHCP, you can of course Static Map an IP via the board's MAC address. I don't like the fact the board is dependent on a router for it's IP. Though I have been told by a few it will be fine Guess I am Old School.
I also read IT guys like managing IPs this way, instead of hunting down devices IPs. Being an old IT guy, I do remember IP conflicts when an old device got turned on (like a printer), hunting it down, so maybe I need to get with the times Back then you were only as good as your IP list

Nice. I thought they were only add on units for existing systems. I will have to look into this, as ADT Command is very proprietary and does not let you interface with it to get statuses.

 

[biggen]

My only complaint is you cannot set a Static IP on the device, your Router has to assign one via DHCP, you can of course Static Map an IP via the board's MAC address. I don't like the fact the board is dependent on a router for it's IP. Though I have been told by a few it will be fine Guess I am Old School.
I also read IT guys like managing IPs this way, instead of hunting down devices IPs. Being an old IT guy, I do remember IP conflicts when an old device got turned on (like a printer), hunting it down, so maybe I need to get with the times Back then you were only as good as your IP list

Ha! Yeah, it should give the ability to hard code a static IP to it if one really wants to, but nobody does that any more. Much easier to have it all maintained by the router's DHCP server so you have only one management interface to configure.

I'll have to check this alarm out. Thanks for this information!

 

[mangler]

Sorry to hear you ran into those troubles. In my review, you can see photos of how everything came out of the box. Screws were in sealed bags. Might you have received a used doorbell? Either way, I would take it up with the retailer.

I don't have a way of measuring the screw threads unfortunately. My best eyeball guess is they are M3 pan head screws. Probably about 6-7mm long. The pan head was the kind with the washer fixed to the screw head to give you more grip on the wire.

Finally found some compatible screws in my "bag of computer screws". I have it installed with the side wedge, which also helps tuck the wire nuts by providing more depth.

One thing that is odd is I wish mine had HIGHER sensitivity. It triggers both in human detection and motion detection around 10-12 feet from the camera. Since I live in the sticks where nothing happens I wish I could monitor the parking lot for driving cars. I have sensitivity set to the max. I'm running V5.3.0 build 200509. I says there is an upgrade available (build 201106). Wondering which build is more "sensitive". Is there an easy way to preserve the old firmware and re-install it should the new one prove disappointing?