Amcrest AD410 Video Doorbell & Echo Show

Monocle

Many of the older Amcrest cameras work without the need for the Monocle Gateway; however if I recall correctly some Amazon devices like the Amazon FireTV Edition always seem to require the Monocle Gateway to work.

It seems like the video player or codecs in each of the Amazon devices/families vary and can be very picky about the video/audio streams. Additionally, it seems like certain Amazon devices (especially newer) are more picky about the security of the connection and require connecting to camera streams only on port 443 using TLS secure connections with a valid SSL certificate and a public DNS URL. This is where the Monocle Gateway steps in and provides/meets this additional security layer/requirements. If you are using only @tunnel then the Monocle Gateway does not modify the RTSP communication between the camera and Alexa device in any way — except for the HTTPS/SSL/TLS security wrapper layer.

Thanks, Robert

tammymfreeman

I will give the suggestions a try. I have an echo show 5. It announces just fine when the doorbell is pressed based on the amcrest home skill, just no video.

I have been so frustrated that I ordered a new doorbell that arrives today so if this doesn’t work I’ll try the new one.

Monocle

@tammymfreeman

Well, Monocle does not support any announcements/notifications for Doorbells … so it may not meet your needs anyway?

tammymfreeman

So I tried the new suggestions, still no video, just times out. I did notice though that in the gateway that 1. I don’t get all the other stuff after initialization and also the host ip that i circled below is not the same as my network, maybe that’s the problem?

Monocle

@tammymfreeman

That is the IP address that is automatically getting detected by the Monocle Gateway on startup. Are you running it inside a virtual machine or in a Docker container? Or just directly on your Windows workstation?

Thanks, Robert

tammymfreeman

directly from my windows 10 machine. then i prompt my alexa device and the next part shows up, but nothing else shows and the echo show just says waiting for camera then stops.

Monocle

@tammymfreeman

OK, it looks like we will need to override the default IP address by creating a monocle.properties file and explicitly setting the IP address using the rtsp.register.host=192.186.1.? property

Take a look at this help page:
https://monoclecam.com/monocle-gateway/custom-configuration

Make sure the property rtsp.register.host in uncommented and is set to the IP address of your Windows machine. Based on your camera’s IP in the log, I’ll assume that your windows machine is 192.168.1.???

Restart your Monocle Gateway. You might want to generate a new token after your new IP address is getting picked up to speed up the DNS resolution as the previous token is already tied to the incorrect 172 address and may take a little while to get updated and propagated.

Thanks, Robert

tammymfreeman

Thanks for that. That made the full script run and all the other info came up…BUT, now the show goes “hmmm the camera isn’t responding”. That’s the response I get when using the native skill provided by the manufacturer :(

Monocle

@tammymfreeman

Go ahead and post a log of what the Monocle Gateway is doing when your request the camera stream. I can take a look and see how far in the process it is getting and see if there is a clear reason why its not streaming.

bill

@Monocle Agree fully. However mine (thus far) will only work with the string I posted above. But thanks for your input! :+1:

tammymfreeman

Thanks for all the help. Here is the full output below (btw, it is still running, keeps trying something). I had to post a photo bc the actual code gets flagged as spam.

Monocle

@tammymfreeman

So it looks like its failing to authenticate with the camera.

1.). The first DESCRIBE request fails and the camera’s response indicates (via 401 response) that its wants DIGEST authentication. This is all normal.
2.). The Monocle Gateway then attempts DIGEST authentication but the camera rejects the auth request with a 401 response.
3.). The Monocle Gateway then attempts BASIC authentication but the camera rejects the auth request with a 401 response.
4.). Monocle Gateway then gives up because both methods of authentication have failed.

This would typically indicate an invalid username/password. Some cameras may be picky about special characters in the password. I also recall a bug in the the Hikvision doorbell camera firmware truncating the password to 6 characters and thus the user would have to only specify the first 6 characters if the password were longer. I would try verifying the username and password and then maybe try some simpler/shorter password combinations just to see if you can get it working.

Thanks, Robert

tammymfreeman

I really appreciate all the help and feedback. Unfortunately none of it worked. On a brighter note the new doorbell camera arrived and it works flawlessly with the built in Alexa skill :). I’ll be returning the Amcrest Camera.

bill

@tammymfreeman And what doorbell did you decided on, please ?

tammymfreeman

@bill I went with the Foscam listed below. So far so good. It added to my NVR with no problem using Onvif and it announces to all my devices and shows the live video on the echo all using the native skill.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B093WBF4MD?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details

justdo71

Was able to get a solution to work so that when the doorbell is rang it will show on the Echo Show. The quick and dirty explanation was to create an alexa routine connected to the binary sensor front_door_call_no_answered from Home Assistant and follow these videos to connect it to alexa:

For the tutorial to connect home assistant to alexa by everything smart home, I needed to make some small changes. In the Alexa development console, under permissions, turn on “Send Alexa Events”. In Home Assistant, edit the configuration.yaml file with the following values under smart_home

endpoint: https://api.amazonalexa.com/v3/events
client_id: YOUR_SKILL_CLIENT_ID
client_secret: YOUR_SKILL_CLIENT_SECRET

Reason why is because there needs to be a way for Home Assistant to push the state of the binary sensor to Alexa instead of Alexa pulling that data from Home Assistant.

bill

@tammymfreeman Sorry for my delay. Thank you for the info. It looks like a nice choice for sure, and I’m happy that it is working well for you. I had no idea that Foscam even had a doorbell. Continued success!! :relaxed:

bill

@justdo71 This looks great, but (maybe unfortunately) I do not use Home Assistant. I have my AD210 doorbell displaying fine (with audio also) through Monocle whenever I ask Alexa to show me the 'Doorbell". However when the doorbell is pressed Alexa only announces that someone is at the doorbell, but the camera doesn’t display anymore.

Of course the camera should display with the native Amcrest App itself without the need for Monocle, but that stopped working a while back. No idea why. :upside_down_face: