Wireless Video Camera Doorbell with APP Revisited

61 thoughts on “Wireless Video Camera Doorbell with APP Revisited”

1. Any chance you still use the XSH app with your doorball cam? I changed phones a while ago and thought I’d finally get the video/app setup again but now it keeps telling me my password isn’t long enough(first 8 chars, then 11 chars) and it says “connection failed).

   I get push notifications from the doorbell, so it’s on the network but when I click the green “Answer” button it keeps telling my my password is too short and the connection fails so no video.

   1. Hi Doug. Sadly no – the camera succumbed to Northeast England damp this spring and was non-recoverable. So in this case I can’t help – maybe someone else looking in may be helpful?

      1. Sorry to hear about your doorbell/camera. I recall you mentioned in your review that it was not weather protected. Which is very odd considering it is a doorbell which by its nature goes on the outside of the door which is “outside” where the weather is. 😉

         I have an option I will try and that’s to use an old tablet which has a 2.4Ghz WIFI interface. My current phone is 5GHz and my router has both 2.4 and 5GHz which could be the problem.

         I may even mount it a little higher up on the door when I remount it just to help protect it a bit more.

      2. update: I installed XSH on a old Nexus tablet and shared the config via the QRcode option from my phone which wasn’t logging in correctly. Oddly, the passphrase was defaulting to admin and that was not what I’d been setting it to when I did the many doorcam resets. I added more chars to make it longer than 8 chars and voila, it’s working on that tablet. I tried sharing the config back to my phone(with the 5GHz radio) and it still would not work so the 2.4GHz router network might be blocking some of the video stuff since notifications do get picked up on the 5GHz phone.

         Peter, thanks for documenting your journey with this device(and all clones).

2. Hi Peter,
   Thanks for your reply, sorry to hear that you and Amazon don’t get on well together, unfortunately in my situation I rely on customer support (along with amazing blogs like yours) when I am buying technical stuff, something I don’t seem to receive from Banggood.
   I recently purchased a usb to sata adaptor, which I can’t get to work properly. I probably have a setting wrong or something like that, but their technical support is for me to send it back for a refund, instead of troubleshooting.
   Never mind.

3. Hi,
   I wondered if this usually comes with it’s own chime, or does it only work via a mobile phone?

   Also, there is one on Amazon that looks the same, is it likely to actually be the same, or just a copy?

   I tend to lean towards Amazon when buying stuff like this as I know they will always take it back if I’m not happy with it.

   1. Hi Paul – no great desire to fill Amazon’s already overflowing pockets in here… I CAN tell you that the unit in the link I provided DOES have a receiver unit that plugs into the mains and has the door chime (the rechargeable battery-powered doorbell ALSO has it’s own chime). I’m sure Banggood’s inability to ship this and some other stuff to the UK is only temporary. They’re not the only ones.

      (see https://www.banggood.com/Wireless-Camera-Video-Doorbell-Home-Security-WiFi-Smartphone-Remote-Video-Rainproof-p-1319708.html?utm_campaign=247370_1319708&utm_content=1087&p=6W232147703332016054&cur_warehouse=CZ)

4. Glad you made it again using RF.
   That was what I was talking about RF Bridge.
   It would be a great help if you could share the RF code that is displayed. I have already explained why this is so valuable to me and my own setup.

   1. Good morning..

      MQTT coming in – payload.RFReceived.Data is F3D9B1

      I turn payload.RFReceived.Data into payload and run that through a switch node. As I have 2 RFBRIDGES and there’s a chance of duplicate messages, I run the relevant two SEWITCH outputs through the rate limit node set to limit to 1 message per 2 seconds, abandoning extras. The output of THAT goes through a function node..

      msg.payload=”UK DOORBELL RINGING”;
      msg.topic=”Amy”;
      return msg;

      and that”s it. Well, nearly, I’m also sending that message to MQTT with a topic “TASKER” and if I could just convince TASKER and the MQT CLIENT plug-ins on my phone to work after a reboot……

5. Can you please sniff the RF code it transmits to activate the chime when you press the button? You can do this using Sonoff RF. I need this because I need to use the chime in another project and the doorbell stopped working all of the sudden.

6. Hi Peter,

   I picked up the M3-X-Cloud version of this camera and I currently run 2 18650’s hooked up and 12v power through the door frame. Never had an issue with it power wise yet even when the kids or wife turn off the plug by accident.. one issue i do have is it going off randomly for no reason when someone opens the door or just random in general. Unfortunately I live by the UK coast so I think some of that is partly the salt air causing problems internally. Can’t get the unit off as the “security” screw has rusted into the bottom.

   Came across your post after looking for a way to implement this into my HASS setup, so far I can’t see what ports its using, even using an aggressive port scanner while it’s broadcasting to the app I can’t see anything. Might have to try and wireshark the unit next and see what I can find out. As for a way to Tasmotise it, I don’t think that’s possible.. it’s not based around the ESP chip 🙁

7. Hey, I’ve had this camera XSH app for 2 years. Now the date won’t sync to the real date. It broke like this once already and restarting it fixed it. I’ve tried to do that again but it stays on the date 12-20-2016 and instead of showing the time, it just counts up from 00:00:00 from when you started viewing the screen. It means it won’t store any videos in the cloud and it’s so frustrating. Any tips, even if insanely technical!?

8. Hi Pete

   How is the video doorbell ,working still,I’m after a new one ,has this one got terminals at back so you can power via mains adapter?

   1. Hi Tony – from what I recall it has some fairly easy means to power externally. As you mention it, check out the short update you just triggered me into writing.

   2. It will run off of the standard doorbell transformer which is AC and I seem to remember was approx 16V when I installed this unit. Connecting wires are supplied.

9. Did anyone figure how to capture the video stream without using the app? Using nmap it only found port 80 open, not sure if it has an rtsp port available.

   1. Always worth checking port 554 – thats common for RTSP. I’m just using it as standard right now, I’m on on holiday and don’t want to upset things while it is working. Perhaps when I get back.

10. @peter, if you do get in touch with the manufacturer, having a feature to record video on button press(door bell) would go a long way to making it useful on battery power. With PIR off and an SD card installed it doesn’t seem to drain much since it can go to sleep and has 0 mA used.
    When the button is pushed and you’re streaming SD quality it pulls ~200mA and with nothing connected streaming it pulls ~150mA.

    I did just realize that if I leave the app running in the background, it will connect to the camera within a few seconds. So that’s good.

    1. Well, I just realised today that leaving the App turned on, on my desk with the camera showing for half an hour, took the battery from full to 75% – won’t do that again.

11. I’m not so sure, yesterday I replaced the batteries – and late tonught they are showing 100% – could it have been the battery set? They were old batteries, I know by the colour this lot while still being ex-computer are newer, no more than 5-6 years old… 11:30pm Sunday, display says 100% – I’ll check again during the week..

12. Hmm, the battery lifetime doesn’t sound great then.

    In this case it seems you get what you pay for.

13. I have over 1300 18650s here so I just keep changing them Peter :’)
    I am in DIY Charger Discharger on facebook. There maybe someone near you with spare 18650s to help you out mate.

    1. I have spare 18650s, no worries, mind you nowhere near 1300, moew likw 13 if that 🙂

14. I brought one and installed it yesterday. Batteries are down after half a day. No ports open? Got it’s IP address. Anyone fine our much about this unit. Would love it working with node red.

    1. Node Red is my next job – it is working a treat but I dont understand why the battery exhausts so quickly – if you find out let me know – meanwhile I’ll harrass Banggood about it – and I have a charging solution so it’s staying put.

15. On the video door bell I have ,when you set PIR sensor to on it really drained the battery quick,how’s your video door bell going Peter?

    1. HEY SPARKY70 – thanks for the feedback – I have the PIR on low sensitivity – and yes it is killing the battery after just a few days – I’ve yet to try turning the PIR off… don;t actually need it – but keep the feedback coming chaps. So Sparky70 what do you reck for battery life with PIR on? I’ll put chrged batteries in today if it isn’t raining and try with the PIR off.

       1. Hi Peter mine did last longer with out pir on not sure by how much,my draw back on mine is the hit and miss of the cloud service i believe,mines more offline than online,is yours the same?

          1. Hi Tony

             I don’t use the cloud service – it is turned on but ultimately I’ll fit an SD when I get around to it. I use a VPN and call home that way – right now far more of a potential issue is Vodaphone’s unreliable broadband and crappy customer service – so I rely on the cloud as little as possible. I’ve been pondering getting another SIM, low data, no calls (if such a thing exists on the only reliable mobile service in this part of Northumberland, UK – that would be O2 as Voda have NO mobile service up here) as a backup.

             1. run an “intense scan” using zenmap on its ip, report what you get back, let’s see if it has any open protocol usable…

                and search for IOT SIM CARD, in Italy there are a few with very cheap plans, not much data, just for that

                1. and let me know how that goes…

                   1. ?

                   2. I didnt mean you, Antonio 🙂

                      1. sorry, you commented me, no problem 🙂

             2. Hey, I have the same doorbell camera and can’t seem to review my footage (or even know when it’s recording). Have you had any luck with this

                1. Not tried, Roketo. At some point I will – and will report back.

16. I’d be upset if someone hacked my lock – but doorbell? Chances are they would be nearby and I could simply beat the c**p out of them. The camera part does not run on 433Mhz, just the bell, the rest runs on WIFI and I don’t open a range of ports to the outside world – I use a vpn.

    Right now, despite loving my new doorbell, I’m marginally concerned that despite having put in 3 fully charged Lithiums when I wrote this – and turning off the IR light… the battery indicator shows it is at half mast. I do hope that’s just a duff indication as I put this in a stone wall no-where near power. It’s rather neat being able to monitor the front door from the pub.

    1. Am tempted by one of these but your initial battery lifetime reports aren’t encouraging. Let us know how it works out.

       1. I’m beginning to wonder if the camera simply has a really ropy battery indicator. The level went fown to 50% and has stayed there without moving all weekend and the whole thing works just fine.

          1. maybe it’s just the first charges, and the fact it stays in the cold during these early (dis)charges

             1. Well, there is that – it is REALLY cold here, but I didn’t use brand new batteries so that theory goes out of the window… they should be fine. Sparky70 made a comment about the PIR I need to chase up and I’ll try to get feedback from Banggood.

17. I built a ‘doorbell’ of sorts some time ago and actually wrote it up 🙂
    Take a look at: http://myiot.co.uk/doorbell/

    It worked really well. The latency could sometimes be a problem but I would usually receive a notification on my phone within a few seconds.

    I’ve used Twilio for (SMS) phone notifications previously. It’s great but I ended up with an unexpected bill which I didn’t appreciate. I moved on to Pushover which isn’t free, but a small single payment is required, & you can try before you buy.

    I’ve messed around with a few 433MHz doorbells & can offer a few words of advice:
    They are not always 433MHz despite what it says on the box! 🙁
    Some of them use rolling codes which can be confusing. It certainly confused me! I guess it’s just a common chip which is used for all sorts of things?

    The devices I was working with transmit 8 different codes cyclically. The receiver will respond to ANY of the 8 codes EXCEPT the last one received, presumably this is to prevent nefarious cloning of the transmitter? Doesn’t make a lot of sense with a doorbell, but maybe makes sense with a lock?

    Quite easy to hack when you understand what is going on, but it took me an evening! 🙁

18. Does or will it operate without a cloud backend?

19. Hi I’m looking for a new video door bell ,to change my existing one of a Digoo SB-XYA what is hopeless more offline than on.has a update and doesn’t update

20. I brought just the bell and managed to capture the rf bell sounds with a rf bridge. Then added buttos in node red. Also set up,a motion pir. Which will play one of the bells tunes when activated

    1. Sounds like fun. Great.

    2. did the same, i captured their code, and made a little “ping” sensor+rf sender, when someone moves in front of the ping, it sends the rf codes… found it more accurate than the pir one…

       

    3. I JUST got my Sonoff RF Bridge.

21. Does it have a local API for control and capturing video?

    1. No idea at this point. I will take a look but I suspect the info with it is end-user oriented.

       1. try doing a “intense nmap scan” on its ip address to see which ports are open, and take a “ping -t its-ip” to see if it stays connected or goes to sleep…

          mine was sleeping most of the time and enabled wifi only in visitor pressing the button, so a little delay between actual pressing and video starting to stream…

          1. There’s quite a number of seconds which go by before the app will connect to the camera after the button is pressed(doorbell ring). A shame because the delay is so great you’re chance of seeing who is there if they are dropping something off is nil. A guest will wait a bit longer and might even ring twice.

             I was hoping at the very least that there would be a way to enable recording on button press. ie immediate record of who pushed the button even if the live stream was delayed, the recorded video would be a good alternative. But I could find no way to do that. PIR might do that but without external power that’d be useless due to dead batteries from lots of false triggers.

             I opened mine up and was hoping for an ESP32 but it is not so unlikely to easily hack. Although I did see a 4 pads which might be programming pins for the processor used(not AVR nor MicroChip).

             It will work with a WiFi router not connected to the Internet. But I saw what looked like lots of Internet traffic when I momentarily connected the router to the Internet. Even though I had the cloud feature turned off.

             Mostly a paper weight it seems.

             1. Hmm, mine responds instantly. NOt suer why you would ASSUME something not advertised – marketing people rarely miss tricks like that. For processor – I just wanted a doorbell, in this instance it could be powered by aliens – I’m not fussed. It does work with a WIFI routter and of course, sensibly NOT over the Internet unless you use a VPN – so no Chinese cloud – that’s a good thing IMHO. I use PIVPN – free and simple for ALL esternal access…OpenVPN standard. Any old Pi from v2 onwards will do.

                1. I do think it would be good if the PIR didnt use lots of battery power – but other than that, perfect – battery still full weeks later. If it were not that I have 200 year old thick stone walls I’d give it power.

                2. Yes, it will respond quickly if you all the Xsh app to run active in the background on your phone.

                   As for expecting unlisted features, well it has an SD card, it has a camera and it has both a PIR sensor and it has a button. The world is buzzing with the RING door bell/camera and it actively records on triggers. It’s a simple software feature so even though this is ~$35 and the RING is ~$100 I was hoping it was there. My bad.

             2. Correct installation is crucial for these cheap systems. I connected a WiFi extender right behind the main door. Without it, connection takes ages. You must connect to 2.4ghz network which does not disconnect at any time, otherwise you will need to restart unit whilst WiFi signal is already functional. Reason being that unit does not automatically start scanning for a WiFi if signal is lost so you will lose functionality upon signal disconnect even if WiFi signal becomes functional again. Upon restart, unit starts scanning for available WiFi and connects to the programmed one. Finally, external Door bell unit is not very weather proof. I protected mine with a mini porch…. The previous one short circuited beyond repair with the first rainfall. The one I have now has been working perfectly fine even after several thunderstorms and I manage to speak to visitors in real time even when I’m abroad without any problem whatsoever!

                1. In my case the doorbell is connected to a Vodafone router (the latest one, only came out a few months ago) in the loft. It works well. I found the most important thing was to use GOOD BATTERIES. At first I used a couple of ex-laptop batteries and was disappointed with battery life, pointing the blame at the doorbell – then I checke battery capacity – sure enough, it was down compared to expected capacity. I’ve purchased decent brand-name Lithiums now and after weeks of operation the battery level shows 100% – this has also all survived a power cut without issue. I am confident it will work all summer without maintenance.

       2. I have had stewarddave2@gmail.com.
          Bobsteward@gmail.com.and the password I have on bobsteward64@gmail.com is Alex1996.

22. Hello Pete,
    2 questions :
    1 : Is the sound correct to talk to your visitor ?
    2 : Have you try to catch the video stream ?

    Thank you to help

    1. I only just finished the review – not had visitors yet but the sound is fine. No tried caapturing the video feed. Don’t have a need for that.

       1. Thank you Peter

Comments are closed.