another new firmware? not sure what's new with this one when there is no official release notes. as usual please provide your feedback here. thank you.
warning: only perform the firmware update during daytime. there has been at least one report of firmware update bricking the doorbell at night when the doorbell is more power hungry due to night vision or an 'under powered' transformer. it's not worth the risk to perform a firmware update during nighttime.
Well as I thought before when the user said Warning.. Caution sounds like a better word... To be Honest I only made this as a guess to why one might brick the Camera trying to update at night because the Camera is going to take more power then it would over the normal use.. So when the camera is working day time will need less power so the extra power for update might be ok if Transformer is just to size yet needs more power or undersized and or cabling isn't up to par...
If you have any Connection issues or constant connection issues at night or your camera at night goes B/W to color over and over Caution on Updating your doorbell camera at night...
Just updated to this version. The notes for this firmware, as viewed in the Android version of the SmartHome app, stated it was to fix an issue where the doorbell shows as "offline".
Before the upgrade, mine had this problem. The Smarthome app showed the device as offline, but in the Amcrest ViewPro app, it was still showing video. The doorbell and motion detection wasn't working though.
I deleted it from my Smarthome account and re-added it. Still was "offline". I did a hard reset on the unit by holding in the button above the SD card slot for about 15 seconds.
The unit came up, I added it to Smarthome again, and now it's OK. At this point I saw the Firmware upgrade notification and did it.
Updated last night and of course didn't know about the night update issue. I think my unit is bricked. Hard reset 'appears' to work but I get no audio from the unit notifying of reset or after it is booted to say that the wifi is enabled to enroll the device. Am I hosed here? Anything else I can try?
- I've tried a hard reset
- I've completely power cycled the unit and hard reset (disconnected form power and let the juice run out - LED stayed on for a couple minutes after disconnected)
Sadly it sounds like you need to contact Amcrest for a replacement... At this point I am not sure there is anything that a End User can do to Recover these camera from its current state...
Contact Support and let them know you tried to update but the update failed and now it will not do anything
Sounds like you are in the same boat with me. Amcrest phone support verified complete brick and I’m in the process of setting up a warranty replacement.
I am very suspect of the proposed problem being nighttime - there is nothing substantial to back this theory up. I have a strong transformer which has never given me any troubles with nighttime operation (including constant IR usage), and when I attempted the update the IRs weren’t even activated because my porch light was on. More likely is that the firmware update process is not very bulletproof and unfortunately it has been shown through other interactions that the “hard reset” doesn’t recover from all situations as it should.
There is a lot to Support the issue with being a Transformer or Wiring issue at night...
So here is some info...
1 When a camera is working right and things are happening just as they should the time it takes to turn off the camera when removed from power will be less then when the camera is not working right and has no activity within the camera when removed from power it will take longer to discharge caps to turn off the LED around button...
2 When camera is working right at night or even at the day times... If there is not enough power it or might be enough power but on to little of Wire for a good solid connection the camera can function right or what seems right because what happens while on a Cycle of power the camera is powering itself... Then could be just before it fails the camera is able to be powered and keep the Caps enough to keep camera going without an outage... However if someone was to Press the button a couple of times or even Hold the button for 10 seconds that might have been just enough to discharge the camera to make it reboot...
Sadly there are many people out there that have had issues with IR or night time running... While I am not saying this is your case.. .But there is Loads of people that after updating the Transformer they owned to a new one same or larger then one they have the camera works right... I know from first hand working with some of my Friends that thought they had no power issue and the camera was to blame proved to them it was power related either by them using my 24vac 100va Transformer or by running some testing to show them that the wiring they are using isn't up to the task...
As I have said before when you have a normal doorbell and use 24awg or 20awg it can work without issue most times because there is no power going though the lines besides when the button is pressed and most times this is for a very short time... However when you have same wiring that is really to small going over Distance and now trying to power a doorbell camera there is going to be issue or can be... 20awg in a short run is ok but to be fair 18awg should be used for powering the Camera just like you would power a Normal Security Camera...
So what people don't understand, Size matters, That goes for Wire, transformer, and distance of wire...
I don't want to say that your STRONG TRANSFORMER isn't strong enough.. But I am saying for Some that is the case... they have a 20va Doorbell and have a 30va Transformer to start with so when they get the Doorbell Camera and 30va is Recommended size this is MIN Recommended size.. This is under the idea that the House has a 10va Doorbell... Someone with a 20va doorbell would be better off with a 45 or 50va transformer...
Another major issue is people think that 24vac 30 is the same or better the MIN and sadly it is worse... Being only 1.25amps when the 16vac 30va is 1.875 amps... So under the 24vac one would need a 45va to be at the MIN...
So I had a Friend that was running his cabin on a transformer and things working well until the front light went out that night it kept going on and off and he thought it killed the camera but it was because with IR on it was no a strong enough transformer to keep the doorbell camera going...
So in the END... Please note just because your camera isn't in IR Mode.. When your camera is working at night, and then doing an Update there is EXTRA Power needs... It is needing more power because it is doing more then just sitting there waiting and watching and providing some data over the network to the Cloud in 1's and 0's it is now working,, this work needs more power..
Finally did the hardreset. The app sucks, I had to delete from my Samsung J3 android phone and reload it and do it all from scratch. Very painful, took almost an hour to sort thru it all and get the firmware updated. I hope this is the end of this nonsense.
More likely is that the firmware update process is not very bulletproof...
I agree with this @djsteve and is why I am holding off updating until I can get back home. Even Revo has stated that he needed to factory reset his AD110 TWICE after the firmware update to get things back to normal.
Factory resets should only be a last resort remedy for a serious firmware failure.
