Amcrest Floodlight Camera Unboxing, Install, and Setup with Frigate & HomeAssistant

Welcome to Chuck Builds, today I'm unboxing, installing, and setting up an Amcrest Floodlight Camera. This will be the third one of these cameras that I've installed since 2022 and is replacing my last motion activated flood light.

Before we get too far along, I want to say that this is NOT going to be the best camera in your home security arsenal - in-fact it is one of the lowest quality camera feeds in my Frigate instance. Thankfully, these serve multiple roles and bring a ton of utility to my otherwise dumb floodlights.

These lights have:

• a wide-angle, adjustable 270* PIR motion sensor that can detect up to 33 feet,
• include a 110db siren,
• the camera boasts a 114* field of view,
• and the light output of these are substantial at 2000lumens.
  • They are a warm white at 3000k and are not harsh on the eyes, do not flicker, and offer a wide even coverage of light.

These cameras are excellent with Frigate to detect person, pet, and vehicle detection in zones to help run other automations. The PIR motion sensor is adjustable and accurate, and when paired with the Siren can be a valuable addition to your home security system.

Bear with me on the colors and framing of this video, I tried to record it with a new DJI Osmo 6 gimbal, and it failed miserably due to the DJI Mimo app limited functionality.

Amazon Affiliate Links

(I earn a small commission if you purchase through these links, thank you for the support!):
Amcrest Floodlight Camera: https://amzn.to/3WqlIjZ
Non-Contact Voltage Tester w/ Infrared Thermometer ($7 more for a ton of functionality, this is what I have): https://amzn.to/3Dx3KW7
Klein Ratcheting 15-in-1 Screwdriver: https://amzn.to/3Dx3KW7

Links

HACS Dahua Integration: https://github.com/rroller/dahua

Amcrest IP Config Software: https://support.amcrest.com/hc/en-us/articles/213227938-IP-Config-Software

ChuckBuilds How to install HACS and add a custom integration: https://youtu.be/tb1y57asz2I

Frigate Config for Amcrest Floodlight

You really need to update the camera setting to h264 and reduce sub-stream quality for reliable use!

go2rtc:
  ffmpeg:
    bin: ffmpeg
    volume: -af "volume=30dB"
  streams:
  #Amcrest
    Flood_cam:
      - rtsp://admin:PASSWORD@IPADDRESS:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0&unicast=true
    Flood_cam_sub:
      - rtsp://admin:PASSWORD@IPADDRESS:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=1
cameras:
  #Amcrest
  Flood_cam:
    ffmpeg:
      inputs:
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/Flood_cam # <--- the name here must match the name of the camera in restream
          input_args: preset-rtsp-restream
          roles:
            - record
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/Flood_cam_sub # <--- the name here must match the name of the camera_sub in restream
          input_args: preset-rtsp-restream
          roles:
            - detect
            - audio
    audio:
      enabled: true
    mqtt:
      enabled: true
      timestamp: false
      bounding_box: false
      crop: true
      height: 720
      quality: 70

Amcrest IP Config Software: https://support.amcrest.com/hc/en-us/articles/213227938-IP-Config-Software

Camera Specific Encode Settings: