Camera reliability?

[wittaj]

That makes me wonder if the problem is lack of attention to detail as opposed to the connector itself? I have about 10 of them with full exposure to rain and snow, and no use of dialectric grease to boot, with no moisture related failures. My first rule is to make sure they hang vertically with the fully sealed camera end on top, so there's little or no risk of water getting through the gasket/seal on the other end. Another detail is to make sure that the square-cross section seal between the connector halves isn't curled. The connector half with the removable seal has to be tightened after the connector halves are mated. And finally, that the seal is there at all. I have a few times swapped cameras where the seal stayed with the old camera pigtail, and I stupidly didn't notice that there was no seal on the new camera pigtail.

Of course not every camera that is not installed with dielectric grease will fail, just like a camera can fail if dielectric grease was used. It's a percentage game and some luck involved as well. There are many cameras in operation that didn't properly waterproof and have ran for years.

Heck before I knew any better I buried an analog camera connection with no waterproofing at all and it ran for 8 years before I upgraded the system and got rid of the camera and system. By all intents that thing should have died years prior. It was all rusted and crap but kept going.

But yea, there are steps one can make that will determine whether a connection will be problematic or not.

 

[TonyR]

And geographic location (relative humidity, temperature swing in 24 hours) and camera's physical location (out of all direct exposure to elements, some sun part the day, constant sun during daytime, etc.) can be a factor, due mainly to moisture being pulled into the pigtail and connector(s) and the camera gaskets usually due to a process I call Thermal Differential Cycling *. The DC voltages present on some the Ethernet pairs react with the moisture and can have a corrosive effect on the RJ-45's metal contacts similar to electrolysis.:

* Thermal Differential Cycling : the device heats up during day, air inside expands, cools off at night and contracts, drawing in damp outside air, condenses, travels to low point, is trapped and won't escape during warm up cycle, just continues to collect inside at low points.
-TonyR 2020

 

[JohnKol]

Ok, so we go 25 days and 5 pages into this discussion and now you tell us the cameras are not dead, you just don't see them.

I stated it very clearly on the very first page, Post # 12.

Hmm maybe a power surge reset them to the default address - did you try that? We have seen that happen.

I can't follow your logic here; you're saying that a power surge reset the camera to the default IP address, then 40 seconds later another surge re-set it to the original IP address -- and that cycle kept occurring for months?

And what with the power surge? I thought your hypothesis was corrosion through moisture ingress.

Interesting, it says you are from the San Francisco Bay area and you say in July there is no moisture, yet San Fran tops the list of the most humid city in America

I'm not in SF proper, I'm in the South Bay; completely different climate here, more desert than coastal.

All the while you have yet to name the make/model of the cable you used or the POE switch.

Cables are Cat 6, PoE switches are TP-Link; cables have been switched, PoE ports have been switched, the failure follows the camera. When camera is put on the bench with external power, it still cannot communicate, even after a reset.

Also, please provide the physical mechanism that allows power to flow through the connector at all times, but data signals can only propagate through the exact same connector in consistently repeatable intervals.

 

[tigerwillow1]

Also, please provide the physical mechanism that allows power to flow through the connector at all times, but data signals can only propagate through the exact same connector in consistently repeatable intervals.

I'm not wanting to step into a nasty debate but I'm curious about this comment. By "consistently repeatable intervals" do you mean you can sit there with a stopwatch and observe the coming and going at fairly precise intervals, or are the intervals more like approximate and hours or days long? With the one camera model that I say had a 100% failure rate for me, one began going offline for short intervals that got longer and longer as months passed. Turns out the camera became temperature sensitive. In the house I could bring life and death to it by sitting it near the fireplace or putting it in the fridge.

 

[looney2ns]

don't feed the troll

 

[StevenFromTexas]

This is one of those instances where the topic starter has no intention of doing anything other than try and get another response from anyone that responds to him. And it's working. The phrase talking to a brick wall comes to mind.

 

[IAmATeaf]

Maybe the firmware is corrupt, have you tried updating the firmware with the cam sat on your bench with a known good Ethernet cable?

 

[JohnKol]

Maybe the firmware is corrupt, have you tried updating the firmware with the cam sat on your bench with a known good Ethernet cable?

So you're saying that the Firmware gradually became more and more corrupt over a period of a few months, until it was so corrupt that it stopped responding?

Right.

 

[IAmATeaf]

So you're saying that the Firmware gradually became more and more corrupt over a period of a few months, until it was so corrupt that it stopped responding?

Right.

I’m not saying any such thing, the clue is in the word maybe?

As an engineer are you not in the least bit curious as to what might be wrong with the cam(s)? Open them up and see if there’s anything obvious that you can see?

 

[alastairstevenson]

But the cameras were not blown out; they slowly started going offline until (a few months later) they were constantly offline.

It might be interesting to have a go at exploring this apparent mystery, though success isn't guaranteed.
Give me something to do these dark nights ...

 

[JohnKol]

As an engineer are you not in the least bit curious as to what might be wrong with the cam(s)?

I know what's wrong, I've seen these kind of failures countless times, they're the most common in high tech electronics. I did not start this thread to ask for troubleshooting assistance, I wanted to find out whether other people have seen the same failure rate that I saw.

BTW, I did open the cameras.

 

[IAmATeaf]

So what is wrong or has failed? Might be good info to pass on ?

 

[TonyR]

BTW, anyone seen this yet?

 

[StevenFromTexas]

The topic starter keeps baiting the hook and then reels them in. LOL

 

[NonTech]

Someone please tell me if I have this right. We have an electrical engineer who is not an engineer who took his camera apart but doesn't know whats wrong with it but insists hes right though he doesn't know whats wrong.

 

[IAmATeaf]

I know people are saying troll etc but I’ve given him the benefit of the doubt but am now beginning to wonder.

If the OP knew why the cams have failed then wouldn’t it have been better to post stating my cam x has failed for reason y, has this happened to anybody else.

If I have a problem with my car I don’t just says “it’s broke” and then leave others to try and figure it out, I give as much info that might actually help!

If this guy is a troll, then is he secretly looking at all the posts and sniggering in the background? I post on many forums but once away never give them a seconds thought until I come back.

 

[looney2ns]

 

[JohnKol]

So what is wrong or has failed? Might be good info to pass on ?

It's irrelevant info; you cannot prevent it, fix it, or repair it; since there is no warranty on these cameras, you just need to buy a new one.

 

[fenderman]

It's irrelevant info; you cannot prevent it, fix it, or repair it; since there is no warranty on these cameras, you just need to buy a new one.

lol, full of shit as we all expected....a real lying scammer...sure there is a warranty...yours just expired 4 years ago...putz wants a 10 year warranty on cams...GTFOH

 

[IAmATeaf]

It's irrelevant info; you cannot prevent it, fix it, or repair it; since there is no warranty on these cameras, you just need to buy a new one.

It might be useful info for forum users here and maybe even for the cam makers?

Also what or how does having no warranty directly affect being able to fix it?

I’ve fixed a whole host of things in my house none of which had any warranty! I’ve fixed my Buffalo NAS (bad cap), my Dell managed switch (bad startup cap), my home boiler (bad flue fan), numerous VHS players/recorders (mostly belts, overall mechanism timing and cleaning out the mode switch), my old Technics Class A amp (bad speaker switching relay and noisy potentiometers), my old Akai cassette deck (bad belts, bad clutch, bad pinch roller), my Sony professional CD player (bad laser) ……. The list goes on, none of these had any warranty and were all repaired by me?