IPC-HDW5231R-Z Problems - Anyone else experienced?

ceef

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Purchased a couple of these units about 6 weeks ago from @EMPIRETECANDY.

One of them worked perfectly.

The other...
1) When first plugged in, UI worked, but sensor was showing a blank/black feed. I updated the firmware to the September version, hoping this would fix it.
2) Emailed Andy. He recommended disassembly and making sure the connections were solid
3) Did that. The feed came on, but was sporadically slow/distorted/weird. Poked around in there a bit more (carefully, with power off) to ensure the connections were solid (again). Eventually the feed worked.
4) Installed it in its final position. When positioning it, the feed would occasionally cut out. I tested the cat6 cable with my tester and it checked out.
5) Got it to work in its location.......
6) Now, it sporadically dies, requiring a reboot by pulling/reseating its wire from my PoE switch (HPE OfficeConnect 1920 PoE)
7) Downgraded firmware to July version. Problems persist.
8) Yesterday, I disassembled the camera, completely, (again) and reseated every connection. Camera worked for ~18 hours. I'm back to where I started. I'm more frustrated.

I've emailed Andy twice since last week but have not heard back. My other 5231R-Z above the driveway works perfectly, all the time. More often, when looking at the feed through the BlueIris app or web feed I see the timeout error above my front door. I've attached the ping availability report for the past couple weeks, as reported by Zabbix (Up through 11-29, because this post has been pending for a couple days). (1 = responding to ping. 0=down)

Has anyone else has issues like this with these units? How were they resolved?

Per @EMPIRETECANDY's page, these cameras have a 2 year warranty... but I have to pay to ship it back?? I did a quote with DHL and it was $80! I'm not thrilled by this.

I'll be emailing this to Andy with hope that he'll follow up with me (I'm going on 72 hours now since my last email), but wanted to check with the community here for other possible solutions that I'm missing.

Thanks!
 

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fenderman

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Purchased a couple of these units about 6 weeks ago from @EMPIRETECANDY.

One of them worked perfectly.

The other...
1) When first plugged in, UI worked, but sensor was showing a blank/black feed. I updated the firmware to the September version, hoping this would fix it.
2) Emailed Andy. He recommended disassembly and making sure the connections were solid
3) Did that. The feed came on, but was sporadically slow/distorted/weird. Poked around in there a bit more (carefully, with power off) to ensure the connections were solid (again). Eventually the feed worked.
4) Installed it in its final position. When positioning it, the feed would occasionally cut out. I tested the cat6 cable with my tester and it checked out.
5) Got it to work in its location.......
6) Now, it sporadically dies, requiring a reboot by pulling/reseating its wire from my PoE switch (HPE OfficeConnect 1920 PoE)
7) Downgraded firmware to July version. Problems persist.
8) Yesterday, I disassembled the camera, completely, (again) and reseated every connection. Camera worked for ~18 hours. I'm back to where I started. I'm more frustrated.

I've emailed Andy twice since last week but have not heard back. My other 5231R-Z above the driveway works perfectly, all the time. More often, when looking at the feed through the BlueIris app or web feed I see the timeout error above my front door. I've attached the ping availability report for the past couple weeks, as reported by Zabbix (Up through 11-29, because this post has been pending for a couple days). (1 = responding to ping. 0=down)

Has anyone else has issues like this with these units? How were they resolved?

Per @EMPIRETECANDY's page, these cameras have a 2 year warranty... but I have to pay to ship it back?? I did a quote with DHL and it was $80! I'm not thrilled by this.

I'll be emailing this to Andy with hope that he'll follow up with me (I'm going on 72 hours now since my last email), but wanted to check with the community here for other possible solutions that I'm missing.

Thanks!
are you testing it with a short store bought cable? if so, you will have to send it back....paying return shipping is the norm via ali...that is the catch...You can send it via postal service for less..
 

ceef

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I've been testing it in-situ. The cable it's on has been working - there's no moving parts, and it's been making it through longer stretches of time in different temperature situations. I'll pull it inside and let it run and see what happens.
 

fenderman

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I've been testing it in-situ. The cable it's on has been working - there's no moving parts, and it's been making it through longer stretches of time in different temperature situations. I'll pull it inside and let it run and see what happens.
poor cables or connections will cause this exact issue.
 

EMPIRETECANDY

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@ceef please ship the ball part to me and can save some money, before you sending, you can check if the cables inside the camera loose? Seems your camera has bad power connections. I will help you fix up it . If you have a 12V 2A adapter, you can use for testing, POE power may fail too.
 

ceef

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Did you wire the problem cable using the 568B standard? What exact brand/model cable did you use?
Yes, 568B. Monoprice CAT6 solid copper w/ their RJ45 plugs w/ inserts. I'll reterminate both ends and we'll see what happens. The camera has been doing well all night on a short patch cable.

@EMPIRETECANDY - I guess let me run this for a couple days and make sure that the cable isn't causing the problems. My thought was since I wasn't getting anything from the sensor but was able to access the UI when I first plugged it in to get it configured, that I might be dealing with a defective piece of hardware from the beginning and have just limped along to this point trying to make the thing work. If it is the cable, then it's not your problem to deal with at all!
 

EMPIRETECANDY

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Yes, 568B. Monoprice CAT6 solid copper w/ their RJ45 plugs w/ inserts. I'll reterminate both ends and we'll see what happens. The camera has been doing well all night on a short patch cable.

@EMPIRETECANDY - I guess let me run this for a couple days and make sure that the cable isn't causing the problems. My thought was since I wasn't getting anything from the sensor but was able to access the UI when I first plugged it in to get it configured, that I might be dealing with a defective piece of hardware from the beginning and have just limped along to this point trying to make the thing work. If it is the cable, then it's not your problem to deal with at all!
That would be great, thanks to @fenderman help TOO.
 

FlipNJ

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NO! First one was installed January 2017 (11 months ago). Second one installed in May 2016 (7 months ago). No problems so far.
 

TechBill

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Someone I know had similar issue which I discovered that the culprit was poor voltage input to the camera. It was quickly remedied by replacing to a better brand PoE switch. What are you using to power the camera?

Bill
 

ceef

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Someone I know had similar issue which I discovered that the culprit was poor voltage input to the camera. It was quickly remedied by replacing to a better brand PoE switch. What are you using to power the camera?

Bill
An HPE OfficeConnect 1920 24 port PoE switch that can supply 370 watts. Based on the management UI, these cameras use about 8-10% of the available power supply at any given point.

At this point, I really think I do have to blame the cable, specifically the termination. I bought a new crimper the other day, only to realize just how terrible the one I had was. The camera in question remains sitting on the floor in my office, attached to a pre-fab cable, where it has been running continuously without issue since Friday evening. Lesson learned.
 

ceef

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Recrimped the plug I had out there using my new crimper. Huge improvement in pin placement after this. Camera's back in place, and has been running well for about 18 hours now.
 
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