Am I asking for trouble?

Sparkey

Pulling my weight
Apr 3, 2015
313
244
The United States of Gawgia
Just replaced my backyard cam with a Dahua IPC-PDW3849-A180-AS-PV 180 degree view camera. The cable runs thru the attic and is probably 100ft long. it's an el cheapo Amazon Basics flat cable. Camera is connected to a POE+ HP switch. It works just fine but I'm concerned that the cable won't be able to carry the load long term. Manual says the camera can draw 9.7w max. The switch had no problem delivering but I'm concerned the cable might punk out. As flemsy as it is I'm sure it uses that cloth with impregnated metal.

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Cable from Amazon -

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Personally I wouldn't let the camera find out... 10w on 30awg wire is just to thin for the 100 foot of voltage drop. With any luck when as said before Nighttime will tell it will just be to great of a drop that the camera turns off but no damage to the circuits in side.. I have repaired enough cameras and some of the cameras using flat cables.. Shorter, higher current so it did take longer to kill the cameras yes 2 cameras I repaired for the guy both cameras had same problem..

What I find odd in his case is that it damaged the camera but the cable was still good.. Anyway after I got the first camera to repair, Told him to change the cable, didn't so got to repair a second camera.. He has since changed out the cable to a 24awg cat cable..

Many reasons I wouldn't use a Flat cable 100 feet even worse.. Most cameras will work down to 36-42v on POE my guess is depending on the 180degree camera that would be on the higher end 42v So one thing that can help is using a POE+ switch that normally has an output of 54v to 57v.. Then the voltage drop over distance is a higher voltage in the spectrum. So if your camera has say 42v requirements and the drop puts you at 43v without IR. Once IR comes on that drop is to extreme and no power for camera. However some cameras will try and power the camera and this causes the cameras damage.. So lets say that the POE+ with 57v normal has now only dropped to 52v going with the same idea of 48v drop to 43.. However again damage to the camera can happen over time. Can depend on many different factors. Even real wires can change with higher temps.. More current flow higher temps. Then heat of the sun or other things that can also impact the cable form camera to switch..
 
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Just replaced my backyard cam with a Dahua IPC-PDW3849-A180-AS-PV 180 degree view camera. The cable runs thru the attic and is probably 100ft long. it's an el cheapo Amazon Basics flat cable. Camera is connected to a POE+ HP switch. It works just fine but I'm concerned that the cable won't be able to carry the load long term. Manual says the camera can draw 9.7w max. The switch had no problem delivering but I'm concerned the cable might punk out. As flemsy as it is I'm sure it uses that cloth with impregnated metal.

View attachment 221804

Cable from Amazon -

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100% recommended to replace that flat "Cat 6" 30 AWG rated cable ..

Honestly, fraudulent to call such cables in my book "Cat 6" ..

30 AWG will mean significantly lower watts carried and power drop over that distance ( 100' ) vs a proper 23 or 24 AWG copper cable.


For example, using PoE specs of range 44-57 V at PSE and 0.350 amp ( 350 milliamps ) =>

30 AWG .. gives a voltage drop of 7.22 V .. that's a lot when compared to 24 AWG

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compare to 24 AWG

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23 AWG is even a bit better

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more here to play with :
 

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