Camera losing frame rates

L

Lockwood

Young grasshopper
May 13, 2014
84
23
Hey Everyone,

I have had the setup I'm about to explain working without issue for 2 years. See if you can follow me here and sorry for the long drawn out post. Just wanted to cover all bases here with indepth info.

Dlink wireless router to a 15' cat-6 cable to a Netgear switch to a 3' cat-6 cable to a PowerDsine 9501G PoE Injector (55v at 1.35A DC output) to a coupler via a 6' cat-6 cable where it connects with a 25' run of exterior cat-6 cable. That cable connect via a coupler to a 250' run of exterior cat-6 cable to a coupler where it connects to a 3' cat-6 cable. The 3' cat-6 cable connects to a PoE switch (Amazon.com: CyberData 2-Port PoE Gigabit Switch - 2 Ports - 2 x POE+ - 10/100/1000Base-T - PoE Ports - Desktop: Computers & Accessories). The switch powers off of the power supplied by the PoE injector. I then have 2 Hikvision DS-2CD2032-I cameras connected to the switch via 12' cat-6 cables and they power off of the PoE switch. I know there are a lot of couplers and cables here and the "max" length of cable should be 300', but as I said, no issues for 2 years

The last few months I have been noticing the cameras show "No Signal" here and there when viewing from Blue Iris, but the signal normally comes back. When this happens, I notice the link light on the Netgear switch port is not lit, but blinks on occasion. Switching the port does not solve the issue. Recently the signal had stopped coming back altogether for quite a while. As I'm 4 hours from the cameras, I finally had a chance to go see them last month. I noticed the PoE switch didn't have any activity lights blinking and one camera looked as if the pigtail was either cut or somehow torn apart. I disconnected everything and just left one camera connected directly to the 3' cat-6 cable that was connected to the PoE switch (so 250' cat-6 cable to coupler to 3' cat-6 cable to camera). I took the PoE switch back home and tested it and it works fine. This made me think the PoE injector was dying and couldn't output as much power any longer and therefore couldn't power the devices properly. I purchased a new PoE injector for my next trip back to my camera location. In the meantime, the single camera worked fine until one day it just lost video for 2 straight weeks. I figured the PoE injector finally died and I would replace it this past weekend when I visited the camera location.

So this past weekend I went to my camera location and noticed the port on the Netgear switch for the lone camera was again not lit, but would blink every so often. I switched out the PoE injector figuring this would solve the problem, but no improvement. I went to the actual camera and took it down and tested it at the house, it was dead. The IR would light up, but I could no longer see it in SADP tool or access its web server. A reset did not fix it, I tossed it. I replaced it with the camera that looked like the pigtail was cut (I repaired it). The video feed was horrible. It was just a green background. I disconnected it and connected it directly to the 250' cat-6 cable just to test and to take the 3' cable and coupler out of the equation. I went back to the house and had a normal video feed. As the day went by I noticed it losing video as well. Again, when this happens the port on the Netgear switch is not lit and would blink on occasion. I looked at the camera's settings in Blue Iris and noticed the camera's frame rate continued to drop until there was no video signal (0 FPS). Randomly, it would come back to full frame rate and work again.

Today, I have a clip from the camera at 2:01pm but no video feed since. It may come back, it may not. I know there are a lot of variables here that can be causing this, but I was hoping someone could help me out. Here are my thoughts.

1. PoE Injector not outputting enough power - is there a way to test this?
2. There is something going on that is burning out my cameras - one currently dead and the other stopped working, it may be dead also. I'll find out in 2 weeks when I'm there again. Or the camera that I repaired had more extensive damage than I thought and just doesn't work properly.
3. There is a cat-6 cable or coupler somewhere that has an issue. Hopefully not the 250' run.

When I'm up there again I will change all couplers as well as all shorter cat-6 cables leaving the 250' alone. I also plan on swapping out the Netgear switch for a PoE switch to eliminate other PoE Injectors I'm using and to clean things up. I have a rather new camera that has never been outside and will test with that as well. Until then, any ideas what may be causing my issue?

So current setup to one camera that is currently giving me issues:
Router-15' cat-6 cable-Netgear switch-3' cat-6 cable-PoE Injector-6' cat-6 cable-coupler-25' exterior cat-6 cable-coupler-250' exterior cat-6 cable-camera.

Original setup:
Router-15' cat-6 cable-Netgear switch-3' cat-6 cable-PoE Injector-6' cat-6 cable-coupler-25' exterior cat-6 cable-coupler-250' exterior cat-6 cable-coupler-3' cat-6 cable-PoE switch-12' cat-6 cable to 2 cameras. Approximately 326' of cable with 3 couplers.

Chris
 
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So a few questions:
What do you suppose damaged the cam's pigtail? Rodent chewing? Vandalism? Could something have happened to the cable that the second cam is using?
I do not see any NVR or PC running BI or something else here. How are you getting the feed?
Did you personally terminate these cables or are they purchased pre-made?
By a coupler I take it to mean an RJ45 female/female?
The exterior run, are the couplers in weather tight boxes?
What about the cat6 plug at the cam, is it in a weatherproof box? Did you use dielectric grease?

If you remove the 250' run and POE injector along with all of the connectors, by testing the existing cam with the POE switch moved to just after the router, will it work ok?
 
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Thanks for your reply.
The cam is on a platform I use for hunting and is only 12' high. I have seen scat on the platform, so it very well may have been an animal that chewed it. It is possible that something happened to the cable, but I won't be able to tell until I get to the camera location next weekend. However, this issue started as soon as I connected the camera, so either there is another issue with the cam or something else is in play here.

The feed is seen on a PC running Blue Iris

All cables came pre-made.

Yes the couplers are RJ45 female/female

The couplers are wrapped with electrical tape and then placed inside a small plastic box that is mounted. The box originally held lightning arrestors for Cat-6 cable, but I have since taken out the guts and just use the boxes. I do not see an IP rating on them, but they were made to house these arrestors so I would hope they are weatherproof.

The cam's connection to the camera is normally in a weatherproof box, but currently is just electrical taped. I left it that way this past weekend b/c I was in a rush and just wanted to have the camera operational and I knew I would be there next week. I did not use dielectric grease on this particular camera. There wasn't any rain last weekend there and hasn't been any rain since.

I can test this, but I do not have a PoE switch just yet. I'm feeding the cam power with the injector. I did test this camera at home connected this way - PoE Injector to Switch and to Camera. Switch to wireless router. I do not have Blue Iris installed at home and just checked the video from the camera's web server. It seemed fine.

Final note. The camera has not come back online. It still shows no video.
 
What kind of premade cables did you use? Are they pure copper and terminated in 568A or 568B? If they're CCA, copper clad aluminum, at 250 feet you're probably more than "pushing" the limit both for ethernet and PoE.

I'd invest in some quality, 5E, bulk cable and re-run those cables, terminate them properly and do away with any couplers. On a side note what brand/model cameras?
 
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^ As stated above on CCA.

Lockwood said:
The feed is seen on a PC running Blue Iris
Click to expand...
So where in the network is the BI PC? Do the cams have to go through the router to get to the BI PC?

So what could be wrong. Obviously any connection, cable, the injector, the cam, or the switch could be at fault. POE injectors work quite well, until they don't. The more connections you have, the more the chance of failure you have. The 300 meter max distance for ethernet assumes a single cable. Yes one can probably get it to work jumping multiple connections. But over time, each connection has the ability to break down, get corroded, become loose, get moisture invasion, etc. Any of these can impact the maximum distance for the ethernet run to be reliable.

I guess the most expensive part is the cam, so I would begin eliminating that as the problem. So getting a true POE switch is the first thing you need to do and test the cam way back just past the router.
 
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Thanks guys. My plan is to first test the camera, Hikvision DS-2CD2032-I, on its own to make sure it is still working. I think I'm also going to re-run the cable, but go with sebastiantombs suggestion of using quality cable and having just one run of cable, eliminating the connectors and stray cables.
@sebastiantombs, do you recommend one termination over the other? I believe they are 568B, but I had the cable for quite some time. I have always terminated using 568B. Do you have any suggestions for pure copper Cat-6 or Cat-6e cable? Looking for exterior grade.
 
I've use 568B since the Lattice Net days and that seems to have held up as the basic standard. Monoprice has decent cable at reasonable prices and can be had from Amazon. Best solution would be outdoor rated cable in conduit but that may not be practical. CAT6 isn't needed, 5E is more than capable of the bandwidth needed by a camera and will be for many years to come. No need to spend the extra money and the difficulties that CAT6 adds to terminating.

Out of curiosity, is there power at the far end, camera locations? If so you may want to consider a dedicated RF link rather than wire. That would give you some electrical isolation.
 
Last edited:
sebastiantombs said:
I've use 568B since the Lattice Net days and that seems to have held up as the basic standard. Monoprice has decent cable at reasonable prices and can be had from Amazon. Best solution would be outdoor rated cable in conduit but that may no be practical. CAT6 isn't needed, 5E is more than capable of the bandwidth needed by a camera and will be for many years to come. No need to spend the extra money and the difficulties that CAT6 adds to terminating.

Out of curiosity, is there power at the far end, camera locations? If so you may want to consider a dedicated RF link rather than wire. That would give you some electrical isolation.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately there isn't any power at the far end. Thanks for the help.
 
Well, it was a thought anyway.
 
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Not much of a price difference. Would these be good to use? Do you think Gel Filled to overkill?
 
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Either would work with no problems. Gel filled is nice, but a real mess to work with if you've never worked with it. I'd also say to get some dielectric grease, like this and put a small dab on each connector at the camera end. Then, wrap them up with coax seal, or another self-amalgamating, rubberized, tape, and a final wrap, or three, of 33+, or better, electrical tape even if you use the cable gland that generally comes with the camera.

This is the tape I've been using and it's holding up really well in a direct burial situation -
 
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Lockwood said:
Not much of a price difference. Would these be good to use? Do you think Gel Filled to overkill?
Click to expand...
The Cat5e is easier to terminate since you do not have to cut the plastic center piece that separates the twisted pairs of the Cat6. That plastic center of the Cat6 makes the cable much stiffer than the Cat5e.

I have used Gel Filled and it is a pain. You really need to clean the twisted pairs with a cleaning wipe that dissolves the gel and then dry the wires before you crimp. The cleaning wipes dry out your hands and it really stinks.

I prefer the pass through RJ45 plugs and lately have found it hard to find in Cat5e. So if you decide on Cat5e, don't order it until you know you can get the Cat5e RJ45 plugs.
 
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So I'm back up and running. I was finally at my camera's location this past week and checked all my lines. I had one long run running through eye screws that were screwed into trees. Over time the trees grew around the eye screws and the cable was embedded into the tree. I cut the cable here and put on new RJ45 connectors and joined them with a coupler. I then tested the line from the cut area to the camera, 4 pins were damaged in the line. I noticed the lines grew into other trees as well down the line so I purchased some indoor cat-6 cable and ran it to the camera from where I made the cut using the existing cable as a guide and tension cable. My PoE switch and both cameras are now working again. I will perform a new clean single cable run in the fall or spring.

Thanks for all the help!
 
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I learned not to attach cables/conduit directly to trees. They grow too fast and will crush either in fairly short order. If you're going to continue doing that consider using a metal, not wood, arm screwed/bolted to the tree to retain the cable. Also be aware of the surge problems that you are open to.
 
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