Dome camera losing signal on warm days

[fbnoise]

I have an LTS branded Hikvision dome camera installed in a garage that likes to lose connection on warm days. It's POE, Ethernet cable ran about 50FT through an attic (unconditioned, obviously hot). Camera itself is not in any direct sunlight and room temps in garage closely resemble temps outside (today its 78°F outside and camera isn't working). There is another cam installed (bullet, from LTS), same run of cable through same attic in full sun that I've had 0 problems with.

Would this be more likely to be a problem with the cabling, the camera, or the POE switch?

 

[tigerwillow1]

Is it losing the connection completely, or just the main stream?

 

[fbnoise]

It's going out completely. Won't respond to ping or load up web interface.

 

[nayr]

Would this be more likely to be a problem with the cabling, the camera, or the POE switch?

there's one sure-fire way to find out; take it down and bench test it with external 12v power and prefab network cable.. the only thing left is the camera, if problem goes away then remove 12v power and plug it into poe switch with prefab cable, if it comes back its your poe switch, if it still works its your cable.

 

[fbnoise]

there's one sure-fire way to find out; take it down and bench test it with external 12v power and prefab network cable.. the only thing left is the camera.

That may be my last resort but with it's off/on nature and the heat seemingly playing a factor, I was hoping to possibly eliminate some variables first.

 

[nayr]

all signs point to the camera; since its the one in the garage.. the only way at this point to prove its not the camera is to bench test it.

we can speculate til the cows come home; or you can test and verify..

 

[fbnoise]

all signs point to the camera; since its the one in the garage.. the only way at this point to prove its not the camera is to bench test it.

we can speculate til the cows come home; or you can test and verify..

Truetrue, trying to see if someone had experience in a similar situation to save me time (I have to travel to this location, cam is up high, attic is nasty), but it may come down to that.

 

[nayr]

most garages are always dark inside, so that means the IR would be running 24/7 pretty much.. typically the IR uses the most power and generates the most heat, perhaps you could force it to color/day mode and see if the problem gets better or not.

usually when installed outside; durring the heat of the day the IR is not on at the same time.. and it cools considerably once the sun goes away.

 

[fbnoise]

That's a really good idea but there is quite a bit of light in the garage during the day when the problem is present, both natural and overhead lighting.

Edit: can confirm that IR doesn't really kick on until they close up shop

 

[bdorring]

I got same issue. 2132 camera. On hot days, wont respond to pings. I thought it was a cabling issue, but never any problems on colder days.

Was offline for many hours. I noticed a couple of times, it come back online for 30 seconds or so, before going offline again (including no response to pings)

 

[bdorring]

Next time it happens, i might take the cover off. Probably don't need cover on, where i have myn located. Hasn't happened for 2 weeks for me. But we haven't had any hot days for 2 weeks. Got some hot days coming up next week.

 

[Carcus]

Not tried re terminating the rj45 crimps?

Expand and contract in the heat?

I had an issue where some rj45 mechs would fail or intermittently work after a month due to not being crimped enough using cheap crimpers.

 

[bdorring]

Happened today for me. I took the cover off. Still after 10 minutes no difference.
It was now about 6pm so things were starting to cool down. But used a screw driver to push down all the connections again, and instantly camera came alive. Had my phone on me, doing a ping test....
So thinking this is now solved.

Also notice the camera lights were on, when it couldn't be be 'pinged'. Guess if the POE cables are working then it lights up... Anyway will update again.
As Carcus suggested, appears it was the crimping.. Which only happens on hot days.

 

[Carcus]

You are correct if it can get power from the pairs that send power it will still light up. In my experience the data pairs are a little more sensitive.

 

[Dodutils]

Question is what is the status of you camera when not reachable ? did you check if it shutdown/reboot ?

 

[bdorring]

Happened yesterday. Took cover off. Didn't fix it.
I re-patched all the cables. And it come alive again. But outside started to cool down at that stage.
Got some more hot days coming up so this will show if re-patching fixed it.

 

[Dodutils]

Happened yesterday. Took cover off. Didn't fix it.
I re-patched all the cables. And it come alive again. But outside started to cool down at that stage.
Got some more hot days coming up so this will show if re-patching fixed it.

Check my previous question because it would be interesting to know if camera is unreachable because it turned off/rebooted (by the way 78° F is not that hot your camera should handle it without any problem)

 

[CamFan]

You swapped POE ports on your switch?

Does your switch provide power consumption readouts on each port?

Could be an issue with the on-board power regulation circuit. DC regulators typically have a thermal shutdown when they get too hot.

Same could be true with the microcontroller IC.

In either case, pull the camera and bench test as Nayr recommend.