IP Camera keeps cutting out

Ricky808

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I have been struggling with a camera in one location for over a year. The camera is a Everest EV-IPMB4T36, which is a rebranded Dahua 4mp 3.6 rectangular bullet, larger sized camera with 4 high intensity IR LEDS in the 4 corners of the camera face. The Cat 6 was originally run for an older 1.3 mp Dahua bullet long since replaced, which had no problems with image cutout. The camera image intermittently cut out, mostly at night, starting over a year ago, but would illuminate the IR at night even when not sending an image. Despite the recommendation that I do not replace the camera by my vendor (HD Security Store/HEI-vision out of NY) I did replace the camera approximately 8 months ago. This did not fix the problem, and the old camera installed in a new location works fine.

The camera is mounted on the top of a roof, and is a difficult install with a custom mount, etc, but even more difficult is the 70 Ft Cat 6 run, which runs under a new metal roof. I do have some L-Com lightening arresters inline in an wall mount enclosure at the outside wall penetration, but bypassing the arrester makes no difference. I used to be able to get the camera to work for a day or so, if I manually restarted the camera either by disconnecting the Cat 6 from the POE injector (originally an L-Com injector, but more recently a Unifi USW-pro 24 in a POE ++ port) or cycling the switch port (when using the Unifi POE switch). Now a restart only gets the camera running for a few minutes. As you can tell, I am trying to avoid what will be a very difficult new run of Cat 6. I just upgraded to the Unifi USW-pro 24-POE from a USW 16 POE switch because the latter only has 45watts total of available POE, while the new USW Pro 24 has 400 watts plus POE ++ ports. Needless to say the upgraded switch didn't help.

Any other suggestions before I tackle a new run of Cat 6? I was looking at the Platinum Tools TPS200C tester ($85)

Platinum Tools® | Products | Testers | TPS200C

to possibly test for voltage drop at the camera end of the Cat 6. Passive 24V setting on the switch didn't make anything more stable, but maybe I could push more watts through the line since it seems to work part of the time?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance.
 

Flintstone61

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Maybe Reterminate the RJ-45 ends. Sometimes cat-6 doesn't terminate well in Rj-45 end pieces designed for Cat5e. Might wanna try something along those lines before you pull cable.
 

IAmATeaf

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Before recabling I would do a simple continuity and resistance test on the conductors, so cut the connector off one end, unplug the other end then twist the matched pairs ie brown/brown white together. Then at the other end check the readings to see if there is any obvious issue.

Another thing that might be worth trying is injecting 12v in line when you test, so add your 12v source in line but this time check the voltage drop in the pairs.

Not really scientific but the hope is that it might highlight an issue.
 

Ricky808

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Thank you very much for the suggestions. I will continue to troubleshoot based on these recommendations, and post an update.
 
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Almost every time we see the complaint of intermittent video it ends up being a connectivity issue. Over time connections that worked in the beginning will end up having issues mostly due to water or corrosion. The easiest thing to do is to re-terminate both ends. Try the one at the POE switch first as it is easier to get to.

Are you using a mounting box? Have you used water tight connections? What about using dielectric grease? Even in an arid environment (such as Aridzona), the RJ45 can get corrosion. The dielectric grease will prevent this.
 

Ricky808

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Almost every time we see the complaint of intermittent video it ends up being a connectivity issue. Over time connections that worked in the beginning will end up having issues mostly due to water or corrosion. The easiest thing to do is to re-terminate both ends. Try the one at the POE switch first as it is easier to get to.

Are you using a mounting box? Have you used water tight connections? What about using dielectric grease? Even in an arid environment (such as Aridzona), the RJ45 can get corrosion. The dielectric grease will prevent this.
Ok
Any chance that network cable could have copper-clad aluminum (CCA) conductors?
The cat six is solid copper.

All connections are in watertight mounting boxes but I do think that re-terminating is a good idea. I did order that Platinum POE tester because I would like to see what kind of voltage drop I’m getting. It hasn’t arrived yet. I will take some readings, and then re-terminate as see if it makes a difference.
 

Ricky808

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I do think it was a connection issue, and while I did re-terminate my cat 6 cable, I think it was actually a female to female connector that was faulty (seen in the second picture). I did use that new Platinum POE testing device, which was probably worth the $90 I spent as it did help troubleshoot the problem. More of a time saving device, as I probably could have done the same thing with a voltmeter testing individual wires but this was much quicker.

The photos show me using the device at the two ends of the “over roof” cat 6 cable. The first one is at the wall penetration closest to the switch where I have L-com cat 6 lightening arresters, and the second location is the end of the cat six cable at the junction box where I connected it to the camera. In the box you can see part of the white female/female adapter that I believe was my problem. My original 1.3 megapixel camera that I replaced had a much longer cord, and so I had to use a patch cable and a female/female adapter to make up the distance to the camera, as seen in the picture.

I’ve had camera stability now for multiple days. I appreciate everybody’s input.

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