IPC-HFW4431R-Z rj45 connector toast, water ingress...

[GFM]

Camera quit working a few days ago, finally got around to checking it out this afternoon. Found the connector all black inside, some water came out (more like mud), so obviously the weather "proof" connector did a great job of letting water in somewhere, and of course not letting it out. Using shielded cat5 which looks fine, except for the RJ45 which is very black and corroded as well.
Cleaned out the camera-side of the connector and tried it with a different cable, and it worked, just very intermittently. Tried cleaning it some more and one of the pins (#4 I believe) came out, so I believe this was the one supplying POE since now the camera won't power up (unless using a 12v p/s), and no ethernet connection anymore.

I'm quite sure the camera is still good, just the connector is bad. I cut the cable and find 6 conductors. Matched which pins they go to except pin #4, which could be any of the wires except the grey one that is pins 7 and 8.
Colour code:
1 brown
2 purple
3 orange
4
5 yellow
6 blue
7 grey
8 grey

Of course with 6 conductors this is different colour coding from the normal RJ45 connection whether it be T568 A or B.

Hate to burn up a working camera by dumping POE 48v into the wrong wire... Has anyone had one of these apart? Next step is trying to dissect the original camera connector without messing it up so I can tell what connects to the #4 pin. If anyone has this pinout it would make this a lot easier...

Should mention I usually add dielectric grease to these connectors so water can't get into them. This one I had not, remembered I had run out of the stuff and needed to come back and re-do that one, and forgot. Why mess with it if it works eh?

Belated happy Thanks Giving all!

 

[aristobrat]

Not sure if this might help but FWIW:

IPC-HDW5231R-Z - Pinout SOLVED, yet not....

First let me preface this by saying im thoroughly impressed by the knowledge of this forum, and by the Dahua cameras and NVR I recently received from Andy. Unfortunately, I trashed the female connector on my 5231 while trying to hurry and install it before a storm. Undeterred, I sought to...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[Hetticles]

What dielectric grease do you use?
Over the past 5 years across ~25 cameras, I've had one fail due to water ingress. I didn't have the correct mounting bracket, so I improvised. I gooped it up with "sealant" but that clearly put off the enviable. Worked for about 4 years before a failure.
I was able to recover this by cutting off the connector and crimping a new one on. I did not return it to service in the same location, I bought a new camera and the correct bracket.

 

[TonyR]

What dielectric grease do you use?

@looney2ns provides us with a link to Home Depot's dielectric grease here.
After the grease, wrap the pigtail-to-RJ45 junction tightly with "coax seal", also known as self-fusing rubber tape.
After a layer of the self-fusing/self-vulcanizing rubber tape I like to apply a TIGHT layer of 3M 33+ electrical tape to speed up the process of the rubber tape fusing itself (the pressure helps).

 

[GFM]

@aristobrat that is exactly what I am looking for, pin 4 and 5 connect to the yellow wire. Awesome! Will try that shortly.

Think what I will do is solder a length of cat5 directly to the camera wiring. Easier to seal that way, and less chance of another connection issue.

I use dielectric grease from an auto supply store good for high voltage ignition systems. I have used it in RF connectors for years with zero issues.

@Hetticles my connection didn't look quite that bad, but bad enough. Only takes a little water to cause corrosion which results in a bad connection causing heat and rapid deterioration.

@TonyR good instructions for sealing any connection. Up here I use 3m super88 over the vulcanizing tape, it works better in the cold.

Thank you all for your responses! Great forum, you guys know what you are doing!

Belated happy Thanks Giving all!

Not sure if this might help but FWIW:

IPC-HDW5231R-Z - Pinout SOLVED, yet not....

First let me preface this by saying im thoroughly impressed by the knowledge of this forum, and by the Dahua cameras and NVR I recently received from Andy. Unfortunately, I trashed the female connector on my 5231 while trying to hurry and install it before a storm. Undeterred, I sought to...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[TonyR]

@TonyR good instructions for sealing any connection. Up here I use 3m super88 over the vulcanizing tape, it works better in the cold.

Funny, I thought 88 was thicker than 33+, making it even MORE stiff in the cold.
I've used 88 but prefer 33+, I'm used to it and know it's snapping point.
It all boils down to what works best for the individual and application.
Either way, as long as it's a tight wrap until the rubber can self-seal.

 

[GFM]

Well, wired up the camera to a cat6 cable (ran out of cat5 shouldn't make a difference) and tried it out. The network "seems" to see it and I can ping it, but can't seem to connect to the IP address via the web gui, and won't show up on BL using the original settings.
First tried using a 12v power supply and a direct connection to the main router. Also tried using POE power via the POE router and same results. I am sure the connections are good, triple checked with the pinout above, and I did take apart my damaged connector and confirmed the pinout. Should be good to go, but something is wrong.

A voltage spike when I tried it on the bench might have scrambled something before cutting off the original connector, I did have it working for a second on the bench after cleaning the connector. Maybe it needs a factory reset? I don't see a means to do this externally, maybe there is an internal switch, button, etc? Don't really want to take it apart since it's factory sealed likely in a low humidity environment and/or purged with nitrogen at assembly etc... but if it's not working maybe I'll have to. Could also be a chance an internal connection is compromised from the connector shorting out etc... or worse.

Amazing how much time one can spend on this sort of thing...

 

[aristobrat]

They usually have a packet or two of desiccant in them to deal with the moisture; it’s not unusual for folks here to take cameras apart for a bunch of different reasons.

I wonder if the 4431 might use a different pin out?

 

[GFM]

No pinout in the diagram you attached was the same as the connector I have. Checked it after cam wouldn't show up on network.

Just came in from outside, another camera died it would seem. This one has no issues with the connector. Seems to have just stopped working.

different pin out

edit/update,
Success! Seemed to have had router/DHCP problem, had to delete the IP/MAC bindings and re-load the configuration (in the main router) and all works now. So that definately confirms the pinout in post #2 is good. Both cameras are working as before so the repair on the 4431 worked well.