periodic random loss of connection to hikvision camera

[DokkenVersusChicken]

I run blue iris with 6 hikvision poe cameras. a couple of months ago i noticed one camera would give the 'connection failed' error in blue iris. I also could not log in to the camera directly. then after a period of time (an hour or so), it re-connects and works fine. but this has happened several times -- every other day or so -- and i'm looking for tips to trouble shoot this.

I swapped out the camera and this still happens on the same cable/poe port.
I tested the cable run with a cable tester and it seems fine.
today i swapped the port on the poe switch to a different one. too early to tell if that makes a difference. there's another camera on this same 4 port poe switch and it has never lost connection.

anything else to try? since I changed the camera, it has to either be the cable or the switch, correct?

thanks for any tips.

 

[fenderman]

It could be the cable itself or the termination...a cable tester is insufficient to test this issue.
What brand cable is it? is it solid copper or Copper clad aluminium...

 

[nayr]

what kind of 'tester' do you have? a simple continuity tester (binary) is not enough to consider a cable 'fine', there are plenty of things that can cause issues that it'd never detect.

first thing I would do is re-terminate both ends, cut em off.. make new ones, verify continuity and try again.. if that didnt work I would make sure I was not running parallel to any high power lines or near fluorescent ballasts, etc.. and then lastly I would assume the cable was damaged durring install and rip it out with a new cable attached to the end, preferably from a different spool.

if you can do some torture testing on that run, plug a laptop into it.. max out its throughput and watch a continuous ping for it to start dropping crap.. also make sure it negotiates full gigabit and not anything lower (presuming your switch supports that)

 

[DokkenVersusChicken]

thanks. yes, it's a continuity tester, a $5 chinese one. I'll re-install connectors this weekend. i'm sure that's the issue, as these are self-made cables/connectors. my success rate on connectors is about 1 out of 3 and i'm not very good at it. not sure the construction of the 5E, but it's a box i got a couple of years ago and it's all over the house and working fine everywhere else.

thanks for the feedback.

 

[fenderman]

thanks. yes, it's a continuity tester, a $5 chinese one. I'll re-install connectors this weekend. i'm sure that's the issue, as these are self-made cables/connectors. my success rate on connectors is about 1 out of 3 and i'm not very good at it. not sure the construction of the 5E, but it's a box i got a couple of years ago and it's all over the house and working fine everywhere else.

thanks for the feedback.

Junk CCA ethernet cable can cause all sorts of problems..While you may not notice it on some runs it may cause problems on others. http://www.belden.com/blog/datacenters/Not-in-My-Network-Copper-Clad-Aluminum-is-a-Recipe-for-Failure.cfm

 

[Abbell]

I run blue iris with 6 hikvision poe cameras. a couple of months ago i noticed one camera would give the 'connection failed' error in blue iris. I also could not log in to the camera directly. then after a period of time (an hour or so), it re-connects and works fine. but this has happened several times -- every other day or so -- and i'm looking for tips to trouble shoot this.

I swapped out the camera and this still happens on the same cable/poe port.
I tested the cable run with a cable tester and it seems fine.
today i swapped the port on the poe switch to a different one. too early to tell if that makes a difference. there's another camera on this same 4 port poe switch and it has never lost connection.

anything else to try? since I changed the camera, it has to either be the cable or the switch, correct?

thanks for any tips.

If you swapped the camera and it happens on the same port then the issue follows the location and not the camera. Swap the ports around and see if the issue follows the connection or the port. If it follows the port then you may have an overloaded POE (devices can start to lose the ability to generate the same wattage over time especially if near the listed limits), if it follows the cable then the run is suspect. 350MHZ cable works in a pinch because it is cheap, but for anything over 10m it may be better to goto a 23AVG cable and/or with better EMF shielding. I find the cheaper cable often doesn't pay as I tend to cut off more bad ends due to weak wires,

Cable testers work in a pinch because they can tell you whether or not the wires go end to end, they cannot tell you if there is interference or if you have a high resistance in a wire. Decibel testers and signal meters are much more expensive and while great they have their place. There are even managed switches that can do cable diagnostics... again, great but have their place.
Simple troubleshooting should lead you to the issue though.

 

[DokkenVersusChicken]

after posting this question about a week ago, i swapped the poe port. the camera has not lost signal since.

Hopefully that eliminates the CAT as the issue. So I'm down to the old POE port or (more likely) the connectors (that got re-seated).