POE Camera ground

[Teken]

Is there a ground loop issue with surge protectors? The only time they should be conducting anything to ground is during a lightning strike.

Anytime there are two points which connect to one another a potential difference exists. Whether a Ground Loop is seen depends on many factors like design, components, quality, potential difference, surface area, environment, etc. It should be noted that ground loops on the scale of problems are separate issues vs more common and dangerous issues seen in the home such as.

Micro Surges: Happen every day and are generated by common appliances and motors: Fridge, freezer, sump, well pump, compressor, table saw, lawn mower, snow blower, blender etc.

This is why its important to have a tiered SPD system in place from Type 1 ~ Type 4.

Type 1: Service Entrance = Meter
Type 2: Service Panel = Breaker
Type 3: Point of Use = Outlet, power bar, AVR, UPS
Type 4: Inline = Attached in series before a device ~ Furnace, Washer, Dishwasher

Generally speaking all SPD / TVSS (Surge Protective Devices) are sacrificial and designed to absorb & block the bulk of the surge (voltage rise) event and anything else is shunted to ground. Type 1 ~ 2 SPD's are designed to sustain large voltage spikes coming from outside vs Type 3 ~ 4 SPD's. Type 3 ~ 4 SPD's generally speaking are installed inside a building and offer a tighter voltage range (let through) as such offer that last line of defense to point of use devices.

A SPD is always passing voltage from point A to point B . . .

It's only when a defined high voltage threshold is seen that it begins to conduct and than shunt to ground the excess to earth ground.

So a ground loop can exists because its connected to point A & B . . .

Regardless of the above in 2022 it makes more sense run outdoor rated armored optical fiber vs direct burial ethernet cable. Fiber doesn't conduct, doesn't rust, is immune to RFI / EMI / EMF, can be run further, offers consistent and reliable 1 ~ 40 GB speeds with the correct hardware and transceiver's.

Powering and protecting low voltage wiring takes more planning but opens some choices not available using ethernet cabling. The obvious reason for deploying ethernet cable is its low costs, ease of installation, and direct connection to everyday switches.

Anyone who lives in an area prone to seasonal lightning and intends to span more than 25 feet distance. Should really consider fiber vs copper wiring for all the reasons noted up above.

 

[JayDog007]

DON'T BUY THAT CABLE.

Look at the specs - it's CCA - Copper Clad Aluminium.

That also explains why some people are saying it's light in weight.

You want solid copper.

Thanks for pointing that out. They definitely were tricky on slipping that one in on me! Guess next time I will read everything before buying. Unfortunately I have already cut the ends and plugged into the surge protectors. I also have started to bury the cable already. It seems to be working fine but I will have to figure out the grounding question before I am done. Once again thanks for pointing that out. Would a copper cable have enough benefits that are noticeable?

 

[JayDog007]

You will want all grounds to be a single point of connectivity, otherwise you get into a ground loop issue, where you have different resistances to ground, which could introduce dangerous voltages into to your ground, not to mention make devices have strange issues.

I have heard this alot. I will probably just connect one end to the house main ground and just leave the other end in a surge protector but not grounded on the 6x6. Thanks!

 

[c hris527]

A few years back I was tasked with setting up cams on a radio tower, It had a fence and a generator with a LP tank. Also was a brick storage house for all of the radio equipment (like over a half million dollar worth). Not being a grounding expert I opted for grounding engineer from Motorola to meet me on site. All of my cams and wireless bridge connections were floated back to the enclosure and grounded to the main bussbar in the house. Before being grounded to the house bussbar, I used a Ditek poe appliance for surge protection. Something like this.

DITEK Surge Protection - DTK-MRJPOES

Power over Ethernet Surge Protector DITEK’s 10GbE DTK-MRJPOES is designed with state-of-the-art circuitry to provide superior protection for Shielded Power over Ethernet connections. This point of use surge protector can be installed at the equipment end, or ahead of injectors and midspan devices.

www.diteksurgeprotection.com

This was also grounded to the house bussbar. The way this was set was to protect the radio equipment and not the camera gear. I was OK with that. The Motorola guy was dead balls set on NOT dropping any ground rods for any of my equipment. Until I pointed out to him that the LP tank and generator had earth ground rods...lol.