I just replaced a camera and 300' feet of ethernet wire due to a lightening strike. I replaced the old camera with a Amcrest IP4M-T1044E. I replaced the wire with a shielded Cat6 underground wire. The ethernet cable tested fine after install. Checked it with a ethernet wire tester, however the camera will not work. Took the camera down and hooked it up right at the POE switch and it worked fine. Switch lights indicate power and data passing through. Tried a different camera and it would not work either. The older camera does have a power light on it and it was on. Due to the lightening strikes I have a ethernet grounding block at the poe switch which was in place before the strike. The only thing different with this install from the old is that I am now using shielded cable with the ground and the metal terminal connectors rather than the plastic ones. Question is could the grounded cable cause loss of data or any other type off connection problem? I have Ubiquiti switches and the web dash board shows the camera online and connected.
POE Question
- Thread starter Cleve
- Start date
Ok, I took another camera to the end of the line and the power light came on. This is the wire that I used. How do you check to see if it can pass POE?
trueCABLE Cat6 Direct Burial, Shielded F/UTP, 500ft, Waterproof, Outdoor Rated CMX, Black, 23AWG Solid Bare Copper, 550MHz, PoE++ (4PPoE), ETL Listed, Bulk Ethernet Cable
Then it is you are approaching the limit of POE distance and the tolerances of these cameras are not very tight, so the camera you are trying needs more power than the camera that worked on the cable.
We have seen two exact models bought at same time from same lot looking at the same field of view have a 3 watt difference in power being used.
A 1 watt difference could be the camera working or not.
We have seen two exact models bought at same time from same lot looking at the same field of view have a 3 watt difference in power being used.
A 1 watt difference could be the camera working or not.
Continuity testing just shows that you do not have wires crossed or not connected. It does not show the bandwidth of the signal. You are at the edge of the distance that is recommended. A poor termination could cause your issue. It would not show up in a continuity test. You could try to re-terminate the ends. Do one at a time and see if it works.
Ok, I took another camera to the end of the line and the power light came on.
I have been watching the power consumption on the poe switch and the poe for the camera is bouncing between 2.06 and 4.65 watts. The switch can handle up to 52 watts poe and the total poe watts being used is 18.6 out of that 52. All of my other cameras use between 4-5 watts so I think you are on to something there. I have another switch I can try it with. Also thinking about replacing metal connectors with the standard plastic ones.
You’re just wasting time and playing with fire. If shielded cable is being used everything in the network infrastructure must also be shielded and properly bonded to the homes single point Earth ground.
Either at the service (breaker) panel, at the service entrance (meter), or ground rod.
A SPD must be installed at the camera with a minimum of 2-4 feet of cable per the makers installation requirements.
Another SPD must be installed at the other end and bonded to the homes single point Earth ground which also must have a 2-4 foot lead.
If you left a service loop anywhere outside (Do Not) coil the cable in a tight round circle! Doing so will create an induction coil (magnet) when high voltage EMF is present either from lightning or from power lines.
Lastly, if the camera has a ground screw it must be connected. Everything else related to the network must be properly grounded such as rack, patch panel, switch, RJ45, cable, pole mount etc.
looney2ns
IPCT Contributor
Try powering with 12v at the camera, or a POE injector. That will quickly tell if the voltage drop is too great for the camera.
After reading all of your reply's concerning low power, I decided to connect the camera to another POE Switch. I used a Amcrest POE/POE+ switch. The camera powered up and appears to be working just fine. So I checked the technical info page on the camera and it states that the camera works on (POE-802.3af) I do not know how much power the switch is pushing to the camera but it is working. So I'm guessing it might be POE+. Reached out to Amcrest and they said again that it is just POE. Strange how it worked on a 6' jumper from the switch but not at the end of a 270' wire until I plugged it into the POE/POE+ switch. Not sure if the problem is solved or not, just have to wait and see if the camera quits.
