Ok if this is covered in the Wiki I missed it, and it's an embarrassingly silly question. I have the IPC-T5442T-ZE Varifocal with the appropriate junction box. The pigtail on the camera is quite long and seems like it would be a tight fit if everything is stuffed inside the round junction box. Before I wrestle with it I thought I would ask the question: Do you stuff your junction box with the pigtail and make the connection from the male rj45 cable inside the junction box? I assume you don't use the included waterproof connector and just use dielectric grease and either silicon tape or coax wrap. Ideally it would be inside the wall, but mine are going on the outside of the house w/ no conduit.
Silly Question - Stuffing the camera cable in the junction box?
- Thread starter dan2112
- Start date
mat200
IPCT Contributor
- Jan 17, 2017
- 15,057
- 25,391
Hi Dan,
In all but the smallest junction boxes I have had no issues making a nice circular wrap up of the cables.
Process, in general - for cable in wall to junction box: ( can also do conduit to junction box .. )
1) Drill a hole in the wall for the bulk cable to come out
2) Mount junction box centered on hole. Use silicone caulk "n" shaped bead on back of box before putting it on the wall. Add a bit more if there is any gap between the box on the top and sides.
3) Pull bulk cable into junction box.
4) Crimp RJ45 connector on bulk cable ( if you want you can put a "gland" connector on the bulk cable.. I opted not to )
5) Connect IP PoE camera to newly crimped RJ45 terminated cat5e/6 bulk cable
6) Test. If good then proceed... if not repeat #4
7) Disconnect camera and cable
8) Put some dielectric grease into the camera's RJ45 boot.
9) Connect camera's pig tail RJ45 boot to RJ45 terminated bulk cable
10) Test again
11) Wrap with silicone stretch plumbing tape or coax seal
12) optional, wrap that with quality electrical tape
13) Do steps 11-12 with the DC power connection of the camera
14) Test camera again
15) Roll up cables into junction box ( I put the connections on the top of the junction box, just in case any water does get in )
16) Mount camera / camera + lid to junction box
17) Test
18) Align view
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I have the same camera and I self terminate my cables with the required twist-on waterproof connector that mates with the camera's fitting - using dielectric grease too. I like reducing the chance of a bad connection because seeing a random "No Signal" message is a PITA to troubleshoot. Especially when some of my cable runs are close to 300'.