Solved: Problems after repunching down with Dahua IPC-HDW5231R-Z

[Loganb]

I'm really scratching my head here and could love any advice or thoughts on what I've jacked up here, this may be more a network/install challenge than a Dahua one but I'm just not sure:

Setup:
Camera's: (5) Dahua PoE 2.7mm-12mm HDW5231R-Z all from Empire Tech bought in 2 different lots
POE Injector: 8 port midspan 802.3af injector, 60W, powering just the 5 cameras
Computer: (1) Way overpowered Dell Desktop running BlueIris dumping direct to disk on a 4TB WD Purple

I got the first 2 cameras listed along with the big Dahua IPC-HFW5231E-Z5 running on BI, really liked it and decided I needed more camera's so down the rabbit hole I go.

Picked up 3 more cameras, ran new cables out to the new locations, didn't have a patch panel at this point so cables coming back into the house were terminated with RJ45 and plugged direct into PoE injector, got all the cameras configured at the desk, mounted them and away we went and it was working great! All 5 cameras(big 5X zoom Dahua on the bench for awhile, moving to a new location) going, CPU usage in the 15% or so, mobile app worked as well and wifey even liked that so I was in good shape. Left it this way for almost 2 weeks...

Problem was that with these new cameras, I was out of port space on my existing switch(16 port Trendnet) and really wanted to put more hardwired jacks in the house plus a couple more cameras still so decided to do it right and mount a new 15U rack on the wall and transition all gear over to a proper rack to make mangt easier and because I could. I did Cisco CCNA certification 15-ish years ago, not in the industry today but know enough to get in trouble as proven here

So I get the rack in(3' away in the same room from existing switch/modem/router) and right now it's got the following gear:

(2) TrendNet 24 port CAT 5E patch panels
(1) TrendNet (24) Port Switch
and the same POE Injector as used in the first setup

So far all I've done is punch down the (5) cables going out to the cameras...and I can only get the first 2 cameras installed to turn on...none of the (3) installed 2-ish weeks ago are being recognized on the network however their IR emitters are on at night???? So far I've

1. Repunched each one down 3 times and moved to different ports on the patch panel...nada
2. Changed patch panels....nada
3. Moved back to the old switch...nada
4. Put a RJ45 end on the line going to the camera and plugged straight into PoE Injector...still nada

(2) of these cameras are mounted in a 2nd floor soffit, but the unit mounted under the 1st floor eve I've pulled down and taken back to the house, hooked up on a cable to the PoE injector and it fires right up with all previous settings/IP address/configuration etc still good...so the camera is working but something on that cable isn't liking it but is delivering enough juice to light up the IR emitters. When I moved the terminations to the new rack it moved the wire about 3', still in the same room, no major changes to the wire layout. All cables should be made to 568B, I do not have a tester or have easy access to one

The only thing I can think of at this point is that somehow I managed to jack up the termination on the camera end on each of the (3) newer cameras that somehow worked under the old setup but not now. Since it's dark out and windy I'm going to wait till tomorrow to do a visual inspection on the unit that's easy to access and if I find something wrong on that termination will then climb up to the harder to reach units.

Am I missing anything else here? Anything other than basic connection, connection, connection....then check connections again since they worked before and all I've moved is connections?

For reference, the work in progress is below...new rack on the right before I started moving things over, old setup is there mounted on the wall with the switch, modem on top of it and router/AP. The PoE injector is concealed from view due to the patch panels but is to the right of the router/AP and what that bundle of blue patch cables is going to. Any advice or suggestions you've got would be immensely helpful as i'm pulling my hair out on what I thought was going to be a fun Saturday afternoon project is no longer much fun!

 

[fenderman]

Did you use the 568B standard for the cables?

 

[Loganb]

Did you use the 568B standard for the cables?

That is the intent, the only connections I haven't visually inspected to confirm are the camera end of the (3) runs I'm having problems with, but nothing changed on that end at all from the prior setup that was working perfectly. The patch cables for the new rack between switch and injector and injector and patch panel are all storebought units and work on the 2 camera's that aren't acting up so I'm operating under assumption the patch cables are good

 

[geezer]

All my work has been with stiff outdoor Cat 5E and it's easy to do a bad RJ45. First thing I bought was an $8 end-to-end tester. By far the best dollars I've spent on my CCTV system.

Even if this problem turns out to be something else, you're gonna want one.

 

[tangent]

Do you get link lights or not on these ports?

If no, seek out the full driver / utility download for the NIC in a laptop or two. Many of the utilities have a cable test function, how useful it is can vary.
For these tests, I'd unplug the camera end of the cable. Hopefully one of your computer's NICs supports software that will show you cable length. The thing to look for would be a difference between the lengths of different pairs.

Quoting myself below

The 2 most common mistakes people make when terminating cables are putting the wires in the wrong order which can occur as they push the plug on and not pushing the plug on far enough resulting in a poor connection.

Punch downs are harder to screw up, consider punching down each end of the cable and then using pre-made patch cables.

I agree it looks like one of the pictures may be wrong. When I was a kid, my dad got a partial spool of cat5 with NO color markings on the white wires free. That teaches you to terminate cable properly real quick. We cant see the side to see if the wires are in far enough. To take better pictures, put your camera in macro mode and add an external light source. If you make the same mistake on both ends of a cable, you'll pass a basic continuity test but it won't work for shit.

Best case scenario, you keep making the same mistakes over and over as you re-terminate the cable. Worst case, you bent the cable too much or pulled on it too hard and actually damaged the cable during installation.

Most computers these days can perform some fancier tests on cables to identify faults. Often you just have to find the software from the NIC mfg (eg Intel, RealTek, etc) because it may not be installed by default.

Attached is a screenshot of the RealTek utility showing cable status. It shows the status of each twisted pair. In this image one end of the cable is disconnected. If the cable is connected on both ends and working it should show normal and won't show the length for each pair. Differing lengths or short generally mean cable damage. These software tools are doing tdr on your cable.

 

[Loganb]

Do you get link lights or not on these ports?

If no, seek out the full driver / utility download for the NIC in a laptop or two. Many of the utilities have a cable test function, how useful it is can vary.
For these tests, I'd unplug the camera end of the cable. Hopefully one of your computer's NICs supports software that will show you cable length. The think to look for would be a difference between the lengths of different pairs.

Quoting myself below

No link lights on the switch for the cameras/runs causing problems, good lights on the ones that are working

I took geezer's advice and ordered a Klein cable tester/network mapper, gets delivered today so hopefully will have more information tonight

 

[Kevin Michaels]

Absolutely buy a tester. I was going nuts too before I bought mine. Now I can immediately tell when I haven't punched a pair down right.

Also, make sure the punchdown side of your panel is expecting 568B. The panel I have uses 568A, so I have to make sure that I terminate cables at the camera end 568A as well.

 

[Loganb]

Aright well got the tester in today(Klein VDV Scout Pro 2) and sure enough it confirmed cable termination issue on the cable run to the "easy to access camera" under 1st floor eve. Cut the RJ45 off on the cable end to get rid of the open wire in the center pair, terminate another and boom it powers right up.

I was foolish enough to think I could visually spot any bad end connection and had never looked up what cable testers cost these days and was still thinking of the several thousand dollar fluke's I used to use and knew I wasn't going to buy one of those! If things go well on Tuesday at work I'll jump out a bit early and climb up during daylight to take another look and test the other runs and am assuming that will find a similar issue. Thanks to all who helped me get past my "observation bias" and push me to get a tester and validate that the cables are good and not rely on visual and "they worked before" as proof the cables and terminations are right! Couple of days from now and you'll hopefully find a post over in the Installation section showing the new rack and everything working and wiring semi-pretty.