Varifocal Lens Change

Yes, I just matched the same order as the lens it replaced. Be careful to remove the ends without damaging.
 
For the JST (Japan Solderless Terminal) I've used a pin or thin needle succesfully.
Push the pin into the connector following the wire such that it just lifts up the plastic keeper from the barb on the connector and allows it to slip under the end of the keeper..
The gently grip both the wire and the pin and pull them out together.
You can see the barbs on the other connectors in the image below.

upload_2019-3-20_22-12-59.png
 
OK, new lens in place.

turns out one can remove just the board with the lens on it, no need to remove the entire assembly from globe as dfhawk did in his video.

32497507087_e693bf7319_o.jpg

Boy those little JST connectors can be a b***h. Got em out easily enuf without too much mangling per Alastair's excellent instructable, but putting them back in turned out to be p.i.t.a. They kept popping out as I tried to push the connector back onto the pins of the mating connector on the board. Finally managed to get them in so they stayed and were not shorting to each other on the back side, that i could tell.

hooked things up and tested before re-assembly. Noticed the lens doesn't fit tightly into the foam ring (neither did the same-sized original) so I wound a rubber band around it couple times
(it's what i could find -- electrical tape woulda worked too) to make sure no light could leak from the (green led) inside around the lens and back off the glass into the sensor. not sure it matters, but can't hurt, i think.

The original lens was slightly offset from the being fully seated into the 14mm circular fitting so i first tried the new lens at approximately the same offset.
Found I was unable to focus at full telephoto (22mm narrow) zoom. Pushed the lens all the way into the holder and could then focus at full 22mm zoom. tradeoff
tho is that I can no longer focus sharply at minimum (6mm) zoom level. Could not find any offset that allowed for focus at both ends of zoom range, but
that's no big deal, as I intend to use it at the further/longer range, so not being able to focus at 6mm is no problem for my needs. ymmv...

Will have to wait till I find my other 2231 for before/after comparison shots, but I'm hoping to use this for ID'ing people's faces @ ~30-40 feet,
replacing a hik 2332 turret with 16mm lens transplant. the Hik is fine during the day, but not great at night without extra IR (not surprising,
as it's LED's were tuned for the original 2.8mm lens). If it works out, I'll swap the lens in my other 2231 as well and replace the
hik 2032 bullet with 25mm lens transplant currently doing face duty in the other direction...
 
Curious, are you doing the lens transplant to save money by not purchasing a different model? Or is there no different model that is what you need?
 
partially, yes. there seem to be limited (if any) options in the non-ptz 16-25mm range, especially turrets (which by design tend to not accept longer lenses)

I have a 2231 VF turret lying around (and another somewhere,) so figured i'd see if that works...

Adding more IR for the existing cams is an option, but at the cost of extra 'things' sticking out from the house I have to convince the wife are 'necessary'... :-)

Open to suggestions for fixed or VF with good low-light capabilities in the 16-25mm range - maybe I am doing this the hard way... :)