Ethernet cable, CCTV, RJ45 etc. etc.

[scooby1]

I have a problem and wondered if someone would be kind enough to help me out please. I'm not an electrician or anything like that.
Basically I have a Hikvision CCTV system with a PTZ camera that crashed about a month ago. NO LINK is the message on the monitor screen. I went round and "fiddled" where the CAT5 cable has joints, one near the VCR and one in my loft and found that when I got a bit stroppy with the one in the loft the camera came back on-screen.
It lasted about 2 weeks and then went blank again. So I bought a circuit tester and with me in the loft with the main part of the tester attached to the cable and my Wife sitting with the "repeater" part of the tester with the RJ45 plugged into it (and with me shouting the numbers down the stairs !) I determined that the cable from the loft to the NVR was O.K. I assumed that the RJ45 connector was at fault on the one end of the cable that goes out to the camera and so I bought a crimping set with push through connectors, practised a few times on some spare cable, and then made a new connection.
But how do I test the complete cable if I climb up and put one unit of the tester on the cable where it attaches inside the camera and with the other end of the tester right down at the other end where the cable goes into the NVR ? Apologies if it's a stupid question.

I don't have an internal image of the PTZ but the specs. say that the data connection is via an RJ45 union. The camera is a Hikvision DS-2DE4220IW-D 2MP external IR PTZ (12V) and I have tested the voltage coming out of the transformer and that is 12 volt so I am assuming that the PTZ has power. Having said that I discovered yesterday that the installer just made a hole in one gable end, through the block work and facing bricks and just pushed both cables through the hole and after 5 years and the recent winds it may have frayed where it comes out of the wall on it's way down to the camera at eaves height.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[secureiam]

Sounds like the cable is damaged near the ends or the socket itself.

POE the power isn’t 12VDC however the camera may have a lead for a 12V power supply. I think your saying that power is good.

Not sure if your saying the cameras fly lead os damaged or the Ethernet cable to to the camera it’s self

 

[scooby1]

Sounds like the cable is damaged near the ends or the socket itself.

POE the power isn’t 12VDC however the camera may have a lead for a 12V power supply. I think your saying that power is good.

Not sure if your saying the cameras fly lead os damaged or the Ethernet cable to to the camera it’s self

Firstly thank you for your reply, it is much appreciated. I don't see how any of the ends of the cable can be damaged, they are all in the house as I have tried to show in this diagram :

There is of course an RJ45 connector that goes into the rear of the NVR and I suspect that the connection into the camera is also an RJ45. With regard to the power supply I have assumed that it is 12V because there is a small transformer in the cable that runs between the 13amp socket that is in the loft to the camera and it says 24V input and 12V output on the transformer casing.

 

[secureiam]

I went round and "fiddled" where the CAT5 cable has joints, one near the VCR and one in my loft and found that when I got a bit stroppy with the one in the loft the camera came back on-screen.

If you fiddle with a cable and it comes back on, the cable or what it plugs into is dodgy usually.

Cables can get damaged usually cheap cable, poorly terminated cable or under a lot of stress.

 

[secureiam]

Connector block? Ideally it’s one cable plugged into the camera all the way back to the nvr.

the cables can be tested to test the connector block for two cables, you need to know both pieces of cable are okay and test with the connector between them

 

[scooby1]

Connector block? Ideally it’s one cable plugged into the camera all the way back to the nvr.

the cables can be tested to test the connector block for two cables, you need to know both pieces of cable are okay and test with the connector between them

We built the house 10 years ago and asked the electrician to lay cables for a CCTV system and so he had to terminate them where he could. We didn't have the CCTV system installed until 5 years ago and so there were joints that had to be made. But at least doing it like this most of the cables are within the house build and not trailed along an external wall. Here is an image of one of the connector blocks.


I have tested the connector blocks and they seem to be O.K. I am beginning to think that the fault is either between the connector block in the attic and the camera. Either where it just goes through brickwork or actually the RJ45 plug inside the camera if indeed that is how the cable is connected to the camera. I wish there was a way of testing the circuit from one end of the cable i.e. at the NVR end. Other than that I have to get up to the camera and take the cable out and test it from there so that it would be the complete length being tested but even if I do that I won't be able to see the "receiving end" of the circuit tester.

 

[secureiam]

What was the point you got stroppy with?

What cable can you see comming through the wall that has the 12V to it and the Ethernet connection

 

[scooby1]

What was the point you got stroppy with?

What cable can you see comming through the wall that has the 12V to it and the Ethernet connection

I got "stroppy" with the RJ45 connector on the cable that goes from the attic connector to the camera and it was the end that goes into the attic connector. I haven't been outside to the camera - yet.

There are 2 cables that come through the wall. The ethernet cable that initially goes from the camera to the NVR (as in my diagram in #3) and the other cable is a 2 wire cable that is connected to the transformer - image below
:
I am thinking about buying a coil of the ethernet cable. Can you tell me which one I need please ? The one that the electrician used when the house was being built is a "Lan Cable FTP Cat5e 100Ω" That cable has a grey outer covering but the short section of cable that the camera installer used has a brown outer covering and because it's in the loft I can't see what is written on the outside. Thank you.

 

[secureiam]

shielded cable FTP is better than unshielded UTP but you need to have the appropriate connector.

Solid copper cores are the way to go.

 

[scooby1]

shielded cable FTP is better than unshielded UTP but you need to have the appropriate connector.

Solid copper cores are the way to go.

Thank you yet again for your help and patience. Below is an image of the PTZ camera that is affected. Are you able to tell me if what looks like an insepction flap underneath the supporting arm would allow me access to the connections of the power and data cables ?
I have downloaded the specs. for the camera but there are no diagrams of the internal workings. However it does say that the ethenet connector is an RJ45. I thought that I might buy a roll of the correct cable and just put a temporary cable from the NVR, out of the door of the house and up to the camera, obviously having previously put an RJ45 connector on each end and tested them, and connecting it to the camera so that I could prove that the camera is O.K. Is there a limit as to how long an ethernet cable can be from a camera to the NVR ? That is of course as long as the 12V DC power supply is good all the way to the camera. I understand that the camera really needs power for the PTZ function and on that note if the camera is without power does it send a static image back to the NVR or would I still get the NO LINK message on my screen ?

 

[secureiam]

Yes you should be able to inspect the fly lead from the PTZ and the connection to the leads going back. However I cant comment on what they have or haven't done.

The camera would appear to be capable of 12V or POE to power the unit.

You could still have power to the unit and get no image.

Realistically with 12V supplied locally power shouldn't be an issue, the standard being used for the your camera should allow 100M cable lengths I suspect. couldn't find the datasheet for the exact model you quoted.

 

[scooby1]

Thank you again for all your help. I am unsure as to the term fly lead. Is this a short lead from the camera workings to some kind of official junction box that is is till nside the camera ? I am very ignorant about this entire subject and always assumed that some of the internal wires of ethernet cable transmitted images from the camera back to the NVR but that some of the internal wires carried PTZ instructions from the control point back to the camera and so I wondered if, when there is no power to the camera, whether I would be getting a static image from the last set of controls sent to the PTZ.
I am pretty sure this is the datasheet for my PTZ :

 

[secureiam]

Your camera is likely to have a lead coming from the camera, it will have a connection for 12V DC and one for RJ45 connection, it may also have other cables for inputs, outputs, audio etc etc.

The lead should come down the arm and connect to the cable going into the house, as for how the cable is inside the bracket I cant say.

IP cameras usually have x number of cores for power and x for image.
If there is no power there is no means of the camera powering up and therefore no image, you can see when it went off in your NVR as it be the last point the image was received.

indeed the camera could be working and you just not receiving the image, but depends on what the damage is to how it behaves to be fair.

it is possible but believe its unlikely from what you have said that water has got inside the connection.

Is there plently of slack for the incoming Cat5e cable to cut some off and re-terminate it?

 

[scooby1]

Thank you again. I have a newish set of BPS domestic scaffolding, either 6mt or 7mts., which I intend to put up to get at the camera, I'm not so steady on ladders any more and the tower would be on a terrace (patio). I have thought that once this awful weather gets something like reasonable I would put the scaffolding up and actually take the camera down and connect it all up in the office, having secured it properly of course beforehand, just to make sure that the camera is still working as it should.
I am now of the opinion that the original installers did a poor job. I discovered today that the 12V supply from the transformer to the camera is actually anothrt piece of the same Cat5e cable that they used for the data cable and they used a pair of the twisted wires for the positive and a pair for the negative. And although the length of the cables on the exterior walls is only about 6ft the cable is a UTP cable.

 

[scooby1]

All sorted now thank you. I took the camera down and partially dismantled it and was amazed at how much garbage, dead and alive wildlife, and other detritus was in the supporting arm. And although the cat5e cable has a waterproof connector I think it could have been designed much better. Anyway, I cleaned it all out after taking the camera down and rigged some temporary cabling so that I could test it close to hand and the camera worked perfectly and so today I have re-installed it and it is working perfectly. Fingers crossed. Thanks again.