Charles_Heraver

Survtech, That is a pretty impressive set up you have there! I made a simpler one, using a power supply, back box and BB mounting bracket on a piece of plywood. The video out goes to an Ideal video tester. If the dome drive powers on OK, I hook a coax to a spare DVR input and test the PTZ from there. Works for us here, as cameras are only a small part of what I'm involved with. We are a municipal drinking water utility in northern Illinois. We decided to just buy a couple refurbed dome drives from TLS. That should gets things done and operational while the rented lift is still here, and more importantly before winter. We'll probably see about sending the hulks back to TLS for repair. So thank you again for your help and insight. I appreciate it. Charles Heraver

Survtech, The camera heads I am swapping are the same model number. The only difference that I can tell is they are the "B" stock from TLS. These are in the environmental metal dome housings. The dome drive I'm frustrated with already has a DD53 KIT but that was done 2 or 3 years ago. I can certainly try a new DD53KIT and see what that does. I can't think of anything else to do at this point. Like you said, the original power supply boards were failing, and looking brown burnt. Right now I have 3 dome drives that are dead. Two have the problem above while the third does not always power up and configure correctly. Sometimes it says CONFIG FAILED, other times it passes the config, but the video is coming in and out of video loss. Same parts above were replaced with no change. Please don't think I'm ranting on you, I'm just not getting these cameras. I really do appreciate your replies. Charles Heraver

Survtech, I really appreciate your help. I have a Spectra 3 SE dome drive that is giving me fits. Powering it on a test rack (back box and mount, power supply and video monitor) the drive does nothing. I swapped in a new camera assy, and then I can see the lens zooming in and out during its normal boot up. After the lens goes in and out a couple times I hear relays clicking, as if the dome drive is trying to pan and tilt to finish its boot up sequence. There is no movement from either motor. I swapped both motors, then the slip ring, then the receiver/driver board, remembering to short the reset pins on initial power up. None of this has changed anything. The parts are all from TLS, so they should be good. Am I missing something? I tried moving the D.D. myself, hoping it might "make up" those 2 prox/position switches, but nothing. I have yet another dome drive, fresh from TLS, and it seems to operate MUCH better after I turned the Auto Iris OFF with the on-screen programming. By much better I mean it responds to the PTZ commands almost flawlessly, where as before it was very sluggish, to the point of sometime not doing anything. Thanks again for any insight you can provide. Charles Heraver

Survtech, Thank you for your reply. To the best of my knowledge they are Spectra 3 SE. I am pretty sure it is an environmental dome housing, but will get part numbers and try to verify on my end. The Pelco power supply is only feeding one camera. There is a heater board mounted in the back box mounting bracket. The power cable is a Belden shielded cable, and it is marked as #18 AWG. Tomorrow I intend to pull some #14 THHN up the one pole to rule that out. The idea of broken strands could be true, and I suppose the installers could have kinked or damaged the Belden cable during the install. I took a Fluke 41B to check the AC in and out, and the sine wave looks fairly decent. I have already replaced several of the original power supplies with the DD53KIT from T.L.S. We also bought a complete dome drive from T.L.S. to use in troubleshooting. In you opionion, are these good cameras, or do they simply "wear out" after a period of time. Ours are approaching 10 years old, and the original installation wasn't the best. Thank you again for your help, I really appreciate it. Charles Heraver

I have a question concerning the Pelco WCS 1-4 power supply. It is powering a Spectra 3 SE PTZ camera. When using the PTZ commands via the DVR, the camera usually doesn't respond correctly. It will start OK, then "go crazy" and ultimately it looks like it is rebooting. Pressing the " - " IRIS button usually starts this. The camera will move back and forth, up and down, zoom in and out, etc. then reboot. It does its power on maiden spin correctly. I've replaced the back box, unplugged the fan / heater, and swapped in a spare, new dome drive. I've also replaced the coax cable with a pre-made BNC cable. The problem still persists. The camera is wired to the 24VAC "A" tap on the supply. There is #18 AWG wire going about 20 ft up the pole to the camera. I moved the wire to the "B" tap and the camera's operation is greatly improved. According to the sticker in the power supply, the A tap should work fine. I have 120VAC coming in and approx. 25.5 VAC on the A tap. I'm tempted to try the highest voltage "C" tap but am somewhat reluctant to keep increasing the voltage. Any thoughts or suggestions would be most welcome, as we have a couple of these cameras doing the same thing at different sites. Thank you very much! Charles Heraver

Thank you survtech and tomcctv for the replies. I did try it with the heater board unplugged per Pelco. I just forgot to list it in my original post. I'm not convinced that there is a heat problem, as this camera fails even when first powered up, after it has sat on the bench off overnight. Charles Heraver CLCJAWA

I'm having some intermittant problems with a Pelco Spectra III SE that I hope someone might be able to help with. The dome drive workls absolutely fine in a test fixture. All PTZ movements are smooth and correct. Up on the pole, the camera will respond correctly to the PTZ commands for about 30 seconds, then it goes crazy. Pressing zoom might make the camera pan, pressing Iris open or close might cause the camera to zoom. After a few more seconds it starts to re-boot and do its maiden spin. Usually it becomes uncontrolable until I cycle the AC power to it. Pelco tech support thinks it is a power issue, and I have done the following: New back board. Swap the WCS 1-4 power supply, even used a different 110VAC feed. I have about 25.5 VAC up at the back board. Ran a new pair of #16AWG wires up the pole (about 17 feet) Swapped both fiber to copper convertors. Fibers have been tested by a fiber specialist. Changed both BNC connectors on the coax. I have not swapped the power supply board in the dome drive, as Time Lapse Supply tells me they usually are either good or bad. If all else fails this will be my next step, just to rule it out. TLS thinks it might be a control issue. The DVR is an almost-new DX 8100. The inside of the dome drive looks very clean, probably the nicest one I've seen here yet. Thank you very much. Charles Heraver CLCJAWA

I have a question about repairing these dome drives. We have a couple that seem to have intermittant connectors between the dome drive and backbox. Sometimes they will do their maiden spin on power up, other times not. Removing and reseating the dome drive to the backbox sometimes works, sometimes not. I seen to recall reading on this board that Pelco had some issues with these connectors. Is this the connector on the backbox, or the connector that screws into the receiver/driver board? I do see the green LED on the backbox, and the fan up there sounds smooth also. The pins also look OK, but obviously I can't be sure they are making good contact. Thank you very much. Charles Heraver

I am a newcomer to CCTV and this board, but not electronics. I have a couple of questions about Pelco Spectra III SE cameras. I have searched previous posts, and found some very useful information here. We are looking at doing the PM inhouse, and I am wondering what exactly is recommended for these cameras. Same question for the DX8100 DVR. From what I've seen on Pelco's website, these cameras "should" have a back board, dome drive, and the camera assembly itself. Am I missing anything else? I've looked at Time Lapse Supply and we will most likely have to order some parts from them. We are in northern Illinois, so will have to wait a bit to actually get up to the cameras. In the meantime I hope to learn alot more about these units, and hopefully bring some more work inhouse. Thank you very much for any suggestions. Charles Heraver