libram

to make a ground, if hes only got two conductor going out to the tree then hes only got hot and common, while common is technically a ground safe practice is to have a separate redundant ground, especially for something mounted to a tree outside.

wrong type of forum, look to your carrier/provider/supplier.

old camera, no marks, no manufacturer, why bother

the ground isn't from any camera but from the power supplies, its the secondary earth ground. If you ground your cameras you will have issues. Placing a rod near the tree base is fine so long as its driven deep into the ground, the connectors don't really matter so long as they are conductive (metal) and tight. All you're looking to do is provide a solid path for errant electricity to follow to be safely dispersed into the earth instead of you or your equipment.

to make an earth ground is super simple, find a good grounding rod, in the US that would be a 5-6 foot copper alloy rod with a tapered end. Available at Lowes or HD for less than 20 bucks, I'm thinking 6 but I forget sometimes, still less than 20. Hammer that sucker into the ground until its only got 6 inches showing above ground, boom solid earth ground. Put a lug on it and run 6-8 gauge ground wire to any device that needs to be grounded. Basically all you're doing is providing an easy path for errant electricity to escape to earth instead of arcing across anything and causing fire. In a pinch any metal would work even rebar, copper is just more conductive but rebar is still more conductive than a tree unless its soaking wet. Note that its not the cameras that a ground helps but the safety of AC power, it only helps the cameras if the power supplies all share the same common ground on their power source. If you're going to add more cameras in the future you would be best served to install a central power supply and send the 12vdc or 24vdc from it to the cameras instead of running AC to the tree or trees. The lights on the other hand .......that depends on what they are 12vdc/24vdc/110ac/220ac as to how to deal with them.

city or no a simple copper rod sunk into the ground at the tree for very little expense is just a smart thing to do for safety, the tree itself isn't a great conductor. Its a cheap way to get a true level of safety. And outdoor is outdoor, no matter where it is, water is wet and electricity, especially ac doesn't like to work with it and can cause havoc. I get what you're saying, there are literally NO CODES, but that doesn't mean he couldn't try to get some measure of safety that has been dictated by code. You could run 220V over 3 pieces of thick barbed wire but that doesn't mean its a good idea even if there is no code to say it isn't. I'm not disagreeing with the above from tom at all, do what you can, but I prefer more caution to prevent future pain.

theres a lot going on there. general rules and common sense go a long way, power supplies should be outdoor rated cable to them should be outdoor rated an earth ground would be a really smart thing when talking about AC power the connectors on the back of the dvr are standard, the cable is coax but the adapters are odd I havent seen them before, almost look like coax into an f connector, inside a strain relief spring that adapt to BNC, is that what they are?

that looks pretty bad, not really sure its from a ground loop, almost like your dvr channel is set to a different protocol than the camera. Check and make sure that both the dvr channel and camera are in HDCVI mode. Ground can get in anywhere, at the cam, the dvr, in the cable, or even using separate power supplies that hare connected to different circuits. It would be something just erroneous if it isn't power related. A metal screw through the camera base that is touching a metal electrical box behind it little stuff like that. I'd check the mode first though, probably just that.

is that ac power...........on a tree?????????? Tom that doesn't look like an ac to dc converter in the first pic.....it might be but haven't seen one that small and direct wired.

cam setting wouldn't cause lines, sounds like ground loop but more specific descriptions would be helpful. All I've got is you had a dvr it all worked, put in one new cam and it has lines. Just based on that recheck how you put the cam up, did you accidently give another path to ground, with a screw from the cam case, or something small like that.

no I didn't install it, I got stuck with fixing it after the installer trashed it, not one of the 16 cams was operating correctly, wires were spliced, multiple grounds, multiple cable types, it was a total mess. The salvageable cat 5 runs that did not go to the exterior were reused and reterminated, all of the baluns were replaced, anything that went to the exterior was rerun using exterior grade cable. Anything inside that had a splice or damage was replace with new homerun. The cameras were tried one by one and the ones that worked correctly were salvaged. All were CVI. any cameras that were malfunctioning on a test monitor or had damage and couldn't be focused were replaced with Sony chipset cameras. All cams were verified to be CVI. The original dvr unit had power issues and would constantly reboot, it was replaced by a flir MPX series. Cameras were condensed from 2 large multi channel power supplies and 8 single channel ones to the single 25 amp that was onsite to eliminate multiple grounded power sources. Power supply was then removed from the UPS to eliminate square wave problems. As it sits the DVR works perfectly. 15 of the 16 cams now work perfectly. This last one, shows the weird interference. Not when it changes to IR, not when any other camera changes to IR, not at a specific recurring time. It is set to color only mode right now and shows the interference, at the time listed as sunrise via google, the interference will stop and the picture will be as clear as an tv program. At the time listed as sunset tomorrow night, the cam while still in color mode will pixelate slightly and then the lines will appear again. As evidenced in the video they will band upward increasing in speed, slow then stop, then they begin to band downward increasing in speed then slow and stop. This continues to repeat. Also I know you don't want to hear it, but even using hosted IP phones and not traditional analog lines or digital stations off a phone system they still hear the radio station in the handsets of their telephones and require RFI filters on every one of them. This is per their hosted telco provider, not me. As to why I mentioned the PTZ setting that's is what is in the config under PTZ, the PTZ tab is what is used in the dvr menu to access the OSD of the camera and it does work, you had asked about the data pairs and I was trying to give a complete answer. Had I installed it, I wouldn't be so out of ideas as to ask for the help I needed online as I would have the manufacturer working with me with all of their cameras, and their dvr. I would have much preferred that but I've been trying to help a small business that got screwed over by a shady guy and not ask them for more money. If you would like to see the footage as it changes at sunrise and sunset I can download it and post.

data pairs aren't directly connected to anything that I am aware of (except each end of the balun) the menu does work however. Power supply confirmed as 25 amp and all cable is 24 awg none longer than 100 meters. dvr ->balun>cable-> balun -> cam but the menu works.. the setting in the dvr for ptz control is 9600 8-n-1 using HDCVI protocol.

spec sheet confirmed balun uses 1 pair for video, 2 for power, and 1 for data..... ( I'm thinking thats serial for menu control since it works)

regardless of lights or not its a UL listed approved power/video balun. Please see the edited post above about cable and here is the manufacturer spec sheet for the balun. http://www.snbcctv.cc/UploadFiles/2012-2-16-141825.pdf I'll confirm the amperage of the power supply just to prove this path is incorrect.

Power loss over cable length, yeah its a real thing I get that but again this isn't a problem that comes and goes with activity, or IR usage, or anything else. if I said 26 and I was wrong then fine, I was wrong, truth is I don't pay any attention to my 5e gauge because its always belden or commscope, or another major manufacturer. I've been working with it so long I can tell by feel it its cat 5/5e/or 6 without lookin at the label. Maybe its 22 maybe 24 I really don't look since its not some cheapo cable, I wont use something that doesn't feel like it should and I don't cheap out on cable its what makes things work.