YorkshireMidge

Hi - have a strange problem on a HikVision DS-2CE16D8T-IT3ZE. This is 2MP Turbo HD Ultra Low-Light IR Bullet and was first installed December 2018. Fine during the day and fine during the night. The problem seems to be fully repeatable and occurs within a few seconds of the camera switching itself from colour to IR B&W operation on an evening and I see picture breakup in the lower half of the coverage and instability with the whole image sometimes jumping up and down. It then seems to settle down within a few minutes and all is well. Because I don't look at it all the time and stumbled across it by accident, it could have been doing this for months or even from install for all I know! I've tried a different PSU in case the sudden extra load of the IR LEDs was causing the supply to go unstable - but the other cameras on that same supply were OK anyway + it was the same on a new supply. The camera is the only one of it's type I have and not cheap so I just wanted to check whether anyone had seen anything similar and could confirm the camera to actually be faulty as opposed to this being an interesting "design feature" ! Any advice appreciated. Thanks!

Thanks for the idea but given where it is, it would be nearly as much trouble just getting a separate power cable to it as replacing the whole run

Hi Tom. The PSU the camera is normally fed from (together with three smaller cameras on a power splitter cable) is 5A, and that was more than enough when I totalled the power requirements up originally. But the fact it's one PSU powering four is what prompted me to test the affected camera on it's own PSU just to make sure and that test PSU was 1.5A. But your cable comment might well be significant now I think about it, and have done some checking...... The first system I ever put in was one of those complete Swann DVD and multiple camera kits many years ago (yes, I know - I didn't know any better!). There is nothing left of that except two cables - one between this camera and my current DVR, and the other is for a small HikVision HiWatch camera which is in a position that is rarely trigged on an evening so I can't even find any footage from when that switches to see if it has the same problem. Both these were difficult cable runs when I originally put them in, which is why they are still there. The other three cameras I have are on high grade shotgun co-ax. I've just checked and the Swann pre-made cables are very thin indeed and incorporate the power too. What I think I'll do is just rig up a decent test co-ax one evening and see if that fixes it, and if it does, I'll re-cable it. Thanks!