Man that was stupid.

[SEANHAWG 1]

Well, I was in the process of today of installing my second PTZ for my home system. I couldnt quite get the wire and cable through the hole opening that my first PTZ cable went through so I thought I would make the genius decision to get my drill and widen the hole a little bit more. I thought to myself, "well, If I'm careful I should be able to avoid drilling into the side of the existing cable" Well guess what I did....Yep, I ripped the existing cable to shreds

 

 

Yeah I know it was a dumb arse move. what turned into a small project turned into a blood boiling drawn out ordeal. What I did was cut off the ripped part of the cable and install BNC's on each exposed end, luckily I had enough extra cable length to work with. Of course, I didnt have any couplers so I had to drive my butt up to my warehouse and get some couplers.

 

Well sure enough, as soon as I installed the coupler, I still have no video, which ticked me off even more. So I re-connected my BNC's about 3 times each and still no video. What the heck? So I expose the coax's center conductor on each cable end and touch them together and ask my wife to see if she see's any flicker on the screen, and she sees nothing (I am not sure if this would do anything anyways but I figure I would see atleast a flicker but nothing)

 

So this is where I stand. Did I screw something up on the camera when I shredded the cable and wire? Surely not. It was only the communication wire and coax that got shredded, the power wires were at a different location and the PTZ still powers on fine. I guess I'll jack around with it more tomorrow but I really dont know what else to do except to run a whole new dang cable run which is the last thing I want to do.

 

This is why when people ask me if I install, I always say "No"

[rory 0]

maybe it loosened the video cable from the camera?

check it out. You could have just used the cat5 BTW then split it back to coax on the inside of the wall. Instead of drilling a bigger hole for the coax. I got a couple of my cameras here at my place like that, just a foot of cat5 then its back to coax (in 1 case as the camera cable was cut too short by its previous owner leaving just an inch of cable, the other is when I did it I didnt have a thick enough drill bit and was 3am in the morning so no stores open )

 

but yeah drilling into a tight hole with existing cable will reak havoc on that cable ..

I tried it myself one time by connecting a really thin piece of wire like 24g to the siamese and pushing it back into the hole leaving a piece of the 24g hanging out .. ha ha ha it totally wrapped up around the drill bit on the first couple small turns, so much for that idea - but like you I knew better .. just HAD to try it anyway as the alternative was more work.

[Soundy 1]

This is why I like to leave a nice healthy service loop inside the wall.

[survtech 0]

Are you sure that you have power at the PTZ?

[Soundy 1]

Are you sure that you have power at the PTZ?

 

It was only the communication wire and coax that got shredded, the power wires were at a different location and the PTZ still powers on fine.

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So I expose the coax's center conductor on each cable end and touch them together and ask my wife to see if she see's any flicker on the screen, and she sees nothing (I am not sure if this would do anything anyways but I figure I would see atleast a flicker but nothing)

 

Unless there's some kind of ground path (even a poor one), this would do nothing.

[SEANHAWG 1]

Yeah I had power, I finally got it fixed though.

 

I dont know why this did the trick but I just changed out the connector that went into the DVR. It seemed that the connector was fine but I just cut it and put another on and it worked.

 

Sure was alot of frustration just to find out that it was the connector

[Birdman Adam 0]

Hey!

 

Maybe when the drill cut up the coax, it pulled the center conductor a little through the whole line. Just enough to pull it out of the connector at the other end.

 

This is very possible, as I have done it with normal CATV RG6 cable. I had an RG6 extension cable that I used to use to get TV from a dock to my boat that required me to pull the jacket back to get the center conductor to pop out of the F connector enough.

[SEANHAWG 1]

Well I thought of that but it was a twist on connector and I untwisted it to re-install about 3 times. The only thing that worked was cutting it and re-applying a new connector. Beats me.

[Dirk_D 0]

but yeah drilling into a tight hole with existing cable will reak havoc on that cable ..

I tried it myself one time by connecting a really thin piece of wire like 24g to the siamese and pushing it back into the hole leaving a piece of the 24g hanging out .. ha ha ha it totally wrapped up around the drill bit on the first couple small turns

 

If I need more space I'll drill another hole close to the existing one & then work my way towards the original. Sometimes I'll do 2-3 additional holes (oval, triangle, square pattern).

 

You can get it close & then work at the material with a knife or a screwdriver to make the holes join.

[Tailbone215 0]

Well I thought of that but it was a twist on connector and I untwisted it to re-install about 3 times. The only thing that worked was cutting it and re-applying a new connector. Beats me.

 

Could you please tell us again what type of connector it was?

 

Anyway I'm glad you got it figured out and working. Seems that connector/connection was at "End of Life" and was ready to fail. You just accelerated the process by touching the cable.

[rory 0]

Well I thought of that but it was a twist on connector and I untwisted it to re-install about 3 times. The only thing that worked was cutting it and re-applying a new connector. Beats me.

Maybe it was a cheap chinese connector?

Thats the only ones Ive ever had issues with. I imagine the people that have had issues with them in the past never used a good connector. Twist on is the bomb hawg I use them religiously .. works great every single time infact all the time I remove all the messed up crimped ones the other morons around here put on thinking it makes them professionals meanwhile they dont have a clue.

[SEANHAWG 1]

It was a twist on BNC but it wasnt a cheap one. I got a load of them in from a major retailer here in the US and they use only top quality cable and connectors in their system, I never really had any problems with them in the past. I am pretty sure it was a GEM brand connector. Cable was top quality too, Honeywell UV rated siamese cable with solid copper center conductor and solid copper power wires to boot.

 

I dont think it was the connector in particular, more of it was the "connection" As I originally untwisted the connector and put a new one on and it didnt work. The only thing that worked was cutting the cable a few inches down and re-applying another connector. I dont think it was a bad original connection in the first place either as I usually tug and pull on them pretty hard after I install them to ensure that they will work for a while, and before I had the mishap it always worked just fine. I inspected the cut off conductor to see if could find the root of the problem and I couldnt find anything particular. No copper shielding was touching the conductor, the conductor was not bent or anything.

 

I dont know much about electrics but I was wondering if it "sent some kind of surge" to the tip of the cable for lack of better terms that voided that part of the connection when I originally ripped the cable. Is this possible? Heck, i dont know, its a mystery.

[Tailbone215 0]

I dont know much about electrics but I was wondering if it "sent some kind of surge" to the tip of the cable for lack of better terms that voided that part of the connection when I originally ripped the cable. Is this possible? Heck, i dont know, its a mystery.

 

Nope, not at all possible. If you had that much potential energy come down the line it would have fried whatever was hooked to it. You got bit by the oxidation bug with this connection. You had the perfect environment for humidity to attack connection. Nothing serious to worry about, just cut off and reinstall whatever type of connector you like.

 

BTW> has anyone ever tried a dab of dielectric grease in their twist-ons to prevent these problems from happening in the first place?

[rory 0]

its a mystery.

 

Indeed.