shockwave199 0 Posted September 4, 2011 After the pains of installing, I had everything plugged in with individual power adapters. Heck, the cameras come with the things so why not use them. Plus I was too exhausted and low on bucks to get a power box. It took a little tweaking- some cameras would get into a slow blinking routine. But shuffling the adapters around a bit, everything calmed down and has been steady as a rock, even through power outages from storms and a hurricane. Then last night I look at one of my cams and the picture is stark white. I unplugged the adapter and plugged it back in, cleared for 10 seconds but faded back to white. Fiddled to no avail, so I just unpugged the adapter for almost an hour. Plugged it back in and it held for about an hour, then faded to white. Then I unplugged it almost till dawn. Plugged it back in and it held. As I suspected, it's fine in daylight minus the IR's on. And tonight, it's fine- no problem at all. Weird. Does this happen with power boxes too? Or does a power box solve the issue of occasional odd stuff when using separate adapters for all eight cameras? Dan Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nDAlk90 0 Posted September 4, 2011 Sounds like the power supply you are using is not providing enough power for the IR's to operate. Get a sufficient power supply for the amperage your camera draws and you should be ok. Otherwise, it might just be a bad power supply. After the pains of installing, I had everything plugged in with individual power adapters. Heck, the cameras come with the things so why not use them. Plus I was too exhausted and low on bucks to get a power box. It took a little tweaking- some cameras would get into a slow blinking routine. But shuffling the adapters around a bit, everything calmed down and has been steady as a rock, even through power outages from storms and a hurricane. Then last night I look at one of my cams and the picture is stark white. I unplugged the adapter and plugged it back in, cleared for 10 seconds but faded back to white. Fiddled to no avail, so I just unpugged the adapter for almost an hour. Plugged it back in and it held for about an hour, then faded to white. Then I unplugged it almost till dawn. Plugged it back in and it held. As I suspected, it's fine in daylight minus the IR's on. And tonight, it's fine- no problem at all. Weird. Does this happen with power boxes too? Or does a power box solve the issue of occasional odd stuff when using separate adapters for all eight cameras? Dan Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Birdman Adam 0 Posted September 4, 2011 Yea, its just drawing too much power, which will lower the voltage output to a point that it won't work. If its a decent wall-wart it will start(try) to limit current instead of overheating the transformer. Whats the ratings of these supplies? I'd bet only like 500mA at 12VDC? Do they get pretty hot when the IR is on? I bet they do! Central power supplies will never do this. They ought to supply like 10A at 12VDC for 8 cameras, individually fused or PTC'd outputs. They can maintain voltage much better than a tiny transformer. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shockwave199 0 Posted September 4, 2011 They're all 12vd 1a adapters. It might be 1.5a- I'll have to take a look. They're a little warm, but nowhere near hot. Now that I've had some time to get some funds together, I'm just gonna get a box. But while everything is working steady, it's easy to just roll with it. Guess I gotta do it though. Dan Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rory 0 Posted September 4, 2011 an old laptop power supply should be enough to power several of those cameras .. whats the current draw on them? I have a 2A plug in adapter here that has my 4 cameras plus the EX26LED IR .. And when I test cameras I regularly put the TDNs on them I do power the big IR cameras individually though when I test, they draw around 1-2A. Get an altronix if you are going to get a box. They are solid. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites