ACTi 5311: How Temperature-Sensitive?

[PeteCress 0]

Checked one of my cams this (cold...) morning and it seems to be stuck in night mode with poor focus and no zoom. viz: http://tinyurl.com/bjlgb2r.

 

Low last nite was in the teens and the specs page in the manual shows 22 degrees as the low end of it's operating range.

 

Seems reasonable to conclude that the camera is literally frozen - although I would hope for it to regain functionality as the temp rises.

 

The Question:

 

Assuming it's not already hosed, are repeated iterations of this going to damage the camera? Should I power it down for the winter? Bring it inside?

[buellwinkle 0]

ACTi told me they test the cameras in freezers to test for operating range, so if it's rated for 14F, and temps go to 10F, you are on your own. But I see this all the time on webcams in our local mountains in So Cal (was -2F last week in Big Bear, yes in So Cal) and they freeze, stop working, then come back to life during the day as they thaw out.

[wxthomson 0]

When it comes time for a replacement you may want to consider the 5611.

With 12V power it is rated to -22F.

This is the first winter for mine and so far it has funtioned without issue at -15F

[PeteCress 0]

When it comes time for a replacement you may want to consider the 5611.

With 12V power it is rated to -22F.

This is the first winter for mine and so far it has funtioned without issue at -15F

I'm not concerned about it not functioning at low temps - only with it getting damaged. This cam is for windsurfers and when it is cold it becomes moot.

 

FWIW, temps finally got up into the 40's today. The thing was still frozen and I was fearing the worst. Then I tried re-booting it and it came back A-OK.

 

My only concern now is whether the cold temps are stressing it. i.e. If maybe I should go down there and take it inside before each winter and the re-mount it in the spring.

 

Buellwinkle's comment on the So Cal cams is encouraging.

[wxthomson 0]

My point was that the 5611 is rated for cold temperatures which tells me that it wouldn't be damaged by your wimpy weather.

[PeteCress 0]

...your wimpy weather.

A bunch of years ago, our church leaned on us to provide room/board for a couple of kids in a touring choir.

 

They were from Minnesota or Michigan... can't recall which... but one's family had been snowed in for something like two weeks.... temps rarely got above the twenties.

 

To cut to the chase, it was December in Philadelphia and they both had never been so cold in their life.

 

Turns out that 40-something degrees and high humidity is a *lot* colder than teens and twenties with low humidity.

 

If I had to get another cam, the 5611 would be a candidate... in fact, I wish I had gone all ACTi from day one because their camera server is reputed to take minimal PC resources - offloading the heavy lifting to the cams themselves.

 

The 5311, however, has the amount of zoom I need for this particular application.

[mark-vyoma 0]

If I'm using POE to feed the Acti 7311 and 5611, do I still get the rated temperatures? It doesn't say on the data sheets. It doesn't seem like the 731 and 5611 have heaters in them like the 7811 did.

[voip-ninja 0]

Most low temperature cameras call for 12 or 24V power supply to work the heater... that's how my Samsungs are.

 

In the case of my Axis cameras, they actually operate the heater with PoE class-3.

 

It's been down to -5F here this winter a few times and none of the cameras have had any trouble, but I'd be miffed if any of my cams got konked out by whimpy -5F temps.