Why Does ACTI Camera Go Offline Every Few Weeks?

[CamB 0]

One particular Acti Camera that I have goes offline every 3 weeks. The only way to correct it seems to be power cycling the POE switch. Any idea as to what the culprit might be...and how to troubleshoot this? No problems with the other ACTI cameras.

[rayt 0]

One particular Acti Camera that I have goes offline every 3 weeks. The only way to correct it seems to be power cycling the POE switch. Any idea as to what the culprit might be...and how to troubleshoot this? No problems with the other ACTI cameras.

 

switch to another port on the poe switch, you either have a bad switch port, or a bad camera

[buellwinkle 0]

Or bad cable, so if you can switch cameras, that may help troubleshoot. Also, reset the camera to factory settings and setup it up again. I had one ACTi where that fixed the issue and never came back.

[CamB 0]

Thanks. It is worth noting that the cat6 cable was bad on the initial install and the installer had to replace the cable.

[grege 0]

I've got one offline now and it is at my lake house so I have to wait until next time I am down to figure out what is going on. I think I may have to figure out a way to be able to remote power cycle my switch just in case. I use Insteon products so may be able to do something using an Insteon outlet.

[CamB 0]

One idea that might work to remotely powercycle a swtich is to attach a Belkin WeMo...which should allow you to remotely powercycle the switch. People use it to remotely turn lights attached to it on and off.

 

Pretty irritating that this camera keeps disconnecting every few weeks. I hope it is not the cable...as i will have to get another installer in. Cameras firmware seems fine.

[grege 0]

That's pretty similar to what I can do with Insteon. On my way down to my lake house I can turn on the water heater and change the temperature on my thermostats. I also have an ISY that runs programs so the lights come on and off but I can also turn them on and off with my smartphone.

 

I'm not sure what the deal is with mine. I went into a PC I have down there and I can ping it's IP and I get a response but the camera won't come up. I guess when I go down I will try disconnecting the CAT6 cable first, checking connections, and see if it comes back up. I have changed the port numbers so I may have to reset the camera if that doesn't work. 2 other E42's are working fine. What model are you having problems with?

[buellwinkle 0]

They sell the WeMos in a two pack at the Costco stores, at least the one by me. Also, using a managed switch you may be able to troubleshoot remotely and power cycle the camera separately from the entire switch.

[grege 0]

I hate to have to replace a switch I just bought. I was just thinking. The one camera I am having problems with is located in a detached garage. I'm guessing but I probably ran 160' of CAT6 cable to get to the location. I'm using a Zyxel 16 port unmanaged switch. Could it be that the power to the switch is being reduced too much over the distance? If yes, what would I need?

[Razer_SE 0]

Well, I see you are using exactly what I do for a switch, that was my first thought.

 

I have a hundred or so ACTi cameras, and I've found that my Cisco 300 series managed switches will not like certain ACTi cameras. For example, I'll have 7 e31 cameras and one will keep disconnecting. Power cycling the switch will bring it back for a few days, or a few weeks, but it will always fail. I'll move it to a new port that another camera worked fine on and it does the exact same thing. It follows that camera / cable, so it's not the actual port. I switch out the Cisco switch for a ZyXel 8 or 16 port unmanaged switch and it will be fine, no further issues.

 

The only other time I had issues like this is was firmware related on the 5611 and 5211e, the 5.09 firmware had a known problem with disconnecting issues.

[grege 0]

Since mine is only 1 camera and it's the farthest from the switch I might get a PoE injector and use that so I'm sure it's getting enough power.

[ssmith10pn 0]

I have had this problem with some 7411s

I had to configure the correct time in them or it would hit 11:59 PM December 31st 1999 and shut down.

[mark-vyoma 0]

I've had good luck providing remote access to managed cisco POE switches. This way I can turn the POE port on and off to power cycle a camera.

[ando 0]

Here is the tool that can quickly validate the compatibility of your chosen PoE switch and ACTi cameras in terms of sufficient power supply.

 

http://www.acti.com/switchselector

 

I hope it helps!

[grege 0]

Yeah I saw that in the latest ACTi newsletter. The Zyxel passes. I'm going to check it out this weekend. Weird thing is I can ping the camera and see the IR lights from another camera at night.

[CamB 0]

Problem is back. Same camera.

 

In reviewing this thread, looks like others have had problems with the camera being the furthest away from the switch.