Making my own CAT5e power cable, question...

[badmop 0]

Okay, the answer to my question may be obvious, but I am not 100% sure, so I would like to ask before spending more time or attempting something stupid.

 

I have a PTZ camera that has a 12v 0-4a power supply, I have some CAT5e cable that I want to turn into a dedicated power wire for the camera. It has 8 wires inside the CAT5e cable.

 

I have run about 30-45ft of the CAT5e cable, I want to know if when creating my own power cable out of the CAT5e cable, should the wires be split evenly for the + and - connections.

 

4+ wires and 4- wires? Or can I do 6+ and 2- wires? Is that safe, or should it be equal 4+ / 4-?

 

 

I have already wired a 30-45ft of CAT5e cable to the PTZ camera which for video I only did 2 wires for video 1+ / 1- wires. and then for the power in the same CAT5e cable I did 3+ / 3- wires and the camera didn't power up, on the TV you see it go from NO SIGNAL to a quick flicker, and back to NO SIGNAL.

 

So I decided to run an extension cord temp and plug the power supply up directly to the PTZ camera and it worked fine, the video was fine with only 1+ / 1- wire over the 30-45ft cable run.

 

Okay, sorry for the novel, I'm asking because if it ends up working fine with 6+ / 2- at first, I would worry that over time it could be dangerous.

[badmop 0]

After some more searching, I've found it may matter which cables I use inside the cat5e, true?

 

I took all the white wires and used those as the - and I used all the colored wires as + for my power cable. Will this strangely cause voltage loss or something odd?

 

I could understand if my problem was on a super long cable, but it's not long. I am going to take my meter and check the voltage I'm getting at the end of the cable later.

 

Info on power for the PTZ camera:

 

Power Supply: DC12v/4A

PTZ drive: DC12v/0.5A

IR Lights power supply: DC12v/1.8A

Lens Drive: DC12v/200mA

Camera power supply: DC12v/500mA

 

Also, does this matter? When I connect my wires into my simple baluns, I twist the wires together.

I use the kinda balun things like this one (on the right)

http://www.cctv42.co.uk/media/cache/resolve/cms_cke_media_inline/uploads/media/b33cec7427c045ccc61b0c2e7273b4e43b710a01.jpeg

 

 

thanks

[badmop 0]

I forgot to mention, the cable is CCA, but that shouldn't matter a whole lot as I've said, it's a very short run I think, around 50ft max.

[tomcctv 190]

Post a picture of your PTZ

 

But I will take a guess it's a Foscam or something along that line

 

0.5 amp tells me it's cheap but ......... One cat5 at that distance should do power video and data on one cable

 

Blue / blue white = video

Green / green white = data

Brown / orange = +

Brown white / orange white = -

 

But to get your amps replace power supply for a 2amp

[badmop 0]

It is this one and it is very nice for what it cost, I am very surprised. It weighs around 10lbs. I'm not one of the typical around here that cheap out, or have horrible install practices. (not trying to be a jerk or out of the way, just stating, I don't expect the world for the cost, but the quality so far and picture is very surprising how nice, and it actually has 36x optical zoom) *The listing says 30x, but it's actually 36x* (it was a purchase to see just what kind of product it was)

 

I do not know if the specs in the manual it came with are correct though. Currently, I have it temp powered with the stock power supply plugged directly into it, and an extension cord going to it to test and see if any issues arise. Video is still running through my cat5 cable with the 2 controller wires also run through the cat5 video cable.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/181735754445?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

I have a 12v 5a power supply and it did the same thing, and the stock power supply is 12v 4a

 

Thanks

 

 

 

Post a picture of your PTZ

 

But I will take a guess it's a Foscam or something along that line

 

0.5 amp tells me it's cheap but ......... One cat5 at that distance should do power video and data on one cable

 

Blue / blue white = video

Green / green white = data

Brown / orange = +

Brown white / orange white = -

 

But to get your amps replace power supply for a 2amp

[jeromephone 6]

a separate power wire say 16 /2 or 18/2 would cost you around 4.00 and you would have the power and signal completely separate. I would never use cca even for a short run and it is not even allowed by code in some areas. Solid copper with appropriate connectors is the way to go.

[badmop 0]

Power and signal is currently separate, but I fear the stupid cat5e cable is the issue, I'm going to do some more testing tonight and tomorrow I will be running new cable probably, regardless. I thought I had read that LVC work doesn't have a code?

 

thanks

 

 

a separate power wire say 16 /2 or 18/2 would cost you around 4.00 and you would have the power and signal completely separate. I would never use cca even for a short run and it is not even allowed by code in some areas. Solid copper with appropriate connectors is the way to go.

[badmop 0]

I fixed it, I bought a completely different new cable. As I thought from the very start, the original cable I was using has some sort of problem. (It was a brand new cable!!!)

 

I thought it was odd when the original cable didn't work, I was right, but I still don't know what's wrong with the cable, but I've used it elsewhere and it gave me problems on just a video run, junk cable.

 

Thanks everybody for your input!

 

edited:

 

(for anybody clicking the ebay link to see the PTZ camera I have, for some strange reason the seller had edited the listing and changed it to a different product, even my purchase history shows the newly changed product. (some scooter thing)

Odd, lol. I just wanted to point that out to anybody wondering why the ebay link is some electric scooter instead of a PTZ camera.

[jeromephone 6]

Low voltage may not be regulated for household but if the cable is not UL rated it might be a problem on a commercial job. I think you answered your question on the cca as replacing the cable seemed to correct the problem.

[badmop 0]

Thank you for the clarification, all my work I am doing is my personal home only.

My security camera operation has evolved so much since 2005, I was looking at some old tapes from my old cameras, wow, Things have come so far since then haha.