Issue with security camera acting crazy

[inforlonghaul 0]

A little back ground here. I'm a security officer at a University and I've been going around here lately trying to fix some of our cameras that need focusing adjustments, replacing, etc. as the contractor that the University has been using is a PITA and a bunch of buffoons.

 

The camera (Camera 16) in question is on the first floor of a three story college dormitory and pointed at some vending machines. Obviously you can imagine just what all is going on up in the ceiling -- wifi, florescent lighting, the works. Keep this in mind though: there are 3 other cameras within no more a 20ft radius of this camera that have no problems.

 

The kicker is we haven't always had issues with this particular camera. I'm not sure when it went down, but it's been long enough that the contractor replaced the camera, and not only was the camera not the problem, I tested the old camera and it works fine, too.

 

The system is an Everfocus ECOR264-16x1 DVR and the original camera is an Everfocus ED610. The replacement camera is a Northern* camera. Both are analog cameras and the cabling is Cat5. The wiring is ran up to the second floor and in a closet. On the DVR end, the cable also had a video modulator of some sort plugged in which I assume is for interference (correct me if I'm wrong).

 

Anyway, here goes my issue.

 

When I plugged the Everfocus camera back into Channel 16, the video feed showed up. But the feed cut in half, it will scroll up, it's fuzzy, has awful lines running through it and bounces up and down at times. I'll also get a duplication of channels in the feed, too. So instead of it showing Camera 16, sometimes camera 5, 3, 15, and others will randomly pop up and it will cycle through that non-stop. When I plug the video modulator in, instead of getting the awful video feed, I get just a solid black screen with some fuzzy pinkish lines.

 

With the replacement Northern* camera, I get the black picture with the fuzzy lines running through the feed. It acts like its getting a signal, but not a picture. Regardless of whether or not a plug the video modulator back in, the screen stays black.

 

The only thing I haven't done is get into the ceiling tile to make sure there isn't any thing close to the cable causing interference and I haven't gotten into the box where the Cat5 and the adapters are plugged in to make sure the connections are all still good and snug.

 

But does anybody have basic troubleshooting suggestions? What I have access to do is very limited, so replacing cable, redoing the ethernet plugs and that kind of stuff is a no go -- but any ideas would be a big help.

 

If I don't get it resolved tonight, I'll try to upload a brief video clip of it showing what it's doing.

 

On a side note: On the power box, will I get electrocuted if I try to tighten a screw with the power still on or should I just keep unplugging the box?

[jeromephone 6]

Are you using video baluns and did you try and hook up the orginal camera on a different cable? I would probably change out the rj-45 plugs as they are cheap and connections are sometimes a problem.

[inforlonghaul 0]

I've given up on figuring out the problem.

 

I replaced the RJ45 plugs, on both ends, and I tried two different cameras with two different video baluns and continued to get the same ugly video feed. The video balun on the DVR end is also good because I unplugged Camera 15 from its balun and plugged it into the Channel 16 balun, and it works like a charm.

 

The only other thing I can come up with is the cable is bad. But for the life of me, I can't imagine a 3 year old Cat5 cable up in a ceiling tile going bad. Interference I could understand, but that's unlikely, too. I checked and there are 3 other Cat5 camera cables running right along side it that have no problems.

[badmop 0]

I have some BRAND new cat5e cable that is having some issues, it doesn't want to feed proper power, so I decided to do a 85ft run for video only, used all wires inside for the video, and the video is blurry. It's not the camera, it was fine before on previous cable. I swapped the cable and perfect picture again. Swapped another camera onto this new cat5e cable and blurry too.

Checked everything, the cable spool I bought evidently is garbage. I guarantee it's your cable, nothing else left I suppose.

 

 

I've given up on figuring out the problem.

 

I replaced the RJ45 plugs, on both ends, and I tried two different cameras with two different video baluns and continued to get the same ugly video feed. The video balun on the DVR end is also good because I unplugged Camera 15 from its balun and plugged it into the Channel 16 balun, and it works like a charm.

 

The only other thing I can come up with is the cable is bad. But for the life of me, I can't imagine a 3 year old Cat5 cable up in a ceiling tile going bad. Interference I could understand, but that's unlikely, too. I checked and there are 3 other Cat5 camera cables running right along side it that have no problems.