Please help me explain the unexplainable - CAT6 install

[DaveInTrinity 0]

Hi all. I have come here for help.

I installed an 8 camera Lorex (Costco) system in my own home. The CAT6 cabling was hung prior to sheet rock in our new build home by the builder's sub. Visually, it looked fine.

The result is that I had six of eight cameras go live without a hitch. Two won't work despite every conceivable thing I have tried. Let me explain.

First, I am not claiming to be an expert, but I am A+ and Network+ certified and have wired many, many networks over the past 20 years. That being said, I will focus on the two cameras that do not work. If I plug a camera in directly (bypassing the in-house cable runs), the cameras work fine. I have jumpered in a 100ft cable directly from the NVR to the cameras. They both work perfectly this way. So... pretty simply, it's the cable or terminations, right?

Here's what I have checked.

Cable length (TDR) is about correct (90 feet is the longest cable). Continuity is good. Wire-mapping is correct. POE matches other cables that work, Patch panel and patch cables are good. I have rewired everything on both ends (including wiring the cable onto a different patch panel port) twice now and it always comes up the same. I have checked meter readings from both ends - all match. Meter shows no shorts, no crossovers, no split pairs.

I really want to figure this out. It makes absolutely no sense to me. These cameras "should" work, but don't. I have never seen a problem like this that couldn't be diagnosed. Besides, I paid a lot of money to have this place wired and if I can prove the installer did something wrong, I can take it back to him. The roofline on my house makes it darn near impossible to pull new cable without significant expense and labor.

What is going on with my cables??? I'm stumped. Please, any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much.

Dave in Trinity

 

[tomcctv 190]

Hi. Your right these types of testing are a pain 

first I would do is strip each cable end and split all the cables go to one end and check continuity on every cable …. Then do the same on other end …… if you get continuity then you know you have a bad cable clip into cable 

also twist each pair together at one end and check continuity at other end if all is ok try simple tests like

make both ends back up …. Plug one end into your network and the other end plug in a laptop and see if it picks up your internet

if that works then next is to look at your Poe 

 

from reading your post it sounds like your not direct to nvr so camera power is from your switch setup ?

[DaveInTrinity 0]

Hi tomcctv.

POE is coming from the NVR and the meter reads exactly the same on all the cables and ID's all of the cables as conforming to 802.3af.

I will try your other suggestions tomorrow.

Btw, I forgot to mention. These cameras have motion-sense LED spotlights. The spotlights actually work. In the evening, I can walk in front of the non-functioning cameras and the lights come on. So weird.

Thanks for your suggestions. I was really out of ideas. I thought about hooking up to my network/laptop early on, then promptly forgot about it. Lol

Dave

 

[CCTVDude88 0]

Hi Dave,

 

Is the CAT6 wired in T-568B standard?

or are they random but the same at both ends?

In CAT5/6, the pairs are twisted a different amount of times as you would know, and this becomes important for IP installation as when they are run a significant length they may drop off.

Are the cameras run into their own individual POE ports on the NVR?

[DaveInTrinity 0]

Hi. 

Yes. I wired everything 568B. I understand about the twists. I even made certain the patch panel ends were as short as possible from the twists (under 3/4", I believe is the spec if I recall). The cables are all under 100ft. 

The NVR has 8 ethernet ports. The POE and data are all coming from there to the 8 cams.

I ran all the continuity checks and everything passed. I tested twisted pairs and individual wires in every possible configuration. No anomalies. I even attached an extra 50ft ethernet cable to the existing in-house cable just to 'stress it" a little. POE didn't change either. I didn't run tests the other direction. I patched in a cable from my router to the house wiring and connected my laptop. No internet. It's too creepy.

 

UPDATE - sounds too simple to be true, but I'll let you know. I had my wife man my meter while I went on the side of the house and started a physical integrity test. in other words, I bent the cable, pulled on the RJ45 plug, stuffed the cable up inside the soffit, etc. Nothing changed. THEN, I ran the TDR function and it's now showing a problem in the 1/2 pair. Maybe, just maybe the plug is bad after all. Now, keep in mind, I've changed that plug probably 3 times now, but all the plugs are from the same batch from a cheap Amazon company. Yeah, I know. 

I'm going to run up to Lowes and pick up a different brand and try it again. This actually makes sense, so fingers crossed that I just got a marginally bad batch of plugs. If so, problem solved and I'll have to re-terminate every cam cable again (for the future).

Thanks for your help so far. Greatly appreciate it. Geez, I'm glad this was for myself and not a client. I'd have lost my shirt on this one.

Dave

 

[tomcctv 190]

37 minutes ago, DaveInTrinity said:

I even made certain the patch panel ends were as short as possible from the twists

Hi I don’t understand this part 

why using a patch panel

[DaveInTrinity 0]

Hello tomcctv and cctvdude88.

Parsimony prevails. After properly installing three bad RJ45 connectors on one cable and two on the other, the conclusive cause was garbage chineseum connectors. I bought a pack of Klein connectors from HDepot, wired them in, and both cameras came alive. This, mind you, after both cables passed every test I threw at it. The connections must have been sitting on the border line of "works with the meter" and "fails miserably with the IP cameras". At least several big lessons learned here.

All that's left to do is change out the remaining six RJ45 plugs so they don't fail on the day my cameras would have caught my killer in the act.

Many thanks to everyone who helped. Your suggestions got me thinking when I was basically burned out and pointed me toward the problem. 

Have a great and blessed day everyone and thanks again.

Dave in Trinity

 

 

[DaveInTrinity 0]

>> Hi I don’t understand this part 

>> why using a patch panel

Because the stupid cable installer ran the cables through a sawhole in the drywall instead of inside the data/comm box and left me about 12-15 inches of cable coming out of my closet wall when I specified three feet of slack inside. The cables wouldn't reach my NVR. His reply was "just put it on a shelf or something". Uh, no.

The easiest solution for me was to hang a small $25 wall-mount 12-port punch-down panel and then use patch cables as long as I need to reach the NVR inside the data/comm box. I couldn't go up (higher) with the cables either because there was a ton of other wiring in that area (phone, TV coax, electrical). It's probably a network tech mentality rather than a IP security tech solution. Lol

Btw, the installer also put the wrong data/comm box in (smaller), failed to install a spec'd outlet to power everything, and 3 of the outside runs were left with under 8 inches exposed under the soffits. These were all clearly spec'd out by me, but I missed it in the walkthrough when we first moved in. I've had a lot of fun fixing this guy's work. This is also probably why I immediately suspected bad cables instead of connectors. I figured he probably punched a staple through one somewhere. LOL.   

That's it.

Dave

 

[DaveInTrinity 0]

My 8 camera Lorex system is finally finished. Because of its remote location in a closet, I added a wireless mouse, wireless Ethernet for Internet, and wireless HDMI to my big TV in the family room. Works great. Just need to add a small ventilation fan to the data box cover and a battery backup.