Cameras not working over long ethernet cable?

[Simon A]

Hello,

We've recently had to change our camera system from Y-Cam to ERA Protect. Unfortunately, the old cameras were POE so only ethernet cable was run through the house from the router to the cameras. The new cameras consist of an AC adaptor that runs to a connector box into which the camera is connected using its ethernet lead. Data is then taken from the connector box using another ethernet lead. We initially hoped that the power adaptor could stay near the router and the ethernet to the camera could be extended using the cable already running through the house. This would make the camera about 5m from the connector box.

When trying this out the lights on the cameras are weak and we couldn't connect to them using their own wifi (they work fine if not extending the ethernet to the camera). We then temporarily powered one of the outdoor cameras using an extension lead and it worked fine, proving that the ethernet running through the house was transmitting data from the camera to the router.

We assumed the problem might be due to voltage drop so we've taken some voltage measurements using various lengths of extending ethernet only to find there is no significant drop over the 5m run (we measured to a tenth of a volt). To add to the confusion, our voltage readings don't align to any of the POE pinout standards. We measured +5.3V across pins 5 and 4 and also 5 and 6 (it could be 4 and 5 and also 4 and 3 if counting from the other end but I think the first set of numbers is correct). The only check we haven't made is continuity along all 8 lines of the long ethernet run, as we couldn't do that easily at the time.

So, could anyone provide any advice as to how we might resolve this confusion and perhaps understand what's causing the cameras to not work over an extended ethernet?

Thanks.

 

[Dan]

Hi @Simon A

You mention the cable run from the camera to the connector box is 5m but you don't mention the distance of the rest of the cable, how long is the cable run from the router to the connector box?

 

[Simon A]

Hi Dan,

My apologies - I should have included this additional detail in my post. The router is connected via an approx. 1m ethernet cable to a Netgear switch, from which another 1m ethernet cable goes to the connector box. The switch is a hangover from the previous camera arrangement.

As it happens, the weak power problem I describe is the same whether the router is connected or not. That is to say, we have tested using both the ethernet running through the house (with and without the router connected) and also with another long ethernet cable on the bench (without the router connected).

Regards.

 

[Dan]

Thanks @Simon A

Your description was confusing us because you mentioned long cable runs but have only stated runs of 1m & 5m which are actually very short cable runs, long cable runs would be 30m, 50m, or more.

Can you please confirm the exact ERA Protect camera model that you have?
Did the AC adaptor come with the camera or not? Can you please confirm the specs of that AC adaptor? (a photo of the technical label on the adaptor will do)
Are your 1m & 5m cable runs using factory-made patch cables or cables that you have cut & terminated yourself?

 

[Simon A]

Hi Dan,

I too thought that 5m wasn't very far, hence the voltage drop tests just to confirm.

I'm aware that my layout descriptions might not be so great, and I'm confusing myself, so I've sketched the various layouts we've tried - see attached.

The ERA camera model just seems to be referred to as the ERA Protect Wireless Outdoor Security Camera (Link to ERA Site). The AC adaptor comes with the camera and is a 5V, 1.5A, 7.5W unit (image attached). All cables are factory made.

Regards.

 

[Dan]

Thanks @Simon A

Looking at your layouts and the user manual for the camera I think the issue has something to do with the connector box & coupler not working together.

The connector box is a very odd thing that seems unique to this ERA camera, traditionally with WiFi cameras the power supply would just plug straight into the camera, but the ERA camera seems to use the connector box to allow you to send just the mains power over a network cable to the camera.

I wonder if they have specially designed this connector box to work in a specific way which means it doesn't interact well with the coupler, as this is unique to ERA products I think you are only going to get a clear answer speaking to their technical support.

 

[Simon A]

Thanks Dan. You may be right as I seem to recall an earlier experiment where we extended the outlet to the camera by only another metre or so and that also wouldn't work. However, it's difficult to see how straight through cable and connector can cause any signal confusion, particularly following our voltage drop measurements. I only have one RJ45 breakout connector at the moment so it's not so easy to prove that any cable or connector is actually straight through. I'll get another one and see what's going on.

I rang ERA when I first discovered the problem but got a very lightweight response. However, I probably lead them on by suggesting a voltage drop so this time I'll go back and dig a little further.

Thanks.

 

[Simon A]

Hi Dan,

After some additional work to map the pinouts in the connector box and calling ERA again, it seems time to give up. There doesn't seem to be any wiring related reason for not being able to extend the ethernet between the connector box and the camera and yet as soon as you do so the camera's wifi fails so you can't set it up. I don't anymore believe that it's related to power loss but to some other technical reason. ERA won't provide any further clues so I won't waste any more time on it.

My preference would be to go to another supplier so if you or anyone else has any recommendations in this area then I would be glad to hear them. We originally had POE cameras with cloud storage - giving us the facility to monitor the cameras via an app. This was the reason for going with ERA. If you can recommend an alternative supplier of POE units with cloud storage then please let me know. If there are other ways of storing the data locally but still accessing it via an app then perhaps that's another solution?

Regards.