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This is a follow-up to my earlier question

The camera is now detected. The cable run is 120ft; this will go up to somewhere between 145 & 150ft after I put in PVC power conduits and bury it underground. The reason being critters - squirrels, monkeys, chameleons and what-not. On an earlier cable I even had birds swinging on it. That was a heavy-duty power-line rather than an ethernet cable. Another reason is ambient heat - the ambient temperature here during summer is 45C for weeks on end. For anyone curious, I am in Central India :)

Prior to installing the devices at their planned site, I used a 150ft length of Konex Category 5e to connect the Power Source Equipment, and Powered Device indoors where the ambient temperature is about 30C. The problem now is that the PD connection drops intermittently. The PSE is rated for 802.3af. The PSE cabinet of metal doesn't feel hot to the back of my hand. The PD however does feel hot - but it doesn't feel hotter than the rated 60C maximum. Infrared thermometer available here are limited to 43C so I cant5 measure accurately.

  • How should I approach this conundrum?
  • What is going wrong here - is it the device dropping the connection, or the switch?

EDIT: Thanks for the response; it does appear the cable may be the issue. At the same time though, how do I eliminate the PSE as being faulty?

EDIT: It turned out, the cable indeed was the issue but not in the way we were discussing it here on SE. My crimped connectors were at fault. I got someone more experienced, and with a younger pair of eyes to put on a new pair of connectors. The cameras were detected immediately, and have been transmitting without dropping for over two hours. I'll run them through for another five, or so before committing.

Everyone
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1 Answers1

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If you use a much shorter length of cable does the camera stay working reliably? Is it cooler to the touch when running? If so, I'd suspect it's the cable quality.

Since the device is using 802.3af and not passive PoE, it should work up to 100 meters or 300ish feet. Assuming that you're using a good quality cable for it.

You didn't link the actual type of cable you're using, so it may not be the first one that turned up for "Konex Category 5e" on google - but the one that did is 24 gauage copper clad aluminum. While you can get away with CCA cable for just data or even some short PoE runs, it's really not ideal and isn't going to work well on longer runs. It has a higher resistance that will lose more power in the wires.

For long PoE runs, the quality matters quite a bit. Thinner wires inside will have higher power losses in the cable. Those loses lead to the voltage dropping, which makes the device not work, or work intermittently, or heat up more because it's drawing more current to compensate for the lower voltage.

You also want the thickest conductors you can get. Ethernet cable usually comes in 24, 26 and 28 gauge. Some "slim" cables are as low as 30 or 32 gauge. Smaller numbers are thicker, so you want 24 or maybe 26. Outside of North America the conductor thickness may be measured in mm^2 instead - there are charts online to make the conversion if that's what the products are listed in.

Grant
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