Thanks for all of the comments and suggestions. I am told that the cable we used was (most likely) Ubiquiti Networks TC-PRO ToughCable Pro Level 1 Outdoor Cat5e. I am trying to get that verified. To mount the camera on a pole I created a bracket to which the camera and a weatherproof box were mounted and sealed. The seal on the lid of the box is the one that will need to be opened, not the seals between the camera and the bracket, nor the bracket and the box. That said, it is possible that we will remove the dome and clean things, as a part of the repair. I have attached a rather poor photo showing the camera mounted to a metal plate. The plate is clamped with u-bolts to a vertical pipe of the antenna offset mounting. The interconnection box is on the rear of the plate. I cannot find the photos I took of the mounting bracket assembly. More searching to do. We had two devices connected with this type of cable that failed; two cable runs. The contacts on the connector of the other device (inside a Mikrotik POE adapter) had burn marks, soot, and that special odour suggesting a spark. Both cables had water ingress. With reflection, if water was dripping from inside the cable jacket into the Ethernet connector, corrosion would be likely, even without the help of a lightning strike. Suffice to say, the cable and the POE power supplies need to be replaced. I intend to run a temporary cable for basic functional testing straight to the camera's interconnection box before doing anything else. No question, installing a "new", known good camera with a replacement cable is the best way to ensure that the repair can be effected with one tower climb. If the current camera seems undamaged, and will be installed elsewhere, I would prefer to create a second mounting bracket assembly for the new camera. In this manner the most of sealing and bolt tightening can be done beforehand, before getting to the site. Before whatever happened, this camera - QCN8035Z - worked really very well and landed some lovely images. RobK7QJ On Sunday, August 9, 2020, 12:00:24 PM PDT, psdr-request@hamwan.org <psdr-request@hamwan.org> wrote: Send PSDR mailing list submissions to psdr@hamwan.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://mail.hamwan.net/mailman/listinfo/psdr or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to psdr-request@hamwan.org You can reach the person managing the list at psdr-owner@hamwan.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of PSDR digest..." Today's Topics: 1. East Tiger – PTZ Camera (Rob Martin) 2. Re: East Tiger – PTZ Camera (Rob Salsgiver) 3. Re: East Tiger – PTZ Camera (Kenny Richards) 4. Re: East Tiger – PTZ Camera (Doug Kingston) 5. Re: East Tiger – PTZ Camera (Darcy Buskermolen) 6. Re: East Tiger – PTZ Camera (Doug Kingston) 7. Re: East Tiger – PTZ Camera (Bart Kus) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sat, 8 Aug 2020 20:35:40 +0000 (UTC) From: Rob Martin <rgmrob@yahoo.com> To: Puget Sound Data Ring <psdr@hamwan.org> Subject: [HamWAN PSDR] East Tiger – PTZ Camera Message-ID: <543170601.721612.1596918940341@mail.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" The PTZ camera at ETiger has been unreliable for some time. Rich (KF7BJI) and I were at the site yesterday (2020-08-07),and now I can fill in some of the details. The camera is located about three-quarters of the way up thetower used by the SeaTac Repeater Association. This tower is about 50m awayfrom the ETiger HamWAN site. STRA uses the callsign W7WWI on most of itsrepeaters. The POE power supply and the Cat5 cable up the tower have beendamaged by a lightning strike. The power supply needs to be replaced. The Cat5 cable has water inside the jacket, something that wentunnoticed until the damaged Ethernet connector was cut off. Water dripped out,lots of it. Most of the cable runs tight against the tower, and I speculatethat the outer jacket was punctured by the lightning. I am hoping that the camera itself may still be functional. Despitethe above problems, there were occasions when images could be recovered. If thepower to the camera was disconnected for an hour or so, the camera worked for afew minutes after restart. The repair will involve a tower climb to replace the cable.Unfortunately we will have to open the camera’s sealed enclosure to access thecable end. We hope to have this work done soon. No promises! Rob K7QJ
