CCTV showing black screens.

Curious123

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I have an Adata Zeus mk3 DVR with four channels with analogue infra-red night day POE dome cameras. All the cameras are showing black screens, I have rebooted the dvr, reset it to defaults and even deleted the hard drive but to no avail. The DVRs seems quite cheap on the popular auction were I to replace mine with one that does 1080p or something similar will it work with my older cameras?
 
Is it a single power supply to the cameras. If so that's probably the problem.
 
Is it a single power supply to the cameras. If so that's probably the problem.
I am no expert but with POE am I correct in assuming that power to the cameras is provided through the ethernet cable rather than the camera having it own independant power supply? The guy who installed the CCTV was a right cowboy, he used two ethernet cables with two pairs from each to connect four cameras so each camera has a pair going into tthe DVR. Are you saying that the pairs are faulty?
 
No. It sounds like the cams have no power.

Are you saying that 1 cable is powering 2 cams?

I assume the cameras will have there own IP since they are POE. Have you tried to access one directly? Or scanned your network to see if they are even up. An easy way to know if the cams are up without a net scan or accessing IP. Is to check at night to see if the IR light is on the cams.

If I was you I would take down one of the cams and directly connect it to the DVR using a ethernet cable and see if it comes up.
 
The ethernet cable was unfurled and pair of wires was used to connect to the camera through a BNC connector to the DVR. I have single ip address for the DVR and not an ip address for each of the cameras. Apologies if I have qouted the wrong type of camera or supplied in correct information for the camera.
 
The ethernet cable was unfurled and pair of wires was used to connect to the camera through a BNC connector to the DVR. I have single ip address for the DVR and not an ip address for each of the cameras. Apologies if I have qouted the wrong type of camera or supplied in correct information for the camera.

Sounds like there should be baluns used there as that twisted pair isn't going to be 75Ohms.
 
I had no idea about what a balun was so googled it and found that is how my four cameras are actually connected to the DVR.
 
As Grimeire said, it sounds like no power. Does the screen say "No Video" or are they actually blank? A simple way to confirm power is IR test. If daytime, cover a camera to the extent of the camera thinking it's night time...if the IR cuts on or you hear a click there's power. Even simpler is to wait til night time lol.

It can also be insufficient power. Verify the source of power and the rating requirements of the cameras. If they require 12v 500mA (just an example) then a 12v 2mA is fine for 4 cameras (once again, just an example, as it doesn't really sound like POE was used to power them).

Finally, after checking all of that, it can be the cameras themselves....I currently have a DVR that one of the cameras blanked out on and I assumed it was tampered with but checked the camera and verified power and video connections were fine, also used a tester with same result. The camera just quit on me but it's still powered - go figure.
 
'It can also be insufficient power. Verify the source of power and the rating requirements of the cameras. If they require 12v 500mA (just an example) then a 12v 2mA is fine for 4 cameras (once again, just an example, as it doesn't really sound like POE was used to power them). '

I used the switch at the back of the unit to power off/on the DVR record tried it a few times but that didn't make any difference to the issue. I decided to check out the power adaptor as you mentioned and disconnected the device to read the power settings afterwards reconnected as it seemed to be fine. I switched the device back on the cameras screens flashed with pictures and black screens four or five times and the picture steadied itself and seems to be working fine. I think disconnecting the power completely seems to have possibly reset the adapter and all is working fine. Thank you guys for all your advice and suggestions always something to bear in mind for the future.
 
'It can also be insufficient power. Verify the source of power and the rating requirements of the cameras. If they require 12v 500mA (just an example) then a 12v 2mA is fine for 4 cameras (once again, just an example, as it doesn't really sound like POE was used to power them). '

I used the switch at the back of the unit to power off/on the DVR record tried it a few times but that didn't make any difference to the issue. I decided to check out the power adaptor as you mentioned and disconnected the device to read the power settings afterwards reconnected as it seemed to be fine. I switched the device back on the cameras screens flashed with pictures and black screens four or five times and the picture steadied itself and seems to be working fine. I think disconnecting the power completely seems to have possibly reset the adapter and all is working fine. Thank you guys for all your advice and suggestions always something to bear in mind for the future.

Glad it worked out for you buddy!
 
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