Power cut then only 1 camera working

[Rogeo]

Hi all,

I have a basic nvr with 8 channels poe.

It has worked very well for the past 4 years, but after a power cut the power cable to the nvr failed.

I have a new cable and the nvr worked well, however only 1 camera remained, and I (probably stupidly) did a factory reset.

So on the video manage page, when I hit refresh it won’t detect any cameras.

When I try to add one manually, I have no idea what IP address to use.

Would anyone have any tips?

I have enquired from a few local installers but there won’t look at it, and keep saying it needs replacing…even though I know this is a detection issue.

Any help appreciated.

Many thanks

 

[Kyle]

Hi @Rogeo

Can you clarify what make / model your NVR and cameras are please?

What are the cameras connected to, the NVR directly or to your local network / a POE switch?

 

[Rogeo]

I’ll have to take down one of the cameras, and take pictures of the nvr. There are no markings on it, eg a brand.

I bought it off a local store in the uk about 5 years ago, relocated abroad now, I brought the cameras and system with me and installed them in the new house.

There are 8 cameras, connected to the dvr via cat 6 cables. The cables are connected via RJ sockets directly into the dvr. The dvr is connected to the internet via lan cable, and I have remote access on my phone.

The cameras are powered by the cable.

I will remove the one camera at the gate, and connect it with a short cat 6 cable, and see if it changes anything.

I believe the cabling is working, as the gate cable was working after the power cut, but the other 8 stopped.

I did the factory reset which deleted the cameras off the dvr, and now it won’t recognise them at all.

Even when you search for them it doesn’t show them.

I’ll post some more pictures in the morning.

Many thanks for your help.

 

[Kyle]

When you connected the cameras to the NVR for the first time, did they work straight away when plugged into the RJ45 ports in the back?

Your cameras may have physical hard reset buttons on them - it's worth using these if they are as it may help get them reconnected automatically / available to add.

Are there any lights on the POE ports which have cameras plugged into them?

 

[Rogeo]

Hi,

When I first connected them they didn’t work, but on the photo I attached at the start, when you click add one, it enabled the camera and they just worked.

I can’t seem to get the dvr to find the camera.

I will be taking down one of the cameras later, I’ll check for a hard reset button

Many thanks

 

[Rogeo]

Hi again,

So I have removed one camera, and brought it to the dvr with a short cat 6 cable.

There are no lights at the port, and there is no power to the camera.

It seems that there is no power out from the ports.

I have tried the camera each port. No lights at the back for each port, and no change with any selection.

It’s like the power has been turned off internally.

See attached photos.

The camera has ANBVISION stamped on the side of the cover.

Any ideas?

Many thanks

 

[Rogeo]

Sorry also there does not seem to be any hard reset buttons on the cameras. Just a cable inside.

 

[Rogeo]

There is a green power light on the camera cable, this was powered but now there is no power to the system.

 

[Rogeo]

Currently I have the dvr connected to the internet via a lan cable.

To get the cameras working, do I need the dvr to be connected to the internet?

I am not bothered at the moment to have the app working, I just want to get the cameras back online!!

Many thanks

 

[Kyle]

You're right, the fact that there are no lights will be the source of the problem.

Most NVRs have a setting within them that allow you to turn the POE off on the ports, so I'd see if you can find this within your NVR and make sure that it is enabled on all ports.

Have you tested the one camera that you know worked after the power cut on each port to see if the ports light up with this one?

However, I'm afraid that my gut feeling is that the power cut has blown the NVR's POE switch and/or some of the cameras, it's normally not a good sign if you don't see any lights when a camera is connected.

If you have a POE injector or switch that you know works, you could try verifying that the cameras are still OK by connecting them to this and checking the lights.

 

[Rogeo]

Hi, many thanks for your reply.

So the camera that was working after the power cut was channel 1. I have connected this directly to the rj port in each channel.

There are no green lights on any channel port.

This camera was working, and stupidly I reset to factory settings and then it dropped off.

When you say test the camera, is there a way of doing this? I see you mentioned a Poe switch?

Can I buy one of these?

I do think that this is a simple software issue. I have read before that there is an issue with having an assigned up address for each camera. If I knew that address I could manually enter that to each channel.

Do you know how I could do this?

Many thanks.

 

[Rogeo]

Also, there must have been power after the power cut to channel 1, as it was working, so I am guessing it’s just having to set them up again.

I have also checked the cables, no corrosion at all, every connector is in a waterproof box and cannot be touched by rain.

Thanks again for all your help.

 

[Kyle]

No problem - hopefully, you're right about it being just a software issue!

Most manufacturers will offer their own network scanning tool which will find any of their cameras that are working and connected to your network (i.e. to your router, rather than directly to the NVR), and view / change their IP addresses.

It looks like the one for ANBVISION cameras is called IPBatchTool and can be downloaded from here, although it may be worth reaching out to them directly to confirm this, as I'm not familiar with the brand:

Technical Support - Eyes.sys Security System CCTV Online Shop

AB-FHxxx Camera Software and operation stepsSoftware VersionIPBatchTool V1.1.0.56VMS V2.0.1.7Quick Steps V20220701

www.anbvision.com

Instructions on using it are here.

You would need a POE switch that can supply the wattage required by and the same POE standard as your cameras - this is generally standard 802.3af POE (up to 15.4W) for fixed cameras like yours - this will both power your camera and connect it to your network, as it has an "ethernet in" port from which you would run a patch lead to your router.

If you can find a datasheet for your camera it will state the required POE standard and wattage of it.

Any brand of injector/switch will work fine - this an injector that we find works for most cameras that aren't PTZs - as you're abroad, I'd suggest searching for something like this online (it will only work for one camera at a time):

Tenda PoE30G-AT 30W PoE Injector

The Tenda PoE30G-AT is a Gigabit PoE injector that delivers both power and data through one Ethernet cable for easy network extension. This unit has a maximum transmission distance of 100m and can be used for IEEE802.3af compatible devices.

www.use-ip.co.uk

Or, if you search for a POE switch with multiple ports, just search for something that can supply the right standard for your cameras - you may be best getting it from somewhere that it can be easily returned if you aren't able to confirm the standard required.

If the cameras still work then they'll show up on the scanning tool and you could try those IP addresses on your NVR, as you say.

You should also be able to log into the cameras directly once they're working on your local network if you know their passwords - the tool should allow you to enable DHCP on each camera so that it is automatically assigned an IP address for the local network, which it will need to have for this.
When you log in, you should be able to find an option to hard reset each camera, so it may be worth doing this too if all else fails and starting afresh (I'd be inclined to hard reset the NVR at the same time.

 

[Rogeo]

So I have finally accepted defeat with this dvr, I’m going to buy a new system, and try to find someone local who can take a look at this system at a component level.

If I get it working, I can install it in my parents house.

Thank you all for your help, I’ll use the info to try to find the IP address for the cameras, and maybe get them manually added again with a Poe switch.