ZoneMinder Forums

In the UK we've had some amazingly cold weather for the past three weeks or so. Rarely going above freezing, I've recorded -15c personally and had several days concurrently of around -10c.

As well as the chaos this is causing the plumbing on our three stableyards, I've also had some issues with the cctv and wondered if anyone else had had similar, and if this is a known issue how people in properly cold countries cope? I've never had to seriously consider the cold in planning before.

In all cases, the equipment is mounted outside or in unheated buildings.

I've had four D-Link Poe splitters stop working within two days of each other. I've been using this product for about four years with zero failures and they weren't all bought at the same time, so this has to be more than coincidental. The activity light turns on occasionally, but soon goes out and requires a long cooldown period before it'll try again.

I've also had two Axis cameras fail completely. A 207 and a 206. In both cases they light up, but the network led fails to light. On the other end of the cable, the switch shows a connection, but no network activity starts. Again, both died within a very short period, and again, I've been using Axis for 4 or so years with zero failure.

The obvious question is "what do the specs for the camera define as the temperature range?"

Most professional camera housings have heaters in them - this is usually to stop condensation building up on the front glass, but may also help the camera stay within its operating range. I've used a 4.7k 1W resistor wired across the mains in the past to provide a little background heat.

John

Yep, you're right - this is the downside of operating outside without enclosures.

For the axis, it's "Environmental Parameters (operating) 5 °C ... 40 °C ", but it did surprise me negatives would hurt electronics to this degree. (Pun intentional )