[Pictures] SD59225 struck by lightning... Warranty? DIY fix?

E

erkme73

BIT Beta Team
Nov 9, 2014
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I bought two of these cameras in August of 2018 from Andy. And while the "warranty" thing is a bit tongue and cheek - as I'm sure charred lightning damage is probably NOT covered, I would like to verify the integrity of the camera.

The cameras are mounted about 20' above ground on existing utility poles. I have no surge/lightning protection on any of my camera runs. The Cat5e is unshielded, and the runs are about 550' each.

First, the cool pictures:

This is about 3' down from where the camera is mounted -
upload_2019-7-1_17-22-43.png

The thicker black cable is the communication line from the local ISP/phone company. There is noticeable burn/charring at each of the metal clamps -

upload_2019-7-1_17-23-46.png

The clear plastic RJ45 connector evaporated, and the female end of the camera's pigtail shattered. There is significant smoke/soot inside and around the mounting plate and arm -

upload_2019-7-1_17-25-32.png

So, I seriously doubt the camera survived this. But, without any way to effectively connect a cat5 cable to the pigtail, I cannot verify.

This particular strike took out many other pieces of gear: Gate opener, well pump contactor, 1 Hikvision, 1 Dahua (IPC-HDW4231EM-AS), 24-port Trendnet Gbit switch, 8-port Netgear PoE+ switch (covered under warranty), 4-port PoE+ switch, two passive 8-port PoE switches, garage door opener, and probably other things I haven't found yet.

It didn't affect my other SD59233 or SD48225T (both of which were connected to the same switch as the pictured failed unit above).

@EMPIRETECANDY - Andy, I can't imagine this (or the HDW2231R which shows no signs of electrical damage) would be covered under warranty, but I'd still like to ask what you think the best approach is.
 
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I fried one of my cameras when rain got into the RJ45 connector and the pins shorted. It was my fault. I cannot imagine any electronic device to survive a surge of a bolt of lightning downstream. Even then, I think one would need fuses on each individual wire within the 8-wire CAT cable to protect the surge downstream to the camera PCB.

This camera is pretty much toast.
 
Well, I'm happy to report that after taking it apart, and replacing the blown off RJ45 female with a temporary male (for testing), the thing absolutely still works!!! It's like a Timex... I haven't had a chance to mount it back on the pole and test all the functionality, but it powers up, toggles between day/night, and runs through the limits.

upload_2019-7-1_19-56-9.png

upload_2019-7-1_19-56-39.png

What a testament to the construction and durability of this thing. Wow. The original clear plastic male RJ45 connector on the end of the line going to the camera was vaporized. Not a trace of it anywhere...

upload_2019-7-1_19-59-16.png
 
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woo, that is crazy PTZ. Actually no worry at all, 2 years warranty for all items from us, just need some times to fix up it, fixing at dahua factory is easy, sometimes they REPLACE a new one directly if can't fix up.
 
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EMPIRETECANDY said:
woo, that is crazy PTZ. Actually no worry at all, 2 years warranty for all items from us, just need some times to fix up it, fixing at dahua factory is easy, sometimes they REPLACE a new one directly if can't fix up.
Click to expand...
This makes us feel good
 
That's incredible that still works - I was expecting that to be toast as well after seeing those first pics!

Do you get much lightning where you are? We tend to just get rain where we are in the UK and the odd sunny day (where I usually get sunburn and sunstroke on the first sign of the big yellow ball in summer!) :)
 
In middle-TN we do get some occasionally strong t-storms. Nothing like it was when I lived in Tampa, though. But, I also didn't have 1000+' of cables strung over acres of property either. For the last few weeks, we've had nearly daily t-storms. Nothing severe until this particular strike.

Speaking of cables, I went to install the repaired camera in the same location, using the original cable. It showed that line 3 was open. Using a cheap tester, it said the length of each line was 150 meters, with line 3 being only 55 meters. Fortunately, that cable was stapled to the back of the fence - so it was easy to inspect the line.

Finding the problem was also pretty easy. I'm confident a blind person could have found it ;)

upload_2019-7-2_9-14-24.png
 
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Incidentally, the IPC-HDW4231EM-AS that was also hit appeared to be dead. As soon as I connected it to my PoE switch, it would overload the port. It did not power up, and would actually draw a small arc (on the passive PoE switch). I just attempted to power the camera using an external 12V power supply, and a non-powered ethernet cable. It works... 100%. No issues with image, audio, or day/night. So apparently the PoE component took the hit.

I've sent an email to Andy, hoping that I can have him just send me that component (even if I have to pay for it) to avoid having to ship it back to HK.
 
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Andy says he has no access to parts for the smaller camera. Bummer. I've sent it back to him with USPS... $33 to get it to HK...
 
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