Repairing shorted out IP POE cameras. Too challenging?

[Holbs]

Northern Nevada and Sierra Mountain Range has been battered this year from rain, snow, wind, and ice. Not at all bad for we need it. But not so great for my outdoor Dahua IP cameras. In my mad rush to get cameras operational during Da Tire Slasher, I did not fully weatherproof the default weatherproof connectors and actually forgot til this season because 2 camera's have shorted out. 2 of my beloved 5442's. What I mean by not fully weatherproofing is going above and beyond the default weatherproof connector. I would usually add di-electric grease to the female connector with the additional step of adding 1" and 1/2" shrink tubing around the entire defaul weatherproof connector. Hmm...since I have to redo some connectors, maybe i'll toss up some pics.

Anyways, so I have 2 shorted out cameras. Are they trashed? Or is there a way to repair them? I'm not so good with micro-electronics but do have a pretty good setup for a lab (started to get into rasperry PI stuff for home automation).

 

[TonyR]

This is a quick copy & paste from a Nov. of '22 thread that I replied to, it has some good links, the rest I'm sure you already know about and practice. If you haven't already done so, this below is my suggestion to try and clean the female RJ-45 on the cam's pigtail.

I would recommend replacing the RJ-45 male at the camera end first, as you can inspect the connector for corrosion when you unplug it.​

If you find corrosion, install and test a new male RJ-45 and clean the female on the cam's pigtail with DeoxIT D5 then follow this procedure for testing then weather-proofing the connection. ​

 

[shluffer]

I have lost two rj45 jacks to rust. They can be repaired but it's painful. I'm assuming you are using poe
1. Cut the wire to the rj45 with enough space to trace the pins
2. Use a continuity tester to trace colors to pins. There are wiring diagrams online but I found it easier to trace.
3. Wire. New jack using the same pin setup to the camera

It's not as good as new but it works as well as new. I lost the power jack but I use poe so I didn't worry about it. You would need to source watertight rj45 connectors. I used cat5e standard network jacks but would encourage watertight.