RJ45 corroding connection

LittleBrother

Pulling my weight
Joined
Sep 16, 2014
Messages
480
Reaction score
119
I moved one of my cams well after running some network cable. The cable was too short by a large amount, so I have it joined up with a cheap two-female RJ45 connector. It's under an eave, so never, ever gets direct rain. This has worked fine for several months, but recently the camera stopped working and it's because the connector is oxidizing. Even though it's exposed to no rain, ambient moisture is causing a problem, so one of the pins is green. Interestingly, it's only one pin, and when I look at the pin on the other side of the female connector it's the same one on that side. I have to assume this is the POE line (?).

Anyway, I'm going to snip off the oxidized connection (cleaning it hasn't worked). Other than buying some new properly waterproofed kit, I was going to liberally douse everything in some cheap silicone based "bulb grease", which appears to be a typical dielectric I got from autozone many years ago. Will this work?

Also, when you pros do your final watertight connection to the camera and the humidity is very high outside is there anything else you do to not trap moist air inside a sealed connection?
 

pal251

Getting comfortable
Joined
Mar 15, 2014
Messages
1,012
Reaction score
133
I'm interested to see if the grease works ok with the cameras. Isn't there an electronics cleaner they will fix the corrosion?
 

nayr

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Jul 16, 2014
Messages
9,329
Reaction score
5,325
Location
Denver, CO
Dielectric grease is a non-conductive, silicone-based grease that's designed to seal out moisture and prevent corrosion on electrical connectors. It also disrupts the flow of electrical current, which makes it good for lubricating and sealing the rubber parts of electrical connectors. It's commonly used in automotive spark plug wires, recreational and utility vehicles, and electrical systems in aircraft.
And some good quality electrical tape, pulled taught when applied.
 

LittleBrother

Pulling my weight
Joined
Sep 16, 2014
Messages
480
Reaction score
119
Okay I realize I posted that five years ago, but wanted to give an update (maybe somebody comes by this).

I did scrape off any junk on the connector and/or made a new one (probably I made a new one). Once I confirmed the connection was good I did use some dilectric grease and I then joined it within a watertight female/female connector. They are little black cylinders and they are on amazon for $5-10. When i disconnected the camera earlier this year it was still going, almost five years strong, so was happy with that fix.
 

gtj

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Sep 13, 2017
Messages
114
Reaction score
23
I have a similar problem. Although in my case the cable and connector still work, I noticed slight corrosion, debris, and a black substance on the copper pins.
Will those sprays for potentiometers work for this purpose? I applied a bit of WD-40 but didn't make any difference.
However, I've also got a ''Servisol Super 10'' which I used to fix the volume knob of my desktop speakers. Worked wonders!
Now thinking about using it too to spray the copper conductors of the RJ45 plug.
 

sebastiantombs

Known around here
Joined
Dec 28, 2019
Messages
11,511
Reaction score
27,690
Location
New Jersey
Just about any contact cleaner for electronics will be safe and it can't hurt to try. Just use a tiny dab of dielectric grease when you put things back together and use some good grade electrical tape on the whole thing, an inch past the connectors on both ends.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: gtj

looney2ns

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Sep 25, 2016
Messages
15,521
Reaction score
22,657
Location
Evansville, In. USA
I have a similar problem. Although in my case the cable and connector still work, I noticed slight corrosion, debris, and a black substance on the copper pins.
Will those sprays for potentiometers work for this purpose? I applied a bit of WD-40 but didn't make any difference.
However, I've also got a ''Servisol Super 10'' which I used to fix the volume knob of my desktop speakers. Worked wonders!
Now thinking about using it too to spray the copper conductors of the RJ45 plug.
Caig Deoxit works very well to clean and to protect.
 

mikefl48

n3wb
Joined
May 29, 2020
Messages
2
Reaction score
1
Location
Cedar Hill, TX USA
Hello. I have had similar problems with corroded IP Camera connectors. I couldn't get the RJ45 female-type camera connector clean enough to re-establish a good connection. So I cut the RJ45 female type camera connector off, and was planning on wiring in a male RJ45 connector and inline RJ45 connector to restore the camera connection to my NVR. Much to my surprise and horror, the 8 wires that lead to the Hikvision IP camera are not color-coded the same as the "standard" CAT 5 cable wiring. So I have no idea how to wire a new camera connector to the IP camera. Does anyone have information on mapping CAT 5 cable wiring to Hikvision IP camera cable wiring using standard RJ45 connectors?
 
Top