Subscriber Discussion

Solved: Fog Problem With Camera

U
Undisclosed
Jan 14, 2015

Does anyone had fog or frost problem went installing the Avigilon H3-PD1 series during cold weather? We are located in a northern region where the temperature can go to -30 degrees Celsius (-22 Fahrenheit) in the winter. Since the last autumn almost half the Avigilon H3-PD1 that we have installed are getting foggy periodically. The fog comes and goes. We have some of the cameras that never had fog even if they are located few feet from the problematic cameras. We also install other types of cameras (Hikvision, Bosch) in the same condition without any similar problem.

[IPVM Update: It was an installation problem, confirmed and explained below.]

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JH
John Honovich
Jan 14, 2015
IPVM

Michael, are you referring to the image being fogged up? If possible, an image might help provide better advice / feedback.

U
Undisclosed
Jan 14, 2015

No it's not the image that is foggy, the problem is that I have some fog (water) on the leans and during cold weather it freeze. The first picture is after 5 days of the install and the second one is now.

Camera 1 with fog

This is another example:

Image 2 with fog

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KL
Keefe Lovgren
Jan 14, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Michel, is the cable entrance port into the camera sealed? It looks as though warm air is possibly entering into the camera from inside the building, usually enters through the cable entrancee port. Once inside the dome the warm air meets the cold exterior air and condenses. I would seal up any areas where air can be transfered from building into camera.

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JH
John Honovich
Jan 14, 2015
IPVM

Keefe, good advice.

Related, Michael can you verify if there is moisture inside the camera that is causing the fogging? That would point / relate to what Keefe is saying.

U
Undisclosed #1
Jan 14, 2015
IPVMU Certified

And add a dessicant pack with moisture indicator too, before sealing back up.

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U
Undisclosed
Jan 14, 2015

We have tried to fill the pendant wall mount with mineral isolation and with silicon. Also we have tried 3 of these dessicant pack in one camera.

KL
Keefe Lovgren
Jan 14, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Michel,

Have you verified that the heater and fan are working? It may be possible that moisture is in their from the time it was originally installed and cannot get out, it would need to be evaporated.

U
Undisclosed
Jan 15, 2015

Keefe,

You were right on! Thanks.

I couldn't imagine that one of our installers would not fill and seal the holes after the installation of the wire.

See what I found by investigating more in depth:

Hot air blowing from the building into the camera

Frosted humidity inside the camera support

If you think all installers abide to the protocol.... you might be surprised.

Thanks to everyone

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KL
Keefe Lovgren
Jan 15, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Michel,

Glad you found out what is causing the problem and thank you for the update. We try drive the point home all the time, if you make a penetration you must seal it, unfortunately as you have shown it may not happen all the time.

We have taken over several sites from another dealer lately and on one in particular the customer was dealing with cameras that had gone out. Poor installation practices had caused 6 our of 9 cameras to fail. In this case they are 5.0-H3-B01-IR, the RJ45 connector from the camera didn't pass through the wall into the building, instead the connector was only pressed into the passthrough hole and the hole was left unsealed. Hot air passed through the hole, met the cold air on the outside and frost formed to the connector. Eventually the camera shorted out and gave up its spirit.

Oddly enough they also managed to be able to wrap up the entire cable into the base of the camera as well without using a J-Box. We are in the process of getting the cameras replace and re-installed and sealed up.

U
Undisclosed
Jan 14, 2015

here is a picture of one of the cam:

U
Undisclosed #1
Jan 14, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Michel, it's hard to tell from the picture, but is there is a plate behind the mount? Something like this, maybe:

Source: Brian Rhodes How To Mount A Camera On Rough Block?

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U
Undisclosed
Jan 14, 2015

What would you use to backfill the gap?

U
Undisclosed #1
Jan 14, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Anchor a mounting plate to the wall so it 'floats' above the block face by the smallest amount. 4 deep lag bolts anchor the plate to the wall. These bolts need to be deep, probably by 3/4ths the thickness of block or more. The gap behind the plate should be backfilled by watertight silicone or some sealant that will not absorb water. For the same reason, a metal plate is better than wood. - Brian Rhodes

U
Undisclosed
Jan 15, 2015

Thanks to everyone for your inputs. I have personally gone on site to see if the cable entry from the wall was seal and it was not. The hole was pushing hot humid air input the camera. So I believe this problem was an installation problem.

JH
John Honovich
Jan 15, 2015
IPVM

Michael,

Thanks for following up and letting us now. I've marked the post solved and added an update to the opening comment.

U
Undisclosed #1
Jan 15, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Glad it's fixed, Keefe's the man!

One follow-up question, why not have the Power go thru the wall with the Ethernet or the Ethernet go thru the conduit with the Power?

I'm not saying either of those is better, just trying to learn what the trade-offs might be...

KL
Keefe Lovgren
Jan 15, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Undisclosed A,

In the case of Michel's cameras the connection takes place within the dome so that is why you see the Cat5e entering into the dome. In case of the bullet camera that I showed it comes from the factory with a whip on it that has ethernet, power and I/O's. IMO that cable should always pass through the wall and into the building, if it cannot it should go into a junction box. In either case any hole created should be sealed to prevent future problems for both the camera and the building.

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U
Undisclosed #1
Jan 15, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Undisclosed A,

No need to be so formal, just A is fine. :)

@Michel, Keefe is right, I had assumed all the pictures were of the same camera. Since Keefe also mentioned a possible heater and fan, it made sense that there would be an external power requirement as well, so...

Just out of curiosity then, was the camera with the conduit actually one of the frosty ones? And were all the cameras not sealed well, or just the frosty ones?

U
Undisclosed
Jan 15, 2015

I'm not sure I understand the comment, we are talking about POE cameras, therefore only one wire goes to the camera.

It goes either directly from inside the building through the wall into the camera, and in that case if the hole is not properly backfilled, you may get air contamination otherwise, the hole is at distance from the camera and you have to run the wire inside a pipe.

KL
Keefe Lovgren
Jan 15, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Michel,

I would have to hear from Undisclosed A but I believe he/she might be getting two of the photographs confused (or I am possibly). The images with the frost shows a cable entering in through the base while another photo above shows conduit going into a mount, i believe those to be two seperate cameras. Maybe that is where the questions comes from.

U
Undisclosed
Jan 15, 2015

Indeed, it may be confusing.

Both pictures show the same camera, however, the conduit below the camera is there to bring a second Cat 5 to another camera that could not be accessed by inside.

As a matter of fact, the other camera that is hooked at the other end of the conduit has not had any fog problem from day one.... it's because it does not get hot air from inside the building.

We never thought that the hole was still open behind the camera ans we focused on making sure that all seals on the camera were installed properly.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
Jan 18, 2015

Been there - done that. On pendant mounts, my solution is to coat the cable with silicon spray, rubbing with rag, leave enough cable for the camera, fill the pendant cavity with firestop spray. Also fill the building holes with firestop.

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