Failing HW8232EP-Z

[bug99]

My best camera, the Ultra Starlight HW8232EP-Z, is dying or is nearly dead. It is off line for most of the time, only powering on for about 8 to 10 seconds every 2 minutes or so.

I thought that it was the RJ45 female oxidized and weak pins force, so after failing to get better with some de-ox, I replaced it with a good 110 punch down end, which did not seem to make things any better. I recovered from my frustration and then replaced the male end on the wire, and to my dismay, it also did not appear to improve things. I then tried to use a 2.5A 12V power source and no POE. I was not surprised that it had no apparent affect.

Is there any real hope for recover? Has anyone had a similar issue and repaired it? I will likely pull it apart and see if anything stands out.

 

[tibimakai]

I would do that and see, maybe there is some water inside.
I have even repaired dead cameras. Usually, surface mount capacitors short out. I would start measuring them for short.
It shows up on the network?

 

[bug99]

It shows up on the network?

yes for about 10 seconds every few minutes.
good idea on the caps.

 

[tibimakai]

Try the biggest caps first. If you find one, just remove it. Most likely there are multiple connected in parallel.

 

[kobebeef]

It may be caused by the water short circuit in the previous network line.
Only the network tail of the camera can be replaced.

 

[bug99]

I have fixed the camera. It was a strange solve and an interesting journey.

After removing the outer shell, I inspected the guts of the camera for any obvious damage. I found nothing that stood out as overheated or corroded or broken etc. I then confirmed the work/fail issue remained the same.

I then took a stab at the electrolytic caps as was suggested. They appeared fine and rough testing appeared ok, but was unsure of at least one of them. They were a bit of a challenge to test as they were surfaced mounted and of large value. I damaged one of the leads of one removing it, but after its removal, it tested good. [note: I cant believe the value to size ratio compared to older caps that I had lying around. A 220uf 16v cap was about ¼” long and ¼” in diameter. That is crazy]. Well, the camera was broken anyway, so I guess no big deal.

It took quite some time and effort to re-attach that damaged cap lead back to the main board, since nothing I had lying around was going to fit at anywhere near that value. After re-attachment, I tested the camera and it worked again but in the same broken way as before (brief 8 seconds on per 10 min off cycle). No harm no foul, square one.

Basically, giving up, I figured that I would re-claim the 128GB uSD card and toss the camera.

I pulled the card and a few minutes later realized that I had an active image up on my computer from that camera. Hmm. So I waited, and waited, and it was still a live image. WTF, I say. The uSD card is only 2 months old, a Samsung EVO and I had slow formatted it and then re-formatted it in the camera two months ago, so I knew it should be in top shape.

I checked the card in my computer and it didn’t like it, so I slow formatted it, and it was then fine again.

For now, I did not put it or any other memory card back in the camera. It continues to operate correctly after two weeks. My best guess right now is the drive itself (not the card) is damaged, either the pins or the read/write chip. What is amazing to me is that it kills the camera, vs just failing to work as a drive.

I will count this as a win and saved me some fraction of $300. I might at some point pull it apart again and see if I can figure out what is up with the SD drive section, but I sort of doubt it, as I just use Blue Iris now.

Failure: Dahua SD drive.
Fix: remove the uSD card. (knowing this could really save someone a lot of pain and suffering).