Need Help On a Pelco Spectra III Camera

[jpease 0]

Hey ladies and gents, my name is Pease (surname), I work for Luxottica Retail at the Memphis LOM Lab (Luxottica Optical Manufacturing) and I an asset protection Team Lead. I have been having issues with one of my PTZ cameras outside. It's just stuck in a position and I've tried looking for manuals or troubleshooting ideas, and none of the ones I have found have really worked.

 

Is anyone familiar with these cameras?

[Soundy 1]

Pretty familiar, yup... by "stuck in a position", do you mean you can't control it at all (including zoom and focus)? Do presets work? Is it supposed to run a pattern or tour and isn't?

 

And just so we're not duplicating effort here, what troubleshooting steps have you already tried?

 

First thing I would do is cycle power to the camera - on power-up, it should display the comm settings on-screen, and run through a short tour (zoom in/out and turn around once) - this would confirm whether the camera itself is functioning.

[jpease 0]

Pretty familiar, yup... by "stuck in a position", do you mean you can't control it at all (including zoom and focus)? Do presets work? Is it supposed to run a pattern or tour and isn't?

 

And just so we're not duplicating effort here, what troubleshooting steps have you already tried?

 

First thing I would do is cycle power to the camera - on power-up, it should display the comm settings on-screen, and run through a short tour (zoom in/out and turn around once) - this would confirm whether the camera itself is functioning.

 

 

Well, it's not in a set pattern, we usually have the two outside cameras criss-crossing our parking lot...that way we can control when we are in the office w/out doing the presets. It's mainly to try and catch folks breaking into cards.

 

Now for the most part, I have just tried turning the server on and off, and disabling the camera and enabling the camera in the system as well...but I haven't figured out how to power down the camera itself w/out going up on the roof to do that.....I just googled tips and it didn't really give me a lot of information, but the information they did give, I tried to no avail.

[Soundy 1]

It's VERY likely that the power supply itself is not on the roof - it would most commonly be in a phone room, electrical room, or server room, or some other type of utility space in the building. It may be just an open-frame transformer rather than a box or enclosure:

 

Cycling power to the camera the first troubleshooting steps I'd try in most cases, and I'd suggest doing that next to confirm that the camera itself is working properly. Sometimes a camera will stop working and simply powering it off and on will get everything working properly again.

 

I just recently had a Spectra III that stopped working properly - it ran its preset tour fine, and would go through its initialization properly after a power cycle, but I couldn't control it at all. I opened it up and discovered water was getting into it and had dripped on the interface board behind the camera and damaged it. We're just waiting for the customer to decide whether they want to replace that board.

[jpease 0]

It's VERY likely that the power supply itself is not on the roof - it would most commonly be in a phone room, electrical room, or server room, or some other type of utility space in the building. It may be just an open-frame transformer rather than a box or enclosure:

 

Cycling power to the camera the first troubleshooting steps I'd try in most cases, and I'd suggest doing that next to confirm that the camera itself is working properly. Sometimes a camera will stop working and simply powering it off and on will get everything working properly again.

 

I just recently had a Spectra III that stopped working properly - it ran its preset tour fine, and would go through its initialization properly after a power cycle, but I couldn't control it at all. I opened it up and discovered water was getting into it and had dripped on the interface board behind the camera and damaged it. We're just waiting for the customer to decide whether they want to replace that board.

 

I will contact my boss, to see if he knows where the power supplies are located and then I will power cycle them. That might be the trick. I'll let you know hat I find out.

 

Thanks for all of the help.

[jpease 0]

Okay I powered cycle it through, even changed fuses, in it, and it is coming up, configure failed...so

[Bunited2 0]

When was the last time it worked (as far as you know) properly?, then if it all of a sudden had a problem try to figure out if someone could have gotten in the programming.

 

But, you said you re booted the server, so I take it that the control for this dome is addressed and running on a '2 wire' data rs-422 card out of the back of the comp?

 

As opposed to a controller connected to a matrix? is there a 2 wire, another 2 wire and 01 coax to the camera/dome or is it only 01 coax and a power cable?

 

If it is being controlled over the rs-422 I would check for something simple like 1 leg of

wire on the connector on the rs-422 board is off, if it's coming from a matrix/controller and it's working with coaxitron control....impedence is everything! that has to do with proper termination.

 

So, 2-wire? or only coax?

 

Bunited2

[Soundy 1]

"Configure failed" during power-up indicates the camera itself is failing - not an issue with the signal wiring (there's the very VERY slight possibility that extreme noise on the signal line could cause malfunctioning of the camera, which could be tested by disconnecting the signal leads from the camera, but that's maybe one chance in 10,000).

 

In all likelihood, the camera is dying, possibly either because of water ingress, or just age and wear.

[jpease 0]

"Configure failed" during power-up indicates the camera itself is failing - not an issue with the signal wiring (there's the very VERY slight possibility that extreme noise on the signal line could cause malfunctioning of the camera, which could be tested by disconnecting the signal leads from the camera, but that's maybe one chance in 10,000).

 

In all likelihood, the camera is dying, possibly either because of water ingress, or just age and wear.

 

I think the camera has failed completely, after it configure failed message being up for about 15 mins, now all I am getting is a black screen. This is the same camera we've had to replace a couple of times already, so I would not be surprised if its just kaput.

[survtech 0]

Spectra III dome drives are notable for failing their power supply boards (inside the dome drive). Pelco has produced a modified board assembly, which includes the cooling fan, heat sink, etc.

 

Part Number: DD53KIT

Description: Power Supply Kit, Pelco Spectra III

 

 

If you have a tech available, the replacement is pretty straight forward. You can purchase parts from Pelco or from Time Lapse Supply - http://www.tlselectronics.com/pelcospectraiii.html. Or you can send the PTZ dome drive(s) to Pelco or an independent repair company. I recommend Moore's Electronics in northern California: http://www.cctv-repair.com/.

 

Also, for outdoor environmental domes, check the dome's heater/blower. Those fans tend to fail after a couple of rough years.

 

Hope this helped.

[Bunited2 0]

I actually did miss the previous information about the 'failure', my bad. I had experienced in actually a 1/2 dozen spectras an eeprom failure which would either cause non-functioning and/or video malfunction. Or, as stated power supplies are also an issue with some spectras and of course moisture.

 

Almost funny: I had an army base I picked up in North Cal, one day they told me there's always rain drops on the dome, I got out to the base and tilted the camera down (yes, surprisingly still operated) it was like looking down into a fish bowl. Although the previous company (by all appearance) had installed what looked like a very good install, moisture was able to collect into the dome unit (about .5" worth).

 

For the record guys:

 

I had installed parapet mounts on the very edge of a building, with specially made mounts. The bottom of the actual mount (pipe) was right above the roof gutter, well my domes continuously fogged right in front of wherever the lens was pointed then would clear up, as the day went on (I have always respected pelco tech support), but all tech support could give me was the domes weren't sealed properly. After a lot of headaches, I finally realized that moist air was rising up the pipe and into the dome. Anyway, expansion foam resolved the problem.

 

Bunited2

[hardwired 0]

 

I had installed parapet mounts on the very edge of a building, with specially made mounts. The bottom of the actual mount (pipe) was right above the roof gutter, well my domes continuously fogged right in front of wherever the lens was pointed then would clear up, as the day went on (I have always respected pelco tech support), but all tech support could give me was the domes weren't sealed properly. After a lot of headaches, I finally realized that moist air was rising up the pipe and into the dome. Anyway, expansion foam resolved the problem.

Bunited2

The ends of the Pelco factory made parapet mounts (PP350, PP450) are just open pipe as well, we do the same thing (spray foam) to seal a piece of flex conduit into it. Besides moisture, bugs can get all the way into the dome unless the parapet mount is sealed.

[rocmay 0]

jpease I agree with other people on here. When the fans go in the spectra cameras its not long before either the power board dies or the drive gives out which is why you can't control it. The black screen means you may have not got it reseated good. I have been messing with these camera's awhile and I still have a fun time with some of them, and I have broken a few of the clips a couple of times. You can send the 3 off for repair but your next camera will be a spectra 4. And depending on the mount like if maybe you started with a spectra 2 then went to a 3 the 4 will not mount in the same with out some change to the power board that the camera snaps into.