Nothing but trouble with the night vision (video loss)

[bmaster]

https://amcrest.com/amcrest-amdv960h4-4 ... meras.html

Our system is the one above but all four cameras are bullet cameras.

Two cameras out of the four never work at night. It's like for months the same cameras go out at night and then out of nowhere one will work again but another one goes out. But it's always two that are out. They are out the whole night.

Seems like this system can't handle four cameras at night, yet it comes with four cameras. During the day there's no issue. What can I do? The installation was quite tedious since its wired, I did it all myself.

(out of warranty)

[Revo2Maxx]

Hello and Welcome to the Forum
Sadly it sounds like a bad Power Supply or to many things on the Power Supply or there is to many feet between the power supply and the camera...

So normally this system would come with DVR, 4 cameras, 4 cables, and 2 power supplies. One with 4 splitter and one for the DVR...

Normally the 2 power supplies are the same 12v 2amps..

Here is a Test I would try.. If your using that setup, Take the Power supply from the DVR and power the Cameras with it use the power supply for the cameras on the DVR.. If it works that way you might want to start looking for another 12v 2amp power supply.. Sadly if it is over the normal OP current then the DVR won't work with HDD installed...

Issue is that Power supplies die all the time unless Hight Quality PDU are used.. Even then there is no 100% it won't fail but they do tend to last longer.. I have had to replace the caps in a couple of mine however most of them date back to 2009 and 2012

[bmaster]

Hello and Welcome to the Forum
Sadly it sounds like a bad Power Supply or to many things on the Power Supply or there is to many feet between the power supply and the camera...

So normally this system would come with DVR, 4 cameras, 4 cables, and 2 power supplies. One with 4 splitter and one for the DVR...

Normally the 2 power supplies are the same 12v 2amps..

Here is a Test I would try.. If your using that setup, Take the Power supply from the DVR and power the Cameras with it use the power supply for the cameras on the DVR.. If it works that way you might want to start looking for another 12v 2amp power supply.. Sadly if it is over the normal OP current then the DVR won't work with HDD installed...

Issue is that Power supplies die all the time unless Hight Quality PDU are used.. Even then there is no 100% it won't fail but they do tend to last longer.. I have had to replace the caps in a couple of mine however most of them date back to 2009 and 2012

Thank you for your reply. I tried what you said about switching and there was no change. Then I found a spare 12V 2A adapter (tested it on the device it's for and it worked) but nothing either. I'm having a big issue with some horrible neighbors and I need to find a fix or buy something different.

[patric]

Power consumption spikes when the IR illuminators kick in and draw current. As a troubleshooting exercise, you might go to camera settings and turn off the illuminators. Later in the night, turn them on one at a time and watch for failures. You might have one particular camera that draws more than the others that you could re-assign or delegate as a non-IR camera.

[bmaster]

It does not appear that I have that option. Where is it in the settings?

[Revo2Maxx]

Yes I own the 960H system as well and was why I mention about changing the Power Supply because there is no option to turn off the IR for night or change the cameras to color at night without special Cameras outside of the Amcrest family...

So next step I would say to try is split off the cameras on a different Power supply.. Keeping 1 good camera and 1 bad camera on each and see if they still act the same way.. Sadly not many people have loads of camera supplies or Splitters so the next thing if you don't happen to have an extra splitter around for your camears.. Is take one of the bad cameras off and put on its own power supply and leave the other 3 on the one with the 4 way splitter.. Then check of the cameras go off again and or if they stay on..

So nothing working? Meaning are the cameras offline now full time or just at night still even after changing out the Supply?

Also are you using the Normal Cables? or did you extend them?

Power over distance can be an issue.. I am not sure what cables your cameras came with but there are some really bad ones out there. Some are 3 wire and some are 4 wire and the 4 wire setup is better because the cables don't share a Common ground between Video and the power .. Also another thing you could try is to use a power supply close to one of the cameras at the camera and see if it stays on after that.. Again right now personally I would remove 1 camera that goes off on you, Connect it to the second 12v 2amp power supply and see if it stays on and of the other 3 stay on.. If it works this way with out an issue I would look into buying a new Power supply... WHen you look look for a 12v 5amp with 8 splitter or just look for a 12v 5amp without normally they are about same cost but with the splitter you know it was designed for CCTV...

[Revo2Maxx]

Also thought I would mention seeing you said about needing to buy something else.. If your 960H is the + system I wouldn't toss it as it can go Full IP if your 960H is the normal then it would be upto you if you wanted to get something newer.. It won't be as Great a IP system as one of Amcrest NVR's but has the ability again if it was a 960H+ to go 4+4 ip or even 8 IP only that is how mine works anyway and they did have 2 different 960H systems... The + is worth holding on to..

[bmaster]

Also thought I would mention seeing you said about needing to buy something else.. If your 960H is the + system I wouldn't toss it as it can go Full IP if your 960H is the normal then it would be upto you if you wanted to get something newer.. It won't be as Great a IP system as one of Amcrest NVR's but has the ability again if it was a 960H+ to go 4+4 ip or even 8 IP only that is how mine works anyway and they did have 2 different 960H systems... The + is worth holding on to..

There's no point in holding on to it if the night vision can't be fixed. Image quality is sub HD too.

I tried what you said about putting a bad camera on its own power supply and it didn't work.

[Revo2Maxx]

Understand about the SubHD and while I do still have mine I am saying that it is a quality machine and again as long as it is a + machine it is rare type and personally on just that I would keep it even if only for a Shelf Queen..

So sadly the next issue isn't something that everyone can do but over time IR fails and from what it sounds like in your post if a Known Good Power supply won't work the camera alone then we can root out the issue being a bad Power supply this only leads me to one last thing and that is a Bad IR board.. While the whole board might not be the issue it could be that the IR LED has shorted and is causing the camera to shut down in a way to preserve itself.. So what could you do? (Again not everyone has been in Electronics for 40 years) however if you were able to you could remove the front of the camera, My system came with 2 bullet and 2 Eyeball cameras, So not sure what one of your is bad or if your is different however the Bullet one of mine has 4 screws on the front that hold the glass on, Removing the 4 screws from front, then the 3 or 4 in side holding down the IR board unless your able to remove the wires without pulling the board out.. The Eyeball camera is easier to take apart as there is no screws holding it together just have to unscrew the front lens half off the back camera holding half and gain access to the IR board again there will be 2 wires and depending on the type of 960h cameras you have it might also have a IRC wire as well.....

Please make NOTE... Removing the IR from the camera will make the camera stay in Color at night, While you can replace the IR LED if you can find what one is bad and or it could be the Power Supply if yours has one and not just the wire connecter.. While looking at the IR Board you would know if it has power Circuit if there is more then just LEDs and little SMD resistors, There might be some diodes, transistors and other things within the IR circuit board.. If only IR leds and a few resistors then more then likely the IR led has failed causing your camera to shut off when IR comes on or is told to..

[Revo2Maxx]

Here is an LED that I need to replace myself.. Right now the one that you can't see the LEDs on are different LEDs however I am replacing it with the 3 lED one for the time being while I wait for my LDR's to get to me.. This IR is out of an OLDER 2014 camera that has LED board that was built in 2013.. Camera still works and the one it was removed from only has 1 connector for power where the one that I am replacing it with has power and the IRC connector and designed for a better camera.. This camera while it does have IR at night it don't have a IRC so the Filter is a dual color glass that sits infront of the Camera Sensor where the 3 LED one will work with some of my other cameras with IRC that at night will cause the Filter to change places so the IR LED can work at night and show the right color.. These 2 boards have power Circuit on the board as you can see by all the little SMD parts

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