IP2M-858W just stopped working; Amcrest of no help at all.

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bobcrean
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Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2022 7:37 pm

IP2M-858W just stopped working; Amcrest of no help at all.

Post by bobcrean »

Hi all:
Have a three year old IP2M-858W that has been working fine for three years. All of a sudden it does not. Have tried factory reset several times to no avail. The unit does not show up on the wired network with Amcrest IPConfig software. Fan inside unit seems to be on high. Any ideas? Requested an RMA from Amcrest but learned they do not do repairs!! What is one supposed to do? Throw it out an buy another? Ideas welcome.
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Revo2Maxx
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Re: IP2M-858W just stopped working; Amcrest of no help at all.

Post by Revo2Maxx »

Hello and Welcome to the Forum

Sorry to hear about your device. So I don't have that one so I have to ask some questions because I don't know any of them outside of my IP2M-850EB's.

So is your device 12v, 24v or POE or a combo there of.?

Fast running fan can mean a few different things. I am not sure about your camera so I can't say, I know that some of the ones I have repaired in the past being 960h models from years gone still own and use them today could have a ramp up caused by the Voltage regulation circuit being damaged.

Before the system failed had you used the cameras UI to look at the cameras status? If you had did you happen to take a Screen shot of it as it might shed some light into something that might have started being an issue without knowing it was an issue. If you have a Screen shot I would post it.

Was the camera in use (Meaning were you using Pan Tilt or doing anything within UI) when went offline or was it after a storm, power outage what type of power protection do you have? Is the area that is mounted ground protected?

Besides the fan is there any led lights on the device, When you say you tried to reset it does it do the PTZ dance or just nothing?

If you have a 12v camera have you tried a different power supply?

If it is POE have you tried a different cable, or different port on the Switch or NVR?

In truth it would be hard to say what the cost would be for repair. I have some ideas of what it could be however the complex design makes repairing these little more costly to repair then some of my older PTZ. Also a lack of Schematics makes it even harder to track down issues. Loved it back 30 years or so ago when you could open up something and it would have a copy of the Schematics inside or some type of testing values at testing spots on the board. Now days you would be lucky to get PCB part masking let alone the values that belong at the site. Even then if you were lucky to get a PCB with chip codes most times they are not real codes and have no way of knowing the true value for the chips..
Here to help the best I can.
Be Safe
bobcrean
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Re: IP2M-858W just stopped working; Amcrest of no help at all.

Post by bobcrean »

Thanks for the reply. When it failed I was not accessing the camera. It just stopped working. I've tried another 12vdc power supply. Upon factory reset, the camera does it's "dance". IR leds light up etc. looking into the hole beneath the metal frame during reset, there is a green led and an amber led which is flashing. Upon reset they both go out then come back on after power up. Amber light flashes.
The camera appears to be functioning all except no IP address. I've connected it to an ad hoc network with a computer running Amcrest IPConfig. Nada.
Is there a default IP address the camera uses? Does WiFi come up with a separate IP address that IP Config can't see?
If Amcrest will do nothing for me and can't even provide repair services, I guess the next step would be to do some disassembly, re-seating all the connectors.
Not sure what to try next.
bobcrean
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Re: IP2M-858W just stopped working; Amcrest of no help at all.

Post by bobcrean »

Here's one more clue: With the ad hoc network, if I unplug the Ethernet cable, the network goes down; when I plug it back in, it comes back up. Something is definitely "connecting" in the ethernet inards. But nothing comes up in IP Config. Occasionally, with the camera just sitting there, I can hear a very small "click", and the network goes down and comes back up again...Happens every few minutes or so. Go figure.
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Revo2Maxx
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Re: IP2M-858W just stopped working; Amcrest of no help at all.

Post by Revo2Maxx »

Hummm Well the good news is that what I thought it might have been it isn't. The bad news is that it now sounds like it might be a Lan Discrete Transformer and normally that chip could be coded S16503B however all the ones I have worked on were older cameras so yours being +3 or more years newer might have a better chip not sure as I have never seen inside a 858.. And or yours could have a communications chip this is bad? Are you using grounded cabling to the camera with a Surge Protector at the camera side? In general it should be at both sides but most people don't use any and if used bad cables like CCA that is just a big bunch of wires asking for EMI

Was it during a storm or shortly there after that it went offline?

Also something to think about as well.

What range is your normal network in? If it is something outside the cameras normal network range you might not get access to it even through IP config program.

This assumes your working with Win10. First we need to find out your IP press windows key on keyboard and R then type cmd, then type ipconfig. Make a note of your current IP address. YOUR IPv4 is what is important.
Now assuming that your Network range isn't the common 192.168.0.xxx range then you will want to go to the next step If your range is within the 192.168.x.xxx then sounds like Network communications chip damage or something I didn't mention before just came to mind could be damaged Ethernet cable.

Press the Win key and x then press w, then on the right click ethernet, then on the left click Change adaptor options, then right click the Ethernet, go down to Properties, then under "This connection uses" click on the IPv4 and click properties. Then you want to change the option to use the following ip address, put in your IP that you got from Ipconfig above, and subnet 255.255.255.0 and gateway is your IP with last # a 1 like 10.4.9.1 would normally be a gateway for a 10.4.9.xxx range of IP.. Then click OK. NOw you will need to click on the IPV4 again Properties and now advanced down at the bottom, In the top box area, click add, then type in 192.168.1.75 for IP and 255.255.255.0 for gateway. Then click add. Then add again to add another one in that top box. 192.168.0.75 for ip and 255.255.255.0 for gateway again. Then in the second box for Default gateway make sure to put in your normal gateway so what ever your IP that you added first with the 1 and the end. Now click ok, ok, ok and should be back to Network connections click the X at the top right. Now click on the cmd box that should still be up if not press the the windows key and R type cmd to bring it back after pressing enter. Now you will want to ping 192.168.0.108 -t
That IP should be the normal ip of a non dhcp loaded camera have someone go reset the camera (Unplug power) and return power to see if it gives any traffic on the ip if not ping the 192.168.1.108 -t again restore power and see if it talks. Another thing you can try from the command prompt window is typing arp -a or arp -g However if Arp on the camera was or is turned off then it wouldn't return any results anyway.. Should have started with it on however hard to tell
Here to help the best I can.
Be Safe
bobcrean
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Re: IP2M-858W just stopped working; Amcrest of no help at all.

Post by bobcrean »

No storms. Nada. Cold; just stopped working. I'm using a Mac and set up an ad hoc network. I'm not sure what the purpose of all the Win 10 instructions are, but if they're just to set up an ad hoc network, I've done that. I've read that the default ip on some cameras is 192.168.1.108. Is that correct?
I get no response when I ping that address. Not sure what the -t does. Some clarification is welcome. Is there a way to search for and detect all machines in a subnet? I guess I could try pinging every address from 192.168.x.2 to 192.168.1.255 but that seems neanderthal.

On another front, I got the top interface circuit board out. I can see why Amcrest doesn't offer to repair these. The top is held on with three stainless steel phillips head screws put into aluminum alloy without any sort of never-seeze that is necessary to keep the two metals from corroding together. iFixit would have a field day with this camera. End result, I twisted off two of the three screws with a big challenge to extract the portion left in the camera. I'll cross that bridge if I get it running again. I've found where the E-net lands on the board but there are no chips of the designation you point out. Wouldn't do much good as I don't have surface mount soldering tools.

Perhaps I can reach out to Amcrest and ask for a replacement board (or if any other folks here have a dead camera of similar type that might be usable for parts. I may have to put it on eBay as "for parts or not working" and start over, but It absolutely bugs me that in this day and age a company as large as Amcrest can sell a $400 camera and provide zero support beyond the 1 year warranty period.

I'll re-assemble the camera and see what happens. I'll pray.
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Revo2Maxx
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Re: IP2M-858W just stopped working; Amcrest of no help at all.

Post by Revo2Maxx »

Yeah there is no replacement boards either. No Repair no need for Replacement PCB's

One of the biggest issues is that the Silica Gels on cameras need to be replaced and if you live in an area like mine it needs it every year in most of my cameras location I have a few that I replace every 2. Then one of the biggest mistakes (if you bought used) the first owner might have removed it thinking it was for shipping when they put in a Micro SD card..

Doing the Ping -t will ping on a win machine until you CTL-C to stop it. I don't know about Mac but I am guessing it is more like a Unix box where you ping and will have to run a command to stop the ping. If not then not sure how you would ping a address constant for a reboot to see if it BLIPS and then goes away..

On a PC the ARP is how you would get all ip's listed with in a range. For windows arp -a or arp -g would be best as the are one of the same. In my Unix box arp is little different but same idea. I would guess that arp -a on mac could give same result as the unix and PC..

About the camera the 2 IP it could be in range of is 192.168.0.108 and 192.168.1.108 normally the first one is the one I have seen on my systems as general starting static ip. ..

Sorry about Win10 commands it is just faster to type out that then having to try and explain where and what something is located and if someone moves the taskbar to the side or top then all bets are off trying to have them understand where mine is on the bottom as it started..
Here to help the best I can.
Be Safe
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Revo2Maxx
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Re: IP2M-858W just stopped working; Amcrest of no help at all.

Post by Revo2Maxx »

Oh one point about repairing things that you don't normally take a part the option is don't take it apart but second is to make sure to take good pictures of the before..

Also and while I have been in Electronics for over 40 years when it comes to cameras like these or even the smaller dome or Bullet cameras it is also best to mark the cables so ensure you know what cable goes where. Got into a hurry one day on one of my cameras I was changing from static 4mm lens to a motorized 2.8 to 12mm lens. I had done it so many times with that camera type I thought I had all the cables known come to find out the hard way the one I was working on was 2 year older model and they shared the iris IR connecter on the PCB and it was the same as the main input power for the camera. I needed to test something and plugged the cable into the wrong port blowing the main microchip that is programmed by factory so that camera became E-Waste...

Again about your camera, I don't know if it even has that chip as I don't know the camera and it is newer then ones I work on, Then the TX/RX board could be placed even deeper within the camera and not on the outside board. That might only be main power and Micro SD communications.

That is the next question have you had a MSD in the camera if you have, have you tried to see if the camera is still putting pictures to the card?
Here to help the best I can.
Be Safe
bobcrean
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Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2022 7:37 pm

Re: IP2M-858W just stopped working; Amcrest of no help at all.

Post by bobcrean »

arp-a in a Mac Terminal window (almost identical to Unix) produces:

(10.37.129.255) at ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff on bridge101 ifscope [bridge]
(10.211.55.255) at ff•ff•ff.ff.ff.ffon bridge100 ifscope [bridge]
(192.168.1.1 at (incomplete) on en4 ifscope [ethernet]

Way above my paygrade lol. Might be near the end of the road here.
strouja
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Re: IP2M-858W just stopped working; Amcrest of no help at all.

Post by strouja »

my IP2M-858W just died, I tried everything. It powers on, rotates around when I do that but the reset button does nothing. I tried connecting and ethernet cable and searching for it with the amcrest scanner and it just won't appear on my network. I attempted the reset 6 times (it makes a slight clicking sound when I hit and hold the reset button), tried powering on and off multiple times, etc.


If anyone wants this for spare parts let me know, it is less than 3 years old and was never exposed to any inclement weather as it was on my porch and protected from the weather. All you need to do is pay for shipping. I'm sure most parts in it are fine, I see the infra red light pop on, the fan inside works, the motor to move the camera lens works, and I'm sure the actual camera itself is fine.

I called support and they confirmed it is dead and I offered to ship it back to them for spare parts or repair and they had no interest in that.

I suspect a daughter board needs to be changed or something, but there is no way. that I know of to get spare parts for this or get this fixed.
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