On an old system that is having problems, or a newly installed system that is having problems then we need to trouble shoot. To make it easy on yourself lets try swapping a camera from one place to another. We do not know if the camera is bad, or if the wiring is bad, or if the power supply is bad. When you have a camera installed to test the "bad" camera, then we can look to see if we have video. If you have video then the camera is defective. If you do not have video then you may have a wire, or a power supply problem. Lets try swapping power supplys. You will not be able to do this if you have a surveillance kit where all of the wires plug in to a monitor with a din cord, or a jack, (what may look like a "Phone Plug") because the power supply is built in to the monitor. Other systems come with 4 power adapters, or nicknamed "wall warts". With these you can swap the power cord to different camera cables. If the power adapter has been swapped, and you now have a revived video signal then you may have a bad power supply. You can verify this by putting the "bad" power supply on a different camera cable. If the video goes out then the power supply is bad, if the video still works then the power supply is not bad.

Testing wiring:

Testing wire is difficult. This cable may be ran through your attic, or through the false ceiling of your business. It may be difficult to bring the wire out of the attic, or ceiling. Once we have checked that our cameras are working, and that our power supplys are working then we can proceed to test the wire. If you have a known working power supply on this cable, and a known working camera on this cable, and you do not have video then your wire is bad.

If you can hook up a small TV that has a composite input (which is the yellow connector on the back, or on the front of the TV), to the camera directly, then this would be great! If you have video at the camera, then this tells us that you are getting power to the camera, and the camera is putting out a video signal! This means the power side of your cable is OK! This means the problem with the wire is on the video side of your cable. If you do not have video then the power side of your cable is bad. There may be a situation that the wire is ok, but the connectors on the end are giving you the problem. Disconnect the cable to your camera, and your TV, and reconnect the cable to your camera. You can try wiggling the connector on the back of the camera, and on the back of your DVR, (or your recording device), and see if your video "pops" in, and out. If your video pops in, and out then this connector is what is giving you the grief. You can wiggle it to the point that it stays on until you can get a new cable to replace it.

If you know how to use a volt meter then you can check to see if you have 12 volts off of the power supply, and off of the back of the camera. This test has its limitations, and you have to understand electronics to over come these limitations. Just because we have 12 volts at the camera does not mean it will work. The power supply may not be "big" enough to power the camera, or it may put out 12 volts, but as soon as you plug it in it may go into a "save it's self" mode. This is where an internal "fuse" cuts off. Maybe the wire is shorted, or the camera is shorted, or the power supply is defective.

If we can get 12 volts at the back of the camera then we know that the wire is ok. If the wire had a cut in it then you would not read 12 volts at the back of the camera.

For those of you that are using a "boxed" power supply where all of the power leads go inside of a box.

If the power supply is bad then all of your cameras will not work. If one camera is out then open up the power supply to see if you blew a fuse. Replace it with the exact fuse! Do not wrap it with aluminum foil to make it work. You may cause a fire, and you insurance will not cover your claim! Shut off the power supply when you swap the fuses, then turn it back on, or plug it back in.

You can swap fuses back, and forth to see if it is indeed the fuse. If you swap the "bad" fuse to a good location, and you do not have video then the fuse is bad. If you put a good fuse in the bad spot, and you have video then it was the fuse.

Here is where it gets dicey!!!!!! You can take a good fuse, and put it in the bad spot, and you can BLOW that fuse as well!! Now you are down two cameras. If you have this problem then you need to seek professional help! Do not attemt to force that section of your power supply to work. You will blow out the whole power supply, and now you will have to replace it.

It would be better to have one camera down, and wait till you can get another fuse. You can swap the fuses around so that the most important camera is working, and the least important camera is the one that is out.

For those of you using 24 Volt AC power supplys, you can use these tips as well.

If you have good power supplys, and good wiring, and you know you have working cameras, but your video surveillance system has a bad video, then you may have other problems.

I hope this has been of some help!

Scorpion