Diagnosing camera issues

Occasionally cameras will begin displaying "Not Present" When looking in the ACC system. We need to determine what the actual cause of this failure is before attempting to repair or replace any parts. 

Port Cycling - Turning port off and on

1. We would like to attempt to fix the camera without having to visit the site and manually get to the camera. We can do this by cycling the port that the camera is plugged into by remoting into the switch. We can find this info in the "Camera Inventory" spreadsheet which is divided by schools via tabs on the bottom. 
2. Find the camera in question on the sheet named for that school and find the cell labeled "Switch\Port" (example: 10.123.40.4 / 35) for the row of that camera. The first number is the address for the switch that is powering the camera, and the second number is the port that its plugged into. 
3. Remote into the switch via PUTTY ( port 22 SSH) input the ip of the switch in the hostname box. 
4. Login with your admin credentials and press any key to get to the main interface. The name of the switch should be displayed, ie MMS-MDF1-SAL03# .
5. Next we want to type " con " to get us into configuration mode
6. Then select the port you wish to cycle by typing "int 35" to select interface 35
7. With eth-35 displayed, type "no power" and press enter, then type "disable" and press enter and wait 10 seconds.
8. Next we want to type "enable" and "power" to turn the power and data back on for that port. =

This will power the camera down completely and sometimes bring the camera back online.

Swap Patch Cable - 

• There are two patch cables per camera, one at the camera and one in the IDF/MDF. Using the same information retrieved in the cycling step we can identify the cable from the switch to the patch panel for each camera. Try replacing this cable first and moving it from one switch to another to rule out issues with the switch and that cable. 

If camera is still not communicating you will need to open up the camera housing. 

Inspect Physical Camera - 

• If you goto the physical camera and open the housing and find it has activity lights on but is not communicating, you can hard reset the camera by pushing the reset button on the camera with a paper clip and holding it for 30 seconds or until all lights turn off. This will usually bring it back online however it's settings will revert to default so it will need focused and compression settings restored. 

Replace camera - 

• If you open the housing and find no lights on, swap in a new camera to and ensure it powers on. If it powers up like normal the old camera is failed and needs replaced.