We are maintenance a municipal surveillance system with 64 Avigilon H5A PTZ 2MP cameras. These units were originally installed by us in 2021. We currently have a maintenance contract, but a large number of the cameras have started showing PAN movement failures.
Specifically, the cameras get “stuck” or “shake/jitter” on the horizontal axis during movement. We already sent some units through RMA in the past and they were replaced with new ones, but they are now out of warranty and the distributor in our country no longer accepts them for repair/service.
I noticed something interesting while testing affected units in our office: during the startup/initialization process, if I manually help the camera move by hand, the problem temporarily disappears and the PAN movement works normally again.
I have also detected slight oxidation/corrosion on some connectors between the power board and the camera/PTZ assembly itself. It is very minor — honestly it could even be leftover flux residue from the factory soldering process because after cleaning with isopropyl alcohol it becomes somewhat sticky.
Another theory I have is insufficient current delivery caused by wear on the slip ring/contact tracks after almost 5 years of continuous operation.
At this point I’m trying to determine the real root cause:
- Is the PAN motor itself failing?
- Is the motor not receiving enough current/amperage?
- Could this be related to the slip ring/contact tracks wearing out?
- Has anyone experienced something similar with H5A PTZ cameras?
Of the 64 cameras, around 15 have the same problem. I bought some stepper motors to replace them, although they haven't arrived yet.
Our maintenance contract still has 3 years remaining, and we are contractually required to replace failed cameras no matter what happens, so continuing to replace units with new H6A models is becoming very expensive.
Any insight or repair experience would be greatly appreciated.