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Author Topic: Broken plastic gears on Vanguard Cameras, using multiple wireless cams  (Read 29213 times)

BFD

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I bought 2 Vanguard cameras and they worked great so I bought 12 more.  Mostly the sat in their boxes for a couple years before I got around to installing them.  1 year after that, all 14 are broken from VERY little use.  After opening them, I found every one of them had the same problem.  There are 2 small plastic gears that are used for the pan and tilt functions and they are all cracked. Every one of them.  They didn't all crack at once.  At first I started swapping out broken gears with the cams that had good gears so that I would have at least some working cams but soon after, they were all cracked.

X10 support only told me, since my cams are out of warranty, they don't service them, sell replacement parts, or could tell me where to get replacement parts, my only offered option was to buy replacements.  When I spend over $15,000 overall on X10 equipment, I expect a little bit more than "tough luck".  I paid $600 each for the cameras and the rest was spent on other X10 equipment.  The low price was the reason for buying.  I didn't buy expecting cheap equipment for a cheap price, I expected great equipment for a cheap price.  That was what was advertised after all.

I don't expect them to replace my cameras.  But I do expect at the very least, tell me where I can get the gears elsewhere.  This is because this has been an ongoing problem with these cams for lots and lots of customers which I note after reading the forums.

What I want is, can anybody tell me specifically, where to buy the replacement gears.  A web site and part number would be nice.  Imagine how many customers would go from mad to glad if X10 could simply have this information to give to customers in a similar predicament.  I really don't want to buy 14 more cameras and them swap them with the bad cameras and return them.  This is because I know those too will eventually have the same problem.  I want a fix, not a refund or temporary solution.

Regarding the quality of x10 products in general, I found that everything can be made to work as advertised except for the wireless video transmission, which is really not good enough for use with multiple cameras in a typical home even if it is cheap.  The reason is that while you may be able to get 1 or 2 positioned just right, getting the receiver antenna positioned just right to be able to clearly receive a wireless video signal from 8 different camera locations is unlikely.   Another problem is neighbors.  I have several neighbors that apparently also have x10 wireless cams.  Not only do their signals interfere with mine, there is nothing to prevent them from receiving my signals or controlling any of my wireless equipment.  As a wired solution, the equipment works satisfactory except for the broken plastic gears.
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w5sno

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Re: Broken plastic gears on Vanguard Cameras, using multiple wireless cams
« Reply #1 on: January 31, 2007, 12:16:07 PM »

I have had vanguard camera 3 years now.  Mostly out in front of my place under the underhang to keepout of the weather,  The same gear broke, and you will not be finding it as I went thru the same thing.   If you happen to have the Pan and Tilt nija base, the same gears are in it, I had several so took one out and fixed mine.  You can put on top of that gear plastic epoxy cement after fitting it in to make it last.
w5sno@yahoo.com
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377

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I have had good results using silicone grease on plastic gears, literally smothering all surfaces of the gears in it. It not only lubes, but it forms a barrier against evaporation of the volatile plasticizers which keeps the gears from getting brittle and cracking. I also use it to cover anything which might corrode, including connectors. It is not conductive and adheres for years. It is a bit messy, but in a salty environment it has kept my radar and radio connectors looking like new for many years.
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MichaelC

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You might try contacting Dave Rye about replacement gears -- he might be able to obtain some from the factory to send to you, or perhaps would be able to help you find a place to get some. He has an account here, and his contact information should be pretty easily found.
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Brian H

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Someone found some brass gears that could be made to fit. I hope that they can get more details on them for us.
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sashaeagle

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BFD, did you ever find those gears.  I checked into the forum, just by chance.  I have 3 Vanguards, just bought the 3rd.  I too, have been tardy in getting my cameras set up.  Life's little speed bumps kept getting in the way.  Anyway, last week, I took two of them out of their boxes, and set them up.  Guess what....  right, the first one's gears are already gone.  PTZ doesn't work.  I'm overjoyed.  Then yesterday, the second one went down.  So.. I have a couple ninja's and I'm going to check out the gears in them.  I'd be thankful for any information anyone could share as to where I could get ahold of these gears.  Thanks in advance.  My email is sashaeagle@hotmail.com.   Please use "Vanguard gears" in the subject line so I don't delete your email as "junk mail".  Thanks again.
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tom j

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Say BFD, I've been talking to a x10 Vice President about some concerns I have with some of their products. I will be e-mailing a link of your post and hopefully someone will be able to assist you hopefully after which they can make the appropriate design changes to correct what is an obvious flaw. Good Luck

Tom j
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JMac

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Just for clarification, are there just TWO gears that are normally broken?  My Vanguard is less than a year old, located under an overhang, in a climate that is rarely below 25 degrees F, but is frequently above 90 degrees F (NC).  For planning purposes should I order two replacement gears? 
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tom j

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Just for clarification, are there just TWO gears that are normally broken?  My Vanguard is less than a year old, located under an overhang, in a climate that is rarely below 25 degrees F, but is frequently above 90 degrees F (NC).  For planning purposes should I order two replacement gears? 


Better read the above posts again I don't believe they make them!!! I was actually thinking about buying two of these but I'm having second thoughts after reading this especially seeing that you can't obtain replacement parts for a fairly expensive camera.

Tc
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