Power cable for security camera

One of my cameras has stopped working. I found a couple of very minor nicks in the insulation of the cable, and spliced and soldered them for safe measure. The camera still had no power, so I tested with a multi-meter for continuity. The results were positive when tested on the "inside" and negative when tested on the "outside."

The cable consists of 3 wires (yellow, red, and ground) that split off at each end, and each split consisting of a power connection and a video connection. The multi-meter results were the same for the power and video connection.

What the heck does this mean?

 

Swap the camera with one of the others. That will tell you if the cable is good or not.

 

You should have no continuity between any of the wires. If you do, you have a short somewhere inside the cable.

To be sure, connect the red to the yellow at one end. Go to the other end. You should see a short between red & yellow. You should not read a short between ground and the other two. Now remove the short between red & yellow and verify that you don't read a short at the other end on any of the wires.

Next, connect yellow to ground at one end and do the same test. Finally, red & ground and the same test. This will tell you that your cable is good.

Verify that the power supply works by measuring the voltage directly at its output. You should see its rated voltage or higher. Make sure to set the meter properly. Some supplies are AC; some are DC.

 

Thank you for the replies...

In response, 1) I had checked the power supply, and it was 12V, as it should. I already tried the camera swap to verify which was the problem, the camera or the cable. A camera that works on another cable does NOT work on this one. I will run the tests you listed above very soon and report back!

Have a question....when I plug the DVR end of the power cable in, shouldn't I be able to get a reading off a multi-meter at the other end, if the cable was working properly? If so, and if I'm doing it all correctly, the multi-meter gives no response. Is there anything more defined I can get from this, or does it basically mean "buy a new cable."

The back of the DVR says "DC, 12V"

 

If the camera works on one cable but not the other, doesn't that answer the question? What other tests are needed, except to replace the cable?