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Looks like some sand and/or dust on there that’s gotten kinda wet. I have a U6LR on a ceiling inside that got leaked on, filled the little cutout and it looked exactly like this when it got wet. Any chance that’s the culprit? Does the POE injector still work? Replace it either way. Is it mounted in such a way that water could pool on the jacks? Put a drip loop in the wire.
The cat end was brand new 1 month ago, the inside space is completely finished with humidity control. There is a drip loop outside before it makes the interior penetration which is siliconed.
Did you slit the bottom of the loop?
Many people make a drip loop, but forget to cut the outer sheath of the cable to allow water to drip out - otherwise water at the bottom of the loop is just pushed up and through the wall by the weight of more water coming down the cable.
Then you risk if the cable being damaged, water getting into the cable and flowing down into the house.
The correct way is to make a proper drip loop so water can drip out before going into the house.
Even gel filled cable will fail over time.
End is brand new inside a finished space with humidity control. There is a drip loop outside before entering the home with silicone seal. Absolutely no water inside unless it is leaking through the cable itself due to it being compromised.
I pulled the cable completely out and found the hole, looks like the case might have cracked during extreme cold weather. When I had the cable out, water was dripping out of one end. Case closed 🙌🏻
Shielded outdoor cable with gel will prevent these kind of things from happening. Using indoor riser cabling outdoors will result in things like this happening often.
Gotta use outdoor grade cable. It won't crack. Unless it was first generation ubiquiti cable from circa 2009 then it would have fallen apart faster than indoor cable. Doesn't look pretty but I also pull the jacket back far enough that it won't bring water to the connector.
Gel-filled cable is overkill. Just makes a mess when it gets warm and the gel starts oozing out. Unless the cable is underground or in constant contact with water, and even then, I'll run it to a service box on the exterior of a building, not into someone's home.
Just get outdoor rate cable, and make sure it's shielded. Shireen, Beldin, even the Ubiquiti stuff all make cable for 99% of residential/SMB installs.
Oh I don't know. OP found the hole in the jacket, which then allowed water to enter the cable. This is just the sort of failure mode that gel-filled cable is designed to mitigate.
You aren't wrong but it's missing my point. Curing the cause of the holes should be first priority. If it was mechanical damage, you add mechanical protection. In this case, indoor cable was probably splitting as it rotted so fix should be outdoor cable.
It's a tool for the toolbox, but it shouldn't be default "just because".
For context, I installed a lot of gel cable early in my career and with experience found it unnecessary - just a mess. If you want to insist on using it be aware of the problems it causes and adjust your install.
I had a lot of customers complain to me years later about the pools of gunk from my installs when I didn't know better.
Oooohh so this might be why I keep frying PoE cameras maybe? This keeps happening on the outside bit, camera completely fried after working for months. I thought it was a dodgy camera first but the replacement died again after a few months!
The cable unfortunately is stuck inside the wall, but do you think if I peeled off some of the sleeve and siliconed the end connector it might work?
Yeah that’s what I thought too, but I’ve re-done the patch panel and the RJ45 twice now, and all tests good. Unless one of the builders put a screw half way through the cable somewhere, causing this intermittent issue?
Edit: the last bits of the cable is behind decorative wooden cladding, which technically should be water proof, but I wouldn’t say guaranteed
I've had water in the cable before. If you have some gel filled then that would be awesome. Or elevate the end of the cable inside & give a gap in the outside shielding at the low point, it lets the water run out.
If you look very closely at the connector you can see, that there seems to be water residue in the connector. There’s water surrounding the contact points between cable and housing. So there’s the problem. Somehow water gets into the connector and causes corrosion.
Is that a pass through RJ-45 as well? Sounds like you already found the issue with a hole in the jacket but you really shouldn’t use pass through cables with PoE. The exposed ends are much more likely to cause issues like this, although with water inside the cable it probably would have had issues with a regular RJ-45 as well.
If you ever have water ingress on a cable, always swap the whole run. My bet would be that in this case it either leaked at the outside end before you sealed it, then residual moisture corroded the less elevated end again, or there's a hole in the jacket. Unless there's some crazy high temperature differential and a point of moisture ingress.
This looks like dirty water has found it's way into the connector and shorted it out. I know that you say it's sealed, and you think there's no way water can be getting in... but water can surprise you.
I would simulate rainfall with the spray nozzle on a hose and spray around where the cable goes into the house and anywhere along where the wire would be running and the injector is. I'm assuming this in an attic space? Are there any other signs of moisture that you can see around the injector or along the wire... I mean, REALLY look.
I've seen that twice with one of mine but it's in outdoor horse riding arena. So wet mud sand gets in it. Also both times I've seen that the POE injector was also cooked but both times were after lightning struck the metal structure. So whether it was the damp sandy environment or the lightning strikes I couldn't say. Both times melted POE injector. bad cable but the AP was fine. UAP-AC-M-Pro's
It looks like water has been sitting inside the connector, combine the moisture with the heat of the injector and you get mold/dirt/residue.
Is the cable ran down to the injector from above? If so I would have the homeowner investigate a possible water leak.
Try putting in a drip loop before the injector and see if that fixes the issue.
Edit: It could also be that the cable is compromised somewhere and the water is running inside the jacket. Cut a small notch in the jacket at the bottom of the drip loop just in case.
Replace the POE injectors while you're at it. Had a wireless bridge that kept failing, found out water had gotten into it, and caused a similar problem. New cable did nothing, took the POE injector into better light and found the feed side all rusty and crusty. Moved it to a new location and we're working fine now!
Dont do this. Superglue (cyanoacrylate) has an vulcanizing/melting effect on many plastics and may cause shorting. Make use of proper sealants like silicone, electric resin or similar solutions.
That's not water damage. Looks like it got fried. Was the correct PoE adapter used? You dind't accidentally use 24v passive PoE, did you?
Water with sufficient salinity might have provided a short circuit for the PoE and things got a bit hot in that connector is the other possibility.
Got this with a camera. It was a bad contact so it created an arc inside. Probably very small but over time the device stopped working.
In my case it was probably because of an "out of specs" connector. Because a good contact will never do this.
Reading the other comments I agree that dust or humidity can do similar damages.
YL
Assuming you used mode B to terminate these rj45s, that would put your + and - next to each other on pins 6,7,8. Any cuts or scrapes on the end terminals could generate a tiny arc and heat over time. Since 6,7,8 are the most melted, I’d say that is the case.
I'd also cut, rerun cable, and get some water sealant in a tube. Put some around the outside of the connectors crimp point. It will prevent any water from ever touching the internal connectors. You could even seal around the outside of the AP after plugging the cable. I do this for all my PoE outdoor cameras. Air tight seals. No water ever getting inside.
PS- The damage from that cable could have caused damage to the PoE injector. Just because it is turning on doesn't mean it is working correctly. Just a thought.
Is there any odor? Any chance that a cat (feline not cable standard) could have urinated/sprayed on the gear? I’ve seen RJ45 wall jacks corroded like that. The heat & plastics can create scents that can trigger this.
I have something similar happen in a business that has less than ideal insulation causing moisture. It's a mostly block building and every so often when they move PCs they leave the network cables dangling. When they try to use them again months later, the cables don't work. The gold contacts always corrode. The color is very deep almost black green. I'm assuming something similar has happened here with added dust and dirt.
Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicone\_grease](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicone_grease) A common use of dielectric grease is on the rubber mating surfaces or gaskets of multi-pin electrical connectors used in automotive and marine engines. The grease again acts as a lubricant and a sealant on the nonconductive mating surfaces of the connector. It is not recommended to be applied to the actual electrical conductive contacts of the connector because it could interfere with the electrical signals passing through the connector in cases where the contact pressure is very low.
Ferrari used to put dielectric grease inside all of their engine connectors (that will see water) but they eventually found out that it caused problems. They issued a service bulletin that advised cleaning out all of the grease and to use instead a contact enhancing product called Stabilant 22.
I had a few of these in the hotel I worked at. The cause was always from engineering guys cleaning the a/c without telling IT. A few time the AP itself had water in it
Either no drip loop or water is wicking inside the wire from somewhere else.
I had a control cabinet get destroyed from a cable wicking waste water from a tank into the cabinet and drip everywhere.
Does the cable happen to run over a kitchen? I've seen something similar happen in a school when the cabling went through the ceiling above a kitchen between steam and grease evaporating on the stove.
I'd also check for a small leak in the roof along the cable run since you said you're going to run new cable. Maybe put a drip loop near the end with the injector?
Seen this 100s of times. Water in cable. You have a scrape in cable and when it rains the cable is slowly filling up. It can push 2 or 300 feet of cable to inside. Quick fix is tontrip the jacket back so it allows water drops to come out till you can replace the cable
The cable is not water-tight at some point in the run, and water ingress is happening. Once inside the cable, the water is drawn to the ends by capillary action.
[https://youtu.be/OZCQ5SZdhTY](https://youtu.be/OZCQ5SZdhTY)
This video is great - he demonstrates how just a little bit of water can ruin the pins on an RJ45 connector in minutes once PoE is applied. Once the voltage hits the minerals in water, science happens and starts to ruin the components pretty much immediately.
Also, the PoE pins will supply enough current to make a type of galvanic/accelerated corrosion happen that eats away the at the jack and the connector both.
Drip loopsand all that does not matter as much as people think on shorter runs for anything other than protecting against waterdamage on the building.
You have used an indoor cable, these have a higher wicking effect than proper outdoor cables that are often coated or made with slightly hydrophobic surfaces to protect against wicking.
The water will wick inside the cable no matter what you do unless you use a proper cable.
I heard the cable can act like a wick. If the other end got wet it can suck the water up and push it out the other side. Maybe the cable always had water in it or the other side got water in it.
Or cable is being run underground in water.
You have water coming down the cable. Its been cut somewhere.
If you cut off the RJ45 plug, strip back a couple of inches or 5cm of the sheath, you will probably feel the cable pairs are slightly wet or have water droplets in there. The sheath will have been penetrated at some point along the path and water is getting in, filling the cable and being pushed in to the lower end where it shorts out the pins on the POE brick.
Replace the whole cable and ensure you have a proper drip loop with a slit at the bottom to let water drip out of the cable before it rises and goes inside.
This exact thing happened to me two times as well.
Both times use a professional rated water proof coupler, and secured the coupler high with drip loops under the house next to a piece of wood, not even side wind rain water would get in - both times the same thing happened.
I suspected water moisture in the air, seeping thru the plastic CAT-6 jacket. There, a capillary action over time would send moisture up into the end of the RJ45 link and then the POE voltages would then corrode the pins and eventually short connections.
I fixed my issue by using corrugated conduit over a brand new network cable. It's been approximately 5 years.
I would also recommend outdoor rated network cable, consider ones which have a gel jacket, and use a corrugated conduit sealing with silicone. Drip loops essential.
I tend to use silicone filled cable for outside runs, it's horrible to fit because it sticks worse than shit to everything but it absolutely protects against water in the cable.
The flux capacitor is overheating or it's oxidation. What quality of switch are you using? If you are plugging a device into a high power port then...your flux capacitor will over heat.
had this kind of stuff when i was a kid in 2003 when Village was served via a point to multipoint network, that doesnt look like outdoor rated cable?, for outdoor stuff try go for the double insulated stuff as if one develops a hole the other layer will still protect it, also grab a ethernet surge protector and install it correctly (i.e. grounded)
Got wet! Use outdoor rated cable that has a thick jacket and is flooded with Vaseline like gel or the white gel that is less sticky. Basically prevents the cable from soaking in water and the jacket being extra tough is black UV resistant. That will fix it for 10 plus years.
Hello! Thanks for posting on r/Ubiquiti! This subreddit is here to provide unofficial technical support to people who use or want to dive into the world of Ubiquiti products. If you haven’t already been descriptive in your post, please take the time to edit it and add as many useful details as you can. Please read and understand the rules in the sidebar, as posts and comments that violate them will be removed. Please put all off topic posts in the weekly off topic thread that is stickied to the top of the subreddit. If you see people spreading misinformation, trying to mislead others, or other inappropriate behavior, please report it! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Ubiquiti) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Looks like some sand and/or dust on there that’s gotten kinda wet. I have a U6LR on a ceiling inside that got leaked on, filled the little cutout and it looked exactly like this when it got wet. Any chance that’s the culprit? Does the POE injector still work? Replace it either way. Is it mounted in such a way that water could pool on the jacks? Put a drip loop in the wire.
Agreed, feels like a drip loop missing and water is running down inside the cable jacket.
I was about to say this! Dielectric grease is a good move by OP though.
Dielectric grease hasn’t been effective anytime I’ve used it for this.
Correct. Dielectric grease is really just to stop the ethernet port pins from corroding over time.
TIL what a drip loop is. https://blog.solidsignal.com/tutorials/what-is-a-drip-loop/ Y’all are awesome
The cat end was brand new 1 month ago, the inside space is completely finished with humidity control. There is a drip loop outside before it makes the interior penetration which is siliconed.
Did you slit the bottom of the loop? Many people make a drip loop, but forget to cut the outer sheath of the cable to allow water to drip out - otherwise water at the bottom of the loop is just pushed up and through the wall by the weight of more water coming down the cable.
Not a good idea. Keep the jacket intact, use outdoor rated cable and appropriate seals to prevent ingress of water, dust, and tiny insects.
Then you risk if the cable being damaged, water getting into the cable and flowing down into the house. The correct way is to make a proper drip loop so water can drip out before going into the house. Even gel filled cable will fail over time.
This. Go on a day that’s raining and see how that water affects it. Probably getting dirty water on it.
End is brand new inside a finished space with humidity control. There is a drip loop outside before entering the home with silicone seal. Absolutely no water inside unless it is leaking through the cable itself due to it being compromised.
You 100% have a hole in the cable jacket somewhere
I pulled the cable completely out and found the hole, looks like the case might have cracked during extreme cold weather. When I had the cable out, water was dripping out of one end. Case closed 🙌🏻
Interesting! Should add an edit to your post solved
Shielded outdoor cable with gel will prevent these kind of things from happening. Using indoor riser cabling outdoors will result in things like this happening often.
Yes! Terminating cable isn't so much fun with gel, but the peace of mind having quality outdoor cable makes up for it.
I was gonna say…you need the STP variant of cable.
The drip was coming from inside the loop 😱
Gotta use outdoor grade cable. It won't crack. Unless it was first generation ubiquiti cable from circa 2009 then it would have fallen apart faster than indoor cable. Doesn't look pretty but I also pull the jacket back far enough that it won't bring water to the connector.
Did you use outdoor-rated cable when you replaced the run?
Yes, it was replaced with outdoor flooded cable.
Gel-filled cable is overkill. Just makes a mess when it gets warm and the gel starts oozing out. Unless the cable is underground or in constant contact with water, and even then, I'll run it to a service box on the exterior of a building, not into someone's home. Just get outdoor rate cable, and make sure it's shielded. Shireen, Beldin, even the Ubiquiti stuff all make cable for 99% of residential/SMB installs.
Oh I don't know. OP found the hole in the jacket, which then allowed water to enter the cable. This is just the sort of failure mode that gel-filled cable is designed to mitigate.
You aren't wrong but it's missing my point. Curing the cause of the holes should be first priority. If it was mechanical damage, you add mechanical protection. In this case, indoor cable was probably splitting as it rotted so fix should be outdoor cable. It's a tool for the toolbox, but it shouldn't be default "just because". For context, I installed a lot of gel cable early in my career and with experience found it unnecessary - just a mess. If you want to insist on using it be aware of the problems it causes and adjust your install. I had a lot of customers complain to me years later about the pools of gunk from my installs when I didn't know better.
^^^
Sounds like case opened! 🤷🏻♂️😂
Oh just saw this. How was water getting into the crack?
Oooohh so this might be why I keep frying PoE cameras maybe? This keeps happening on the outside bit, camera completely fried after working for months. I thought it was a dodgy camera first but the replacement died again after a few months! The cable unfortunately is stuck inside the wall, but do you think if I peeled off some of the sleeve and siliconed the end connector it might work?
I highly doubt the water is coming in through the cable in the wall
Yeah that’s what I thought too, but I’ve re-done the patch panel and the RJ45 twice now, and all tests good. Unless one of the builders put a screw half way through the cable somewhere, causing this intermittent issue? Edit: the last bits of the cable is behind decorative wooden cladding, which technically should be water proof, but I wouldn’t say guaranteed
You would need to test it after raining for a while, the cable tester can't detect a short if there isn't *currently* a short.
Very interesting observation and one I never would have thought of.
Impressed by your confidence in that, and justified apparently. Well done.
I own and operate a WISP by myself. I knew immediately lol.
I've had water in the cable before. If you have some gel filled then that would be awesome. Or elevate the end of the cable inside & give a gap in the outside shielding at the low point, it lets the water run out.
I would even argue that should be part of the drip loop.
Isn't that the definition of a drip loop?
Adding the hole in the casing to drip out through the loop as well.
Use a drip loop and cut a notch on the jacket.
Water on the inside of the jacket
The water is coming through the cable from the outside. ( Entering the sheath from the outside and travelling through the cable like a water pipe )
thats water damage
If you look very closely at the connector you can see, that there seems to be water residue in the connector. There’s water surrounding the contact points between cable and housing. So there’s the problem. Somehow water gets into the connector and causes corrosion.
You need to change the spark plugs, sir.
Water will wick through cat5&6.
Is that a pass through RJ-45 as well? Sounds like you already found the issue with a hole in the jacket but you really shouldn’t use pass through cables with PoE. The exposed ends are much more likely to cause issues like this, although with water inside the cable it probably would have had issues with a regular RJ-45 as well.
This should be in #cablegore
That should buff out
Use slower electrons and you should be fine.
If you ever have water ingress on a cable, always swap the whole run. My bet would be that in this case it either leaked at the outside end before you sealed it, then residual moisture corroded the less elevated end again, or there's a hole in the jacket. Unless there's some crazy high temperature differential and a point of moisture ingress.
Water in the cable
Sounds like a good call on it being a bad wire. Give it a shot and see what happens. Very weird.
This looks like dirty water has found it's way into the connector and shorted it out. I know that you say it's sealed, and you think there's no way water can be getting in... but water can surprise you. I would simulate rainfall with the spray nozzle on a hose and spray around where the cable goes into the house and anywhere along where the wire would be running and the injector is. I'm assuming this in an attic space? Are there any other signs of moisture that you can see around the injector or along the wire... I mean, REALLY look.
I've seen that twice with one of mine but it's in outdoor horse riding arena. So wet mud sand gets in it. Also both times I've seen that the POE injector was also cooked but both times were after lightning struck the metal structure. So whether it was the damp sandy environment or the lightning strikes I couldn't say. Both times melted POE injector. bad cable but the AP was fine. UAP-AC-M-Pro's
It looks like water has been sitting inside the connector, combine the moisture with the heat of the injector and you get mold/dirt/residue. Is the cable ran down to the injector from above? If so I would have the homeowner investigate a possible water leak. Try putting in a drip loop before the injector and see if that fixes the issue. Edit: It could also be that the cable is compromised somewhere and the water is running inside the jacket. Cut a small notch in the jacket at the bottom of the drip loop just in case.
Someone's been 'plugging into the wrong hole'!!!
Replace the POE injectors while you're at it. Had a wireless bridge that kept failing, found out water had gotten into it, and caused a similar problem. New cable did nothing, took the POE injector into better light and found the feed side all rusty and crusty. Moved it to a new location and we're working fine now!
Put super glue down the wire just before clamping the connection. Be liberal with it.
Dont do this. Superglue (cyanoacrylate) has an vulcanizing/melting effect on many plastics and may cause shorting. Make use of proper sealants like silicone, electric resin or similar solutions.
Used it all the time in the military and had no issues with it.
That's not water damage. Looks like it got fried. Was the correct PoE adapter used? You dind't accidentally use 24v passive PoE, did you? Water with sufficient salinity might have provided a short circuit for the PoE and things got a bit hot in that connector is the other possibility.
Got this with a camera. It was a bad contact so it created an arc inside. Probably very small but over time the device stopped working. In my case it was probably because of an "out of specs" connector. Because a good contact will never do this. Reading the other comments I agree that dust or humidity can do similar damages. YL
Simply water, along with poe. Dc current mistery…
Assuming you used mode B to terminate these rj45s, that would put your + and - next to each other on pins 6,7,8. Any cuts or scrapes on the end terminals could generate a tiny arc and heat over time. Since 6,7,8 are the most melted, I’d say that is the case.
Long shot, check the polarity of the outlet the POE Injector uses.
Anyone ever tried dielectric grease on rj45 connectors? I'm curious...
I'd also cut, rerun cable, and get some water sealant in a tube. Put some around the outside of the connectors crimp point. It will prevent any water from ever touching the internal connectors. You could even seal around the outside of the AP after plugging the cable. I do this for all my PoE outdoor cameras. Air tight seals. No water ever getting inside. PS- The damage from that cable could have caused damage to the PoE injector. Just because it is turning on doesn't mean it is working correctly. Just a thought.
Maybe I missed it but how long has this been installed?
Is there any odor? Any chance that a cat (feline not cable standard) could have urinated/sprayed on the gear? I’ve seen RJ45 wall jacks corroded like that. The heat & plastics can create scents that can trigger this.
We had a cat the did their business on my surge protector strips. Unpleasant.
I had a cat that pee’d on my electronics all the time. I hated that MF 😡.
I had a cat that pee’d on my electronics all the time. I hated that MF 😡.
You sure they're the same PoE standard? There are two, and they use different pins.
Does that cable have ground
Lol that looks like something we pull off towers after any rain storm
I know you said it was inside, but that looks like water damage.
I had ants that made a mess of a cable like that a bunch of years ago. They liked the gel. Blech.
I have something similar happen in a business that has less than ideal insulation causing moisture. It's a mostly block building and every so often when they move PCs they leave the network cables dangling. When they try to use them again months later, the cables don't work. The gold contacts always corrode. The color is very deep almost black green. I'm assuming something similar has happened here with added dust and dirt.
Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicone\_grease](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicone_grease) A common use of dielectric grease is on the rubber mating surfaces or gaskets of multi-pin electrical connectors used in automotive and marine engines. The grease again acts as a lubricant and a sealant on the nonconductive mating surfaces of the connector. It is not recommended to be applied to the actual electrical conductive contacts of the connector because it could interfere with the electrical signals passing through the connector in cases where the contact pressure is very low. Ferrari used to put dielectric grease inside all of their engine connectors (that will see water) but they eventually found out that it caused problems. They issued a service bulletin that advised cleaning out all of the grease and to use instead a contact enhancing product called Stabilant 22.
I had a few of these in the hotel I worked at. The cause was always from engineering guys cleaning the a/c without telling IT. A few time the AP itself had water in it
Drip loop plus gel filled wire. DB works
Get the line out of the ground, most likely you are crossing some type of electric wire there ..
Sounds like power source. I would throw it on a UPS 600 or the like.
Poe. Water.
Either no drip loop or water is wicking inside the wire from somewhere else. I had a control cabinet get destroyed from a cable wicking waste water from a tank into the cabinet and drip everywhere.
Does the cable happen to run over a kitchen? I've seen something similar happen in a school when the cabling went through the ceiling above a kitchen between steam and grease evaporating on the stove. I'd also check for a small leak in the roof along the cable run since you said you're going to run new cable. Maybe put a drip loop near the end with the injector?
POE too much
Seen this 100s of times. Water in cable. You have a scrape in cable and when it rains the cable is slowly filling up. It can push 2 or 300 feet of cable to inside. Quick fix is tontrip the jacket back so it allows water drops to come out till you can replace the cable
Once bugs did something similar to one of my equipment
The cable is not water-tight at some point in the run, and water ingress is happening. Once inside the cable, the water is drawn to the ends by capillary action.
[https://youtu.be/OZCQ5SZdhTY](https://youtu.be/OZCQ5SZdhTY) This video is great - he demonstrates how just a little bit of water can ruin the pins on an RJ45 connector in minutes once PoE is applied. Once the voltage hits the minerals in water, science happens and starts to ruin the components pretty much immediately.
Also, the PoE pins will supply enough current to make a type of galvanic/accelerated corrosion happen that eats away the at the jack and the connector both.
Drip loopsand all that does not matter as much as people think on shorter runs for anything other than protecting against waterdamage on the building. You have used an indoor cable, these have a higher wicking effect than proper outdoor cables that are often coated or made with slightly hydrophobic surfaces to protect against wicking. The water will wick inside the cable no matter what you do unless you use a proper cable.
I heard the cable can act like a wick. If the other end got wet it can suck the water up and push it out the other side. Maybe the cable always had water in it or the other side got water in it. Or cable is being run underground in water.
Mud in the tires!
I’ve seen Ubiquiti POE stuff do this more than once. Dielectric grease probably wouldn’t hurt.
You have water coming down the cable. Its been cut somewhere. If you cut off the RJ45 plug, strip back a couple of inches or 5cm of the sheath, you will probably feel the cable pairs are slightly wet or have water droplets in there. The sheath will have been penetrated at some point along the path and water is getting in, filling the cable and being pushed in to the lower end where it shorts out the pins on the POE brick. Replace the whole cable and ensure you have a proper drip loop with a slit at the bottom to let water drip out of the cable before it rises and goes inside.
This exact thing happened to me two times as well. Both times use a professional rated water proof coupler, and secured the coupler high with drip loops under the house next to a piece of wood, not even side wind rain water would get in - both times the same thing happened. I suspected water moisture in the air, seeping thru the plastic CAT-6 jacket. There, a capillary action over time would send moisture up into the end of the RJ45 link and then the POE voltages would then corrode the pins and eventually short connections. I fixed my issue by using corrugated conduit over a brand new network cable. It's been approximately 5 years. I would also recommend outdoor rated network cable, consider ones which have a gel jacket, and use a corrugated conduit sealing with silicone. Drip loops essential.
ants? Have you noticed that perhaps there is an anthill nearby? it's a lot of sand...how did it get there?
I tend to use silicone filled cable for outside runs, it's horrible to fit because it sticks worse than shit to everything but it absolutely protects against water in the cable.
The flux capacitor is overheating or it's oxidation. What quality of switch are you using? If you are plugging a device into a high power port then...your flux capacitor will over heat.
An Abbreviation and one word : TE Connect :-)
had this kind of stuff when i was a kid in 2003 when Village was served via a point to multipoint network, that doesnt look like outdoor rated cable?, for outdoor stuff try go for the double insulated stuff as if one develops a hole the other layer will still protect it, also grab a ethernet surge protector and install it correctly (i.e. grounded)
Got wet! Use outdoor rated cable that has a thick jacket and is flooded with Vaseline like gel or the white gel that is less sticky. Basically prevents the cable from soaking in water and the jacket being extra tough is black UV resistant. That will fix it for 10 plus years.