Home wiring (non-electrical)

[AndyR]

I love punch blocks. With 6 lines (3 for the business, 1 fax, 1 dsl and the residence) it makes it easy for me to route any line to any jack. They are cheap too. <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.milestek.com/frameset.asp?sPage1=topframe.htm&sPage2=LANVoice.htm>This link</A> will get you to the block and the tools aren't too expensive either. I agree that most of the all-in-one boxes are way up there. As for video/sat. patching - I guess you have to ask yourself how often you intend to move connections. F type connectors are pretty cheap and do a good job if you are only moving connections infrequently. Maybe BNC panels would work for frequent moves - but would be pricey. There are also switching units if you really want to get crazy. Work through the above link for a starter - thay have all sorts of stuff.

 

[TerryinMD]

PaulT,

I agree to disagree. Patch panels can be used just as effectively as 110 or 66 blocks. Just a preference.

Same thing goes for home runs vs daisey chaining the cabling. The advantage of home runs is that you can switch an individual line at a demarcation point easily by either using the 110/66 block or patch panel. This allows different phone lines/data lines to be configured in different rooms without having to worry about changing the connections created by daisey chaining.

You say tomatos - I say TA-matos.... /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Terry

 

[PaulT]

Terry,

The structured wiring approach to configuring a house has a lot of fans, including me. I really like the idea of a single patch panel with modular terminations for voice, data and coax. It would look really slick, and be quite functional, as well.

The problem with that slick, uniform patch panel look is twofold for me - time and money. Stripping the sheathing, splitting the wire pairs, cutting each to the correct length, and snapping the wires into the CAT5 RJ45 connector is so tedious a job that I STILL have only terminated the wires that I actually need, even though the construction was over 2.5 years ago! (I did finish all but one wall jack /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif!) I only have 4 data terminals to go. So maybe my preference is more an indication of my laziness than anything else.

The phone wires, on the other hand, were actually fun to install! And I took some pride in how slick the 110 block looks with the inbound phone lines (2) looping symmetrically down one side and the home runs bundled in an orderly fashion out to the wall plates. I think I have about 11 phone jack locations, and the CAT5 jacks cost me about 4$ each. A second 12-port patch panel to snap them into would have been another $35 (yep, just for a little piece of stamped steel and plastic). Finally, the patch cords themselves are about $5 each (for short ones). I had the 110 punch block laying around, so I saved mucho aggravation and about $135 dinero by avoiding the voice patch panel.

For folks who want a uniform look, and (most importantly, IMHO) don't have to do it themselves, and who can afford it, go with a structured house wiring system, including the panels. It really does look good, and is easy to maintain with a little instruction on what goes where.

BTW, I think you could get those patch cords in Toe-may-toe red/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[MossRoad]

What does the 110 block look like? I am only familiar with the 66 block.

 

[PaulT]

Terry,

In all fairness to everyone, I should admit that I wired a business I owned in exactly the way you mentioned several years ago. I had a prewired patch panel with RJ45 female sockets on it. I ran the voice circuits to the top row, and the data circuits to the bottom row, and used patch cords from the router/hub to the data sockets. The phone line connections got alittle tricky, however. I made an ugly little box (my opinion) out of a combination phone jack/splitter. I had the two phone lines coming in on one side, and I had 4 patch cables with RJ45 male connectors coming out of the other side. It worked, and allowed me the flexibility of moving our 4 phones to any of the 8 locations in the office by just switching the patch cables. The biggest drawback was that it looked quite ugly to me (and I was the only one who ever went into the closet). I chalked that one up to experience/w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif.

 

[TerryinMD]

MossRoad,

Look at the reply in this thread

PaulT
(Gold Member)
03/04/02 04:20 PM

I will show you some 110 pictures.

Terry

 

[PaulT]

MossRoad,

I have been misleading everyone/w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif. I was actually using the type 66 block that you showed a picture of. A type 110 block looks essentially the same as the picture you posted, but the wire terminals are different. They have little plastic tabs that hold the metal slot, and they are usually closer together. You need a different punch down tool tip to push the wire into the slot, and you can't wire them quickly by "hooking" the wire over the tabs and punching down many at a time. The plastic tabs also serve to insulate the separate wires, which is why 110 is usually used for data and 66 is usually used for voice. My apologies for my previous posts/w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif.

BTW check out this web site for more background and helpful hints on house wiring.
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.combsnet.com/cable/index.html>At home with cabling</A>

 

[TerryinMD]

Paul,

When I did work for the US Army, we designed all new IT connections with the configuration I mentioned. So, from a design perspective, it was a piece of cake. Now for the installers.... let's not go there. /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

I have yet to try this in my home. The cost of cat 5 equipment a few years back was out of my reach. However, Home Depot, Lowes, and electrical supply houses are offering some very nice modular voice/data/AV equipment at a reasonable price. I figure that I could probably do every room in my house for under $500 and that would allow for at least one voice, one data, and an AV connection. That is my house.... We have about 1700 sq feet in a Cape Cod which would be easy to cable, I have two 2.5 inch ducts running up to my attic with lots of crawl space and access doors. When I build my house, I had the builder and electrician put in one spare box in each room. I knew that I wanted to either run AV stuff and/or voice/data to most of the rooms in the house so I planned ahead. A box is a box. There is only one room where I had to add additional boxes. The study which now has two computers, a phone, a fax, and and answering machine.

Anywho - The net of this discussion is that a person needs to plan ahead and make decisions based upon what they percieve as their current and future needs. Then you need to look at the cost and make a determination. What to do now to fit the budget and how much of that budget to set aside to build the infrastructure for later on.

Terry

 

[MossRoad]

All I see is a polarbear in a snow storm /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[shade2u2]

How's this setup look....?
from... http://www.phonegeeks.com/nonphonwirbl.html