how durable are the network cables

[Guest guest]

im adding a mega tree to my 07 show and i want it to be on the opposit side of of the driveway. so i was wandering if i should take the LOOOOONNNNNG way and go above the house red line, or go straight across the driveway where it would be ran over several times a day and have to deal with ice and compacted snow (light blue) would it be able withstand this stress or should i just go wireless?

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[Guest guest]

umm i got to thinking, what about when i have to use the snow blower (im having a brain fart is that what its called, snow blower?) , id have to search for it under the snow, im just thinking about adding another wireless reciever.

[Guest guest]

Cat5 cable will not take much abuse ie. exces pulling on the cable or sharp bends. One alternative other than wireless is to run the cat5 cable in a 1/2' PVC conduit across your drive. Duct tape will keep the conduit from moving or can be straped with one hole conduit straps. I use this method for power cables.

Ray

[Guest guest]

I would definitely go the wireless route. My display was set up very similar to what you want to do. See this video of mine:

Here is a link to a static photo showing the lights on the right side.


I put in a buried electrical circuit for the lights by the pine tree. It was a simple matter of putting in the controller (with ELL inside) and plug everything in. I know what snow and ice are like here in Wisconsin.....

Mike

[Guest guest]

do NOT put them across the driveway unless you want connection problems, itll ruin the integrity of the cable, go around the roof...you get a 100 foot cable and should be able to get most anywhere if thats your house...if you go over the driveway and drive over the cable many times youll be replacing the cable VERY quickly


ive seen guys get yelled at at work when they STEP on the cable (i use cat5 and cat6 in work)


just run it over the roof and youll be fine

[Guest guest]

While CAT5 is not very durable, the actual twist integrity is not very important for LOR implementations. LOR uses RS485 signalling, and the baud rate is at most 57,600. When you are using CAT5 for ethernet cabling, then sharp bends and kinks do cause issues due to signal crosstalk between pairs.

Don't forget that you can also use RJ11 cable (flat satin telco) for connections.

DavBro

[Guest guest]

johnny christmas wrote:

do NOT put them across the driveway unless you want connection problems, itll ruin the integrity of the cable, go around the roof...you get a 100 foot cable and should be able to get most anywhere if thats your house...if you go over the driveway and drive over the cable many times youll be replacing the cable VERY quickly

ive seen guys get yelled at at work when they STEP on the cable (i use cat5 and cat6 in work)
just run it over the roof and youll be fine

I've run LOR for 2 years now. Each year I put the cable coming from my first box to the rest of the network over the driveway. Both cars are parked in the garage at night. So each day the cables were run over by 8 axles, minimum. (4 leaving and 4 returning.) Average of 30 display days, and they were run over 240 times, easy.

Not once did I have a network related issue. (I should also note that I'm 80% sure I used the same cable both years.)


I deal with networking cables daily as well, so I understand where you are coming from. However, from a LOR standpoint, you shouldn't be affected that bad.

[Guest guest]

I have the same problem, except with power cords. What I'm going to do is take the power and make it go in the 3rd car garage and up over the garage door, over the 16/18' door, down the one side, and out.

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[Guest guest]

You have a seam between your garage floor concrete and the actual driveway. If you put the CAT5 in that seam, then it won't even get touched by your tires. Now, the snow blower might be a problem if it gets under the cable, so just be careful.

Then again, CAT5 is pretty cheap. If you run it over the roof you will avoid one type of damage but then expose it to more ice and potentially sharper bends.

[Guest guest]

I had MAJOR communication issues this past year. I was running 120' segments to get to all my controllers. After thinking I wired the connectors wrong and going through god knows how many of them, I decided to put a meter on the wires (duh!). Turns out the CABLE I got from the store must have had a break somewhere in it. I could not find the break so I ended up replacing the whole wire.

Problem fixed. I then used the 'bad' cable and started cutting it up into smaller segments. Eventually I found the bad segment and tossed it.

[Guest guest]

While CAT5 is not very durable, the actual twist integrity is not very important for LOR implementations. LOR uses RS485 signalling, and the baud rate is at most 57,600. When you are using CAT5 for ethernet cabling, then sharp bends and kinks do cause issues due to signal crosstalk between pairs.

Just a FYI. The default speed for LOR is 57,600 and that is also the max speed when using ELLs. However LOR does run at 115K if you set the speed to max.

CAT5 will hold up pretty well but I would not walk/drive over it or have it hung unsupported for much distance.

[Guest guest]

In my neck of the woods many times the builder of your home will put a pipe under the drive for future sprinkler system.

[Guest guest]

jshelby wrote:

In my neck of the woods many times the builder of your home will put a pipe under the drive for future sprinkler system.

Oh, I wish ours did that...even through our front porch!

I wish I could rebuild our house... I WOULD DO SO MANY THINGS DIFFERENTLY!

First, I would have my brother do a nicer job networking our house.
Second, I'd like an outdoor CAT5e access so I don't have to make it go through a window.
Thirdly, I'd put 3 dozen more sockets in all different places.
Fourth and etc...I'd put more accesses under concrete and through brick... and a gazillion more adjustments...........


One nice thing about having a brother who networks houses is that he always has plenty of CAT5e on hand, and he shows me how to crip on ends so I can make LOR patch cables!!:D!! for free!

[Guest guest]

That's the nice thing abought having a commercial lighting display, we have an IT, video, electrial, music and a grounds departments at my call, but there is "you do for me, I do for you thing going on" with that is what I get paid for and I love doing it, so it makes all our jobs easier.