cat5 distribution

**katman** · 7 August 2006, 07:15 PM

Re: cat5 distribution

Hi Louis

Originally posted by Jim1066

i get the AV side so i need no help there but i am a little confused with the telephone bit.

What i dont get is how i do this for the phone. especially into multi rooms. I read a post reply on this forum that i would attach the BT Master wiring to a phone distribution panel and then from there patch in the rooms i want but i have no idea what a phone distribution panel is. can i not somehow use the patch panel?

Chose a spare section of your panel and connect several sockets together on the rear like this

Phone line plugs into one of the sockets and the rest are available to be patched to sockets around the house.

There are several threads on here dealing with phones (I know because I have added to them!). Search for "phone patch panel" and see what you find.

Actually i have 20 points around the house but this is because i am having 2 points per room but the second lot will be daisy from the first point in that room. that would be okay right?

NO! NO! NO!
It would work OK when using the set of sockets furthest from the patch panel but when using the intermediate set of sockets you will have a long unterminated stub of cable atached to the circuit (the cable from set 1 to set 2) which will cause signals in the cable to be reflected back. This wont cause problems with Telephone or Audio but for Ethernet and Video use it will almost certainly cause problems particularly at high data rates. At best you would get lots of errors leading to retransmission which would slow your overall network speed, at worst it wont work at all. With Video you would sufer ghosting or unstable pictures or nothing watchable at all.

Hope that helps

Keith

**Jim1066** · 8 August 2006, 01:24 AM

Re: cat5 distribution

Thx Keith for response.

Looking at the diagram i think i've got it with regard to the wiring but im still not sure to which pins. Also i tried a search as you suggested, maybe im thick but it says it cant find anything and asks about stories or comments, Authors, i dunno?

so, i am looking at the back of the panel and i have in my hand the BTMaster cable which has 4 leads. (2 twisted pairs) I attach these four leads to the IDC Block on the back of one of the ten of the rj45 slots i will use as a method of ditributing the phone. I would then use a patch cord on the front of the panel to now attach this slot to the slot labeled lounge phone on the panel. I have now wired the lounge ok great! if i want to wire more rooms (guessing from your diagram) i now go back to the back of the panel and where i have attached the master cable on the IDC Block i would take some new short lengths of cable and daisy them to the same pins for the next slot. I would then use another patch cord on the front and plug that into Kitchen phone slot and now the kitchen has phone..... i hope..... Is this right?......but like i said above im not sure to which pins i should attach these 4 cables for it to remain standard. I know i could just wire onto any and as long as i crimp my rj45 plug onto my phone with the same config it will work, but i want to future proof for others if i ever sell the place and they get new phones and use an RJ45 adapter.

Also, with regard to the daisying of the cat5 cable, you say it wont work on the intermediate socket as there would be a length of cable un-terminated. I have no idea what un-terminated cable means therefore i will ask? (And i know that this may sound stupid) is there something i could plug into the end sockets to terminate them when not in use?

If the above is just nonsense, i was thinking of a loop cable maybe, so when not in use the loop can be disconnected and the length of cable beyond the first set of plugs is no longer connected, when required plug in the loop cable re-attaching it to the network, my only reservation with this is that as i have a quadgang faceplate i will require a second quadgang faceplate to connect 4 loops to it, its like im creating mini patch panels in all my rooms, so basically i dont like this idea too much.

Any ideas? maybe theres a switch i could use which with one flick will connect the extra length of cables as and when needed?

I am trying to get this as automated as possible, i know that my other option is to just install dedicated lengths of cat5 cable to the second set of sockets back to the patch panel but this would require me or anyone else in future having to go back to the panel to patch those sockets in when needed and im trying to eliminate the need of doing this as i dont find it an "Automated process".

Another thought that has just occured is to run dedicated lengths to the 2 sets of sockets back to the patch panel and connect them together on the IDC block. Therefore i would connect my source equipment into the one slot lounge which would immediately split down the dedicated lengths?

Any help GREATLY APPRECIATED!!

Louis

**katman** · 8 August 2006, 11:37 PM

Re: cat5 distribution

Hi Louis

Originally posted by Jim1066

Thx Keith for response.

so, i am looking at the back of the panel and i have in my hand the BTMaster cable which has 4 leads. (2 twisted pairs) I attach these four leads to the IDC Block on the back of one of the ten of the rj45 slots i will use as a method of ditributing the phone.

Pause for one moment.... earlier you said that you have 4 cables to each location and they were for AV, Data, Phone and Spare.

Forget about having a predefined purpose. You can choose to use them that way when everything is installed but the whole point of installing a structured wiring scheme is that you install <some number> of sockets that are cabled back to a central point using CAT5 cable where they are terminated on a patch panel for neatness.

ANY of the sockets can be used for ANY of the purposes you mention by patching the required equipment/service to the socket. That is what makes a CAT5 infrastructure so flexible, you can change the whole layout in a few minutes just by moving some patch cords about.

Getting back to the phone problem. Using your example of 4 sockets in each of 10 locations, that equates to 40 sockets.

Assuming you have a 48 port patch panel the first 40 sockets will be going to your rooms and the last 8 sockets will be *spare* as in there wont be any sockets in rooms connected to them.

On the rear of the panel connect all 8 pins of sockets 41-48 together following the T568B colour codes shown on the rear. You will end up with a section of panel that looks like the photo.

The reason I said to use the T568B colours is that they match perfectly the BT wiring colours of the Blue and Orange pairs. Take your phone cable and connect it to the bank of 8 sockets (either 41 or 48 as they should only have one set of wires punched down on them.

Your phone line will now be present on sockets 41-48.

Now using you example where you prefer to use the third socket in each room for the phone, your desired phone sockets should be 3,7,11,15,19,23,27,31,35,39. If you want phones in the first, second and fifth rooms then take three patch cords and connect

41 - 3 Room 1 phone
42 - 7 Room 2 phone
43 - 19 Room 5 phone

In each of the rooms you will need a Secondary Line Adapter Unit (LAU) to convert from RJ45 to BT style plug and it should all work.

but like i said above im not sure to which pins i should attach these 4 cables for it to remain standard. I know i could just wire onto any and as long as i crimp my rj45 plug onto my phone with the same config it will work, but i want to future proof for others if i ever sell the place and they get new phones and use an RJ45 adapter.

I would recommend using the adapters...it keeps it simple

Also, with regard to the daisying of the cat5 cable, you say it wont work on the intermediate socket as there would be a length of cable un-terminated. I have no idea what un-terminated cable means therefore i will ask? (And i know that this may sound stupid) is there something i could plug into the end sockets to terminate them when not in use?

An unterminated cable is one with nothing on the end of it. Normally the equipment connected to it provides the correct termination. You cant really add a termination as there would then be a double termination on the cable from your terminator and the equipment that was also connected. This would again cause problems.

If the above is just nonsense, i was thinking of a loop cable maybe, so when not in use the loop can be disconnected and the length of cable beyond the first set of plugs is no longer connected, when required plug in the loop cable re-attaching it to the network, my only reservation with this is that as i have a quadgang faceplate i will require a second quadgang faceplate to connect 4 loops to it, its like im creating mini patch panels in all my rooms, so basically i dont like this idea too much.

Any ideas? maybe theres a switch i could use which with one flick will connect the extra length of cables as and when needed?

A second faceplate with patchcords to the first would work OK but as you correctly say, it would look awful plus you would still only have 4 cables to that room even though it now had 12 sockets in it !!!!

I am trying to get this as automated as possible, i know that my other option is to just install dedicated lengths of cat5 cable to the second set of sockets back to the patch panel but this would require me or anyone else in future having to go back to the panel to patch those sockets in when needed and im trying to eliminate the need of doing this as i dont find it an "Automated process".

You cant really automate patching.... well you can but it gets VERY expensive and messy.

If you never want to visit the patch panel again why are you installing one ?

The whole point of the patch panel is that in a few minutes you can swap a room around. If SWMBO decides that the room has to rotate 180 degrees you unplug the kit, move it to the other side of the room and plug it into the sockets on that wall. Go to the patch panel and move 4 patch cords. Job done

Another thought that has just occured is to run dedicated lengths to the 2 sets of sockets back to the patch panel and connect them together on the IDC block. Therefore i would connect my source equipment into the one slot lounge which would immediately split down the dedicated lengths?

That is even worse !!!!

1. The lengths of the unterminated cable will be longer.

2. Youve done the hard bit getting a second run of cable back to the patch panel.... get another patch panel.

I can guarantee that you will need the extra points at some point in the future. I doubt there is a single person on this forum who has provided enough sockets in the right places at the first attempt and some people initially installed a lot!!!

If you can already think of a use for every cable you have, then you dont have enough cable to allow for future expansion.

Hope that helps.

**Jim1066** · 9 August 2006, 12:03 AM

Re: cat5 distribution

Thx Keith for your time, info and most of all patience its most appreciated.

Louis

cat5 distribution

cat5 distribution

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