Structured Wiring System Design

Step 3 Assembly Details

This picture shows the overall assembly and its parts.

Cut sheet rock window in the wall of a closet, dont' cut all the way through the wall, just back to the sheet rock on the other side of the wall,

The shelf is build in three sections that slides between the exposed wall studs. Build the shelves back into the wall opening that you created.

I used wood wall paneling (masonite) and MDF (1/2" to 3/4") to create these shelves. PVC tubing to route wires into attic.

Comments

[Mike8913]

total nub q here. . . . where does your cable box come into play?

[thb43]

The cable box is connected directly to my TV via hdmi connection. The cable box is connected to the coax terminal on the wall. I have one in each room were a TV is located. These wall outlets are connected to the 8 way splitter that you can see in the pictures.

[hintss]

you mean you didn't use mythTV?! that would've been awesomer, geekier, and made use of the ethernet!

[thb43]

Not sure there is an exe file for mythTV that works for Windows OS yet? I only found UNIX/Linux versions online. But it looks cool.

[hintss]

You keep that many servers and you don't use *nix? I have 2 servers and a net book, and I run ubuntu on all of them. Oh, and I'm 13

[buddz]

 Wow great, clean setup. I do have one question though as I am now trying to wire my home in a similar fashion: What did you use for the telephone bus? and just exactly what is that other white box to the right of the phone bus? Just not sure how I can 'route' the signal out to all the rooms if you know what i mean

[Mike44]

@buddz, the telephone bus is a product from Leviton for telephone distribution.  This site here has a ton of them for pictures and what not: http://www.smarthomeusa.com/Shop/Structured-Wire/Leviton-Structured/leviton-Phone-Modules/.   I purchased mine from Home Depot though as they seem to have a pretty good selection.

[thb43]

The white box and bus aren't anything special.  The bus just splits one telephone source line into 10 lines with each line going to a different location in the house.   In other words, that same color conductor in each phone line is connected togeter via the bus.  I bought this at Home Depot for less than $20 I believe.   The white box is a junction box where can connect a telephone to see if I have a dial tone without having to run out to another room.  One of the lines from the bus goes to this white box where a telephone can be connected/disconnected.

[DanNixon]

Is your telephone system just a distribution system?

[thb43]

currently one line..... to all rooms.  Easy to split into multiple lines if desired in the future.

[DanNixon]

I suppose.
An instructable on installing and setting up a PBX would be good as I am looking at this kind of system for my house.

[thb43]

I have not looked into PBX systems.  But there are several open source PBX system you might look at when designing your system.  Look at Asterisk, GNU Bayonne, FreeSWITCH, and OpenPBX.   Popular PBX systems include Avaya's Definity and Northern Telecom's Meridian.  Not sure how these will help you out at your house since these systems are used for large companies that don't want to lease a large number of phone lines.

[DanNixon]

I have had a quick look at FreePBX once, but it got lost in a list of projects I have and I never got back to it. We have an Avaya PBX at work and compared to the ols LG system it is much easier to uns and manage, but I would probably go for one of the free systems whenI go back to installing a PBX for my home.

[jaydenthorup]

I have one concern, the amplifying the cable signal before the split for the modem may put too much signal into your modem. I was an installer for comcast and the signal for the modem needs to be just right. You can check it at 192.168.100.1 i believe. Downstream needs to be around -10db to +10db while upstream needs to be around 32 db to 49 db but check with your cable company to be sure. Otherwise your speed will significantly be reduced, also sometimes the surge suppressor can affect performance. The local cable company should have grounded the cable outside to remove any possibility of surges in the line as well as it is grounded at the pole(overhead) or the pedestal(underground)

[thb43]

Thanks for the input.  You make a good point, I haven't tried amp after the modem since things seemed to work well like I have it.

I checked my 192.168.100.1 cable modem reading the following:
1.1dBmV Receive Power Level
54.2 dBmV Transmit Power level

Years ago when I set up this network I adjusted the setting on my amps and these were the best readings I could get at the modem (taking the surge suppressor out of line seemed to have no effect on the power levels).

www.speedtest.net gives:
22.87 Mb/s download speed
0.49 Mb/s upload speed. 
ping 19ms.

Its been running like this for several years now with no problems in speed or TV running in multiple rooms at the same time.

On one TV I did have to add an additional amp when I moved the TV to the other side of the room with a long coax cable from where the cable come out of the wall to the TV.  adding the extra am worked fine.  Maybe adding the amp after the modem I might have been able to avoid putting in the extra amp?  not sure.

[jaydenthorup]

aha... the high transmit means it may need to be split down just a little bit more... like a 3-way or a DC-Splitter aka Tap.
that could increase your upload if you are need a little more bandwidth... just a thought.

[tyler9613]

I just have one quick question- What is the purpose of using a patch panel? I get the switches, but have never came to a setup that required a patch panel... Thanks, Tyler

[treagh]

I like the use of patch panels as a clean way to easily see what goes where. Also, if my kids have been bad, I can just disconnect phone and network to their rooms and lock the cabinet. I use cat-5 exclusively for phone, data, and signal with my home automation/integration business. The versatility of cat-5 allows it to be used for many purposes, and home runs allow it to be re-purposed easily on the fly. If you have a phone jack that you aren't using, make it a data port by plugging the other end into the network patch.

[nkmower]

I've heard you can use CAT 5 for phone, so then, if you can dispel my lack of knowledge, can a CAT 5 cable be terminated with a phone connector (RJ-11 ?)

[thb43]

Yes you can use CAT5 for phone. Just pick any 2 pairs (4 wires total) and connect to your RJ11 connector the same wires on both ends.

[treagh]

You can, but if you terminate with RJ-45, you will be able to insert a regular phone cable connector and it will work... assuming you wire the port properly. I homeran multiple drops of cat5 with RJ45 to each room of my house from a central "media closet". If I want a port to be a phone jack, I just plug it into the phone patch panel. If I want to re-purpose a phone jack to pass and IR signal for a remote control system... I just connect it to the remote control system in the media closet. Every phone/data/signal can be used in a way that it wasn't originally intended if you wire it with forethought.

[thb43]

Also if I decide to move the router/switch to another location that is further away from the patch panel then I can just install longer patch wires and not have to replace the wire running through the walls of my house with a longer wire.

[thb43]

You don't really have to have a patch panel but there are some advantages. Without the panel the wires running to each room would have to connect directly to my network switch or router. If for some reason I decided to disconnect one of them then that wire would just hang loose coming out of the wall. With the patch panel I just remove the short wire between the switch and panel and no wires would be hanging out of the wall. Also if wires get moved around much then the wire connections may become loose up. With a patch panel the wire connections are never touched, only the plugs are touched. The panels also give a nice place to label the wires so you know which wire goes to what room.

[Jeebiss]

I am a fan of twist ties as opposed to zip ties. Less to remove when one wire needs replaced or rerouted. Also they are alot more reusable.