CAT5 and DS10

[lancenorton]

Hi All,

I'm having all my internal doors replaced in a couple of weeks including the frames etc.....so this gives me a perfect opportunity to add contacts to every one, I currently have DS10's on a few but the transmitters aren't the best looking things and now I don't really want them mounted on the inside of the room.

So I wondered how far I could extend the wires on one, I can then run CAT5 to all the door frames for the contacts and place all the DS10's in a neat mounting under the stairs out of the way.

Has anybody extend the wires say 20 meters, I guessing that would be my longest cable run?

Cheers,

[Bill Brower]

I don't see it being an issue. Try it now by stringing it across the floor. To make it real world wrap the CAT-5 near some fluorescent bulbs and stuff. Twisted pair is pretty good stuff for low current signaling. It does get a little brittle so don't be too rough stringing it through walls and such. It will be a good set up I think.

[Steve Q]

Are you going to use the magnetic contacts on the doors? Since you a putting in new doors you can use hinge switches instead. They are much better.

Steve Q

[jromanowski]

I know this does not answer your original question but since you have the door frames open.....

I had CAT 5 put in my door frames and I used 1 pair for a door magnetic reed switch to tell if the door is open or closed and another pair for a magnetic reed switch to tell if the door is locked or not. The lock switch is just a magnetic reed switch in the frame and I drilled a small hole in the Thumb-bolt cylinder and glued in a high power magnet that I purchased at Radio Shack.

The other side is using Stargate to detect if the switch is open or closed however I am testing out the use of the U421 USB interface in it's place when I phase out of Stargate. Using the Stargate plugin I can detect the open/closed from HS.

All my doors are wired back to my wiring closet and I guess the longest run is over 100 ft with no issues.

This works great when I go to bed at night I can tell which doors are locked. With the HSTouch it is even better.

Great feature to know the door is locked not just open.

Good Luck.

[lancenorton]

Are you going to use the magnetic contacts on the doors? Since you a putting in new doors you can use hinge switches instead. They are much better.

Steve Q

Hinge Switches new seen these where from?

Bill - Unfortunately the carpenter starts on the 23rd and I've only just ordered the DS10s from over the pond so not sure if they will arrive in time to test before I have to run the cable but I think I'm pretty confident just wanted some reassurance really. Thanks

[Uncle Michael]

I have two gates that are quite a ways from my antenna and the signal was not reliable in cold weather, so I wired magnetic contacts from the gates to DS10s that are located closer to the house. One run is at least 300 feet. I used UV stabilized security wire and the reliability has improved to 100%. I would expect Cat5 to work just as well, but why not use security wire?

[lancenorton]

Only reason to use CAT5 is I use it pretty much for everything and I have 300m in my shed!! What do you mean by security wire?

[Bill Brower]

What do you mean by security wire?

He probably means 4 cond, non-twisted, 22g solid core. It it probably the least expensive if the wires never vibrate or have to move.

[Uncle Michael]

He probably means 4 cond, non-twisted, 22g solid core. It it probably the least expensive if the wires never vibrate or have to move.

Yep. But I've also seen stranded and 2-conductor too. Link