basic setup required

[IVB]

>What is the type of wire from the Elk 28" cabinet to the mediacloset?
2 runs of 18/4 - one run to hook up to the data bus, one run to hook up the power.

>What about the type of wire from the Elk 28" to the keypad?
18/4

>Is the Elk 28" cabinet connected to a 110v outlet?
Not currently - i don't have enough sensors to warrant needing any more power than is provided by the 2nd 18/4 run in the first question.

>Also, the wires that you installed, are they inside a pvc pipe?
Not mine, no. My house is a 95 yr old craftsman, no conduit run anywhere. Plus it's a crapload of wire that i'm running [eventually 35-40 runs to that 2ndary cabinet]. I'm basically keeping all the wires running down the same joists, so I'll eventually have an arm-thick bundle of wires.

>And my latest story is this. I spoke to the coordinator yesterday and he told me that I can install myself the speaker wires. However, I want to mimic something that is similar to model houses. You can hear the same music to wherever you go but of course, there should be a way to only let the music sound in specific rooms. So guys, what should I do?
Ah, that's my step 9 here. I'm running speaker wire all over the dang house now. I'm using CQC to manage my audio equipment, and I've got it setup to be able to use a variety of devices to handle whole-house audio.

Here's the "extreme" pic that I drew up and posted on the CQC forum that shows the wiring runs if you want to distribute HDTV, SDTV, and audio. None of the particular equipment is mandated, I picked model #s more as a example of the equipment that you'd want.

You obviously don't need to go this far into it, but let's start with the max and work backwards rather than from scratch and work forward. Also, I'd encourage you to read through the CQC "installation and configuration" forum as the community created several custom-fit drawings for folks interested in managing whole-house audio & video, and we tailored it to their particular equipment/rooms/needs. It's impossible to design this for you without understanding what you want, and reading through those posts may help you decide what you want.

Read through this thread if you want to see all the comments people made about this horrifically ugly drawing.

 

[surdev]

Glad I found this thread, Iam in the process of building my new home. After reading # of threads in this forum and how-to's, I started drafting out my design for the security wiring.

My builder also said they are not letting homeowners to do the prewiring, b'caz of some liability issue happened to them. Iam having a meeting with the company who does the LV wiring for our builder. Iam meeting them coming monday, let see how much he quotes.

Some of my questions have been answered in this thread, keep up the discussion.

-thx
Suresh.

 

[IVB]

Hope this is ok by the cocoontech gods, but one quick endorsement: I contracted toymaster [his ID on this forum & others] to do a design for my security wiring. I had no idea where I should put smoke detectors vs heat vs whatever, frankly he was using words like "air flow, where smoke will migrate" that I would never have thought of. It worked out pretty well. I'm willing to DIY most things in life, but designing a fire/security system isn't one of them. The impact of me screwing it up is too big.

Pretty inexpensive, especially if you opt for buying your equipment from him too.

 

[v1rtu0s1ty]

IVB, when you said 18/4, did you mean 18gauge and 4 strands?

 

[IVB]

IVB, when you said 18/4, did you mean 18gauge and 4 strands?

Yep.

 

[tuantu]

18/4 = 18 gauge, 4 conductors NOT 4 strands.

Each conductor can have many strands (if it's stranded wires). If you want to know the number of strands then take a look at the manufacturer specifications

 

[IVB]

sorry, yes, 4 conductors. Each conductor has a gazillion strands.

 

[v1rtu0s1ty]

18/4 = 18 gauge, 4 conductors NOT 4 strands.

Each conductor can have many strands (if it's stranded wires). If you want to know the number of strands then take a look at the manufacturer specifications

Yep, thanks for the correction.

 

[v1rtu0s1ty]

then if I will be wiring speakers too, am I correct that these 18 gauge wires should not be beside the speakers wire that I'm going to put too, right? Coz i read somewhere that when this happens, it will cause a 60hz hum. I don't want that to happen.

 

[IVB]

then if I will be wiring speakers too, am I correct that these 18 gauge wires should not be beside the speakers wire that I'm going to put too, right? Coz i read somewhere that when this happens, it will cause a 60hz hum. I don't want that to happen.

Others can correct me if I'm wrong, but these are low voltage wires, so that's not an issue.

The hum/proximity issue is with high voltage wires [aka AC].

 

[v1rtu0s1ty]

then if I will be wiring speakers too, am I correct that these 18 gauge wires should not be beside the speakers wire that I'm going to put too, right? Coz i read somewhere that when this happens, it will cause a 60hz hum. I don't want that to happen.

Others can correct me if I'm wrong, but these are low voltage wires, so that's not an issue.

The hum/proximity issue is with high voltage wires [aka AC].

If that is the case, I'm going to put 3/4" smurf tubes all over the house, and put speakers wires and 18/4 wires too onto that smurf tubes. If they ask what it is, I will tell them that I'm doing the best setup for my audio setup. They won't know that my real intention is for home automation and security.

What do you think IVB?

 

[toymaster458]

You may need CAT5 for your controllers as well.

 

[IVB]

then if I will be wiring speakers too, am I correct that these 18 gauge wires should not be beside the speakers wire that I'm going to put too, right? Coz i read somewhere that when this happens, it will cause a 60hz hum. I don't want that to happen.

Others can correct me if I'm wrong, but these are low voltage wires, so that's not an issue.

The hum/proximity issue is with high voltage wires [aka AC].

If that is the case, I'm going to put 3/4" smurf tubes all over the house, and put speakers wires and 18/4 wires too onto that smurf tubes. If they ask what it is, I will tell them that I'm doing the best setup for my audio setup. They won't know that my real intention is for home automation and security.

What do you think IVB?

Excellent idea. Also, throw that CAT5 in there too, like Toymaster says. Variety of uses for that.

 

[v1rtu0s1ty]

Ok IVB. I've decided to go with ELK M1 Gold. But I don't know if there are multiple versions ELK M1 Gold. I'm also planning to put CAV6.6 just like you have. However, I'm not going to buy them all at the same time, it's going to be very gradual. I want to first install the Elk equipment this year. Since I want the 2 products mentioned above, can you please tell me how many 18/4 wires from head end(basement in my case) to the target rooms needs to go? I'm still confused. I want everything to terminate in my basement. And toy also told me about a loop in the wire but got confused what it means too. Btw, I will be buying the equipments from him.

I was reading another thread and saw the term EOL. What is that? Do I need to worry about it?

Please help.

EDIT: I forgot, I think I also need to put Cat5e or cat6 wires right? What happens to the Cat5e that my builder is going to install? I'm using the cat5e for my computer network. I have it in family room, master bedroom, den and loft.

Do you think it is ok to buy the wires from Home Depot or Lowes? Should the wires be CL3 rated too?

 

[v1rtu0s1ty]

You may need CAT5 for your controllers as well.

Hi toymaster,

I'm sorry but I got confused the other day. So I need CAT5 too for the controllers. If I remember, controllers is the ELK equipment right? How many CAT5 runs do I need to run? Do I need to run many cat5 wires to each room where the other end terminates in the basement?

What do you guys think about my understand about security wiring?