The cable's working; now when I get the firmware to set unit ids, I can monitor 14 things - right now the only interesting thing I get is total power consumption. That's a good start, because we're logging 150kWh/day used. Admittedly, we have geothermal heating and electric clothes dryer and water tank; but that seems high even if it is -20C outside.
Brultech: Multiplex Cable
- Thread starter dutchyn
- Start date
Couple of ECM-1240 installation questions...
My ECM's are in a can about 30' from my load center. I have mulitple cat5e runs between the load center and the can to extend the CT wires. This working fine so far. But, if I want to combine several circuits on a single channel (which is described in the Installation Guide), can I combine all of them in the load center and use one pair of cat5e conductors instead of using a pair for each CT/circuit to be combined and combining at the ECM?
The Installation Guide says I can use MicroCT's on Ch1 and Ch2 if a resistor is used. I don't see any details about the resistor in the Guide, except where it talks about using Ch5 as a "regular" channel. Is the same resistor and setup used for having a MicroCT on Ch1 and/or Ch2?
Thanks,
Ira
My ECM's are in a can about 30' from my load center. I have mulitple cat5e runs between the load center and the can to extend the CT wires. This working fine so far. But, if I want to combine several circuits on a single channel (which is described in the Installation Guide), can I combine all of them in the load center and use one pair of cat5e conductors instead of using a pair for each CT/circuit to be combined and combining at the ECM?
The Installation Guide says I can use MicroCT's on Ch1 and Ch2 if a resistor is used. I don't see any details about the resistor in the Guide, except where it talks about using Ch5 as a "regular" channel. Is the same resistor and setup used for having a MicroCT on Ch1 and/or Ch2?
Thanks,
Ira
WayneW
Senior Member
Get the resistor calculator (aka CT Setting Calculator) from http://www.brultech.com/ecmsupportupdate.html
Thanks. Turns out I had already downloaded and installed it, and subsequently forgot all about it.
Ira
Not sure I understand. My load center (circuit breaker panel) is about 30' from where my ECM's are located (inside a HA can). There's not a good place to put the ECM's next to the load center. That's why I'm extending the CT wires with cat5e pairs. I'm using wireless communications (an EtherBee device plugged into a nearby switch) to get on the LAN and back to the PC.
Ira
Just to make sure there's no confusion...by "extending the CT's", I mean I'm extending the wires attached to the CT's so that the ECM's can be located further away (about 30' total) from the load center. One thing I found out is that cat5e wire isn't rated to go inside the load center. The wires attached to the CT's are. Since my load center is recessed in a drywall covered wall, I ended up cutting a hole for an access panel a few inches above the load center. I ran the wires from the CT's thru a hole in the top of the load center so that I could get to them from the access hole. I then spliced the CT wires to cat5e wires in the wall cavity behind the access hole. I "extended" all of my CT's so there is a pair of split-200's (on the mains), one pair of split-60's (A/C compressor), one pair of micro-80's (electric oven), and a bunch of micro-40's. I have three ECM's and may add one more for that panel.
I have a couple of ECM Aux channels that each monitor two circuits. Each pair of CT's on those channels is connected to a single cat5e pair. I used the little round phone wire crimp connectors to splice the CT wires to the cat5e wires.
Ira
That was a quick reply !! Thanks.
Yep, that's what I'm meaning. I've got two ecm-1220's and used 3.5mm stereo cable to make runs up to 75 feet with no problems; just wanted to see if the ct's for the 1240 could be done the same way. Is there any material difference running with cat5e/cat6 versus the 3.5 cable ??
thanks
67mustang
There's a lot of difference between the two, but I don't whether or not it makes a difference to the ECM-1240. My guess is it doesn't since it doesn't look like the existing CT wires are anything special, other than being rated for use in the load center. Plus you get four pairs in the cat5e cable. That's the reason I used it. I pulled five cables, and will probably pull a couple more.
Ira
