Expansion to outbuilding

[pgray007]

I have a detached garage with a workshop in the garage area, and (eventually) an office/in-law suite upstairs. The building is about 20' from the main house, and I have conduit running to it that will get to our HAI panel in the house. The walls are all open at the moment.
 
My plan is to have ~12 zones in the building, a console on each floor, and perhaps door strikes. It appears the HAI expansion module only provides additional zones, with no provision for additional consoles. Is it possible to run something to a can in the detached that puts my zones and consoles over "1 wire" back to the HAI panel, or am I going to need at least 3 (zone expander, console 1, console 2)?
 
Also I was planning on pulling a couple of Cat5 lines for ethernet, with a pair of switches in the outbuilding to accommodate WLAN, video, VoIP, etc. Is fiber relevant/helpful in this case? I've never worked with it so I'm leaning towards the familiarity (and already-purchased tools) of Cat5 but am willing to run fiber if that offers some benefit.

 

[tmbrown97]

I don't know how HAI is wired; in the Elk, that'd be a piece of cake since a single run of Cat5 would extend the databus allowign you to run any expansion modules or keypads out there... but I can answer on the network side.
 
When running Cat5 between buildings, I like to use shielded and hook to a proper ground drain, or use fiber.  Many times you can get prosumer grade switches that have fiber SFP modules that make fiber connections pretty brainless, and with only 20' between buildings I'm sure you could get a premade jumper to pull through should you want to go fiber.  One of my favorite switches is this netgear GS110 - it has POE (for access points, cameras) and SFP ports for fiber, and supports VLANs and trunking and QoS making it extremely flexible.  The advantage of fiber is immunity to lightning and ESD.  Only one pair would likely accomodate everything you want, although if trying to separate networks without understanding vlans, it may be easier to run multiple... 

 

[Desert_AIP]

The Expansion module connects to the main controller panel via the AB RS-485 serial bus.
You can wire consoles to the expansion module, powered by the 12VDC bus of the expansion module and parallelled off the AB terminals just as if they were home run to the main board.

 

[pgray007]

Thanks, this is pretty helpful. I'm probably looking at a ~150' run of fiber/CAT5 from the panel in the main house to the outbuilding, and your comments about lightening and whatnot make a good deal of sense.
 
I have HP SMB-grade switches now (love the fanless inside the house) that can accommodate SFP modules, and already have a few VLANs setup, so that sounds like a decent route. Any sites your recommend for a "fiber 101" for a home-type environment?
 

When running Cat5 between buildings, I like to use shielded and hook to a proper ground drain, or use fiber.  Many times you can get prosumer grade switches that have fiber SFP modules that make fiber connections pretty brainless, and with only 20' between buildings I'm sure you could get a premade jumper to pull through should you want to go fiber.  One of my favorite switches is this netgear GS110 - it has POE (for access points, cameras) and SFP ports for fiber, and supports VLANs and trunking and QoS making it extremely flexible.  The advantage of fiber is immunity to lightning and ESD.  Only one pair would likely accomodate everything you want, although if trying to separate networks without understanding vlans, it may be easier to run multiple... 

 

[tmbrown97]

Honestly, I've worked with fiber a ton, but I've never terminated it myself.  In your situation, I would look first for premade jumpers that fix the length of your run - and if that didn't work, I'd check into some of these newer easy termination kits that are out now.  It's just worked out where I've spec'd the fiber and worked with jumpers and termination panels, but the guys who've terminated it always bring out their multi-thousand-dollar termination rigs, and I've just never had a good excuse to buy them.
 
What I can say is you'll most likely want multimode jumpers with LC to LC connectors - something like this - but preferably with better casing for pulling through conduit.  If you search, you can find people who'll sell pre-terminated fiber - you just specify the length; typically you'll get 6 strands out of the deal - and have the option of outdoor gel filled or indoor/outdoor - I recommend the latter for code reasons (max of 50' of outdoor only cable inside a structure due to toxicity when burned).
 
Funny thing with Fiber too is that it can be expensive to buy when you need it, but I know plenty of people that'll give away spools if you ask too - it tends to get bought then sit on shelves or in closets...
 
And for others reading, that Netgear switch is fanless/silent as well.