My 1927 bungalow home structured wiring project

[Technique]

Hah! You should go get some trim (door/window/cabinet/whatever) and put them along the edges to make it all nice and finished
maybe even paint them black like the rack and cable pass through plates. Now if only the ONT could be had in black... B)

Crown molding perhaps????

 

[Technique]

OK, we're getting REAL close to the end for now... The Netgear 24-port gigabit switch came in the mail today, so I terminated the patch panel with the 9 cat6 drops so far... All that's left are the following:

1) Install Panduit 2U Cable Management in between patch panel and switch (It arrives Tuesday)
2) Get an electrician to run a 20A circuit to the rack
3) Properly run all power cables to rack


Here's a picture for now, it will definitely look much neater when my Panduit 2U cable mgmt is installed (I hope!):

 

[Technique]

OK, electrician is coming over today to run a 20A circuit... Question is, where should he run it to on the rack and in what manner? The line will be coming from the ceiling above. I am planning to have him run a 12-3 line... I want to make sure my power cable management is as clean as the rest of the work... Thoughts?

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

OK, electrician is coming over today to run a 20A circuit... Question is, where should he run it to on the rack and in what manner? The line will be coming from the ceiling above. I am planning to have him run a 12-3 line... I want to make sure my power cable management is as clean as the rest of the work... Thoughts?

Aren't you going to be using a UPS to power all of those systems? Might want to put the outlet at standard height and mount/place UPS near the floor? If you are not sure might want to have him run two sets of 12 gauge (you can share the ground) and have two outlets in the same vertical conduit length running along the plywood, one at half height and one at the standard. Just some thought.

 

[Technique]

OK, electrician is coming over today to run a 20A circuit... Question is, where should he run it to on the rack and in what manner? The line will be coming from the ceiling above. I am planning to have him run a 12-3 line... I want to make sure my power cable management is as clean as the rest of the work... Thoughts?

Aren't you going to be using a UPS to power all of those systems? Might want to put the outlet at standard height and mount/place UPS near the floor? If you are not sure might want to have him run two sets of 12 gauge (you can share the ground) and have two outlets in the same vertical conduit length running along the plywood, one at half height and one at the standard. Just some thought.

Was not planning on a UPS... Just the surge strip... If there is a power outage, then I'm hosed B) I guess I should get a UPS... I'll do two outlets as you suggested... I think I can do a single 12/3 cable run for that since they won't be GFCI outlets...

 

[sic0048]

I would definitely try to run 2 20amp circuits if possible (because the additional cost should be minimal - the slightly higher price of the 12/3 vs 12/2 and the extra breaker + a little time).

That being said, you can run multiple outlets off 1 circuit. So even if you only end up with 1 circuit, I would install multiple outlets. It is amazing how quickly you start having a need for power. I probably have 20-30 different devices that require power in my wiring closet. Most are small transformers for switches, tuners, etc.

Having 4-6 outlets per circuit will allow you to plug in several plug strips for the low current devices and still allow you to plug high current devices (like amplifiers) directly into the wall outlet.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[royalj7]

Having internet access for a short time when the power goes out is kind of nice. My 550VA UPS runs my router, switch, coax amps, etc for around 45mins.

--Jamie

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Yes, what Sic and Royal said. B)

Sorry, I should have been more clear. The labor is the large part of the cost so have him run two circuits while he is there.

Also, a UPS is very nice (for routers/hubs/etc...) in order to get those "House Power Failed" messages out, plus the protection to all that equipment it offers.

 

[Technique]

OK, got a dedicated 20A circuit running to the wall... It terminates at the 4-plug outlet you see there... (I have not installed the cover plate yet):

I've got the tripplite rackmounted surge strip plugged into the outlet, and then FIOS and the Netgear switch plugged into the Tripplite.

Now that you can see things as they are in actuality, what do you think the best approach is?

1) Run the wires BEHIND the plywood - I like this idea, but as stated, there is a risk of drilling into them in the future.

2) Staple them to the plywood - This could look nice and neat, just need to think of the best way to run the wires on the board.



Finally, what do you guys do with all the extra power slack? The tripplite alone has like 14 feet of slack... The FIOS has a ton as well...

 

[signal15]

OK, got a dedicated 20A circuit running to the wall... It terminates at the 4-plug outlet you see there... (I have not installed the cover plate yet):

I've got the tripplite rackmounted surge strip plugged into the outlet, and then FIOS and the Netgear switch plugged into the Tripplite.

Now that you can see things as they are in actuality, what do you think the best approach is?

1) Run the wires BEHIND the plywood - I like this idea, but as stated, there is a risk of drilling into them in the future.

2) Staple them to the plywood - This could look nice and neat, just need to think of the best way to run the wires on the board.



Finally, what do you guys do with all the extra power slack? The tripplite alone has like 14 feet of slack... The FIOS has a ton as well...

Get some slotted wiring duct with covers and put it down the side of the plywood. Run your wires down that, and any slack can be coiled up in there and hidden by the cover. That's what I did with mine, which you can kind of see in the pics I put up today (look at the second message in the thread):

http://www.cocoontech.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=14003

 

[Technique]

Get some slotted wiring duct with covers and put it down the side of the plywood. Run your wires down that, and any slack can be coiled up in there and hidden by the cover. That's what I did with mine, which you can kind of see in the pics I put up today (look at the second message in the thread):

http://www.cocoontech.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=14003

Ah, that black ducting in your setup? Do you have a link to that stuff? That looks nice and neat!

 

[signal15]

Get some slotted wiring duct with covers and put it down the side of the plywood. Run your wires down that, and any slack can be coiled up in there and hidden by the cover. That's what I did with mine, which you can kind of see in the pics I put up today (look at the second message in the thread):

http://www.cocoontech.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=14003

Ah, that black ducting in your setup? Do you have a link to that stuff? That looks nice and neat!

I got mine from a data/telecom supply place about 5 minutes from me. But it looks like you can get it here:
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=...um=6#ps-sellers

http://www.cableorganizer.com has similar products. I paid $88 for 7 feet of it, it's not cheap. And I ended up cutting some mounts and legs off the back of it. The place I got it normally has some cheaper stuff, but they were out and I wanted to get this all done. Panduit makes some awesome stuff, but it's really expensive. Just go with the cheapest no name stuff you can find. Mine is 4-4.5 inches wide.

 

[Technique]

OK, so I did a little bit more work, and installed the Panduit WMP1E... Although, the Panduit is not exactly how I envisioned (I was thinking more along the lines of NeatPatch) so I installed it backwards for now... Here's a picture of how things currently look (Please ignore the File Server PC that's hooked up to the switch, it's only there temporarily....)

Any advice/thoughts always appreciated...


Here are a few more pics:

Close-up of the top Rack

Close-up of the bottom Rack

The Panduit WMP1E came with some extra "hinges", don't really know how they are supposed to attach or what the point of them is since you an easily snap off the front cover...

 

[Neurorad]

Where is that 110v 12-3 running, behind the plywood? It could interfere with signaling in the other wires, if it's less than a couple inches away.

Ask at your local electric supply store for 'slotted wiring duct' - $25/6 foot, including cover. Color options limited. Many sizes - 1 x 1", 1 x 1.5", 2 x 1.5", etc.

The setup looks awesome!

For future cable runs, consider 'D-ring' clamps (PVC or metal) instead of the horseshoe nails - eaiser to add cables to the bundle.

 

[pete_c]

I kind of retrofitted my home for HA etc. The home was about 2 years old when I purchased it 5 years ago. Regarding electric my panel was rated at 200 Amps. I have added a number of circuits to the panel buy using tandem breakers. (not sure if that's allowed where you live). Specifically for my automation "stuff" I put two wood panels adjacent to my fuse panel. One side has a Leviton media panel. Some circuits are single runs from one 15 or 20 amp breaker and others are separate 20amp runs.

Attached are some pics of just the electric part of the two wooden panels. I am always experimenting so I have not closed up my media panel. I ran two more circuits about 10 feet away for just the servers. Here (and it will be moved) I have installed a small 2X2 piece of plywood providing just electric, network and some RG-6 connections.

A while ago (10 years or so) when I worked for a large company we were in the process of building out a number of satellite locations (small) so I designed with a vendor a LAN in a CAN. This was a 24" X 24" media panel with a router, switch, patch panel and UPS. It was kind of portable, had a nice footprint and easy to install.
Attached are some pictures.

Breaker box picture with tandem breakers

Two circuits source out of fuse panel. One feeding one quad box and another one. (overkill a bit).

The following is actually using three separate breakers - for powerline stuff.

A mini wooden panel mounted about 10 from the fuse panel with its own electric/fuses. This will be moved to the "utility room" once it is competed.
This sits behind my "server rack".