Sharing a Cat5 cable

[knut]

My walls are sheetrocked and painted now, and I found that I am missing a cable.

To work around this, I'd like to use some unused wires on a Cat 5E cable which conveniently runs to the right physical locations. Specifically, the cable will connect my Elk to my Omnistat thermostat, using four wires. Of the remaining four wires, I want to use two to connect my ERV control keypad to my ERV.

If anyone has tried something similar, I'd like to hear if it worked.
Do I need to be concerned about interference between the two sets of signals ?
Or is that generally not something to worry about between low voltage connections ?

Thanks
Knut

(14 months into construction... a few weeks to go)

 

[tmbrown97]

As long as you're not getting excessive noise on the neighboring wires, you should be fine. I've run telephone on an extra pair out of 100BT Ethernet; some people run their speakers off the extra pair in Cat5 off their Elk keypads. When you tend to get noise is if you're running A/C, or something like that.

Also - if running DC, make sure the gauge can handle what you're trying to run... most likely though, you'll be just fine.

 

[Dave X10]

My walls are sheetrocked and painted now, and I found that I am missing a cable.

............ most likely though, you'll be just fine.

I agree with Todd B... However don't bet that this will be your last discovery. Whatever cable needs we will have in future... likely haven't been thought of yet. There is an art form to fishing wire correctly. It can become like a hobby of sorts. And is well worth the time invested to learn.

 

[tmbrown97]

There is an art form to fishing wire correctly. It can become like a hobby of sorts. And is well worth the time invested to learn.

I do this all the time in commercial settings; in residential I had to get good at patching sheetrock (in rental's, no less). I've resorted to buying an older ranch-style house with open walls and attic so I'll never be limited again - at least not in this house.

That said, I've patched a lot of sheetrock to get wires where I've needed them. It's not ideal, but it shouldn't be counted as a deal-killer either.

 

[knut]

Thank you for the feedback !
The shared cable is wired up. In a few days, the electricity will be on and I'll test it.

On to the next adventure...
Knut

 

[apostolakisl]

Thank you for the feedback !
The shared cable is wired up. In a few days, the electricity will be on and I'll test it.

On to the next adventure...
Knut

I've used extra wires on cat5 data to run pbx phone lines and it worked fine. Be sure to use the twisted pairs for your positive/negative lead as it will help reduce noise.

I just built a new house and ran a bunch of conduit to many of my low voltage boxes. When technology changes now I can just go into the attic and pull the wires through the conduit.

 

[Techvet]

I ran into the same thing with one of my Home Theater setups. I had pulled 3 Cat5e cables (2 data, 1 phone) and found I actually needed 4. I found these splitters: Cat5e Splitters. I bought a couple of pair and they work great, just plug them in and go.

 

[hucker]

As mentioned above running data is a slam dunk. Running DC power you need to be careful. Cat5 tends to be very small guage and will likely have problems if you are trying to run things that need high power like camera's with IR LED's. You can gang multiple wires together to increase the current. Test before hand if you aren't sure. Better to melt insulation on a test wire than the one in the wall.

 

[apostolakisl]

http://www.buy.com/prod/d-link-power-over-...html?adid=17653

This automatically puts 12v or 5v onto unused wires in cat5.