Hi Cameron I was wondering if we could have a chat. I am developing a web server and I am struggling a bit with the enterprise architecture of the build my email is thebalcongroup@gmail.com
For the antennae, I recommend using a permanent marker and drawing in a line at the mount point that shows where the the vertical height is, then a horizontal line from the pole on to the mount, to mark it's horizontal alignment. That way if you ever have to readjust it, you know how you lined it up during this.
Nice work :) Having patched thousands of ends in my years, pulling them long so you have space to sit comfortably and then pushing the excess back into a cavity is the way to go.
This series was a monumental effort and turned out incredible. I really like how you named the patch panels, real out the box thinking. Thoroughly enjoyed this series and to be fair all your vids are top notch. Thanks for sharing this journey with us Cameron. EPIC!
I do structured cabling for a living and there are a several different ways to do the panels (which vary on the individual engineer or what specific clients want) but for this job I would have grouped the cables in their respective patch panel looms then put them in braided cable sock (from just above where they come through the ceiling). Then routed then into the cabinet to the panels leaving whatever length you wanted (Normally we would have cable tray in the cabinet and tie the looms to this). Then pass each cable through their respective ports on the panel, install the ties loosely on the panel cable management panel to hold the cables roughly in place. Then run a permanent marker across the cables at the front of the panel which give you a mark to strip the cables to. Then you can remove each cable individually and terminate before clicking into the panel and tighten the cable tie.
Ooh yes the final part to the series! When it came to your temporary network setup, I was reminded of when I upgraded my Internet connection (including an upgrade from GPON to XGS-PON service) during a home renovation and had to put together a temporary setup where I only connected one of the new Wi-Fi access points. 2 days ago, as of posting this comment, I had the opportunity to finish setting up the network. You setting up the aerial in the attic and having to get the positioning just right did remind me of a someone else's TH-cam video where they had to do the same thing, and someone commented about how they had the aerial positioned just perfectly to get good signal reception until someone accidentally bumped it while they were working in the attic.
That would definitely line up! I had a suspicion it would be some weird imperial size/something related to AWG but I hadn't thought about fractions of an inch!
For the cable management, while the way you have it still looks awesome. If you wanted those super clean cable runs where the length behind the rack is the same. You’d want to put the patch panels in their intended location first. Then bring the unterminated cable to its slot in the patch panels, and then cut and add a keystone. TLDR do the keystones last after everything’s been measured.
I can't believe I just sat and binged this whole series :) So lucky I found it just after you uploaded the last video. What a great job! I'm a sysadmin and I'll be buying a house next year and was thinking of doing exactly this but don't have much experience with the cabling side of things. This series was EXACTLY what I needed :) Are you an electrician by trade? I only ask because I thought you needed to be an electrician to modify a consumer unit. Thanks for taking the time to film and post this amazing series!
Thanks! Not an electrician although I'm a massive nerd when it comes to this sort of stuff so I make sure that I've studied anything I'm doing to within an inch of its life before I do it myself. Electrical work in the UK isn't like gas work where you need to have specific qualifications before you can touch anything yourself. Certain work is classed as building control notifiable which generally would need an electrician to sign off however which jobs are notifiable vary between countries in the UK and types of properties, nothing in this video was classed as notifiable work in Scotland. Of course everything still needs to be done correctly and in line with the relevant regulations but it doesn't necessarily matter who does it, as long as they're "competent"
A brilliant epic effort Cameron, looks really neat I think, I like the sensible way you've separated the huge bunch of cables in the rack. Well done, the aching arms and back are worth it lol.
That rack looks AMAZING! I haven't ever seen a bus bar solution like that for grounding (i guess thats just me being a consumer) (also 8 dont have stuff grounded in my rack at all which is probably bad 💀) but thats such a nice solution!
Quite a bit neater than my install.....LOL! I have a small narrow cupboard in my house where my ONT/router/pfsense lives, but my server/UPS/NAS rack lives in a converted garage and I've run fibre between them just for fun. Am always tweaking the setup!
You are on a newbuild. The timber kit will have a membrane with foil and foil backed rigid insulation. Been caught out with loft aerials before and had to mount externally. If you're in Edinburgh you should get black hill or if you can fire over towards the forth you should pick up Craig Kelly in fife. That's the one I tend to aim for in Edinburgh mid and east Lothian
I think you have done a good job, i dont like top feed but i can see why in a home setting you would do that and you have a service loop. Its not like the estates team have had some random crap installed again without speaking to us and made a mess of..... sorry over share. I like your numbering scheme for home that works well. I have a top tip for commercial to save your cable installers time (if they understand the system). Get pre numbered panels ( i know the excel 6a angled ones are) and use that to your advantage, give each cab a code e.g ZA then give each patch panel a letter A B C D and so on, the panels already have port numbers so port 5 on the second patch panel in room ZA would be ZA/B05, tells you the room and the panel in 5 characters and you only ever have to label each panel whit one letter saves SO much time labelling on the cab end.
I think I would have brought the cables out the ceiling in 6x6 glav trunking or more basket, taken it to the back wall of the garage down the wall, left the cables to go down to the floor then dressed them back up into the cab with sock with a service loop to be able to move the rack back and forth then got cable tray mounted on the inside of the cab velcro up to the patch panels, then terminate all cables on 2 patch panels, grouping them in room order works but just looks a bit off with the gaps a port is a port as long as it’s been ID so super easy to find regardless of which room it goes back too 🤪
Temporary you could just use a normal power strip for your HI-FI gear, plugged into that orange adaptor the tv is powered from. When I travel I use a powerstrip so I only need the one adaptor plug.
So the way our cable install contractor does it where I work, is in your rack set up, they would have bundled them on the left side with velcro every 6 to 10 inches or so and they would be a U shape on that side
Exelent job and very nicely done.... just a be careful for you - check the ground bond that the spark terminated properly, i have had those bondec grounds with stray voltage on them. Check it with a DMM. Well done 👍
I'd definitely recommend locking IEC connectors. If your PDU is APC, then IECs which lock into the kit in your rack, and IEC cable sleeves over the plugs which make them a nice tight fit to the PDU, rather than the proprietary APC locking connectors.
Those crimp lugs are marked in mm2, assuming nobody messed up when stamping them, they should have internal diameter of about 6.3mm. If they are correct that means that either your cable is smaller than you expected or you bought better cable than the lugs manufacturer expected. The cable diameter depends on how thin the individual strands are. Normal 16mm2 cable for electrical installations uses 0.41mm strands, giving the diameter of about 6mm. A 16mm2 welding cable, which uses very thin strands, has a diameter of about 4.5mm, close to what a solid wire would be for that cross section. So either you spent extra money on thin stranded, more flexible cable, or your crimp lugs are mislabeled.
That’s an impressive home network, well done. Agree with doing cameras but personally I just put in a backhaul for a mesh network in our house ie 3 cables . I have an about 60 devices connected about 80% are wireless and it’s rock solid on a 10gbe wifi 7 mesh. Even though most devices are wifi 5 or 6 they run well. For example I tested my Plex media with and without wires , a video would start in about a 2 seconds and there was about half a second difference from the time a 4k video played back. Just doesn’t seem worthwhile all the hassle wiring in media devices for less than a second delay.
Dude that is sick! Very envious. Tried to strong arm the other half for multi room audio but given the amount of wall chasing, plastering and repainting ive had to just to get my cat6 runs to where i wanted them (gave up on cat6a as couldn't work with it in 35mm back boxes from the bend radius to where the conduit was run) there was no way i was getting the green light for more cabling. Looking forward to the next video!
Always great seeing these sorts of series You never said, why you wanted shielded network cable in a home network. Was there some reason you did that over just normal unshielded cable for home networks? Great vid by the way, ie the series, you add the knowledge base of youtube, and its always great to see new stuff.
Great video series. For your normal plugs/transformer plugs have a look at Olson Electrical, they do a great 5 Way 2U Horizontal 13A Individually Switched Rack Mount Plug PDU, not cheap but great quality
Although I have done the patch panel with cable management bars setup before, especially as you have the type of network connectors you're using (which can be moved if needed), I would do switch between the CATx panels. This allows you to have space for the switches to dissipate heat, and have nice short patch leads. It also gives you way more space at the bottom of the rack for servers, UPS, power bars, all that kinda stuff. The audio cables could be closer to the amplifiers in the same fashion. Either option works just fine. Looking forward to the end result!
You mentioned the switches not being in between due to what you had before. Fair enough. Unless you really need POE and high speed on all ports, using a lower POE speed will save a ton of money, and then get some 10G switches and perhaps an aggregation main switch post-router. Most likely the higher speed stuff is for APs (2.5G with POE++ should work fine) and then 10G for the servers and high-speed-useful computers in the property. Regardless of my initial comment, those brush panels and blanks make the whole thing look pretty awesome anyway! Looking forward to the next episode
I'm just using the switches I already had, eventually I'll probably upgrade to a simpler solution but sticking with what I have for now. Even with new switches I'd still want to keep them separate from the patch panels due to the number of cables that'll be running to other devices in the rack for video and audio distribution.
It could be the crimp tool. I bought one of them £35 hydraulic crimp tools for criming 16mm2 cable for my van. 16mm2 cable and 16mm2 lugs from a reputable local auto electric shop crimped with the 16mm dies would slide off, if I used 10mm dies with 16mm2 cable and lugs I got a solid crimp.
I'd love to show everything but things like installing patch panels and switches are really awkward to film - it's hard enough trying to do it while working around a camera and keeping everything in shot, but a lot of it also involves trying things, not really liking it and then rearranging things to try something different. I have a neck mount for the camera and I do want to try doing some more POV stuff in the future though, I was also just really up against it time wise for this particular video.
Your bonding cable will have its CSA printed in regular intervals along its length. Note that depending on the "class" of cable (i.e. how flexible it is), the actual diameter of a 16mm² can vary quite a bit; i.e. those lugs may have been sized for the more flexible cables typically used in automotive applications.
Nice, congrats for your installation! And no, you didn't overdo the infrastructure part. Maybe you could have gone with some ports less (which I don't believe and which doesn't make that much of difference) - but if you want to keep that number of ports under control. you hit just the right amount of structure. Working on possible issues may be nice and interesting right now. But if in ten, fifteen years the connection of
sort out a support for those tv cables coming out of the amp so they dont have all the weight hanging off the f plugs, when the summer comes (?) the cables will get warm in the attic and sag more
A bonding conductor is used to connect extraneous conductive parts to the main earthing terminal . Your rack has no extraneous potential. What you have is an earthing conductor connected to an earth bar . It does look like a 16mm compared to the width of your thumb .
It's a bit late to do what we did at work for our network racks. The netwoek cables came in the top did a full top to bottom loop bundeld together on the way back up they came out to the patch pannel. Then was cut to length on the pannel the big u was tied to a back/side wall of the rack.
thats the first time ive seen an aerial installed inside the actualy attic. here around most of them are outdoor rated for roof or wall mounting outisde. but hey the build is coming along.
They're rated for outside use here as well, but it's relatively common to install them in attics since they're relatively unsightly, especially on houses without chimneys since it would need to be installed on one of the outside walls. In my case, it would need to be installed right on the front of the house which would look pretty ugly.
@@camerongray1515 understandable. A lot of aerial we get thru just regular dishes or even square antennas that usualy fits better in, personaly dont mind it to much but there again i dont even use aerial cuz first i bearly watch tv and most tv now a days especialy here in the city is IPTV
You are going to have problems with the speak on plugs with the cable once you wire them up as they look that they will stick out to much that you want be able to shut the door on the front. Looks like you might have more space on the back of the rack ? Nice job
Those Ezi-rack plates looks really neat. The 1U plates at work are horrible to install in comparison, especially since we like 1U gaps between servers 🙃 Looks like that TV amp PSU does have a plug you could reterminate?
The crimp codes 16-6, 10-6 etc your right it’s meant to be 16mm cable 6mm hole. Probably just Amazon junk and it’s wrong. Did right using the one that fits
you are doing very clear explanations and professional movie. I follow your channel for a while (view years :)) and my question is if I send you some very simple pictures with my situation with short plan what I expecting from my network . are you able to give some advice how to do it right with off course some price ? my network will be much more simple and smaller but I see you are professional and I am amateur but I want it be done right way there is any chance to help me ?? and can you tell me aproxymitly price ?
I've run a couple of cables for the cameras and coiled them up in the bedroom" The room most people would not want a camera. Ok, I understand that you'll put them on the outside wall. But in the beginning it did sound a bit funny/strange
Hi Cameron, Epic install. Am jealous. Was wondering why you didn't connect the antenna to some Cat 6A converter and the effectively you have the ability to bring a tv to every port
CAT cable isn't really ideal for transmitting an RF signal from an antenna. While it's possible to use "baluns" to do it, it'll be nowhere near as good as running actual Coax which itself is really inexpensive (the 100m reel of CT100 coax I used in this video was £15 on clearance!). If you wanted to use CAT cable to transfer a live TV signal, you'd be better off to use some sort of network based TV tuner, however I personally prefer the simplicity of just running coax to each TV and using the built in tuner.
@@camerongray1515 I've used Catline equipment for some hotels, it's good, Cat5 to all the rooms and basically TV AMP patch panel kinda thing, came with RJ45-Aerial Cables too. Got it at Eurosat beside Comtec ;) got some spare kit in my loft, it's yours if you want it
Hi Cameron Couple of questions. Been watching your videos as plan to run cat 6 network cables in my house. Am looking for double port outlets in each room. What do you recommend for face plates. I have a virgin router. I looking to buy a tp link 24 port switch. Will this work ok or will the router cause issues. Any help will be appreciated cheers Allan
I haven't had a chance to measure yet, it's not insignificant but equally it's not ridiculous - I tend to stick to relatively modern, power efficient kit rather than buying older ex-enterprise hardware.
@@camerongray1515 good plan. Perhaps I’m just misinformed from playing with refurb’d gear. But equally, I can’t believe the progress over the last decade has been enough to make that big a dent. Very, very keen to see your data! PS. Love your videos. 😀
The mega series continues! BTW so is your main Internet connection coming in on that original builders cat 6 rather than 6a? (not that I suppose it makes much difference given speeds of Internet connections vs what cat 6 can handle, but just wondered!). Also would be interesting to see the full 10 gig network tester that you mentioned in a previous video too.
Yeah, it comes into a fibre ONT in the understairs cupboard and then runs to the rack over that original CAT 6. Realistically there was no point replacing it with CAT 6A - That CAT 6 will be good up to a 10Gb/s connection. My main reasoning for the CAT 6A was to ensure 10GbE would work over even the longest runs and also for HDBaseT 3.0 video distribution in the future. It made sense to just use the same cable for every new run rather than installing a mix of CAT 6A and CAT 6, but there was no real point in replacing existing runs.
Well identified on the correct transmitter but it's definitely horizontal: ukfree.tv/transmitters/tv/Angus. Suspect any nearby estates that are using vertical may be using a local relay rather than the main transmitter
@@camerongray1515 Yep often Small Relay Transmitters serving small housing estates sometime only have 3x MUX the PSB Public Service Broadcast sets of channels BBC ITV C4 C5 etc + some extra
I have a janky solution for Freeview where I basically have a quad-tuner in an Unraid server with TV headend - all the TVs in the house need to use Plex to watch any live TV; the channel switching is slow, but the benefit being they all effectively have seamless DVR access with Plex automatically removing the ad breaks. It's annoying if you just want to flick through the channels, but unless it's for live news I feel we hardly ever watch TV as it's being broadcast anyway.
I have notes on your videso but it's not my place :D haha..... How ever Just an FYI that apc pdu can be managed with home assistant using SNMP to turn outlets on and off and you can pull the main amps/watts using snmp if you want help or have questions hit me up and i can send you the info . Keep up the videos
Really your giving the rack a potential it never had. Do you know that if the water pipe which comes into the property is plastic we are now not meant to run a main bond to it. I’m sure it will be fine though. PME (TNC-S) earthing system into the property and the incoming neutral fails, that rack definitely becomes live. Worth looking into and the implication it would cause to the equipment in that rarer situation and obviously everything connected to the network while that broken neutral hunts for a path to earth. TNS or TT it’s not an issue.
I'm well aware of earthing arrangements and the risk of a PEN fault. Realistically, the rack would already be connected to earth due to the earthed metal networking devices that are screwed to it so I'm not really adding any additional risk. The dedicated bonding conductor just ensures that the path used for bonding the shielded cable is as low impedance as possible. In the event of a PEN fault, the risk from metal electrical accessories and kitchen appliances coming live is significantly higher than a rack in a garage that rarely gets touched. In terms of the earthing/bonding in the property, it's a TNC-S arrangement, water is plastic so isn't bonded, but the gas is. There also appears to be some form of foundation earth electrode installed.
@@camerongray1515 and I’ve had exactly the same argument as you’ve put forward for bonding the water. Boiler CPC and if not a combi then the immersion CPC. 👍 Why I still bond the water regardless 🤷🏻♂️ for a lower impedance connection as you’ve said as it is earthed if only by a 1mm CPC. 🤔 Ask me it should be SSE who require to mitigate the potential. I have never seen a foundation earth electrode installed or stipulated to us as part of a new build. I did hear talk about the possibility though. From an electrician, you seem to have done a tedious and nice job 👍
For me, my plan was always to put in the garage from the second I found this house - it was the only place with enough room for a rack that was also far away from any living areas of the house to avoid noise issues and there is a cupboard directly above the garage that could be used as a riser cupboard to get cables up into the attic. For your situation, you'd be best to place the rack in a location that (a) is located in a location that is relatively easy to get cables to from around the house, (b) isn't going to be too hot/too cold and (c) is far enough away from any living areas that the noise won't bother you or other residents.
No harm in having it inside - very commonly done in the UK. You do get some signal loss however the signal is still absolutely fine in my situation. They aren't the most attractive things in the world so it's nice not having to see it bolted to the side of the house, and it also means there is no risk of it getting damaged in high winds.
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Hi Cameron I was wondering if we could have a chat. I am developing a web server and I am struggling a bit with the enterprise architecture of the build my email is thebalcongroup@gmail.com
For the antennae, I recommend using a permanent marker and drawing in a line at the mount point that shows where the the vertical height is, then a horizontal line from the pole on to the mount, to mark it's horizontal alignment. That way if you ever have to readjust it, you know how you lined it up during this.
That sounds like a good idea, I'll definitely do that next time I'm in the attic!
The Madman actually did it! Well done.
Nice work :)
Having patched thousands of ends in my years, pulling them long so you have space to sit comfortably and then pushing the excess back into a cavity is the way to go.
Great work. I don't think many people would take the time to do all that professionally like that. Definetely something to be proud of
Future Cameron will thank you for taking the time to do all of those keystones and extra runs! 😀
This series was a monumental effort and turned out incredible. I really like how you named the patch panels, real out the box thinking. Thoroughly enjoyed this series and to be fair all your vids are top notch. Thanks for sharing this journey with us Cameron. EPIC!
I do structured cabling for a living and there are a several different ways to do the panels (which vary on the individual engineer or what specific clients want) but for this job I would have grouped the cables in their respective patch panel looms then put them in braided cable sock (from just above where they come through the ceiling). Then routed then into the cabinet to the panels leaving whatever length you wanted (Normally we would have cable tray in the cabinet and tie the looms to this). Then pass each cable through their respective ports on the panel, install the ties loosely on the panel cable management panel to hold the cables roughly in place. Then run a permanent marker across the cables at the front of the panel which give you a mark to strip the cables to. Then you can remove each cable individually and terminate before clicking into the panel and tighten the cable tie.
Ooh yes the final part to the series!
When it came to your temporary network setup, I was reminded of when I upgraded my Internet connection (including an upgrade from GPON to XGS-PON service) during a home renovation and had to put together a temporary setup where I only connected one of the new Wi-Fi access points. 2 days ago, as of posting this comment, I had the opportunity to finish setting up the network.
You setting up the aerial in the attic and having to get the positioning just right did remind me of a someone else's TH-cam video where they had to do the same thing, and someone commented about how they had the aerial positioned just perfectly to get good signal reception until someone accidentally bumped it while they were working in the attic.
"It's Finally Done!"
...and other fun jokes we tell ourselves. ;D
Yeah... Guilty as charged as well 😅
Guilty as well!
Good job. I did the exact same thing 20 years ago, when we built our house and everything is still working today with a few upgrades along the way.
A guess on the numbering of the cable - it's probably in 1/16". 10/16" == 15.88mm
That would definitely line up! I had a suspicion it would be some weird imperial size/something related to AWG but I hadn't thought about fractions of an inch!
For the cable management, while the way you have it still looks awesome. If you wanted those super clean cable runs where the length behind the rack is the same. You’d want to put the patch panels in their intended location first. Then bring the unterminated cable to its slot in the patch panels, and then cut and add a keystone. TLDR do the keystones last after everything’s been measured.
I can't believe I just sat and binged this whole series :) So lucky I found it just after you uploaded the last video. What a great job! I'm a sysadmin and I'll be buying a house next year and was thinking of doing exactly this but don't have much experience with the cabling side of things. This series was EXACTLY what I needed :)
Are you an electrician by trade? I only ask because I thought you needed to be an electrician to modify a consumer unit.
Thanks for taking the time to film and post this amazing series!
Thanks! Not an electrician although I'm a massive nerd when it comes to this sort of stuff so I make sure that I've studied anything I'm doing to within an inch of its life before I do it myself. Electrical work in the UK isn't like gas work where you need to have specific qualifications before you can touch anything yourself. Certain work is classed as building control notifiable which generally would need an electrician to sign off however which jobs are notifiable vary between countries in the UK and types of properties, nothing in this video was classed as notifiable work in Scotland. Of course everything still needs to be done correctly and in line with the relevant regulations but it doesn't necessarily matter who does it, as long as they're "competent"
Such an impressive Labour of love (and logic). Inspirational! I don’t know you but I’m very pleased for you.
A brilliant epic effort Cameron, looks really neat I think, I like the sensible way you've separated the huge bunch of cables in the rack. Well done, the aching arms and back are worth it lol.
That rack looks AMAZING! I haven't ever seen a bus bar solution like that for grounding (i guess thats just me being a consumer) (also 8 dont have stuff grounded in my rack at all which is probably bad 💀) but thats such a nice solution!
Quite a bit neater than my install.....LOL!
I have a small narrow cupboard in my house where my ONT/router/pfsense lives, but my server/UPS/NAS rack lives in a converted garage and I've run fibre between them just for fun. Am always tweaking the setup!
27:58 in the US I’d recommend you add an LTE filter to the antenna input. You should research to see if you need one as well.
handy tip about labelling the cable
Nice nice setup and great narrative explanation of each component
I have really enjoyed this series of videos. Can’t wait to see what you have next!
You are on a newbuild. The timber kit will have a membrane with foil and foil backed rigid insulation. Been caught out with loft aerials before and had to mount externally. If you're in Edinburgh you should get black hill or if you can fire over towards the forth you should pick up Craig Kelly in fife. That's the one I tend to aim for in Edinburgh mid and east Lothian
Really neat job man ! Can't wait to see what you'll be using for amps / streaming / audio distribution 🤘
I think you have done a good job, i dont like top feed but i can see why in a home setting you would do that and you have a service loop. Its not like the estates team have had some random crap installed again without speaking to us and made a mess of..... sorry over share.
I like your numbering scheme for home that works well.
I have a top tip for commercial to save your cable installers time (if they understand the system). Get pre numbered panels ( i know the excel 6a angled ones are) and use that to your advantage, give each cab a code e.g ZA then give each patch panel a letter A B C D and so on, the panels already have port numbers so port 5 on the second patch panel in room ZA would be ZA/B05, tells you the room and the panel in 5 characters and you only ever have to label each panel whit one letter saves SO much time labelling on the cab end.
Just found your videos and love this. Looking forward to your future videos showing the servers you will create/add
Brilliant work thanks for the videos really enjoyed watching them all,
I think I would have brought the cables out the ceiling in 6x6 glav trunking or more basket, taken it to the back wall of the garage down the wall, left the cables to go down to the floor then dressed them back up into the cab with sock with a service loop to be able to move the rack back and forth then got cable tray mounted on the inside of the cab velcro up to the patch panels, then terminate all cables on 2 patch panels, grouping them in room order works but just looks a bit off with the gaps a port is a port as long as it’s been ID so super easy to find regardless of which room it goes back too 🤪
Acorns!!!!!! Look at that beautiful A5000!
I totally love this. It's so overkill for a house, but man see if I could get away with having this I would
Temporary you could just use a normal power strip for your HI-FI gear, plugged into that orange adaptor the tv is powered from.
When I travel I use a powerstrip so I only need the one adaptor plug.
So the way our cable install contractor does it where I work, is in your rack set up, they would have bundled them on the left side with velcro every 6 to 10 inches or so and they would be a U shape on that side
Awesome video / work. Its amazing how long the rack / termination of cables takes and I always under estimate this part of the job.
Fantastic series! Thank you!
Exelent job and very nicely done.... just a be careful for you - check the ground bond that the spark terminated properly, i have had those bondec grounds with stray voltage on them. Check it with a DMM. Well done 👍
I'd definitely recommend locking IEC connectors. If your PDU is APC, then IECs which lock into the kit in your rack, and IEC cable sleeves over the plugs which make them a nice tight fit to the PDU, rather than the proprietary APC locking connectors.
Now my top networking channel
Those crimp lugs are marked in mm2, assuming nobody messed up when stamping them, they should have internal diameter of about 6.3mm. If they are correct that means that either your cable is smaller than you expected or you bought better cable than the lugs manufacturer expected.
The cable diameter depends on how thin the individual strands are. Normal 16mm2 cable for electrical installations uses 0.41mm strands, giving the diameter of about 6mm. A 16mm2 welding cable, which uses very thin strands, has a diameter of about 4.5mm, close to what a solid wire would be for that cross section.
So either you spent extra money on thin stranded, more flexible cable, or your crimp lugs are mislabeled.
That’s an impressive home network, well done. Agree with doing cameras but personally I just put in a backhaul for a mesh network in our house ie 3 cables . I have an about 60 devices connected about 80% are wireless and it’s rock solid on a 10gbe wifi 7 mesh. Even though most devices are wifi 5 or 6 they run well. For example I tested my Plex media with and without wires , a video would start in about a 2 seconds and there was about half a second difference from the time a 4k video played back. Just doesn’t seem worthwhile all the hassle wiring in media devices for less than a second delay.
Dude that is sick! Very envious. Tried to strong arm the other half for multi room audio but given the amount of wall chasing, plastering and repainting ive had to just to get my cat6 runs to where i wanted them (gave up on cat6a as couldn't work with it in 35mm back boxes from the bend radius to where the conduit was run) there was no way i was getting the green light for more cabling. Looking forward to the next video!
Looking brilliant great job enjoying these vids thanks
Well done Cameron! I’m very jealous
Sometimes it is nice to have the cable length on the patch cable label as well.
For your crimps, I have a feeling one has measured in cross-sectional area (16mm2) and the crimp has done diameter (10mm).
Always great seeing these sorts of series
You never said, why you wanted shielded network cable in a home network. Was there some reason you did that over just normal unshielded cable for home networks?
Great vid by the way, ie the series, you add the knowledge base of youtube, and its always great to see new stuff.
Great video series. For your normal plugs/transformer plugs have a look at Olson Electrical, they do a great 5 Way 2U Horizontal 13A Individually Switched Rack Mount Plug PDU, not cheap but great quality
Although I have done the patch panel with cable management bars setup before, especially as you have the type of network connectors you're using (which can be moved if needed), I would do switch between the CATx panels. This allows you to have space for the switches to dissipate heat, and have nice short patch leads. It also gives you way more space at the bottom of the rack for servers, UPS, power bars, all that kinda stuff. The audio cables could be closer to the amplifiers in the same fashion. Either option works just fine. Looking forward to the end result!
You mentioned the switches not being in between due to what you had before. Fair enough. Unless you really need POE and high speed on all ports, using a lower POE speed will save a ton of money, and then get some 10G switches and perhaps an aggregation main switch post-router. Most likely the higher speed stuff is for APs (2.5G with POE++ should work fine) and then 10G for the servers and high-speed-useful computers in the property. Regardless of my initial comment, those brush panels and blanks make the whole thing look pretty awesome anyway! Looking forward to the next episode
I'm just using the switches I already had, eventually I'll probably upgrade to a simpler solution but sticking with what I have for now. Even with new switches I'd still want to keep them separate from the patch panels due to the number of cables that'll be running to other devices in the rack for video and audio distribution.
It could be the crimp tool. I bought one of them £35 hydraulic crimp tools for criming 16mm2 cable for my van. 16mm2 cable and 16mm2 lugs from a reputable local auto electric shop crimped with the 16mm dies would slide off, if I used 10mm dies with 16mm2 cable and lugs I got a solid crimp.
hello, I don't know if you have noticed, but the parts you skip, are actually what we wanna see.
I'd love to show everything but things like installing patch panels and switches are really awkward to film - it's hard enough trying to do it while working around a camera and keeping everything in shot, but a lot of it also involves trying things, not really liking it and then rearranging things to try something different. I have a neck mount for the camera and I do want to try doing some more POV stuff in the future though, I was also just really up against it time wise for this particular video.
I totally understand...no biggie, all shall be well. Keep up the good work; awesome content as always
Your bonding cable will have its CSA printed in regular intervals along its length.
Note that depending on the "class" of cable (i.e. how flexible it is), the actual diameter of a 16mm² can vary quite a bit; i.e. those lugs may have been sized for the more flexible cables typically used in automotive applications.
Yep, turns out it does, 16mm2. It's just extremely faintly printed so I couldn't find it when I first looked.
I used a patch panel for my coax cables in my home, making the short jumpers to the amplified splitters was so tedious!
Nice, congrats for your installation!
And no, you didn't overdo the infrastructure part. Maybe you could have gone with some ports less (which I don't believe and which doesn't make that much of difference) - but if you want to keep that number of ports under control. you hit just the right amount of structure.
Working on possible issues may be nice and interesting right now. But if in ten, fifteen years the connection of
sort out a support for those tv cables coming out of the amp so they dont have all the weight hanging off the f plugs, when the summer comes (?) the cables will get warm in the attic and sag more
I don't know if they make it but you may also consider getting one of those network TV tuners link the HD Homerun we have available here in the US.
1:15 clearly you've never lubed keyboard switches before!
A bonding conductor is used to connect extraneous conductive parts to the main earthing terminal .
Your rack has no extraneous potential.
What you have is an earthing conductor connected to an earth bar .
It does look like a 16mm compared to the width of your thumb .
Brill series, thank you! Will you be showing the alarm too? :)
I always split my cables bundles in half 12 cables from left that patch to ports 1-12 then the next 12 coming from right that patch in to 13-24
It's a bit late to do what we did at work for our network racks.
The netwoek cables came in the top did a full top to bottom loop bundeld together on the way back up they came out to the patch pannel.
Then was cut to length on the pannel the big u was tied to a back/side wall of the rack.
Absolutely amazing! I want to do this, rough cost?
I would like to see the multi room audio setup please
thats the first time ive seen an aerial installed inside the actualy attic. here around most of them are outdoor rated for roof or wall mounting outisde.
but hey the build is coming along.
They're rated for outside use here as well, but it's relatively common to install them in attics since they're relatively unsightly, especially on houses without chimneys since it would need to be installed on one of the outside walls. In my case, it would need to be installed right on the front of the house which would look pretty ugly.
@@camerongray1515 understandable. A lot of aerial we get thru just regular dishes or even square antennas that usualy fits better in, personaly dont mind it to much but there again i dont even use aerial cuz first i bearly watch tv and most tv now a days especialy here in the city is IPTV
Looks like an amazing job you have done there. What are going to use for multi room speakers as in what amp and speakers ?
Good job, well done! Did you consider using ubiquiti gear? Also, which amplifier are you planning on using.
What UPS are you running for the rack?
You are going to have problems with the speak on plugs with the cable once you wire them up as they look that they will stick out to much that you want be able to shut the door on the front. Looks like you might have more space on the back of the rack ? Nice job
I made sure to check, there's plenty room to bend the cable neatly around and through the brush plate below.
Those Ezi-rack plates looks really neat. The 1U plates at work are horrible to install in comparison, especially since we like 1U gaps between servers 🙃
Looks like that TV amp PSU does have a plug you could reterminate?
Unify has a vertical PDU and it's you know manages like the PDU pro except it's vertical with way more plugs
Looks nice although UniFi's PDUs only really target the north American market, they don't do a 230v version with UK outlets or IEC connectors.
Screwfix messed my cabling up a couple years ago. I ordered 6mm cable and they gave me 2.5mm
OCD Approved
The crimp codes 16-6, 10-6 etc your right it’s meant to be 16mm cable 6mm hole.
Probably just Amazon junk and it’s wrong. Did right using the one that fits
you are doing very clear explanations and professional movie. I follow your channel for a while (view years :)) and my question is if I send you some very simple pictures with my situation with short plan what I expecting from my network . are you able to give some advice how to do it right with off course some price ? my network will be much more simple and smaller but I see you are professional and I am amateur but I want it be done right way there is any chance to help me ?? and can you tell me aproxymitly price ?
^Wonderful video. Thank you sir!
Nice job but I do wonder what it will cost to run all that gear 24x7
I've run a couple of cables for the cameras and coiled them up in the bedroom" The room most people would not want a camera. Ok, I understand that you'll put them on the outside wall. But in the beginning it did sound a bit funny/strange
Excellent video. What’s the internet connection in your new house ??
Hi Cameron,
Epic install. Am jealous.
Was wondering why you didn't connect the antenna to some Cat 6A converter and the effectively you have the ability to bring a tv to every port
CAT cable isn't really ideal for transmitting an RF signal from an antenna. While it's possible to use "baluns" to do it, it'll be nowhere near as good as running actual Coax which itself is really inexpensive (the 100m reel of CT100 coax I used in this video was £15 on clearance!). If you wanted to use CAT cable to transfer a live TV signal, you'd be better off to use some sort of network based TV tuner, however I personally prefer the simplicity of just running coax to each TV and using the built in tuner.
@@camerongray1515 I've used Catline equipment for some hotels, it's good, Cat5 to all the rooms and basically TV AMP patch panel kinda thing, came with RJ45-Aerial Cables too. Got it at Eurosat beside Comtec ;) got some spare kit in my loft, it's yours if you want it
Hi Cameron
Couple of questions.
Been watching your videos as plan to run cat 6 network cables in my house. Am looking for double port outlets in each room. What do you recommend for face plates.
I have a virgin router. I looking to buy a tp link 24 port switch. Will this work ok or will the router cause issues.
Any help will be appreciated cheers Allan
Usually the lugs will say CL16 to suit 16mm², I have no idea what SC stands for.
What we doing for the multi room audio?
Power draw in the middle of the night? I’d love rackmount gear, but it’s pretty greedy!
I haven't had a chance to measure yet, it's not insignificant but equally it's not ridiculous - I tend to stick to relatively modern, power efficient kit rather than buying older ex-enterprise hardware.
@@camerongray1515 good plan. Perhaps I’m just misinformed from playing with refurb’d gear. But equally, I can’t believe the progress over the last decade has been enough to make that big a dent. Very, very keen to see your data! PS. Love your videos. 😀
The mega series continues! BTW so is your main Internet connection coming in on that original builders cat 6 rather than 6a? (not that I suppose it makes much difference given speeds of Internet connections vs what cat 6 can handle, but just wondered!). Also would be interesting to see the full 10 gig network tester that you mentioned in a previous video too.
Yeah, it comes into a fibre ONT in the understairs cupboard and then runs to the rack over that original CAT 6. Realistically there was no point replacing it with CAT 6A - That CAT 6 will be good up to a 10Gb/s connection. My main reasoning for the CAT 6A was to ensure 10GbE would work over even the longest runs and also for HDBaseT 3.0 video distribution in the future. It made sense to just use the same cable for every new run rather than installing a mix of CAT 6A and CAT 6, but there was no real point in replacing existing runs.
29:50, check the polarisation of your aerial.
I'm sure Angus is vertical polarisation and your aerial is setup for horizontal
Web says Angus Is Horizontal. (Main Transmitters Horizontal Relays Vertical). I don’t know the area
@@MhzUHF You might be right. I look at an housing estate near Dundee and check what direction they used
Well identified on the correct transmitter but it's definitely horizontal: ukfree.tv/transmitters/tv/Angus. Suspect any nearby estates that are using vertical may be using a local relay rather than the main transmitter
@@camerongray1515 Yep often Small Relay Transmitters serving small housing estates sometime only have 3x MUX the PSB Public Service Broadcast sets of channels
BBC ITV C4 C5 etc + some extra
awesome
exzellent
damn that must be costing you a fortune to run.. How many watts is that rack pulling?
It’s definitely a 16mm cable I can tell that from the video
I have spent like 8 hours at a time terminating wires. Your fingers feel like they are going to fall off after that. Its NOT fun. :)
I have a janky solution for Freeview where I basically have a quad-tuner in an Unraid server with TV headend - all the TVs in the house need to use Plex to watch any live TV; the channel switching is slow, but the benefit being they all effectively have seamless DVR access with Plex automatically removing the ad breaks. It's annoying if you just want to flick through the channels, but unless it's for live news I feel we hardly ever watch TV as it's being broadcast anyway.
Is your new build anywhere near where the Royal wine school used to be at Craig Miller?
i just watched the previous part
What ISP are you with and what speed is your connection in the new property?
16mm² cable = 10mm diameter
Where did you get the speakon connectors from
I have notes on your videso but it's not my place :D haha..... How ever Just an FYI that apc pdu can be managed with home assistant using SNMP to turn outlets on and off and you can pull the main amps/watts using snmp if you want help or have questions hit me up and i can send you the info . Keep up the videos
Really your giving the rack a potential it never had. Do you know that if the water pipe which comes into the property is plastic we are now not meant to run a main bond to it. I’m sure it will be fine though. PME (TNC-S) earthing system into the property and the incoming neutral fails, that rack definitely becomes live. Worth looking into and the implication it would cause to the equipment in that rarer situation and obviously everything connected to the network while that broken neutral hunts for a path to earth. TNS or TT it’s not an issue.
I'm well aware of earthing arrangements and the risk of a PEN fault. Realistically, the rack would already be connected to earth due to the earthed metal networking devices that are screwed to it so I'm not really adding any additional risk. The dedicated bonding conductor just ensures that the path used for bonding the shielded cable is as low impedance as possible. In the event of a PEN fault, the risk from metal electrical accessories and kitchen appliances coming live is significantly higher than a rack in a garage that rarely gets touched. In terms of the earthing/bonding in the property, it's a TNC-S arrangement, water is plastic so isn't bonded, but the gas is. There also appears to be some form of foundation earth electrode installed.
@@camerongray1515 and I’ve had exactly the same argument as you’ve put forward for bonding the water. Boiler CPC and if not a combi then the immersion CPC. 👍 Why I still bond the water regardless 🤷🏻♂️ for a lower impedance connection as you’ve said as it is earthed if only by a 1mm CPC. 🤔 Ask me it should be SSE who require to mitigate the potential. I have never seen a foundation earth electrode installed or stipulated to us as part of a new build. I did hear talk about the possibility though. From an electrician, you seem to have done a tedious and nice job 👍
How did you decide where to place your rack?
I am in a 1910 house with no garage, so wondering where to place my rack?
For me, my plan was always to put in the garage from the second I found this house - it was the only place with enough room for a rack that was also far away from any living areas of the house to avoid noise issues and there is a cupboard directly above the garage that could be used as a riser cupboard to get cables up into the attic. For your situation, you'd be best to place the rack in a location that (a) is located in a location that is relatively easy to get cables to from around the house, (b) isn't going to be too hot/too cold and (c) is far enough away from any living areas that the noise won't bother you or other residents.
Aerial antenna should stay out, for better signalling. Never see one inside.
No harm in having it inside - very commonly done in the UK. You do get some signal loss however the signal is still absolutely fine in my situation. They aren't the most attractive things in the world so it's nice not having to see it bolted to the side of the house, and it also means there is no risk of it getting damaged in high winds.
Have you used stranded or solid cables for speakers? 2.5mm2?
Stranded 1.5mm2, none of the runs are really long enough, not am I dealing with high enough power levels to make 2.5mm2 worth it
The size of the cable should be printed on the cable