Steve's workshop - Painting the outside walls

[Steve Maskery]

Hi Halo
Thanks for that. I am aware of the Cat5 regs, I used to be a Cat5 installer, done thousands of them, but I wasn't aware of the water. As it happens, I plan to bring them in at opposite corners anyway. I'm not quite sure where my sources are at the present. I don't want to have to carry them down all the way from the house as I already have both power and water to the log cabin. It would make much more sense to tap off from there. Otherwise I have to dig up my patio and somehow get across my conservatory. Don't want to do that. But although I do know where they leave the house (nowhere near 750mm apart) I don't know where they enter the cabin. I'll have to have a little expedition.

The conduit will be just to create holes in the perimeter concrete, I'm not laying metres of the stuff.

I've not yet decided what to do about Cat5. It's jolly useful, of course, but my internet access point is at the front of the house, so I'd have to get to the back first and then down the garden. I think I prefer to find a wireless route. Eric the Viking has suggested some sort of magic box that will extend the range of my wireless signal. If the worst comes to the worst I can continue to use my mobile phone as a WAP. It's not the same speed, of course, and it drains the battery something rotten but I managed with nothing else for a year, so I don't think it will be too awful.

The more compelling reason to fit a cable, though, is for the alarm. It's quite a way from the house, so I'd like it to go off in the house rather than just down the garden. We'll see.

 

[Racers]

I would run at least 4 Cat6 cables then you can use them for anything Phone, Data, Alarm, intercom (how are you going to here the front door bell?) etc.

Pete

 

[Steve Maskery]

It's a good point, Pete, it's just the logistics of it. If it were just a matter of digging a trench in soil, then it would be a no-brainer, I agree, but it is a huge obstacle course from where it is now to where it needs to go.
But yes, if I ever decide to do live internet broadcasting then I wouldn't want to do that wirelessly.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Cable can travel above ground too...don't know if an aerial solution might be feasible?

 

[Racers]

Can you do a run from the conservatory to the workshop? getting some where in to the house would be a start.
You can get outdoor cat6 cable.

Pete

 

[Steve Maskery]

Getting to the conservatory would not be impossible, though it means lifting patio blocks or tacking it around walls. But the floors in the house are solid, I think, the conservatory and hall have marble tiles down and I'm not going to disturb them, so I'd have to get diagonally across the house from SW corner to NW corner, or at least somewhere on the North wall.

I could just leave an access conduit in the workshop base and then worry about it if and when it becomes a necessity. Maybe the time will come when wireless technology will make cables totally redundant. There is good line of sight between the house and the workshop.

Anyway, I should be out there digging, not sitting here typing!
S

 

[Racers]

Home plugs will get you out to the conservatory then onwards to the workshop.

Pete

 

[loftyhermes]

Home plugs will get you out to the conservatory then onwards to the workshop.

Pete

I was going to suggest these as well, the ones I've just fitted to connect the TV to the router work great and they reckon they will work up to 300m.
TP-LINK TL-PA411KIT AV500 500 Mbps Powerline Adapter Starter Kit £24.99 from Currys.
Steve

 

[Benchwayze]

I searched these plugs, but I'm not much the wiser about their capabilities. Am I to understand that I could use my TV as a PC monitor; using one of these plugs/devices?

 

[Alexam]

Hi John,

This will explain it for you http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/networkin ... 3-pdt.html

I have had a couple of these for a while so that my signal strength from my office, at the front of the house, will reach my rear conservatory at the opposite corner at full strength and enableme to use my iPad Wi-Fi, when before there was little or no signal strength. Altough I have not done it, it would also allowme to link my signal to my TV.

Alex

 

[Benchwayze]

Thanks Alex.

I'll look into this. Seems like it could be a boon; or at least quite useful! Might be able to watch programmes I missed via iPlayer, but onto the big screen!

 

[Gimlet]

Steve,

Now I'm no electrician but.....

If you are intending to use a wireless/ethernet extender, which utilises the existing ring main circuit, please bear in mind that the supply to the workshop must also be connected to the same ring circuit for it to work. This goes against the ideal scenario of having a separate circuit, say 6mm armoured power supply, to the workshop from a separate circuit breaker on your consumer unit in the house.

The extender plugs into a socket adjacent to the router to which it is connected with a network cable. The receiving end plugs into a socket elsewhere, say your new workshop, thus extending the range of both Ethernet and wireless.

Importantly, utilising an existing supply from the house may impose limitations on available loading whereas a separate supply, if large enough, will not.

As stated, I'm no sparky but please give this a deal of consideration before you go too far with the build. Perhaps have a chat with a suitably qualified person?

Best regards and good luck with the project.... Will look on with interest.

Jeff

 

[Steve Maskery]

HI Gimlet
Thanks for that but yes, I realise I cannot have a "normal" range extender down to a separate circuit.

I already have a 60A supply to the log cabin, on a separate circuit to the house. I hope I can tap off this for power.

Eric the Viking has a piece of kit for me which I believe does not rely on a ring main. I'll know more when I next see him.

I've been out digging today. Most of the rubbish heap has gone to the tip. I've dug up a plastic builder's bucket, a piece of carpet, a wallpaper stripper, some rocks, tiles, perspex sheets, a few metres of polypropylene rope, a string vest and an egg, intact. And a greenhouse-worth of broken glass. I've also dug up some coal, which should not be too much of a surprise as there was once a pithead just a couple of hundred yards away.

What I've not dug up are the rootballs of the privet bushes that were at the right back corner. They are immoveable

One nice find though, once I am though all the rubbish I do have rather nice soil - dark, rich, friable. Lovely stuff.

 

[monkeybiter]

So someone buried some rope and a string vest. There may be a beaten wife under the concrete.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Surely more likely a beaten husband? I know this is ex-working-class territory (now part working-class part benefit-class), but I don't think the women wear string vests, not even round here.

S

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Ooh....Les Dawson moment

 

[Steve Maskery]

True, I'm sure I've seen Cissy and Ada along the street.
S

 

[monkeybiter]

I was thinking more of the nick-name 'wife-beater' although that may refer to any type of vest.

I would have thought that after a thoroughly good murdering the protagonist might bury his 'soiled' clothing and the used restraints. I know that's what I always do. :twisted:

 

[Myfordman]

I use homeplug Ethernet over mains adaptors across a number of power rings in my house and workshop The range to my workshop is about 180 feet and works fine for internet access and file transfer to and from the workshop. I would not try streaming viodeo over it but it works fine for 'nromal' needs.

One configuration they don't like is connection from one phase to another on a 3 phase installation but that is not the case for Steve I'm sure.

I may well have have run other cables in the same duct as my mains feed to the workshop - an easy mistake to make and difficult to detect later nudge nudge!

 

[MMUK]

HI Gimlet
Thanks for that but yes, I realise I cannot have a "normal" range extender down to a separate circuit.

I already have a 60A supply to the log cabin, on a separate circuit to the house. I hope I can tap off this for power.

:shock:

Unless you only plan on fitting a light and a double socket, you'll want a completely independant supply, Steve.

Because of the distances involved you will need to fit at least 10mm2 armoured cable with a 100A isolator at the mains end and a consumer unit in the workshop. The armoured cable will need to go into a junction box at each end so it can be terminated and earthed correctly, or just the mains end if you fit a steel cased consumer unit.