Cabling

The carpet has been fitted in our new bedroom so we are nearly ready to populate it with furniture and actually start to use it. One of the tasks remaining is to pull the remaining cables (ethernet, telephone and coax-TV).

For the ethernet and telephone I have installed a single-gang pattress into which a front plate fits that will take two half width modules. In most locations I intend to install an RJ45 ethernet socket on one side and a BT telephone secondary on the other. Two CAT 5e cables will be routed to each socket. I have opted to use CAT5e for the telephone to make it more flexible in the future. The colouring scheme of the wires is different, but as long as I get both ends the same it doesn't matter !

The bedroom has two of these sockets to cater for two possible locations for the bed, and two TV aerial sockets. Today I connected up one of the RJ45's, and one of the telephone sockets. I pulled the cables for all 4 of them, routing them downstairs and along the corridor to the cupboard where the central heating boiler is located. I drilled holes in the joists as I went, only managing to hit one nail (amazing the damage it can do to a flat-bit).

Connecting the RJ45 is a fiddly job. There are 8 wires to push down into clamps. Care must be taken not to untwist too much of each pair as it can destroy the performance of the cable.

More of the same tomorrow.