star topology and tree devices

[antony]

Hi,

I"m planning to wire my new house. I would like to use cat7 in star topology (in case of discontinuation Loxone products). Can I use "touch tree" switches?  It would be 20 nodes in star topology and 20 touch tree switches. I want to connect all wires together in enclosure and connect them into tree extension like one branch.

Do you have any experience with this solution? Is it good idea?

[Peter]

The basis of Tree products is that you can wire however you like, not sure about 20 to one connection though, but I’m sure Loxone would know.
You’ll have a lot of fun using Cat 7 behind Tree switches, they’re buggers to snap into place against any pressure (created by Cat Cable sheathing inside the back box) so strip right back to the twisted pairs.

[antony]

Thanks Peter!
So what is alternative for cat7 and tree devices? Cat6 S/UTP?

[Peter]

Just simple Cat 5 for Tree.

[Joakim Arfvidsson]

I did all my tree with cat5e which is thin and easy to work with compared to 2-3 the cross area of cat7.

Cat5e would still let you change to an Ethernet system in future, just not 10 Gbps.

I did all my network cables with cat6a, which seems to be current sweet spot.

There is an even thinner option: cat3. Only two tiny pairs. I don't think it's crazy to use, it would really make your wiring neater.

[Kevp]

From experience I would stick with cat 7.

I have had issues with cat 5 cabling used on tree devices. The issue was that the switches would just sit there and register multiple touches a second.

This was on a job that involved retrofitting Loxone into a property that had existing cat 5 cabling to the switches. So who knows how the previous installer had installed the cables and what other cables they were ran against.

Never had any issues with cat 7 wired in a star topology.

Use the circular back boxes from Loxone and there is plenty of room for the cat 7 cables.

[John Verdicchio]

I've got a mix of Cat5E and Cat6 for my tree cabling. All seems fine. I started with a linear tree-to-tree but then needed an additional tree device so it became a tree topology. Everything still works fine.