cat 6 connections in Future Automation Cabinet

[Chris Bartlett]

Hi Everyone - well I finally got some time to start the replacement of my whole-house lighting solution with a Loxone one that I intend to also use for heating control. I bought a Future Automation cabinet and started fitting it this week. I'd read the Loxone article on how to lay out your cabinet (https://www.loxone.com/enen/blog/how-to-lay-out-your-smart-home-distribution-board/) and purchased a number of the 8-way connectors -

https://shop.loxone.com/enuk/push-in-terminal-block-8x4-20pcs.html

What I notice however is that these don't fit the FA cabinet - they poke out of the cutout in the inside panel so I wouldn't be able to wire them - at least the lower four connection blocks on each.

I was a bit surprised when I got them as each connector has two push-in sockets - presumably for the colour and its white counterpart? - Given that' I guess really I only need four-way connectors not eight way.

Have I got the wrong end of the stick here - what do people usual do to terminate Cat6 inside these cabinets?

Chris

[Jonathan Dixon]

The DIN rail is on metal stand off brackets - you can see one behind the terminal blocks very clearly in the photo you sent.

use an allen key to remove the rail and the brackets, and re-install the DIN rail hard against the backplane of the cabinet. Works a treat.

This *really* should be in some sort of FAQ document supplied with the FA cabs!

HTH

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[SavvySpaces - Loxone Web Shop]

Hi Chris,

As others have said you can drop the rail back. 

Your picture looks like you have each core of each pair on the cat 6 In to the same terminal. Cant quite see clearly though...

Each level is 1 potential, the 4 terminal (2 per side) are common. 

You would need one block per cat cable...

Martyn

SavvySpaces 

Savvyspaces.co.uk/shop

On 17 Dec 2021, at 13:42, Chris Bartlett <ch...@dahu.co.uk> wrote:

Hi Everyone - well I finally got some time to start the replacement of my whole-house lighting solution with a Loxone one that I intend to also use for heating control. I bought a Future Automation cabinet and started fitting it this week. I'd read the Loxone article on how to lay out your cabinet (https://www.loxone.com/enen/blog/how-to-lay-out-your-smart-home-distribution-board/) and purchased a number of the 8-way connectors -

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[Chris Bartlett]

cheers for that - I will go try dropping the rail back, removing the spacers. Rather wished I'd check before I did all 32 lighting channels in the t&e first ;-).

 I'm a bit confused still about the 8-way terminal block. each connector has a total of eight 'ways' and each way has two holes - so a total of sixteen connections on each terminal bloc. cat 6 has eight cores total - so if I separate them (you are right - I joined them for now) I can get two cables in each block. The top four are coloured white and the lowered four are coloured red. Seems odd - as that would be sixteen way but they are described as eight way?

Chris

[SavvySpaces - Loxone Web Shop]

Hi Chris,

They do seem to cause confusion!

There are, as you say 8 ‘independent ‘ways’ 

Each ‘way’ has 4 connection points (all interconnected) 

You can terminate 2 cat cables to either side of the block but them all cables would be doing the same thing... 

The red white colouring is insignificant, Just ease of identification. 

Martyn

SavvySpaces

SAvvyspaces.co.uk/shop

On 17 Dec 2021, at 15:31, Chris Bartlett <ch...@dahu.co.uk> wrote:

cheers for that - I will go try dropping the rail back, removing the spacers. Rather wished I'd check before I did all 32 lighting channels in the t&e first ;-).

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[Daniel Feist]

Chirs,

Are you using separate interconnected blocks for 24v/GND or planning to bridge these across your blue blocks?  

Dan

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[Jonathan Dixon]

To perhaps expand Dan's question, is the overall strategy exactly one 8-way terminal per CAT6, and then do lots of  use-case-specific wiring on the inward facing side of the terminals (e.g. looping across the power, bus protocols like 1-wire, DMX, whatever), or layout the terminals according to function (power here, tree here, digital inputs here, LED dimmed outputs here, etc) and then having more of a pickle of CAT6 (or other) wiring on the outward facing side of the terminals.

I'm curious what the general conventions are? Especially for anyone that's built many cabinets?

I went for grouping the terminals by function, as it seemed like this would give me more long term flexibility to change things if I needed, but this did make the CAT6 outward facing side a bit of a rats nest I have to admit.

(btw I found most CAT6 runs only used 4 to 6 cores, so a terminal per drop would be quite wasteful.)

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[Chris Bartlett]

Thanks - makes sense. I only really need four independent connections, (so orange & orange/white together as one connection) for my current solution and new loxone solution so I can be cheap and get two cables in each, as opposed to terminating Ethernet where I might want all eight connections separately. 

Chris 

Sent from my iPhone

On 17 Dec 2021, at 17:48, Daniel Feist <dfe...@gmail.com> wrote:



[Chris Bartlett]

Currently, all these will be to support sixteen light switches on tree so I only need four connections. I’ll stick in some extra terminators for 24v & Gnd if I need them. 

Perhaps a bit odd but this is a replacement of an existing system with star wiring for the switches and all the lamp circuits on 240 volts so will be a combination of switched (relay module) and dimmers. 

There are a few locations where I do want to use loxone 24 volt but what I’ll probably do is use one of the lamp circuits to power a transformer at the remote end through a fuse in the cabinet and pick up a cat 6 for the tree (or possibly use ‘air’)   That’s my plan but all ideas gratefully received ( I’m very much learning this right now)

Chris

Sent from my iPhone

On 17 Dec 2021, at 17:48, Daniel Feist <dfe...@gmail.com> wrote:



[Daniel Feist]

If you only have 24v/tree then why not use 4 interconnected blocks and terminate horizontally across the four blocks.   This would support up to16 runs, and wouldn't require any bridging.

In my case, I am using 1 marshaling block per CAT7, but that's because these all have door/window contacts too, so this approach makes sense.   Rather than have separate potential distribution for 24v/GND, I was planning to bridge the blocks.  Weidmuller do bridge pins which would be neat, but not too very cheap, so might DIY bridges.

Dan

[Medes.net]

Evening, 

Bridging bars are common, just be a bit careful with links, the terminals are only 10A rated which is nothing at 24v... 

Dont forget fusing on the 24v side for the cat 6’s too

Obviously if your PSU is 10A or less then you cannot overload the terminals! 

On 17 Dec 2021, at 18:08, Daniel Feist <dfe...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Simon Still]

WIP and cropped from a full shot - so not sharp! But the orange cables are Loxone digital inputs (mostly light switches).  On the lower left side you can see the 24v being looped up using the pairs of connectors.  The next block has the 'returns' with the pink cables below connecting to the Loxone inputs.