[Tfug] OT: Structured media centers

[Bexley Hall]

Hi,

--- Adrian <choprboy at dakotacom.net> wrote:

> Subject says it all. Anyone have experience with
> media enclosures they are happy with? I am in the
> middle of rewiring my house and have been looking 
> around for something to go in a small closet space,
> but have been rather disappointed with the available
> options.

<grin>

> I am considering just putting in a blank patch panel
> up on the wall and filling it wih different
keystones
> or having something custom made up for 
> cross-connecting.

I went through this exercise a few years ago and
came to similar conclusions.  :<  This house,
unfortunately, has way too much "open space"
(i.e. very few places to *hide* things).  And,
with no basement/attic, very few *ways* to get
from point A to point B discretely.

There is a "closet" (?) in the approximate
center of the house in which the furnace resides.
This seemed the only viable option for a wiring
hub (centrally located, never *intended* to be
"exposed" to view, etc.).

>From here, I ran CATV, "quad" and CAT5 to the various
locations in the house (i.e. all three to each
location).  I think there are 27 or 28 such locations?
Note that I don't *expose* all three cables at each
location -- they hide behind the wall plate in case
they are needed (I didn't like the "look" of all those
connections sticking out of each wall plate "unused").
There are a few locations that only have phone drops
as they seemed ridiculous to wire for CATV & network
(e.g., the *rooftop*  :> )

The "furnace closet" is cramped for space.  And,
with the combustion relief taking up the better
part of one wall, along with the back wall obscured
by the furnace itself and front wall being the
closet *door*, it leaves very little wall space
for panels of any kind!

I had a friend build me a pair of matching steel
enclosures -- very shallow (since they can't
interfere with the furnace placement, etc.).
On the "cluttered" wall (combustion relief), I
have a pair of split punchdown blocks in that
enclosure for all of the telco wiring (e.g.,
100 pair).  A 12-pair cable runs to the network
interface on the side of the house.  Four 25-pair
cables run out to the garage to the PBX.  There
are more blocks out there to do the actual
cross-wiring of the individual stations, etc.
to the specific PBX ports (there are different
types of ports on this PBX so I can chose
which type is available *where*).  This was a
compromise as I just didn't have the space for
another pair of blocks in the furnace room (and,
it would be annoyingly tedious to be rewiring
things at that end of the cable).

Most of the CATV wiring just terminates at a
distribution amp on the "uncluttered" wall.

Ditto with the CAT5 cabling -- into a set of
small hubs (eventually I will replace these
with switches -- but, my bandwidth needs are
small... I mainly want this to avoid using
wireless).

The second "box" terminates all of the alarm wiring.
Plus, wires to things like the swamp cooler,
furnace, garage door, garage door *opener*,
freezer, sprinkler valves, landscape lighting
controls, etc.  A piece of quad ties this box
to the telco panel on the opposite wall.  And,
a CAT5 feed ties it to the hub/switch on this
*same* wall.

*In* that box sits the "house controller".  It
handles the alarm system, HVAC (though I have not
yet been able to come up with a good cooler vs.
ACbrr decision algorithm  :< ), landscape lighting
(just "on off"... though being able to *dim* them
would be hilarious!  :> ).  The CAT5 stub lets
it talk to the other machines in the house.
And, the telco feed lets it talk to any of the
"extensions" in the house -- as well as the PSTN.

I would have loved to tie the smoke/CO/temp detectors
to this thing as well.  But, while I was able to
find some with the ability to talk to each other
(i.e. when one sounds, they ALL sound), I couldn't
find any with volt-free contacts that I would feel
comfortable interfacing to (the LAST thing I need
is to have something go wrong in *my* box that
compromises the integrity of the detectors!!)

Unfortunately, connecting all of those differing
leads to the controller is a challenge (read that
as "I am having a hard time finding an affordable
and SMALL solution"  :< ).  I suspect this is
why so many home automation systems resort to
the "lots of special little boxes" approach
(which drives up their cost, space requirements,
etc.).

You can find telco boxes that mount *in* the wall
(I think they assume 16" stud spacing).  In my
case, that wasn't an option due to my choice of room.
I haven't been able to find a cheap solution for the
wall plates, either.  The modular offerings are
very expensive, not aesthetically pleasing if
only partially populated, *look* way too modular
(by necessity?), etc.

I have a friend with a small plastic injection
molding machine... I wonder if I could convince
him to make 28 of them for me?  :-/

Have fun.  Otherwise, you will find this either
very frustrating or very expensive!

--don

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