Wiring

This blog post goes through the process we went through to pre-wire the new home we are building with the LexCom cable.

Important note: PDL will provide a warranty providing the network is installed and certified by a licensed installer.

First of all, we bought a roll of the LexCom CAT7 cable from an electrical wholesales. The drum of cable is 300 metres long, it's part number is LCHC300, and it cost a whopping $748 including GST. That was the full retail cost from one particular supplier as at March, 2008. If you are using an electrical installer or authorised LexCom installer, then the installer may pass on a trade discount.

Why is it so expensive? Because it's a high capacity double shielded cable, with a frequency range of up to 900 MHz, that exceeds the frequency currently used for free to air analogue and digital television. The data components exceed the current CAT 6 data specification. So now you know!

So, armed with our drum of the world's most expensive cable and the wiring diagram we put together, we started running cables from the place where our central distribution panel would be installed, to each of the rooms where we wanted outlets.

White cables are the LexCom cables

Distribution box will be in this cupboard

Phone, TV and LexCom cables all come in here

The cabling took half a day, and consisted of running cables from the distribution point to all the rooms. We even put one into the al fresco area, in case we decide to put a TV out there at some stage.

Each cable was numbered (we wrote in pen on each end of the cable) and the wall fixings were installed where the cables will be terminated on a wall plate:

The picture above shows three LexCom cables through the hanger - the face plate will eventually be screwed into the hanger.

As well as writing on the actual cables, we also marked the concrete or timber floor with the numbers to make it easier to find the cables after the plaster is on. The centre of each hanger is 300mm from the floor, and is marked with a line (as shown below)


The only exception to the 300mm rule is for a cable which might be higher for a wall mounted TV, or the al fresco cable which will be in the ceiling.