Home wiring for Multimedia

L

Lucret

Registered User
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71
Hi,

I'm looking for ideas on doing a DIY job for home automation. Has anyone any experience / prices for what they have done? I'll run CAT 5 and TV cable to all rooms from a central location. I've heard that the system from http://www.barix.com/exstreamer.html is good. My house is concrete block so wireless may not work fully.

Info on types of cable run etc would be great.

tks
 
Is it a new build?
We are currently building and wired our downstairs for stereo and from a central location. The wiring aspect cost us 100 euro to install.
It is block built.The price for the actual system will be dependant on what we choose.
 
Would 802.11n wireless be an option? So called "pre-n" gear is available now and once 802.11n is standardised it should be upgradeable to the standard.
 
Sorry - just saw that in the original post now. If possible you should experiment with 802.11b/g just to see if the concrete walls will, in fact, significantly block/attenuate the WiFi signals.
 
Can you get a few different reps from different suppliers to call to you and give you an indication of what is possible and what would be the best system to use.
Many will do site visits if they want the business.
 
Use Cat5e for gigabit ethernet if you're planning a LAN at some point in the future. And, if you're willing, you can buy an (old) Xbox for €100-€120 (Smyths and Game - you typically need to buy a game to avail of the discounted price) and turn it into a . I have 2 such boxes set up (soft-modded - no nasty soldering required) and they can stream video and audio as well as display pictures from a central server (PC with big hard disk). They can also access the web. I ran the cables myself so all I paid for was the XBoxes. They still function as regular XBoxes but spend most of their time dishing out video.
 
Please elaborate on the setup of the xboxes and the server etc.
Great idea.
 
Hi Lucret,

I have recently done a DIY installation of cat5e and audio/visual cables. Buy your cat53 front plates off the web from the UK - way way cheaper than here. I could dig out the name of the company I used if you want.

Theres a guy over on boards.ie named patrido and knows everything about home automation - do a search on his posts in the garden/home forum and you'll learn a lot. Basically the advice is to run cat5 cables (cat6 for future proofing, but cat5 will do for medium term at least) to every socket, and light switch point - cos you never know what use you or another owner could find for them.

I have Windows Media Center installed in a PC in the box bedroom and use my LAN network and Extenders to view the media in other rooms around the house. You could use an xbox or xbox360 (better media centre experience) for this, and trust me, Media Center is a lifestyle improving experience - it has me and my girlfriend in awe!
 
Just a couple of Idea's, depoending on how far you want to go into the automation thing, but as you are talking about DIY, there are a couple of options you could look at:-

1) Multiroom audio. There are a lot of multiroom audio systems about now, but you would be looking to spend a couple of grand for these. You should perhaps look at an expandable type of set up where you can start small and build it up as finance allows. I have had two multiroom systems in my house (one wnet bag with a lighning strike). The first was a wired system, with all mounted kepyads, and speakers in the ceiling. everything was wired back to a central room (a cupboard in the utility room), where all my audio equipment was, inlcuding cd jukebox, radio, video , dvd player and sky box. It allowed me have indepentned control of any of these devices in 6 rooms (audio only). Got it four years ago, was great then but these types of systems are becomming out of date. I replaced my system recently with a new system called SONOS (www.sonos.com). Have a look, I would highly recommend it if you are looking seriously at multirrom audio. It is the bees knees, its scaleable, (start small and add rooms as you want), it is wireless, which means no limitations if you want to change thiss about, it takes about 1 hr to install. Each zone actually also gives you a 4 port ethernet hub for you to connect any other ethernet device onto your network also. Cant go into all the detail in this post, but ahve alook at the web site, and you will get more info. It is also the cheapest way you will do this, and you will not regret getting this systems

2) Video:- Just run loads of both coax and cat5 cable from every room you will be having video in, back to a central point. Look at what media centre is doing, I really think that is the way to go, for video, and its futureproof. Cat5 is always better than wireless, but you could do it wirelesly if you wanted, or a combination of both. The xbox post above loks very interesting, I must investigate it, but you could tie this into the SONOS box very nicely indeed.

3) Heating and lighting: DIY again, the best option to go for is X10. I have had it in for 5 years now and it works great. I have web,wap and remote phone control for all my lighting and heating. All my devices can be controled from any room in the house, via an infra red control and via a tv menu system. I can go to bed at night and with one press of a button on my bedside locker, trun off every device in the house, and activate the alarm system. This is all DIY stuff, all scaleable, and affordable. Very reliable also, has been around for years, just we europeans are abit tehnophobic. look at for info on this and multiroom stuff. X10 can easlily be installed in new or existing houses wihtout any additional wiring as it sends control messages over the existing mains wiring.

4) Security:- Again, DIY securirty systems, integrated into your automation system are availalbe, and very affordable. Wireless or wired, whcihever you want, but wired would be best. These devices can give you remote self monitoring (notify you of faults, power failure, breakins, phone messages etc), but also allow you to dial in and control your devices remotely. I have a "Comfort" alarm system, whicih I reckon is one of the best of these types. Its a bit more expensive that a normal alarm system, but worth it 10 times over.


All of this is scaleable, you can start small and build it up, wiht just a liitle bit of planning up front, and beleive me it is all DIY stuff.

Sorry, but I get over excited when I start talkin about this stuff!! There are lots of places you can buy all of this gear, in the UK and now in Ireland also. Take a look at www.letsautomate.com for uk prices, which I think are better priced than ireland. I have ued these guys for all my x10 and security gear and they are faultless.

Wexfordman


Edit: Just looked at the Exstreamer post you had above. Sonos is far superior to this system, have a look at www.sonos.com
 
What timing,

Anyone interested in more info, watch the Gadget show on Bravo+1 on sky tv chan 125 at 6pm, they have a clip about this very topic.
Wexfordman
 
Wexfordman, what cables should I run now to enable me to use sonos when I have time to install it after the wiring first fix.
 

I have recently bought an xbox 360. I cannot set it up with the wireless adapter and have got absolutely no support from xbox.

Could u give me some advise/help as to where best to get help or if there was any probelsm that u encountered with the setup.
 
If its any use, Ive a full wireless 802.11g wireless LAN working in my very concreted house. Office upstairs with BT broadband coming in. Bar some recent issues that werent related to the make of the house, Every room has perfect reception. As per above, I wouldnt rule out the wireless until youve tried it.
 
Lucret,

The Sonos boxes will work either wirelessly, or via hardwired ethernet cable. The only stipulation is that the first box, must be hardwired to whatever device is used to store your music (pc or a standalone hard disk attatched to your home network), or via a router etc. Once you have the first sonos box connected, then any adidtional boxes you will have, will automatically conect to the nearest sonos box wirelessly, so they act as repeaters or extenders if you know what I mean. I have 4 of the sonos boxes so far, and only one is wired, the rest have connected to eachother wirelessly.

However, wired is always better, so I would run cat5 cable to each room you want to have music/audio in. Run the cable to a point where you want to place your sonos box (on a shelf or something like that), they are a nice looking piece of kit, so I would not hide them to be honest. The first box, should have its cable going back to your PC, the second bx should have an ether net cable going back to the first box, the third box should have one going back to the second box, etc etc etc. All in a straight line.

Speakers:- You have a couple of choices, built in or standalone. I have built in speakers (mounted in the ceilings). The other option is standalone speakers that jsut sit on a book shelf etc. THe advantage of the bookshelf speakers, is you dont have to worry about speaker cable, as more than likely they will be next to your sonos box. If you go for the celing mounted option, you will need to run speaker cable from your ceiling positions, to your sonos box position for each room. Personally, having had the ceiling speakers, if I was to do it again, I would probably go for a mix, bookshelf speakers like the ones Sonos sell or something along those lines for the living room, bedroom etc, but out of the way celing mounts for bathrooms and kitchens etc. Standalone speakers are a bit more discreet (I know that might sound strange), and would sit next to your sonos box in each room, so no speaker cable runs either. Expect to spend some money on a decent set of speakers for each room though, its not worth having a great sound system with crappy speakers, but saying that some people can go overboard and spend thousands on speakers alone!!

Scaleable is the whole idea, and to be honest you can never run too much cat5. For every coax cable and telephone point, run a cat 5, its cheap to do, and you'll never regret it. If you are building a bungalow, things will be easier, and I would suggest leaving some cable ducts of some sort down to your tv points etc if you can. Wireless is great, but wired is better. There is talk about the 2.4Ghz bands getting congested with so much gear about now.

I'm waffling, but here are a few suggestions, if you are seriously looking at a sonos system, log on to the site, join the forum and start asking some questions. Personally, I recommend the system, having had a different mulitroom system in my house for the last 5 years, and recently moved to a sonos, it is just unbeatable.

If you are in the southwest area, PM me and you are more than welcome to come have a look, or I could let you know the dealer I got my systm from either. If I can give any more details also, pm me rather than have me subject everyone else to my waffle, and I can forward you a few example layouts etc and show you what I have done in my house with regards cable runs and sonso etc.

Regards,
Wexfordman

Edit:- Just realised my PC has autologged me onto my wifes user name. Just in case anyone was confused, or though perhaps that I was a bit confused.

I WAS NEVER CONFUSED!!
 
Hello,

All of you have really got me thinking about getting some of this stuff into my house. One thing in particular that does interest me is home heating control.

At the moment I have a very simple gas central heating setup. It is controlled by a siemins timer at the front door. What I would like to find out more about is being able to control it from work, or via phone/text. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks
 
A very straightforward we to do it is to add a unit alongside your timer if you can. My timer is one of those simple 24hr timers that have 15m segment pins you push in or out to time your heating on or off. I put an X10 module behind it, so it operates as a normal switch, but the X10 module gives it remote control (X10 does not need any additional wiring, as it receives signals sent to it over the existing mains wiring).

THe next thing you need, is an interface between your phone line and the mains, so that you can send an on or off command into the mains from your phone line to be picked up by your x10 module. THere are a couple of different types of these you can get, cheap ones with basic functionality, or more expensive ones with "intelegence" built into it.

In any case, if you get the gear, and are competent at electircal wiring, you could have it installed and up and running in less than an hour. If not get an electician to install the x10 swich behind your timer, and you can do the rest.

Cost:- X10 switch about 60 pounds stg [broken link removed]
Telephone controller: starting at about 86 pouns stg [broken link removed]

The telephone controller is very dumb, if you turn something on, you have to remember to turn it off, so I would go for a more intellegint controller instead, like the comfort alarm system, where you can specifify how long you want the heating to come on for etc. Other option woul dbe to buy an intellegent controller like an ocelot to do the clever stuff. Have a look at all this stuff on the www.letsautomate.com website, and have a look at just to get more specific info to sart you ooff. If you want any other info, PM me and I will try and help.

Its very easy to do, I added remote phone control to my sisters house in about half an hour, with no additional wiring needed at all.

Regards,
Wexfordman
 
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